Success Stories!

[jdatwood]

No veggies here. You can look to a dogs mouth and digestive tract and see that they simply cannot digest vegetables without some sort of "processing"

If we feed our dogs carrots as a treat they poop out carrots the next day. Dogs simply cannot digest veggies in their natural state

We feed lots of chicken.

[magicre]

do any of you include any raw vegies or fruit with the raw meat? also do you feed your dogs chicken?

i don't include fruits and veggies. in my opinion, they are not useful to a dog who is a carnivore....

they are indigestible, unless pre masticated (food processed) or cooked, and they contribute sugar to a dog's diet which is harmful for their teeth and the balancing act of their digestive pH and flora.

my 2c

i do use chicken, mostly for the bones.

[RawFedDogs]

My dogs haven't eaten any fruits or veggies in over 8 years.

[NatureLover]

I only have the "after" part of my dog's story because I've been feeding him raw since I rescued him in February of 1994 at 1 year of age. Here's a video of him fetching at age 17 that I shot a couple months ago:
Coco the Amazing 17 year old raw fed dog - NaturalNews.tv

Btw he is not prey model fed. Not BARF either, but a simplified combination of the two that incudes other foods besides meat and specifically excludes foods often fed by BARF feeders, like veggies. Veggies are too cellulose dense for dogs to digest. However, the same cannot be said about fruit. It was found in one wolf study that their consumption of prey dropped by 25% when fruit is seasonally available. That's a lot when you consider how dilute fruit is compared to prey foods. My parents camp out in coyote territory where they find coyote poop full of grape seeds from the nearby vineyards in the Fall.

Fruit reduces the cost of raw feeding for owners and also reduces the dog's digestive load by decreasing consumption of the harmful by-products of domestic animal agriculture. It enables effortless weight management and accelerates recovery from degenerative illness as well. Most dogs love fruit and will eat it willingly, without disguising it or combining it with other foods.

[DaneMama]

I visited and volunteered at an elephant sactuary in Thailand a few years ago and the huge pack of surrendered dogs there ate primarily fruit. Mainly the banana and papaya leftovers that would fall from feeding the elephants. From my recollection of my stay there the dogs were not in the best of shape. Whether that was due to poor nutrition or health care or just general stress who's to say for sure!

[magicre]

Coco the Amazing 17 year old raw fed dog - NaturalNews.tv

It was found in one wolf study that their consumption of prey dropped by 25% when fruit is seasonally available.

Fruit reduces the cost of raw feeding for owners and also reduces the dog's digestive load by decreasing consumption of the harmful by-products of domestic animal agriculture. It enables effortless weight management and accelerates recovery from degenerative illness as well. Most dogs love fruit and will eat it willingly, without disguising it or combining it with other foods.

that's a wonderful video....thanks for sharing...could you also share the source of that study?

[NatureLover]

Foraging and Feeding Ecology of the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus): Lessons from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA -- Stahler et al. 136 (7): 1923S -- Journal of Nutrition

[NatureLover]

Natalie,
Thanks for sharing that. Dogs can probably subsist healthfully on a diet of only fruit for much longer than we would think (just as they can go extended periods with no food at all), but not forever, since fruit is not their primary food. So if it continues indefinitely one may expect to see some degradation in their overall state of health at some point. That's not to say that fruit doesn't offer great benefits when it is part of a diet that also includes sufficient animal protein. I even hear anecdotes about vegan dogs that are persuasive, but the owners don't usually feed only fruits and veggies, they supplement the diet with high protein foods like cooked beans and legumes.

[John Rambo]

Awsome info on fruit if I ever decide to go RAW> I must admit, the more I hang out in the RAW sections of these forums, the more I get tempted.....

[DaneMama]

Awsome info on fruit if I ever decide to go RAW> I must admit, the more I hang out in the RAW sections of these forums, the more I get tempted.....

Time is all it typically takes for the logic to sink in

Definitely let us know if you have any questions or doubts about it and we will do our best at clearing things up!