Monday 23 August 2010

MS-DOS VOX 03.

03. Give a dog a raw bone.

Before I start this post, I would like to clearly state that I am no expert on raw feeding. My views and knowledge of feeding raw comes from many a night glued in front of my PC screen, reading other people’s opinions, reading various research papers, taking into account other’s experiences and even testing bones myself.  Yes, I do intend to feed raw, however I’m by no means the doggy guru on the subject, and if you (like me) feel compelled to throw away that bag of kibble- I beg you please do your research first. There are hundreds of websites, podcasts and boards that will happily guide you through your raw decision: whilst no doubt when MS-Dos is with us this page will be infiltrated with my raw shopping lists (plus plenty of pictures), make sure you know what you are doing before you start throwing chicken wings at your puppy.

Right, now that nitty gritty is over and done with, raw feeding is the act of feeding your dog well, raw meat (as well as vegetables if you intend to feed BARF). I have to admit, like many of you out there, I was taken aback by the idea at first: growing up with dogs, I had always been told to not ever give our dog’s bones, and certainly not raw meat. It was an unwritten rule, after a roast chicken you weren’t even to sneakily sneak a titbit of chicken under the table, and even when preparing meat the plates where the raw meat had touched were to go straight into the washing up. Frazer and Jack were my own animal world growing up, and as of such this was actually one of the rules I obeyed- strangely. Don’t get me wrong, they would still get the odd block of biscuit, a lick of gravy every once in a while, and if they were really super duper good Jack could share my glass of milk. However, bones stepped over that magic line, bones were these lethal weapons that could kill if they weren’t bought from the pet shop.

Please bear with me for this tangent, but Jack, our jack Russell, has always had massive problems with his teeth. They seem to attract plaque like a magnet, and a few years back now he had to go under the knife to remove a multitude of his ‘pearly’ whites. He can still eat, but when he smiles, (albeit a gummy smile) half of his teeth including a few of his larger incisors are missing. Since the operation, he has had to have his kibble soaked for five minutes as he has big problems with chewing, in fact he used to love a chew bone every weekend which he can’t anymore- it was the dog’s big treat whilst me and Mum enjoyed a bar of chocolate over some cruddy reality television. Even now we struggle to keep his teeth clean completely: no ends of ‘teeth cleaning chews’ seem to work one hundred percent, although they do keep his remaining teeth at a decent enough standard that they can stay in his mouth.

It was Jack’s periodontal problems that lead me to discover raw one afternoon. Looking at it, it made sense, how else would dogs in the wild keep their teeth primed for their next kill? Both the killing and stripping of the carcass would provide a workout for the teeth plus the dog: shredding the meat off the bone, tearing it up into strips and finally chewing are all natural ‘brushing’ actions after all. Whilst that all sounds rather primal, when you compare the anatomy of wolves in the wild to our fluffy heartbeats, their teeth aren’t that dissimilar. According to the wonders of the internet, both wolves and dogs share the same forty two teeth, which despite all manners of breeding producing all types of muzzles has more or less stayed the same.

What I think owner’s tend to forget is that furry, five kilogram Chihuahua, behind the pink collars and the fabricated Paris Hilton lapdog image is actually a carnivore at heart. Dogs were not designed to eat grains, nor were they designed to eat little circles of dry food. It’s no wonder they get all sorts of issues really.

Whilst the periodontal plus’ are fantastic enough, there are (of course) other benefits to feeding raw. That is not to say it is without its problems, if you do intend to feed raw, you really do need a good source for your meat, and not just a good source for one kind of meat- i.e chicken. Variety seems to be the key to a raw diet: variety is also the one thing I am most worried about with Dossy’s diet. So much so that until I feel I am completely comfortable with my sourcing, and know that I can provide a variety of meat within our area, I am going to start off with commercial ground mixs (such as Natural Instinct or Darlings) with a few days a week of raw meaty bones until I am on my feet. It may sound really silly to say ‘oh hey, I’ve done all my research, but I’m still going to feed my dog on commercial raw rather than homemade raw’, however anyone that knows me will know that I am a total worrywart. I couldn’t just jump into a decision until I am six hundred percent sure that I can do it properly: I have no doubt that the commercial raw mixes will still be superior to kibble if raw suits her.

Before this post starts to sound a bit wishy washy, I shall leave the raw debate at the door for another post. Rest assured, I’m sure once we have Dossy here living with us, there will be plenty more food posts. In other news, I have just started another pattern for a crate cover, so hopefully this blog will have some Dossy-related images very soon!

Once again, here are a few links that I have found so very helpful on the matter of raw, if you are considering (or would even like to read more on the matter of raw), these websites have a plethora of information to mull over:

No comments:

Post a Comment