Monday, September 14, 2009
Is it right to go raw?
Nona Nelson, The Happy Wag
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I never eat a banana alone.
From a deep sleep in the furthest corner of our house, our dog Stormy can hear the almost inaudible creaking of the peel being pulled back. Like a treat-seeking missile, he sprints into the kitchen for his share.
I gladly toss him a bite every time.
I know I feel better when I eat healthier, natural food and stay away from processed junk. So it makes sense that I should feed my pets from nature's bounty as well.
But I admit I am hesitant about converting them from commercially prepared -- and what I always believed to be nutritionally sound -- products to a homemade or, cringe, a really natural diet of raw meat.
I am strapped for time to make homemade meals for the two-legged members of my household. How much effort, and money, would I be investing into preparing food for the four-leggers, too?
And is raw food, especially bones, safe for my dogs?
To go, or not to go, raw
Feeding a raw diet has been practiced by only a small portion of pet owners since the 1950s.
But after the commercial pet food recalls in 2007, when melamine-tainted kibble resulted in death and illness, more pet owners embraced raw and homemade food as the most natural and safe way to feed pets.
Most veterinarians, however, say that raw foods have more contamination risks than processed foods do.
Bruce Coston, a veterinarian of 22 years who practices in Woodstock, Va., and has a home at Smith Mountain Lake, listed several reasons he does not endorse raw feeding.
"Raw diets rarely contain a truly balanced formulation of trace minerals and vitamins that prepared foods do," Coston said.
The risk of bacterial and parasitical contamination is higher in a raw diet, Coston said, for the pet and even more for the owner who is preparing it.
"No university veterinary school that I am aware of endorses raw diets," he said. Neither does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.
Still, Todd Czarnecki, a veterinarian with 17 years experience who practices at Hanging Rock Veterinary Hospital in Salem, said he does not discourage certain pet owners from trying a raw diet.
While he said he would not recommend raw food for very young, very old or very weak animals, he said most pets will do fine on a noncommercial diet.
"You have to base it on the individual," Czarnecki said. "Some won't tolerate it, but you can't make generalizations."
He added that he feeds his own pets a combination of raw and cooked meats, veggies and fruits.
He said contamination is a minor risk but adds that he has never seen a case of salmonella or parasitical infection in his raw-fed patients.
As for the nutritional value, Czarnecki believes that balanced nutrition is gained by serving a variety of foods over time and does not have to be achieved at every feeding.
Making the change
Crystal Dupree wants to keep her three young dogs, Emmy, Scout and Cody, healthy and active into their senior years.
Dupree, an investigative analyst for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who lives in Buchanan, spent time researching raw foods and decided, with the approval of her vet, Czarnecki, to feed raw and homemade food to her trio of pooches.
It's been a learning process for her and a culinary adventure for them. She said she got an enthusiastic paws-up when she presented them with frozen hamburger.
"They couldn't figure out what that thing was, but once they figured it out, wow."
Dupree has consulted other people who feed raw for guidance and advice, including Karen Hough, owner of Field of Dreams Pet Dog Training in Roanoke, who has been feeding a raw diet for seven years.
Hough said her dogs Megan, Tango and Blink are in excellent health, requiring little more than annual wellness checks.
"I never have to brush their teeth. Their skin and hair are in great shape," she said.
Hough said her dogs' typical breakfast selections are ground chicken, bones included, veggies, oatmeal, cottage cheese, sardines and tripe.
Dinner includes chicken with bones or a turkey neck. Treats are usually string cheese, turkey hot dogs and raw fruits and veggies.
Raw bones, Hough said, are digestible but cooked bones are not. The ASPCA, however, discourages feeding any bones to dogs due to risk of choking and the chance that the bones will splinter and puncture the digestive track.
A raw diet has other side benefits, Hough said. Because of the quality of the food she puts into her dogs, much less waste comes out of them.
"Their elimination is next to nothing," she said. "The dogs are using everything they are eating and converting it to energy."
Choosing the food
Finding affordable sources of safe raw food for pets can be a challenge, but Dupree said she is figuring out ways to keep her pet's food budget-friendly.
"Big bags of frozen veggies are only a couple of dollars," she said. She said she also uses "leftovers" as an economical base for her canine culinary concoctions.
"Egg shells, the tops of carrots, old cottage cheese," she said. "This is stuff I would have just thrown out."
Hough said she buys Bravo brand packaged raw dog food as part of a cooperative through her membership in Star City Canine Training Club as well as food from grocery stores.
Czarnecki said whether you cook your own dog food or feed raw, it is important to read about pet nutrition and remember to avoid toxic foods (Macadamia nuts and onions) and hard-to-digest foods (pork fat), and include meats such as organic chicken kidneys and livers to achieve a balanced diet.
Coston said he has fewer worries for pet owners who want to make their own cooked pet food, as long as they are aware of what to leave in and what to leave out. Achieving a healthy balance will take time, money and research, Coston said.
Even though I am still feeding my pets the best kibble I can afford, I do treat them with veggies and fruit and find it takes no extra time and adds nothing to my food budget.
I never waste the caps of strawberries now. As I slice each berry, I toss the tops to Stormy, who cheerfully chomps them, leaves included.
