RAW FEEDING VS HOME COOKED FOOD

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RAW FEEDING VS HOME COOKED FOOD

Whether to feed raw food or home cooked food is a very intense decision for a dog owner. In the recent times feeding raw is considered to be more beneficial for dogs, as before becoming domesticated, dogs were used to eat raw meat in the wild but in a study it is found that there are some potential risk involve if you feed raw food to your furry companion and moreover dogs have been fed on cooked food for generations so now their system has accustomed to it.
Raw food generally includes uncooked fish, meat, and eggs, raw vegetables (broccoli, celery), milk, yogurt etc.
Let’s discuss potential benefits and risk involved in feeding raw.

Benefits:

  1. Raw meat diet ensures healthier skin of your dog.
  2. Your dog will have cleaner teeth.
  3. It will help in increasing the energy level.
  4. Your dog will have a smaller stool.

Risks:

  1. Commercially made raw food may include ingredients which are not USDA certified, it implies that it is not fit for human consumption so it may contain contaminated carcass of animals which may affect the health of your dog.
  2. Raw food is not balanced properly so your dog may not able to get all the essential nutrients.
  3. Raw meat may get contaminated with bacteria if not handled properly.
  4. Some raw food contains bones in them which may harm the dog’s teeth and stomach.

So you need to consider following benefits and risks involved in feeding raw food to your dog. Feeding raw may have potential benefits but you need to ensure that it is not contaminate as if it has bacteria then your dog may fall sick. Also some bacteria get transferred to humans from dog.

Here are some benefits involved in feeding cooked food

Benefits:

  1. It adds variety to a dog’s diet that commercial food can’t provide.
  2. Your dog will not get infected with bacteria
  3. You can give a balanced diet to him
  4. You can give him warm meals during the winter season.

Risks:

  1. Nowadays some people are less concerned about the nutritious value of food while cooking meals for their dog. So, the dog owner needs to take care of that.There isn’t much risk involved if you choose to feed your dog cooked food as it may consider a better option than feeding raw.

So we may conclude that:

Dogs are not anymore considered as wild so they need not to be fed like one. Now that they have been domesticated for so long, their system has become accustomed to be fed on cooked food as it will be uncontaminated and will ensure to provide all the nutrients that their body would require. Cooked food is much safer than feeding on raw food as many commercial raw foods are not USDA certified so it may affect your dog’s health.

Be cautious while deciding what to feed your dog and if you opt for feeding him raw then look out for USDA certification.

January 6, 2018|Dog Nutrition

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