{"id":5282,"date":"2020-04-16T20:15:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T20:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/2020\/04\/16\/5-mistakes-people-make-when-feeding-pets-a-raw-food-diet\/"},"modified":"2020-04-16T20:15:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T20:15:06","slug":"5-mistakes-people-make-when-feeding-pets-a-raw-food-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/5-mistakes-people-make-when-feeding-pets-a-raw-food-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Mistakes People Make When Feeding Pets a Raw Food Diet"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Diana Bocco\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.petmd.com\/dog\/nutrition\/5-mistakes-people-make-when-feeding-pets-raw-food-diet<\/a><\/p>\n

Raw food diets might be the oldest form of pet food; after all, they are very close to what ancient dogs used to eat. As more people become aware of the benefits of raw food diets for humans, more pet owners are switching their dogs to raw diets, as well, for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n

As pet owners investigate what builds their own good health, they realize good food applies to the whole family\u2014including the four-legged family.<\/p>\n

In fact, many dog owners switch to a raw diet because their dogs have health problems. This is exactly why dog owner Jessica Winstead put both her Chihuahua mixes on a diet of raw food mixed with canned pumpkin and sweet potato, even though the diet has had different, though positive, effects on the dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy older dog moved in along with my boyfriend about five years ago and he was slightly overweight, but the raw diet leaned him out,\u201d Winstead says. \u201cHe also seems to have more energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her other dog, a four-year old rescue, went on a raw diet to address hair issues. \u201cHe was missing hair on the back of his spine and was slightly underweight, but since he\u2019s been on the raw diet his hair has evened out and he even gained a little weight,\u201d Winstead says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur older chi-mix weighs about five pounds more, so we feed him a half portion more than our other mix\u2014but he still leaned out and our smaller guy still gained weight!\u201d<\/p>\n

Switching to a raw diet, however, is not always that simple. Here are five common mistakes owners often make when switching their dogs to a raw diet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mistake #1: Not Understanding the Basics of Nutrition<\/h3>\n

In simple words, a raw diet consists of uncooked meals. In reality, though, it\u2019s a bit more complicated than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome pet owners consider throwing a pound of raw hamburger in the bowl as being a raw diet,\u201d says Dr. Judy Morgan, DVM, who is certified in Acupuncture and food therapy and is a member of the Botanical Veterinary Medical Association. This type of feeding, however, doesn\u2019t provide complete nutrition and can lead to health problems later on.<\/p>\n

Ideally, a raw diet consists of uncooked meat plus additives.<\/p>\n

The additives range from bone to organ meat to vegetables and supplements. In addition, raw diets can also include some cooked grains or veggies. \u201cAnd many people combine freeze dried dog food products (base mixes of veggies, vitamins, and minerals) with raw meats,\u201d explains Morgan.<\/p>\n

The one problem with raw diets is that there are no vitamin\/mineral standards established for them.<\/p>\n

The 2006 NRC (National Research Council) guidelines are based on a dry dog food diet. The possibility exists that supplementing a raw diet to meet NRC standards for kibble may provide excessive, possibly dangerously so, nutrients that may build up in the dog\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

What exactly does that mean for pet owners? It means that owners who are interested in raw diets should talk to a professional rather than just feeding their dogs uncooked meat.<\/p>\n

The difference is not so much in how a nutritionist and an owner define raw, the difference is more in what is considered balanced. For example, some dogs lose too much weight on raw food diets and might need the help of a nutritionist to figure out what to add to the mix (such as cooked grains or additional fat) to solve the problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diana Bocco\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.petmd.com\/dog\/nutrition\/5-mistakes-people-make-when-feeding-pets-raw-food-diet Raw food diets might be the oldest form of pet food; after all, they are very close to what ancient dogs used to eat. As more people become aware of the benefits of raw food diets for humans, more pet owners are switching their dogs to raw diets, as well, for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-only"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karburnation.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}