how can i get started getting my pets healthier and feeding them more raw foods? one of mine is about to go he is so old and this might sound weird but i just know dogs have horrible diets. dog food is what causes all the diseases they have and what makes them live such short pain-ridden lives.

i heard juicing veggies and drizzing that over the food can help.

im just bascially trying to save my dog before he is gone forever and help all the other dogs i can by getting them much healtheir. is it possible and what do i start feeing them?

it doesn't necessarily have to be raw, just something that'll save them.. you know what i mean, raw food= life

Yes - google "BARF" - it's the acronym for the raw diet for dogs, and you'll find all sorts of info & recipes.

I totally agree with you, it makes me so sad that our pets are being fed basically a crappier version of our standard amer diet, no wonder they get all of our same degenerative diseases.

thank you so much! maybe there's time to heal my dogs. thank you

a local chain of pet food stores called pet food express sells frozen raw dog and cat food. you can also make your own recipe, as mentioned, or buy pre-packaged raw dog food online.

BARF is bones and raw food. I have been giving my dog raw food for about 2 years. It is sad but if you check with a vet you'll find that about %50 of domestic animals die from cancer.

Many people say not to give dogs chicken bones. Keep in mind that this means cooked bones. Raw bones don't splinter like cooked bones.

I've seen a lot of arguments that people are nor carnivours by desgin so we shouldn't eat meat. This definatly doesn't hold true for dogs and cats.

I have read that many pets do good on vegetarian diets, but I have always thought, if you are a vegan don't get a carnivour for a pet and force him to be vegan. It seems just cruel to me. But if it can be shown that carnivours can live just as long (or longer) with good health, I'd change my mind. I just am going by the way nature does it.

carnivores need to eat meat, cats will suffer greatly without it and while dogs can live on a vegetarian diet it is far from optimal for them. if one is uncomfortable with this i suggest re-examining the desire for a captive creature at all.
raw food is excellent for pets but can be a difficult transition for an animal that has been eating "pet" food. just as with the transition from sad to raw, taking it slowly can yeild the best results.
there are MANY recipes online for making your own pet food and quite a few retailers who carry it frozen.
good luck and thanks for even thinking of it for your canine companions. that's very kind of you.

Yea, I have thought that animals in captivity can actually turn people on the animals. I mean if a kid sees some dolphins at sea world that might make them value animals more. But I also see the other side of it.

It seems like you can find pros and cons on both sides.

My dog was wondering on the streets in a bad part of town covered in tar when I found her. I've had her six years. There is no way she could be released to live with wolves. Any pet I ever get in the future (will be a dog) will be a rescue. I guess if society was going to move in the direction of not having pets we'd have to stop breeding them and not create hybrid animals than can't live in the wild. For all the existing pets I think they'd have to live out there lives dependent on people, though.

i still dont get it though. his site is only promoting his brand of the food.

so its just feeding our dogs like whole chickens and stuff? can we buy these at the grocery store?

whole chickens, turkey, internal organs are wonderful.

when i got my puppy, i could not get myself to buy dog food (we have a gluten-free house, why would i feed my animal foods that are toxic to me?) so i googled a whole lot of stuff. i ground up turkey and chicken bones and mixed it with carrots, apples, berries and other fruits or sometimes just the pulp from my juicer. she wasn't a big eater (still isn't) but she ate cauliflower, bell peppers, broccoli, and anything else i gave her. i mixed brewers yeast in occasionally for vitamins.

what i remember from my studies is no garlic or onions or citrus fruit. anything else is pretty fair game. a couple of raw eggs a day is wonderful for the coat and she loves them.

when i got pregnant, i didn't have the money or energy to keep up the raw foods, so we got dog food, and her breath became horrible and her coat started shedding and she just lost some of her beauty. we're transitioning back to raw, but she's not jumping into it as easily as she did the first time. raw chicken is not appealing, but if we don't offer her anything else, she'll eat it eagerly a little while later. we also give her some millet and brown rice sometimes.

you don't have to worry about mixing every meal perfectly, though you can buy it. bone marrow, various meats, and a variety of fruits and veggies will keep your dog balanced in the long run. naturally, most creatures don't balance their nutrients by meal or by day, but over slightly longer periods of time. vitamin supplements can be helpful depending on the animal and the diet, but not usually necessary. if you are not good with the meat, make it a special occasion, but i think it is very good for them. mixing raw eggs with veggies will almost always make it disappear very quickly.

hope that is helpful! let me know what you find out as well. i'm always eager to learn more to help out my loverly and loving mutt!