Never Stop Reading

My bedside table always contains a stack of books and magazines just waiting to be read.  My current project has been reading several new raw feeding books, and re-reading the others.  It amazes me all the variations there are to feeding a natural diet to dogs, but why should it be any different than "the best" diet for people?  There is no right or wrong to raw feeding, and once you learn the basic principles you can decide what works best for you, your schedule, the availability (& affordability) of products, and what works for your dogs. 

All raw diets are based on meat - on the bone, off the bone, and ground with or without bone.  Some feed just one or two meats, while others feed a huge variety, including but not limited to chicken, turkey, fish, seafood, beef, pork, lamb, goat, elk, bison, and rabbit.  The list is seemingly endless.  Then you decide whether or not you will feed veggies and fruit (either raw and ground, cooked, or a mixture of the two). Some people feed no veggies at all, although most Dal owners include veggies everyday.  Grain is a very controversial topic, with some feeding absolutely no grain, some feeding it occasionally, and some feeding it every day.  One of the reasons most of us switched to raw was because we did not want to feed grain-based diets, which is what kibble basically is, but some feel there dogs do better if they get at least a small amount of cooked grain.  Dairy is another controversial subject, and many add at least yogurt to raw diets, while others would never consider feeding dairy to adult dogs.

There is no "best way to feed raw, and it's up to you to decide how you want to feed your dogs.  It is not hard to feed them a healthy diet, but do as much reading as possible before you even consider switching your dog(s) over.  I can't emphasize enough that if you are not going to take the time to learn, a good quality kibble is probably a better option.