Dogs are naturally meat-eaters and require a diet primarily composed of meat-based protein for their digestive health, not grains. It’s in their nature to pursue and feast on raw prey. Supplying your dog with its food is simply a natural way of meeting its key dietary needs!
The benefits of feeding your dog primarily or entirely on raw food include:
- A strong immune system
- Shiny coat
- Healthy weight
- Good dental health
The list includes a few other benefits as well; you’ll learn about them in this article. You’ll also find out how to get started with raw feeding in the easiest way possible – just by adding raw food to your dog’s current diet.
Dogs Require Meat-Based Protein, Not Grains
Even though some people may believe it is healthy, grains can be difficult for dogs to digest. Although your dog does not require a grain-free diet, they do need protein from meat sources.
When you feed raw meat to your dog, you’re providing them with a lot of the nutrients they need to thrive. This includes lots of protein and essential amino acids. In addition to getting more nutrients, feeding your dog raw meat will help ensure their coat and skin stay healthy.
Getting Started
To get started with raw feeding, you’ll want to add raw food to your dog’s current diet. Plenty of recipes on the internet or in books can help you do this easily. If you’re worried about getting the right balance of nutrients for your dog, there are some things that you can do to get started.
For example, you could first add a supplement or two into their diet. Doing so will help ensure they get the extra nutrients they need while eating mostly raw food. Once you know that their body can absorb these nutrients, you can stop using supplements.
Dogs are to Hunt and Eat Raw Prey
No evidence shows dogs have been domesticated and raised as pets in their current form for more than a few thousand years. It is believed to be a result of human interference in the natural mating cycles of wolves.
The Benefits of Feeding Your Dog Primarily or Entirely on Raw Food
The benefits of feeding your dog primarily or entirely on raw food are amazing. Dogs who eat raw food have a much better immune system and are less likely to get diseases than dogs who eat only commercial food. They also have a shinier coat, maintain a healthy weight, and have good oral health. Changing your dog’s diet and nutrition plan can be confusing, so this article will give you the easiest way to do it: slowly adding raw food into their diet!
The Top Five Health Benefits of Feeding Your Dog Raw Food
Just like us, dogs experience many health benefits from eating a healthy, balanced diet – and the top five health benefits are listed below:
1. Stronger Immune System
A strong immune system is crucial for every living animal, including humans and dogs. Feeding your dog a raw diet can help their immune system strengthen and work at an optimal level. The stronger the immune system, the better protection your dog has against short-term and long-term diseases, illnesses, and infections!
2. Cleaner Teeth
Raw bones are great for oral health as they scrape away tartar and plaque from your dog’s teeth. Cleaning their teeth with raw bones also helps improve tooth and gum health – which is a good thing, considering that dental problems can be very costly to treat. Just like us, dogs should brush their teeth every day – and the best way to do that for your dog is by giving them some raw bones to chew on!
3. Shiny Coat
Dogs who eat a raw diet typically have a shinier, healthier coat than dogs who don’t. The reason behind this is simple: their food becomes more bio-available when they digest it in the stomach. This means that all the nutrients found within the food are easy for your dog to digest and absorb into their system – resulting in a healthy, happy coat.
If you’re looking for a way to improve your dog’s coat and want to do it naturally – without using oils or supplements – feeding them raw food is an excellent choice!
4. Healthy weight
When dogs eat higher-quality food, they become healthier and more active. It’s common for well-fed dogs to eat less food than they would on a portion of cheap dog food – but even if they do end up eating more, it’s unlikely that they will gain weight as long as you keep an eye on their weight and adjust accordingly. In fact, the healthier your dog is – the easier it is to keep them at a healthy weight. So why not give raw feeding a try?
5. Easy to maintain good health
Commercial dog food provides dogs with many calories that are not used by the body – which is why so many commercial food-fed dogs gain weight regardless of how much they eat.
Feeding your dog raw food can help balance out these extra calories while at the same time ensuring that they get the right nutrients and vitamins from their food. This is more likely to result in a healthy, active dog who can maintain a good weight on less food.
The Risks of Feeding Your Dog Primarily or Entirely on Raw Food
Raw food diets are becoming more common for people with good dogs. There are many benefits to feeding your dog a raw food diet, including a strong immune system, shiny coat, healthy weight, and good dental health. However, this article will also highlight the risks of feeding your dog primarily or entirely on raw food.
As with all diets, the raw food diet for dogs has pros and cons. At the same time, it can work well, with some downsides to feeding a dog only or mostly on raw food. Many of these risks stem from preparing the food in an unsafe manner. Eating or handling undercooked meat carries a risk of salmonella infection; the same risk exists for your dog.
Feeding raw long-term (months or years) can also result in nutritional deficiencies, some of which may lead to serious health problems. This is especially true for calcium and vitamin D3; since most manufacturers do not add these nutrients to commercial foods, it’s often difficult to provide a balanced diet for dogs without using supplements. These risks are serious enough that many holistic veterinarians advise against entirely feeding a raw food diet.
Still, they do recommend making raw available as part of your dog’s regular diet. The easiest way to get started with raw feeding is by adding raw food to your dog’s current diet!
The whole point of this section was to be as clinical as possible to show you there are risks in raw feeding. Obviously, we don’t want to scare anyone off the idea of making fresh food available for their dogs. But people must understand that raw isn’t just a magic pill (No matter how much I wish it…)
Conclusion
Raw feeding your dog is a wonderful way to provide fresh, natural ingredients and wholesome nutrients. However, there are risks associated with this diet, which we’ve highlighted in the article above. You must know about these potential pitfalls before deciding whether or not raw food is right for your pet.
