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how to transition your dog to a raw diet

Raw Diet for Dogs- Things You Need to Know

For years, many pet owners have turned to raw diets as a solution food, and the results have been amazing. Is a raw diet right for your dog? If your dog struggles with allergies, weight issues, digestive problems, or any other common conditions that affect dogs, feeding raw dog food might be just the answer you are looking for.

What Is A Raw Food Diet For Dogs?

A raw dog food diet emphasizes uncooked meat (often muscle and organ meat), whole or crushed bones, fruits, vegetables, raw eggs and some dairy. You can’t feed your dog a raw steak and call it a day; you have to ensure that the diet is nutritionally balanced. Incomplete or unbalanced diets can cause lifelong problems from deficiencies or malnutrition.

What Are The Claimed Benefits Of Raw Food Diets For Dogs?

The benefits include:

  1. Shinier coat
  2. Healthier skin
  3. Cleaner teeth
  4. More energy
  5. Smaller stool

Potential Risks Of Raw Diets

Citing a number of studies, the AVMA discourages feeding raw or undercooked animal proteins because they can contain potentially deadly pathogens that can sicken your pet and possibly be transmitted to humans.

Other possible disadvantages include:
Bacteria in raw meat poses a threat to the dog’s and human’s health
Giving whole bones to dogs presents a risk of choking, broken teeth or internal punctures (learn more about if dogs can eat bones)

How to Transition Your Dog From Dry Food To Raw

The decision as to whether to feed your pet a raw food diet should be made after carefully considering each of these points and talking with your veterinarian.

If you decide to do it, it’s important to remember that transitioning your dog to a new diet is a slow process. To start, we recommend fasting your dog for a half day to a full day prior to the first meal to ensure a good appetite, and then feed a little bit to see how he or she handles the fresh food. If all is well, continue replacing a little bit of the original diet with the new raw diet.

Raw Dog Food Recipes

It’s important to get the proportions right when feeding a raw diet so that your dog gets the right blend of nutrients. Typically, raw diets follow this formula:
70% uncooked muscle meat
10% raw, edible bone
5% liver
5% other secreting organs
10% vegetables and fruit

It is critical that you use high-quality grade meat and understand that there are risks associated with consuming uncooked meat. In addition, there are several foods your dog should never eat so plan your recipe accordingly.

Don’t be afraid to vary the proteins and plants you feed your dog on the raw diet. We suggests rotating the type of meat fed every four days to mix things up. You also can try feeding your dog more than one meat on the same day.