Mom is refusing to belive me about raw.

[Glacier]

PERSONALLY my dogs do much better on raw and the health problems they DID have, while being fed a high quality dog food.

Really, isn't that what matters? It works for your dogs! We all need to do what works best for our own dogs, our lifestyle and our budget. I feed my dogs a half raw-half kibble diet. Last night they ate moose, tonight I feel lazy and they are getting kibble, a good quality kibble, but just kibble! I get told all the time that mixing them is simply terrible for any dog, but every musher I know feeds the same kind of diet and my dogs are all generally in dang good health. They have shiny coats, bright eyes, enough energy to pull a sled for 1000's of kilometres a year, ect, ect.

I have a dog who was starved by her first owner. Kayleigh weighs 108 pounds now, which is perfect for her. She was below 70 pounds when I got her. It's taken years to undo the damage her first owner did to her in other ways. She will never forget being hungry. Five years after I adopted her, she still hides food in her doghouse, just in case I suddenly forget to feed her one night! She lives alone because she'd kill another dog who got too close to her bone or anything else she thinks might be edible. Since I got Kayleigh, I find it difficult to care too much about what other people feed their dogs...Just feed them...feed them the best quality food that you can find, afford and that fits in with the rest of your lifestyle!

[Lady's Human]

My issue with many of the posts about RAW isn't with the raw diet itself, but rather with the perpetual myths that are posted in defense of it. There are possible microbial and other health issues involved, and takes a lot of research and effort to do properly.

Another irritation I have with many of the raw posts is the continuing myth that commercial dog food is bad. The evil additives that are constantly harped on are nothing more than a chemical replacements for vitamins and minerals that an animal needs for good health. Do you take vitamins? "Natural" supplements ? You're ingesting the same chemicals listed on a bag of dog food, in the saame form, with a different label. Preservatives? preservatives are present in food in such minute amounts that they have little to no biological effect. For example, (from the human side) a batch of syrup for soda contains 20 lbs of sodium benzoate. sounds like a lot, right? Not after you do the math, and figure out that that benzoate is distributed through 192000 pounds of product. It winds up in the parts per million range. How does it wind up on the ingredient list before flavoring? It doesn't take much orange oil to flavor the soda by weight. ANYTHING put into the product by the manufacturer has to be listed, which is why something that may be in the parts per million or parts per billion range is listed. Media reports showing that benzoate, for example, is a harmful additive don't give you the whole story. The amounts tested are frequently far in excess of what one would normally encounter in a diet. The most infamous example of this is saccharin. Yes, it can cause cancer. However, at the levels tested in the study that essentially pushed it off the market damned near ANYTHING would cause cancer. (It worked out to drinking 20 cases of soda containing saccharin per day for the rest of your life, IIRC. By that time you'd be in severe abdonminal distress from the acid you consumed, never mind the saccharin)

I can find studies proving that sugar is lethal (not over long term, lethal as a short term effect), water is lethal, the list could run forever. Just because it's published doesn't mean it's accurate or realistic.

False "scientific" claims drive me nuts in any form, whether involving dog food or nuclear power.

If your dog is doing well on a diet, that's fine, continue feeding it. Please don't try to push it on others or make others feel bad about what they are feeding their pet with dubious scientific claims.

[CagneyDog]

If your dog is doing well on a diet, that's fine, continue feeding it. Please don't try to push it on others or make others feel bad about what they are feeding their pet with dubious scientific claims.

I wouldn't really say that "pushing" is the right word. It's a recomendation, as are most things on a forum. You promote things that work, whether it be toys, food, kennels etc. I've learned a lot from people such as .sarah and bckrazy explaining the diet and I can't comprehend how you could see information as "pushing" it on others. After all, if you don't want anything to do with raw, don't even open the threads!

[Lady's Human]

I would say pushing is the right word. How many dog food threads asking about a good kibble have turned into a raw forum, inevitably with the comment that commercial dog food is bad?