My dog only eats raw meat, won't touch kibble. Is her diet balanced?

No, meat is not a balanced diet. Even raw meat is not balanced. Balancing a home made diet is difficult and is not recommended unless you work with a veterinary nutritionist. When online, home made recipes where tested, 97% were found to be unbalanced and lacking in 1 or more essential nutrients. Unless you plan on working with a nutritionist, I recommend to feed a normal commercial diet that is AAFCO certified. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hi there. No, this is not a nutritionally complete diet for long-term feeding. If Butter won't eat dog food and you prefer to feed him human food, you will need to make sure that his diet is still complete and balanced. You can use the website www.balanceit.com to put together recipes for him using ingredients of your choice, or use a commercial fresh food diet that is formulated to be complete and balanced, such as www.thefarmersdog.com

Hello, and thank you for your question. Stela is a beautiful dog. It is possible that she is just being picky. I would try to very gradually mix in the dry food into her wet diet, for example each day feed a bit more kibble and less wet food. I generally advise against raw diets, as they can harbour bacteria and cause serious illness in both dogs and the people who handle the food. Try sticking to commercial kibble and wet food, with the goal of transitioning onto kibble over time. Experiment with different brands, and hopefully you will find something that she likes! If she seems at all unwell (low energy, vomiting, diarrhea), then I would worry about a medical cause for the low appetite, and recommend taking her to the vet. They can check for things like a gut infection, parasites, food allergies, etc. I hope this helps, and that Stela is feeling well!

I am a holistic vet. I love raw diets, but it is very hard to make your own raw diet and have it be balanced nutritionally. I highly recommend pre made raw diets such as Honest Kitchen and Sojos. They are freeze dried, so much safer, and you simply rehydrate with warm water. This way you can feed raw, AND ensure it is a balanced diet.

No, this is not true. Modern dogs have absolutely nothing to do with wolfes and their nutrition any more. The AVMA is not recommending raw feeding due to the danger of the meat being contaminated with salmonella, campylobacter and other bacteria. You should feed a complete food for medium sized to large sized dogs. Here is some information: https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/FAQs/Pages/Raw-Pet-Foods-and-the-AVMA-Policy-FAQ.aspx https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Pages/Raw-or-Undercooked-Animal-Source-Protein-in-Cat-and-Dog-Diets.aspx

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Raw beef is missing other key vitamins and minerals that kittens need to develop so I do not recommend feeding that alone. I would try canned kitten food and put it on a plate so she can stand in it and eat it. If she goes 24 hours without eating, I would take her to a vet to make sure there are no physical problems causing her not to eat a balanced diet. Good luck and kisses to Reena!

You may need to be a tough owner and not cave in to her desires. I would not recommend feeding any raw meat, particularly raw chicken, as the risk to her (and to you living in the house/preparing her food) for salmonella and e.coli infection is too great. You could try soaking her dry food in water or low sodium chicken broth to make it more appealing, or getting a canned food and mixing it with the dry dog kibble to make it more appetizing, or initially putting chunks of cooked chicken in with the canned food. Info from the Centers for Disease Control on raw pet food can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/features/raw-pet-food/