Is feeding my dog raw meat or chicken safe? What about bones?

Hello, Veterinarians generally do not recommend feeding raw diets. Raw diets are associated with serious food borne illness (food poisoning) and the nutritional imbalances are associated with heart and bone disease. I would not recommend feeding any raw meat or bones to any pet, at any time, due to risk of illness. If you would like to feed a home cooked diet, I would recommend using the website balance.it which is formulated by veterinary nutritionists at the University of California-Davis. This website can direct you on making a homemade diet that is safe and nutritionally complete for Molly. If you're looking to purchase any complete diet, I recommend feeding one that is formulated to AAFCO requirements for canine nutrition. These requirements are based off of evidence based canine nutritional studies and the diets are regularly tested to ensure they are meeting every essential dietary need. Most popular brands are formulated like this- Purina, Iams, Royal Canin, Hill's, for example. I hope this is helpful! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Good on your for noticing bones in the meat! You are absolutely correct they could perforate the stomach and intestines. I personally never recommend feeding puppies or dogs a raw food diet. There is too much of a risk of E coli and salmonella poisoning from it to both the dog and the humans making the diet. In addition, a raw meat diet will not provide Tyson with all the nutrients he needs to grow properly. It is very difficult to have a home cooked diet that provides everything he needs. As a puppy, he needs larger amounts of calories, protein, and calcium than adult dogs to grow. Tyson should be fed a high quality puppy formulated food, such as Royal Canin or Hills Science diet. If you really do want to give him a home diet, then make it cooked, and I will provide some links to website that give proper and correct recipes for home cooked meals that hopefully will give him all the nutrients he needs: https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com

Great question! I do not recommend feeding any dog a raw diet due to the risk of pathogens (E. coli, Salmonella, etc.) that will remain both in their mouth and in their stool. This poses health risks both for Tux and for you (particularly if there are children or immunocompromised people in contact with Tux). If you want to offer him a supplemental food in addition to his dog food (I'm assuming that he primarily eats a balanced commercial diet), you can try home cooking foods for him. There is a great website out of the UC Davis Vet School - balanceit.com - that has recipes for home cooked diets and lists of ingredients that are considered to be safe for dogs. That said, commercial dog foods are balanced diets that do not NEED supplementation, but I understand if you want to add something extra in for Tux. :-)

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Raw food has a huge number of risks associated with it, including auto-immune induced paralysis, severe gut infections, increased vomiting and therefore increased chances of pneumonia, etc. Also, if you feed your animal BARF, then there will be E.Coli and Salmonella all over your house. I never recommend a BARF diet, as there are no benefits and lots of side effects, for both your pet as well as the people living in your house. It especially should be avoided if any immuno-compromised people (old, young, pregnant, cancer patients, people on certain drugs, etc.) are present in the house or around your animal. Bones should also be avoided as they have no benefit (they often cause more damage then good to teeth), and cause many problems as well. Unfortuantely, working in emergency, I see dogs die daily as a direct side-effect of being fed raw food and bones. Many animals have it and do OK, but these are ticking time-bombs waiting to go off and cause severe issues that sometimes, despite all medical care, cannot be saved. Human grade meat can be fed if desired, and if you wish to home cook that is great, I would just cook all meat the way you would for yourself (you wouldn't eat raw food or bones, don't feed it to your pet.). Best of luck with Ralphie!

No! Dogs should NEVER be given raw or cooked animal bones for several reasons. Raw bones run the risk of transmitting harmful bacteria, including Salmonella or Campylobacter, both to your dog and any exposed people. These bacteria can be transmitted through a dog’s stool and saliva. Bones can also pose hazards for foreign body obstruction in the esophagus, stomach, or intestines. Poultry bones are inherently filled with air and cooked bones become more brittle, both of which can splinter leading to perforation of the stomach or intestines. Bones and antlers are also quite hard and can lead to tooth fractures. Instead of offering bones, alternative products such as Nylabones, Kongs, or the dental treats approved by the Veterinary Oral Health Council (www.vohc.org) are safer and more effective alternatives for dogs that like to chew.

Hi there and thank you for posting this question. Raw chicken can cause intestinal salmonella and campylobacter infections in dogs just like it can in humans. There is also a human health risk as the people in the household could be exposed my licking or fecal matter. If you want to feed chicken I would encourage you to cook it first. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hi, I think it's great you are asking about this. I know there is a ton of conflicting information out there and nutrition seems to be a topic that is always under scrutiny. Also, I was not even aware of Thomas Sandberg before I read this, so I had to do a little research on him. The first thing I noticed is that Mr. Sandberg has absolutely no credentials in the topic he is researching. Meaning, he has no degrees in nutrition, animal science, veterinary science, or anything related. I cannot tell if he even has a bachelors degree, but he definitely does not have a PhD. I don't mean to tear the guy to pieces here, but his lack of credentials tells me: 1) He does not know the depth science behind nutrition that would be required to carry out his research; 2) He does not know how to run a quality scientific experiment. This information alone tells me that whatever research he is conducting is not quality. However, possible that he is hiring a nutritionist to do the study...I'm not sure, because there seems to be a big lack of information regarding the actual research. The biggest problem veterinarians and veterinary nutritionists have with raw food, is that there is a concern for infection and that there is no good scientific evidence that it is more beneficial than cooked dog food. That is why we do not recommend feeding raw food: we don't think the risk of making you or your pet sick is worth it. I can probably write a novel about this topic, but instead, I'll give you a link to a credible source that discusses raw food. Please check this out: http://vet.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/raw_meat_diets_memo.pdf If you would like to discuss more, then you are welcome to start a consult with me. I hope this helps.