Top Tips For Feeding A Raw Diet To Your Dog

With so many options  on the market for feeding your beloved four-legged friend, it can be difficult to make the right choice for your pet.

August, or Raw-gust is the month that highlights raw feeding for pooches and the team here at Laughing Dog have put together our advice around feeding a raw diet.

What is a raw food diet?

Raw food diets are foods that are in their natural form without being further processed. They often consist of uncooked meat ingredients as the main source of nutrients (including skeletal muscle, offal and bones), however other food sources can consist of vegetables and fruit.

Why feed raw food?

Feeding raw food is a fiercely debated topic with many people having reasoning for and against feeding raw. In its simplest form there are pros and cons for feeding a raw diet and one must assess the situation before they decide whether to feed this to their animal.

Pros:

• A more natural choice to a dogs diet
• High nutritional level and control over ingredients your dog is eating – no uncertainty in what ingredients are included.
• Perceived functional improvements – although relatively little scientific support evidence to suggest it’s any better than other diets.

Cons

• At risk of microbiological contamination of pathogenic bacteria due to their being no further processing such as Salmonella and E-Coli. This risk also translates to the handler of the food if they don’t follow the proper hygiene guidelines – can be risky to small children.
• Requires knowledge and planning of meals to make sure they are nutritionally complete. With all dry and wet diets, these are designed to be nutritionally complete so that the dog can get all the nutrients it requires. However, with a raw diet there must be specific ingredients used to provide specific nutrients to make sure its complete. So therefore this can be involving and not the most straight forward as opposed to feeding a dry kibble/ wet tray.
• Can be an expensive option – in particular more expensive than a dry food.

What’s a mixer and why use one?

Some paw-parents choose to mix a raw food diet with a dog-friendly biscuit too, this is very common practice for a raw food diet and can just help give your four-legged friends that little bit of crunch (which is great for cleaning teeth) and some additional nutrients to their diet while helping to slow down speedy eaters too.

Whether you’re looking for a grain free mixer meal laden with sweet potato, delicious botanical herbs and linseed for that glossy gleaming coat. Or a wheat free variety brimming with barley and oats for a slower form of energy release. Or purely a traditional, 100% British, wholemeal mixer, naturally simple, with nothing else added, Laughing Dog has the complete range to complement your raw feeding.

Our baked mixer meals provide the perfect complement to feed alongside wet, canned meat or a raw diet to add a little extra crunch to help keep teeth clean and breath superbly fresh.

So whether you’re looking for grain free dog food, wheat free dog food or simply a wheat inclusive mixer biscuit, Laughing Dog can be sure to bake even the fussiest of dogs 100% dog happy!
Laughing Dog’s traditional mixer meal is also endorsed by the Canine Epilepsy Support Group because of its simplistic formulation of wholemeal flour and water too!