Raw feeding in dogs and cats

Abstract

This article reviews the reasons for feeding domestic dogs and cats a diet based on raw meaty bones. Dogs, though able and willing to eat a wide variety of foods, exhibit numerous carnivorous traits, and are classified as carnivores. Dogs have been shown to prefer foods with nutrient profiles much closer to those of a wild wolf diet than those of kibbled diets, raising the possibility that dogs fed modern commercial diets, low in protein, and high in carbohydrate and additives, might face physiological and metabolic challenges. Cats are strict, obligate carnivores with characteristic dentition and a short digestive tract. A well-constructed raw food diet is high in protein, nutrient-rich, satiating, extremely palatable, and high in prebiotic ‘animal fibre’. Early domestic dogs were not ‘fed’ but allowed to forage for themselves like their wild ancestors. Today, most of our pets are fed on highly processed, dried diets, known commonly as ‘biscuit’ or ‘kibble’, barely recognisable from canine and feline ancestral diets. The intestinal microbiota has been found to vary significantly between raw-fed and non-raw-fed dogs. A species-appropriate, nutrient-rich diet, most closely resembling canine and feline ancestral diets, would seem a sensible option if our pets are to achieve optimal health. Feeding real, whole food consisting mainly of good quality raw meat on the bone, skin, offal, eggs and fish, is perhaps as close as we can come, in modern, Western society, to achieve this.