Raw Feeding Dogs: 10 Simple Rules to Get Started by Dana Scott

Getting started

While writing the copy for this site we were searching around the world for articles that were well written by passionate people that knew what they were doing. We came across this article written by a veteran Raw Food enthusiast Dana Scott. She makes sense and she provides a fresh and simple approach to the raw food diet programme. We hope you take a few minutes out of your day to read this article. Thanks Dana for agreeing to let us include your article on our site.

Raw Feeding Dogs: 10 Simple Rules To Get Started by Dana Scott

Years ago, I loved going to the pet store and dissecting bags of dog food. I tried choosing the very best bag money could buy … I hadn’t yet considered raw feeding dogs.

I’d take my expensive bag of food, to the check-out counter thinking … “what lucky dogs I have.” I can’t remember exactly why I started feeding a raw dog food diet, but I did all the same. There were certainly enough compelling reasons to take that leap of faith. After just a few months of feeding my dogs kibble, I began to wonder about what I was feeding. How food with an ingredient list that I couldn’t even pronounce was the best choice for my dogs. Did those companies with big marketing budgets have my dogs’ best interests at heart? But you probably don’t need the details of why I switched to raw.

Because I’m assuming that, if you’ve read this far, you’re ready to do the same. (And if you want a reason, check out this post: Why Feed Raw.) But if you’re thinking of switching to raw … you’re probably a bit scared. You might be worried your dog will choke on bones or that his diet won’t be balanced. And those are very valid concerns …I too was frightened about feeding real bones to my dogs … especially back then when nobody else was.

I’ll never forget lying on the floor, feeding my dog a raw chicken wing and thinking “This is it … this is how I kill my dog.” I remember what it was like to start out and if you’re scared, you have every right to be. Change is scary and I know you love your dog a lot. Otherwise, you’d just be tossing some Ol’ Roy in a bowl instead of reading this post. But I’m here to tell you, it will be the best change you can ever make for your dog. If you ask any dog owner who has fed raw for more than a few weeks if they would ever go back to kibble …

… I would guess that 100% of them would say NEVER!

The health benefits are so noticeable and you’ll feel good about knowing what goes into your dog …that you’ll forget all about your scary first moments feeding the raw diet.

So if you’re thinking of switching to raw, then I applaud you and I want to make it as easy and not-so-scary as possible for you.

I’ll summarize what I’ve learned from feeding dozens of dogs and puppies a raw diet over the last twenty years. I want to make it as easy as possible for you to get started. But be sure to read all ten of the rules right to the end.

While they’re easy to follow, each one is important and will make sure your dog’s raw diet is balanced and safe.

Rule # 1: The Raw Dog Food Diet Must Have Calcium
Dogs, and especially puppies, need a solid source of minerals. Especially calcium and phosphorus. Your dog wouldn’t survive without them.

If you feed your dog bones, you’ll mostly get the minerals right. The most important ones to worry about are calcium and phosphorus.

Both dogs and growing puppies need enough calcium in their diet. And they need some phosphorus to go with it because these minerals work closely together.

Bones contain both calcium and phosphorus. Meat is high in phosphorus and too low in calcium. So an all-meat diet will cause bone and nervous system issues in your dog …

… and severe bone issues in growing puppies. So you need bone in the diet.

To get enough calcium and keep a healthy balance of minerals, your dog’s raw diet needs to contain about 12% to 15% bone.

To make things simpler, this means about 1/3 of his diet should be nice meaty bones. Here are some good choices for meaty bones:

• Chicken wings, necks, legs or thighs
• Turkey necks (other bones are large)
• Beef tail bones (great for larger dogs)
• Lamb or goat necks or ribs

You can also feed your dog whole animals such as whole fish, whole rabbit, and whole poultry. These contain just the right amount of bone.

Feeding raw eggs with the shell also offers the right ratio of calcium and phosphorus.

Just be sure they’re from the farm because grocery store eggs have a toxic spray in their shells.

Rule #2: Organs Are the Multi-Vitamins
The number two mistake raw feeders make with a raw dog food diet … I’ll talk about the #1 mistake soon… is not feeding enough organs. Organs are the nutrient-rich parts of the animal. Without them, your dog could be missing some important vitamins. You’ll want to feed anywhere from 10% to 30% organ meats. But this depends on how much you can get. If you can only find liver, just feed 10% organs.

If you can find kidney, spleen, pancreas, brain and other delicious, nutritious organs … then feed them as a third of your dog’s diet. But never feed that much liver. Limit liver to 10% because it’s really high in vitamin A and can give your dog some messy diarrhea if you give too much. The same applies to any organ. No one organ should be more than 5% to 10% of your dog’s diet. But if you have a few different ones, they can be 1/3 of your dog’s total meals.

Organs would include:

• Liver
• Kidney
• Spleen
• Pancreas*
• Thymus*
• Brain
• Lung
• Testicles
* Pancreas and thymus are both sold under the name sweetbreads.

Just go easy on the organ meat at first because it can cause loose stools until your dog is used to it. If your dog doesn’t like the taste at first, try frying it for a minute or so first. Looking for Organs - look here 

Rule #3: Muscle Meat Is the Foundation
Once you get your meaty bones and organs in place, the rest of your dog’s diet should be nice lean meats. That means half to a third of his total food, depending on how much organ meat you can get your hands on. These are the protein-rich component of your dog’s diet. He needs proteins to build strong tissues. And it supports the hormones and enzymes he needs to survive and thrive.

Good choices for muscle meat include:

• Beef (ground beef, cheek meat, stewing beef)
• Beef heart (but not more than 5% of the diet as it’s very rich)
• Bison (ground bison, stewing bison meat)
• Turkey (ground turkey, boneless thighs, breast meat, tenderloin)
• Lamb (stewing lamb, ground lamb, shoulder or breast meat)
• Pork (pork shoulder or butt, cushion meat, boneless rib meat, loin)
• Chicken (boneless thighs, breast meat)

Rule #4: Watch The Fat
Fat is healthy for your dog. It helps with nerve and immune function and is critical for skin health. But fat carries a downside… fat contains twice the number of calories as protein. And it contains very few vitamins and minerals. Remember I said I’d mention the #1 mistake when it comes to raw diets? It’s feeding too much fat. If your dog’s diet is too high in fat, I guarantee he won’t be getting enough vitamins and minerals. The calories from fat will add up before he gets enough vitamins and minerals. And you might start to see some long-term health issues if the fat is too high. The main reason why so many raw feeders give their dogs too much fat … is because cheaper meats contain a lot of fat. But if you watch for sales, you can get low-fat meats at a good price.

Overall, you don’t want the fat to be much more than 10% and certainly no more than 20% of the diet. But this doesn’t mean you don’t feed fat. Your dog needs fat but not so much of it that it robs him of other important nutrients.

Here are some examples of some high-fat meats you’ll want to avoid and low-fat meats that are easy to find:

High

• Chicken necks with skin
• Chicken or turkey dark meat with skin
• Ground beef (85% lean or less)
• Pork belly
• Domestic duck

Low

• Chicken necks with no skin
• Chicken or turkey light meat with no skin
• Lean ground beef
• Pork loin
• Rabbit
• Most fish
• Most wild game (except duck)

Note: If you’re able to feed your dog whole fish, whole rabbit, or other whole animals with the bone in … they’re already balanced and you don’t need to add extra meat.

But if the carcass doesn’t have organs, be sure to add those back in.

Rule #5: Don’t Get Hung Up On Fruit and Veg
Should you add fruits and vegetables to your dog’s raw diet? The short answer is it’s up to you. If you stick to the first four rules … your dog will get a nicely balanced raw diet with enough vitamins and minerals to do well. But why end there? Fruits and vegetables carry some unique benefits your dog can’t get from animal products. And in the wild, your dog’s ancestors ate a reasonable amount of grasses and berries. And I like to think that they ate them for a reason. Because animals are very good at sourcing out the foods their bodies need. So what benefits do fruits and vegetables offer that can’t be found in meat?

Prebiotics are indigestible plant fibers. They feed important little bugs that live in your dog’s gut (called probiotics).

Chlorphyll is the green pigment in plants that makes your dog’s cells healthy. It also detoxifies his liver and digestive system and can protect against cancer.

Carotenoids are important antioxidants that protect your dog from aging and disease. Carotenoids are found in yellow, orange and red colored fruits and vegetables. Things like squash, carrots, papaya, cantaloupe.

Lycopene is another powerful antioxidant. It can play a role in preventing and slowing cancer. Lycopene gives many vegetables their red color. It’s found in tomatoes, carrots, red cabbage, watermelon.

Lutein is another antioxidant that’s known to protect the eyes, skin and heart. It’s found in dark leafy greens and in yellow plants, including kale, broccoli, oranges and papaya.

Flavonoids or bioflavonoids can regulate cell signalin. They also have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. In general, the more colorful the plant food, the higher it is in bioflavonoids.

My dogs love eating fruits and veggies and I like giving them for the above reasons. And to get the most out of their fruits and vegetables …you can either run them through a juicer or mulcher or lightly steam them first.
Fruits and veggies can be pricey, so help your dog get the most out of them. And always buy organic if you can afford it.

Rule #6: Keep It Starch-Free
Starchy foods like grains, peas and potatoes aren’t suitable for your dog … or for you for that matter. Dogs do have the ability to digest some grain content. And can include a small amount of grains in training treats … but try as much as possible to limit their use. Starchy foods cause your dog to continually produce a hormone called insulin. This causes him to store a lot of his food as fat, so if your dog is on the chubby side, avoiding grains will help. This can also lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. But the biggest reason to ditch the starch is that it only adds calories to your dog’s diet.

While your dog would die without protein or fat, he has no need for starch or carbohydrate. Eating too much can disrupt the colonies of microbes that live in his digestive tract. These little bugs make up most of your dog’s immune system and even help him produce vitamins. When they’re disrupted … your dog can suffer from allergies, yeast, and inflammatory health issues.

In a nutshell, if your dog doesn’t need them, why would you feed them? There’s no benefit to starch and the risks outweigh the benefits. The only benefit to starch is it keeps costs down for you … they add no benefit to your dog whatsoever.

Most of the health benefits of the raw diet aren’t necessarily because it’s raw … it’s because every other diet is high in starch! Don’t overlook the importance of cutting that starch out of your dog’s life.

This is the main reason people see so many healthy changes when they switch their dog to a raw diet.

Rule #7: Variety Counts
Just like us, dogs need a variety of wholesome foods to provide them with a wide range of nutrients. Not to mention the fact that it’s boring to eat the same foods every day! Feed a wide variety of different foods, including different sources of meat. Don’t forget to feed some of the “weird and icky things”. Such as chicken, duck or turkey feet, beef trachea, tails, lung, testicles and pizzles. Beef trachea and poultry feet are loaded with natural chondroitin and glucosamine. Which help to build healthy joints and they’re reasonably priced. Adding the icky parts is a win-win.

Rule #8: Balance Over Time
One common concern with raw feeding is that it’s not “complete and balanced.” This isn’t true for two reasons. First, nobody knows what complete and balanced is, so it’s difficult to make this claim. Second, balance can occur over time … every meal doesn’t need to be completely balanced. As long as your dog’s nutritional needs are met over the course of a few days or weeks, you’re good.

You don’t calculate the exact percentages of protein and carbohydrates … or the exact amount of vitamins and minerals in each of your family’s meals. You don’t have to do it with your dog’s meals either. So, you don’t have to follow these rules for every meal. Let me show you what I fed my dogs this week to give you an idea of balance over time.

Real Life Raw Meal Examples
Here’s what my dogs ate this week …
Monday: Big veal tails

Tuesday am: Beef (95% lean) mixed with 50% organ meats. (containing brain, lung, spleen, kidney, reproductive organs, liver, pancreas and some green tripe) and 5% fruit and veggie mix

Tuesday pm: Beef (95% lean) mixed with 50% organ meats

Wednesday am: Lamb ribs

Wednesday pm: Beef (95% lean) mixed with 50% organ meats and 5% fruits and veggies

Thursday am: Whole mackerel

Thursday pm: Ground goat with 40% organ meats and 5% fruits and veggies

Friday: Whole rabbit

Saturday am: Lamb ribs

Saturday pm: Ground goat with 40% organ meats and 5% fruits and veggies

Sunday am: Beef neck bone

Sunday pm: Fruit and veggies

You probably noticed that some days I didn’t feed very balanced meals. And that’s OK! At the end of the week, my dogs will have averaged out to about 12% bone and 30% organ meat. That’s balance over time! As a side note, I don’t feed poultry to my dogs. The reason I don’t is an advanced idea that will get in your way of learning. If you’re starting out, poultry is just fine. But once you get the hang of raw feeding, and you can afford to, you might want to reduce the amount of poultry.

But for now, it’s just fine.

Rule #9: Feed Fish Once a Week
Although a lot of raw feeders do, I never give my dogs fish oil. It can easily turn rancid (even high quality oil) and cause inflammation in your dog. It’s not environmentally friendly and it’s a heated, processed product. I feed my dogs to avoid the unhealthy consequences of heating and processing. And I don’t want to undo all that hard work and extra expense by slathering fish oil all over my dogs’ meals.

And if you’re feeding poultry, your dog’s diet will be much too high in polyunsaturated fats if you add fish oil. Instead of fish oil, you can feed whole fish like sardines, smelts, herring, mackerel once or twice a week. Or you can add a little fish to several meals. At the end of the week, you’ll want whole fish to be about 5% of your dog’s total diet. This will balance out his fats.

Rule # 10: Relax
If you follow rules 1 through 9, you’ll be feeding your dog a fresh, whole food diet that’s safe and balanced. It really is that easy to feed raw. The only step left is to start doing it! But before you do, here are just a couple of things to keep in mind.

When to Feed

Most people feed their dogs twice per day. I feed once a day, twice a day and some days not at all. I like to fast my dogs once every week or two because most immune function is in the gut. If the dog’s digestive system is continually digesting meals, there’s no time for house cleaning. The dog’s immune system will suffer.

Once a week, I turn my dogs out with a nice beef neck bone to chew. Or I’ll give them some fruit and that’s their fast day. The exception is puppies under six months of age who eat three times a day in my house.

How Much to Feed

As a starting point, feed your dog about two to three percent of his ideal adult weight. So, if he weighs 50 pounds, feed him one pound of food or a bit more. If your dog is very active, you may need to feed a little more. And if your dog is more of a couch potato, you may need to feed a little less. The best way to tell if you’re feeding the right amount is to run your hands over your dog’s ribs. If you can feel the ribs, but not see them, your dog is at a good weight.

Puppies need more calories and nutrition. So they should also receive about two to three percent of their ideal adult weight. When puppies are four to six months old, they will need a lot of food. And a good amount of calcium because they’re building their adult teeth. If they don’t get enough calcium in their diet at this critical stage, they’ll pull the calcium from their bones. And then they can develop bone or dental deformities. So, throw a few extra bones at your puppies at this age, just for a little extra insurance.

So, there you have it!

Overall, raw feeding is quite easy and you only need to follow those simple rules to be safe and successful. With time, you will become more comfortable with your dog’s new diet. And you will start to see that he has a better coat, cleaner teeth, fresher breath and fewer health issues.

Good luck with your dog’s diet.

Feel confident that when you feed your last bag of kibble. You’ll be joining the ranks of thousands who have made the safe jump to raw feeding and have never looked back!

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