Is a Raw Food Diet Right For Your Pet?

With a dozen rescued dogs and cats in my household, diet and expense are both factors for serious consideration. In recent years I’ve chewed over (yes, that’s a deliberate pun) moving to raw food but it’s definitely cost prohibitive and, frankly, my pets’ response when offered raw foods has been considerably less than enthusiastic.

Recently, however, I’ve been revisiting the possibility with one of our cats who suffers from severe and chronic urinary tract obstructions. He’s on a special diet that is supplemented with a daily dose of valium. And, while I’m not comfortable with the drug, it is buying me time to search for alternative solutions that are less drastic than the Perineal Urethrostomy (PU) he may otherwise have to undergo, where a portion of the penis is removed and a new urinary opening made.

Let’s put things in perspective.

BARF (bones and raw foods) proponents can be almost rabid (get it?) in their zeal for the diet. Reading much of the BARFing information available online left me with a rather nagging feeling that I was a less than responsible pet owner if I didn’t subscribe to the raw food mantra. Being someone, however, who likes to get to the meat of a matter (there I go again) I decided I needed to do a little more research and then put my little gray cells to use pondering the issue as objectively as possible. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Today your pet is more a scavenger than a hunter. BARFers say the origin of the dog is as a hunter who would eat its prey raw, including bones, and that it is genetically pre-disposed to eat that way. Okay so far. But does that mean today’s dog will live longer and better by eating only raw foods.

Here’s the thing, Paleolithic man ate raw meats and, as best my research can deduce, was capable of living (I’m not talking about life expectancy) to age 60 or 70. Modern man eats a totally different diet and is capable of living to 120. On this basis, why would you think that modern dog can’t live on today’s customary diet as long, longer or as well or better than early dog on a raw diet? And another thing; dogs became domesticated at least 15,000 years ago and man began cooking foods about 10,000 years ago. So who knows what scraps might have been tossed from the cooking fire to the early Neolithic canine. And the adaptable Canis lupus familiaris, becoming more reliant upon the whim of man for food, morphed from hunter to scavenger, eating just about anything offered or found.

Cats are a slightly different kettle of fish (ha, ha!). The hunting instinct remains strong but, I know with my own felines (when they were outdoorsy types) they would catch and kill but very rarely eat their prey.

2. How many of you would put a plate of raw chicken in front of your family and expect them to gnaw it down to the bone? Believe it or not there is a small faction of people who only eat raw meats. But, here’s the thing. Do you trust the quality of the food? There’s a reason why the FDA recommends that we thoroughly cook all our meats! Going organic might be a solution but who can afford it?

3. There are conflicting definitions of BARF. Some people consider it to be any raw meats and bones that you could get at any butcher’s. Then there is pre-packaged, so-called “raw” food. Lastly, something that is termed a “biologically appropriate raw diet”. This requires feeding your pet whole animal carcasses (fur and all), such as rabbit or fish or other game that would have been natural prey in centuries past.

Let me tell you a quick story regarding the first of these. My friend, trying to do the right thing by her leonberger, was feeding him raw meats and bones from the supermarket and farmers’ market. As time passed the dog became generally lethargic, depressed and began to have digestive problems. The doctor suspected the diet as the problem, explaining the meats we buy at the market are not the meats your pet would have caught in the wild. They could be several weeks old; have been frozen and defrosted; pumped with hormones, antibiotics and other additives. Also, there’s often no knowing what the animal was fed before slaughter. Could have been meal and grain sprayed with pesticides and fertilizer, which your pet will then ingest. I don’t know about you, but to me this doesn’t seem to be any improvement on a diet of commercial food.

The packaged raw foods are actually dried or frozen meats combined with a small amount of vegetables and other, supposedly, essential nutrients. Unquestionably, these are processed foods and, to my mind, not BARF foods. That said, however, if I had all the money in the world I might try them for my pets but they are very expensive. Wysong offers dog, cat and ferret food; Nature’s Variety has just dog and cat formulas but they offer a 1lb trial size for $4.99.

Regarding the “appropriate raw diet”, I can see logic in that but still find flaws. Unless you’re absolutely sure of your provider you still run the risk of poor quality meat. There are sites online where you can buy frozen rabbits and other animals for feed but, here’s something, they advertise that the animals are fed a “scientifically designed and nutritionally complete diet”. What does that mean? And frozen isn’t the same as fresh. Frozen meats can harbor fungi, parasites and bacteria. My point being, there’s a downside to everything.

Of course, you could take your shotgun out in the woods and bag a wild rabbit or squirrel but who knows what diseases or parasites they may carry? Do you want to risk infecting your pet with a rabid chipmunk or wormy, flea-infested rabbit?

4. You probably need supplements with a BARF diet. Hey, people on organic diets still require supplements these days so it makes sense that your pet will.

5. Raw bones can get stuck in the esophagus and intestines. We all know (I hope) that it’s dangerous to feed cooked bones to your pet but raw bones aren’t always safe either. Take a look at these pictures.

The Bottom Line:

I’m not convinced. I read one BARF blog where the owner was extolling the health of her pets, commenting how sleek their coats are, how fit and happy they are, and I don’t doubt it in the least. However, there are countless thousands of other equally fit and happy animals with beautiful sleek coats who have been fed on commercial products.

Let’s face it, your pets can drink from the toilet, lick each others butts and chew all kinds of (to us) disgusting things, yet still live long and healthy lives. That being said, I am emphatic that your pet be given a quality diet, which I believe can be found in commercial products. And I’m not against raw food. I just think you need to do careful research before making a switch to BARF.

As for my little cat, I’m going to continue feeding him the veterinary formula he’s now on. And I’m arming myself with a number of homeopathic and Chinese remedies to try and wean him off the valium. He won’t eat raw meats but at some time I may switch him to Wysong or Nature’s Variety and see how it goes. My other “kids” will continue with their more affordable mix of dry, canned and home-cooked meals. Considering they all came as “damaged goods” it’s working really well for them.