Raw Diet vs Commercial Dog food

[satomi325]

I'm huge for holistic pet food!

My dog lives with my parents, but she and my mom's dog mainly get kibble with a supplement of raw/semi cooked food. So this would be a kibble + raw duo of dogs.
We feed them Natural Choice/Nutro kibble. While it's more expensive than other brands, its definitely better than the more popular brands you see at petstores(purina, eukanuba, etc etc.)<- garbage. What you pay is what you get.
Another good brand is Call of the Wild. As for the raw, we have to feed organic (mainly chicken). The non organic stuff has too much junk and may carry unwanted 'goodies'.
Both dogs are in great conditions. Very healthy looking coats and teeth. Sound movement and very alert, active pups.
They(and my ferrets) also get rat pinks as treats when I have an overproduction of feeders.

Not dogs, but I believe this is still relevant to the whole "raw = healthy" thing. My ferrets were switched from a kibble diet to a whole prey diet. The transformation was incredible. The majority of US ferrets come from a commercial breeder, Marshall Farms. And they're all started on a horrible kibble (Marshall Brand) before shipping out to petstores. This kibble is full of junk, sugars, carbs, fiber, etc etc. Ferrets are Obligate Carnivores. Sugars and carbohydrates are not good for them and will eventually cause serious health problems and disease. So by providing them pure meat, my ferrets have became more active. Their coats became softer with more shine. The body odor and amount of poo has gone down significantly. Since kibble is full of stuff they can't absorb, the poo is almost down to nothing but fur(from prey).
They are fed mainly rodents: Rats, mice, or rabbits. But sometimes they get a chick or a duckling now and then. They don't like any sort of cooked meat or skinned/chopped pieces of raw meat. They will only take raw in the form of a full prey body with guts, fur, feet, tail, whatever. (the heads are their favorite)
Something to take note of: European ferrets vs American ferrets.
European ferrets seem to be much more healthy than US ferrets. Ferrets in EU are mainly a working animal compared to here, where they are a companion pet.The majority of these working ferrets are fed raw and don't see the many health issues and diseases you see in US ferrets.

Also, by chewing on meat, it prevents dental disease. And dental disease can lead to a whole bunch of other physical and health problems in the future. (I don't have exact answers, but I read it in a scientific journal and heard it in a seminar presented by the world's best ferret researcher. This can apply to other animals as well). Anyway, chewing on meat cleans teeth. Kibble does not fully clean along the gum lines because the tooth breaks the kibble piece before it reaches the gums. This is also why many kibble fed dogs have tartar problems along the back teeth along the gums.


All in all, I'm for a raw diet. Just be careful on where you get your food sources. Don't want sick animals and all.

Side note: someone called me a hillbilly for feeding my ferrets AND snakes prey animals. (uh...what else would I feed??)