Scientific Study on RAW/Homecooked/kibble

Ahhh. I hate when this kind of information pops up. I'm leery of any study done that has ties like this. I think there should be no connections in a study for it to be 100% free of bias (well as free as possible I should say.) Even though this study favored raw, I'm less inclined to share this article knowing this. thanks for digging so deep and finding out some good details!

 

I find this VERY hard to believe. You're saying you would eat kibble? You realize that kibble is processed food with hardly any natural nutritional value left in it? They have to use spray on vitamins to even account for the vitamins your animal needs to be healthy. Yes, your dog is getting most of his vital vitamins from something artificially made in a lab. That's because there's so little meat content in the food. Why do you think cat food, for instance, has taurine added to it? If the food was sufficient in meat, they wouldn't have to supplement that as many cats live for years and years and strive on a raw diet. Also, they allow 4D dogs in pet food -- down, diseased, dying and dead animals. You want to eat that? What about the euthanized animals and the road kill that go into it? You would eat all that?

So before you say something like, really do examine the statement. Read that Harvard Law dissertation I posted on the kibble section and it has very good sources to back up everything said if you doubt any of these ingredients.

I, however, truly don't feed my animals anything I won't eat. They eat grass fed, free range animals that have been given the correct diet and had room to roam their whole life. They eat animals that are freshly killed and I am able to see the state of the animals when killed as we get whole prey only so I know my chickens don't have sores/missing feathers/have seen day light, etc.(trust me, the ones in kibble have never seen daylight.) I won't even feed them grocery store meat. I really do abide by that motto and strive very hard to do so.

I still disagree about any carnivore need fiber in their diet. But to each their own is exactly right. My dogs eat a diet of bones, meat, and organs and they have the tiniest poops that turn to powder and go back into the soil in about two days. My dogs poop makes wonderful fertilizer because it's all natural...

It really is impossible to argue McDonalds (kibble) is ever better than healthy, fresh food in its natural state. I could never be sold on a dog ever benefiting more from processed foods than raw/home cooked. Now the owner benefiting because it's easier? Oh, yeah!

 

My cat also refuses to eat raw, too. I have fostered 4 week old baby kittens who eat through entire chicken necks so I don't know what gives. I'm going to try cooked with her. At least I'd know exactly what she's eating.

The biggest disadvantage of home cooked for me would be their teeth not getting cleaned. One of them had a bit of tarter building on on their back teeth and after eating a whole chicken it was gone b/c he worked hard to eat it. I'd also miss the mental stimulation they're getting when they're working on eating their whole prey. I think that mental stimulation, especially for my two that have neurological disorders is vital to staying healthy. I would also think cooked would take more time and supplements as you'd be destroying nutrients with the heat so you'd have to make up for that someone, I'd imagine -- maybe you could steam the veggies and then puree them to help cut down on the nutrients being lost. It seems a lot harder than taking the meat out of the fridge, handing it to them, and having them eat it. But if I couldn't afford to buy the kind of meat I do, I'd probably cook the grocery store meat as I'd fear it's too contaminated to eat raw. But dogs do it everyday as most ppl who feed raw go to the store to buy meat and their dogs are just fine so I might be overreacting on that end.

 

This is how my mind operates, too! I've even gone so far as knowing the farmer and the sources where the meat comes from so it really cuts down on "middle men." It's the only way my mind can rest because if I don't know what I'm feeding them (and myself) and how it was raised and cared for before death, I'm not going to be comfortable handing it to them to eat.

I live by a chicken farm here in the US and we see the semi trucks driving by with the chickens going to the slaughter house. This is Tyson Farms if you've heard of them. Well, the chickens never see daylight, they are missing their beaks b/c they have to cut them off due to the risk of them pecking each other to death because there so overcrowded and on top of each other, they're missing feathers -- almost all of them, they have sores a lot of the time and they're very, very pale. Basically half-dead and only alive through copious amounts of antibiotics. Also, most of these chickens have been genetically modified to have larger breasts therefor their legs usually break and they can't stand due to their large weight. The chicken feed has been known to have Arsenic in it although I do believe the Senate did finally make that illegal. I cannot consciously walk into a store and buy them chicken that I know lived like that. And to think about the animals in kibble is even scarier. They just had a cow come back with mad cow disease here in the states and that cow will most likely end up in the dog food rendering process. They send sick animals to be put in dog food -- it's disgusting and just awful what they're allowed to feed the animals.