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Should Your Dog or Cat Eat Raw Meat?
Should Your Dog or Cat Eat Raw Meat? These days, it’s common to see pet owners choosing raw food for their dogs and cats. Many pet parents have discovered that raw meat based diets have lots of benefits for their pet’s health, although this particular diet has some various risks attached to it. Veterinarians recommend some vital precaution to ensure a raw diet for your pet is the right and healthy one.
What is the real deal about the reported health benefits of a raw diet?
Pets like Dogs and Cats are carnivores that require meat to stay healthy. But the question is, does their meat need to be raw? It is popularly acclaimed that raw meat diets are much healthier for dogs or cats compared to a typical cooked food diet like canned meats or dry kibble.
One benefit of a raw food diet that is commonly cited is the improvement in your pet’s digestion since raw foods are much easier to digest. For example, some pet owners have noticed their pet’s poo becoming, firmer, smaller, and less stinky, a benefit for the pet and the poo collector. Some other advantages pet owners have come to notice in their dogs and cats are improved energy and stamina levels, healthier skin and coats, cleaner teeth, fresher breath and adequate weight control.
Conversely, lots of pet owners have also discovered a similar improvement in their pet’s life by changing their
pet food from a low-quality cooked one to an all-inclusive natural, premium cooked variety. Today, some of the available and cheaper pet food has a lot of fillers holding the product together and offers no nutritional value, such as corn gluten, wheat, and potato by-products. Again, most of these foods may contain various additives, preservatives and artificial flavorings that have the potential to harm your dog or cat.
The best and favorable aspect of a raw meat diet is that it is typically free from unnecessary fillers, additives, and preservatives. Well, prepared hygienic raw food products are usually frozen to maintain freshness, as against adding chemical preservatives. Another real fact is that the dry forms of raw pet foods are freeze dried or dehydrated; as such that it also doesn’t require additives. You can buy ready prepared raw meat complete meals
Which are totally free from additives and preservatives that are delivered to your door frozen, all you need to do is pop the ready portioned Raw Meat meals into the freezer and defrost before feeding.
What are some disadvantages of raw meat diet for pets?
The most frequently used excuse by proponents of raw meat diet for cats and dogs is that it is their natural diet. Of course, in the wild, dogs and cats hunt and eat freshly killed animals. Although raw meat it’s a natural food source for dogs and cats, this argument starts to break down quickly on close examination. Why? It must be understood that the meat we feed our dogs and cats as pet parents is not the same as the ones they eat while hunting in the wild. All modern pets today are raised through innovative farming practices, and expect you to have a good relationship with a supplier of fresh raw meat, most people like going to get theirs from the local supermarket, however we highly recommend against this. By purchasing your pets Raw Meat through a specialist you can ensure a fully nutritional balanced diet.
Buying Raw Meat for your pets from the supermarket
Just simply feeding your pets raw meat from your local supermarket may cause a nutritional imbalance, For example, a dog or cat that lacks a good source of calcium is at risk for severe orthopedic challenges. Resorting to a raw diet means devoting lots of attention to ensure your pet is getting the necessary antioxidants, fats, minerals, and vitamins required for proper health.
Another thing you must take note of is that uncooked bones can create a potential health risk for your dogs or cats. Larger pieces of bones that are not finely ground have the capacity to block your pet’s airway and lead to serious choking problems. Bone fragments also pose a serious health risk as they can lodge in your pet’s intestine and cause life-threatening obstructions and perforations.
Should Your Dog or Cat Eat Raw Meat – Safer ways to successfully integrate raw meat into your pet’s diet
Notwithstanding the disadvantages associated with raw meat, there are ways pet owners can still safely incorporate it into pet diet.
First, if ever you have decided to include raw meat in your pet’s diet, the safest starting point is to buy prepared raw foods. Typically, prepared raw pet foods will have more nutritional balance and will be much easier and safer for your pet to eat.
Prepared raw foods are more costly compared to cooked ones, but the price will usually vary.
Another safer option is to prepare your pet raw food, although this can be time-consuming. In this case, you have to ensure that what you are preparing has all the necessary ingredients to make your cat or dog food nutritious and make sure you find the right and required sources for all the types of foods that you need.
Always bear in mind that the best quality raw meat will only come from ethically-raised, organic animals. Deciding to choose cheaper and lower-quality set of meat may not produce the desired result, and can even endanger your pet’s health. Cheaper meats often contain chemical preservatives, hormones, and pesticides used in commercial animal farm practices. So, make sure you avoid them.
Another thing you must always remember is the fact that you can infect yourself with food borne bacteria from the raw meat meant for your pet. It is highly possible to infect yourself if you mistakenly touch your mouth with your hands while preparing your pet’s raw meat. In this case, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly each time you prepare your pet’s food and also wash any surfaces and dishes the food might have touched during the process.
Should Your Dog or Cat Eat Raw Meat? we believe so but please Remember not to give raw bones to your pet due to the risk of intestinal damage involved. Make sure that whatever bones you will be feeding them is thoroughly and finely ground to reduce the risk of digestive tract injuries.
And never feed your pet with cooked bones as they are even more health threatening than raw bones owing to their brittleness.
Lastly, bear in mind that the recommended right balance for homemade-raw diets is a minimum of 80% raw meat and 20% of additional or necessary ingredients like vegetables. There are pet owners who prefer to mash meat and vegetables together in a bowl for their pet. The fact is, this can be frozen in portions and kept for later use.
Should Your Dog or Cat Eat Raw Meat? Ready to Switch your Cats And Dogs onto a Raw Meat Diet ?
Why not checkout our recommended range of Nutritional Balanced ready prepared Meals by simply clicking HERE
This will help you to decide Should Your Dog or Cat Eat Raw Meat
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