Back to raw :)

Along with her old appetite being back she is also keen to eat her normal raw "prey-model" diet again - except I cannot interest her in anything with a bone in it.  She is wolfing down green tripe, liver, heart, kidney, chicken mince, steak all with gusto :)

One of the great benefits to a raw diet is the drastic reduction in stool size and odour. Jess has been on a raw diet since a puppy so I've never seen the sort of poo from jess that she was producing the past few days with all the processed wet food I was using to try and get her to eat.  Huge, soft, smelly poos - on a raw diet her poo is small, hard and almost odourless. To me this is one of the best indicators when comparing a raw diet to a conventional processed one. Processed food (especially kibble) are high in carbohydrates (maize, wheat, rice) that are basically used as "fillers". Carbohydrates in this form are largely useless to a dog and indigestible, hence the large amount that comes straight back out !  On a raw food diet, their poo is mostly undigested bone (which is why it turns white if left in the sun for a few days) - everything else is put to perfect use and digested :)

While I don't want to spend too much time discussing the benefits of a raw diet (and the disadvantages of a commercial, highly processed diet) , I would like to say that additional benefits of a raw "prey-model" diet are :

- healthy, shiny, thick coats
- no doggy odour
- no doggy bad breath
- no teeth problems

I would encourage people to at least take a look at the following reference sites - the last one "myths" is particularly good.

http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/showcontent.toy?contentnid=175912
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/honest.html


I will be feeding all our puppies on a raw diet but also giving them some puppy kibble as well as I realise raw feeding is not for everyone and it could possible cause stomach upsets to switch to pure kibble from raw once the pups are with their new owners.

Bon appetite :)