# Raw vs Cooked?



## Cliffdog (Dec 30, 2010)

I was just wondering what sort of nutrients are lost in the cooking process? How do people who homecook, make up for the loss of these nutrients? Do homecookers need to feed veggies to make up for the things lost by cooking? Just a few questions, I am leaning more toward raw (and I am supplementing kibble with raw) at the moment, but I want to learn about homecooked, so I can know my options. Any good resources are nice, but I refuse to read anything that says dogs should eat the same thing humans eat (meats fruits veggies and grains) because dogs are hypercarnivores.


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## stajbs (Jun 5, 2010)

I would consider looking at a site called dogaware.com which you may know about. I got several cooked recipe ideas there to get through some issues with our dogs recently and in the past. I find it to be a pretty in depth well thought out website with a lot of information. Diets for dogs with kidney issues, diabetes, cancer, liver issues and healthy dogs etc. We're just coming off a 3 month stint of total home cooking for our one sibe. He has done well, and we started adding BG canned food to the homecooked this weekend and so far so good. We've got good stools and no rapid transit. 

I will say except for the sweet potatoes and split peas which we cooked like mad we never overcooked the meat. Plus all the water and juices remaining after the cooking process we included in his diet. Plus we added his Nupro for some vitamins/minerals and the glucosamine, chondroitin etc. It's not a diet I would want to continue long term because of lack of variety and concerns about some deficiencies. 

The primary thing with home cooked is variety, and quite a few of the recipes I found were very limited on veggies and we bagged grains totally. Our boy had trouble with brown and white rice. Decided then not to add any grains.

Stools on a homecooked diets are also pretty darned small, I assume because the dog utilizes most of the nutrients unless you would add grain and a lot of other fiber sources the stools should remain small. After the first week on the turkey and sweet potato diet we had him up to close to 75% ground turkey, 20% cooked yams, and 5% cooked split peas. 

If you can do it raw is probably the way to go, I just have a hang up with raw, and the vet knew we weren't feeding Science Diet so we opted for home cooked. WDJ also did a whole series on home cooked about 2 years if you can get your hands on those articles to research also.


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## sassymaxmom (Dec 7, 2008)

The WDJ articles are on dogaware, Ms. Straus wrote them!

If I was forced, kicking and screaming, to feed cooked I would be using this sort of diet. The actual recipes are at the bottom of the page.
Low-Glycemic | B-Naturals.Com Newsletter


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## thegoddessjen (Jan 20, 2011)

I like the low-glycemic recipes! I think I may go to those and see how they work out for us.


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## lily (May 16, 2011)

personaly i wouldnt dream of cooking for my dog ,i barely cook for the family !!,she gets raw and thats it lol,karen


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

It's funny. I absolutey HATE cooking. Blimin screaming, hate, hate, hate it. But, if my dog or cat required home cooked, I would do it with bells on. La de dah, no problem at all. Anything at all for my little twinklebums.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

do you feed your dog beef, chicken, fish,
lamb, pork, sweet potato, rice, any oils?? there's fruit in some dog food.
my dog likes apples and Asian pears. what do you feed your dog that
humans don't eat??



Cliffdog said:


> Any good resources are nice, but I refuse to read anything that says dogs should eat thesame thing humans eat (meats fruits veggies and grains) because dogs are hypercarnivores.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

that's funny. what our animals make us do.



MollyWoppy said:


> It's funny. I absolutey HATE cooking. Blimin screaming, hate, hate, hate it. But, if my dog or cat required home cooked, I would do it with bells on. La de dah, no problem at all. Anything at all for my little twinklebums.


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## stajbs (Jun 5, 2010)

Twinklebums...I am lovin it MollyWoppy!!! That is just too cute!!


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## Jessvin (May 23, 2011)

I give to my puppy raw food and cooked food both because he likes to eat everything.Which is better for a dog's health Raw food or cooked food? Reply me soon.thanks.


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

Jessvin said:


> I give to my puppy raw food and cooked food both because he likes to eat everything.Which is better for a dog's health Raw food or cooked food? Reply me soon.thanks.


If your dog is healthy then raw meat, raw bone and raw organ is the way to go. Hands down. :biggrin:


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

Don't cook for your dog - that's crazy! I have been feeding my adopted greyhound fully raw for about 10 weeks now after kibble and raw. Kibble is overly processed, cooked is not necessary and you denature the nutrients. Once you get your head around raw I sincerely believe it is the way to go. My dog's coat has improved wonderfully since going full raw but I did heaps of research as I went along. It really is great to watch them really enjoying what nature intended them to eat. After all do wolves in the wild cook their food and eat veges??? just saying.


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## DoglovingSenior (Jun 26, 2011)

*Raw vs. cooked*

My ex complained that I had stopped cooking except on holidays or when guests were coming complained that I loved the dogs more than I loved him- my reply was that
if you would eat raw, I'd fix yours too" notice that I said ex. <lol> I enjoy cooking & love to entertain but was just tired after more than 30 years of the day to day dullness of it. 

I notice that my dogs love it when the new grass comes in during SpringI notice that they eat it and don't seem to have any tummy issues "etc" - also, one likes grapes, the other oranges I let them have them occasionally. Much better than eating kibble-I hope <lol>Maybe they're just weird. Could it be the sugar??? They do not get this often. By the way, I will not cook for them either - though I would if illness required me to.


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## SharonG (Jul 13, 2011)

I was researching the grass issue, and I found that they just like greens sometimes. If you like, you can offer them greens from your table. I am giving mine some letus cutouts, spinach and kale (almost anything) every time I make salad (almost daily) and they are very happy with it


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i think raw is species appropriate....

and simple.

protein. bone. organ. give to dog. dog healthy and happy.

cooking, which i did for a while, is very involved and like kibble, you need to add things in for what is lost during the cooking process.

there are some health conditions that may exclude feeding raw....

for the healthy dogs, keep it as close to nature as possible in its most natural form. that's raw.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

Well all mine get is meat, organ and bone. They don't get fruit, veg or any grains.


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## Azra maltese (Oct 5, 2011)

sozzle said:


> After all do wolves in the wild cook their food and eat veges??? just saying.


I really do not understand, why it has to be raw OR cooked??? Why to exclude combo? 
Yes, wolves are eating raw, but they are starting eating with the stomac, and eat everything in it (grass, grain, etc, semi-processed). 
I am feeding combination: beef, chicken and all other meet and organs, except pork is raw. But, pork is allwayes cooked. Rice and spinach are boiled.Vegetables (carrot, apple, peach, green pepper) fresh. Also, as a supplement, I add grained linen, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds (half of tea-spoon per day). When feeding eggs, yolks are raw but whites boiled or cooked.
I would like to hear some comments about this method.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Azra maltese said:


> I really do not understand, why it has to be raw OR cooked??? Why to exclude combo?
> Yes, wolves are eating raw, but they are starting eating with the stomac, and eat everything in it (grass, grain, etc, semi-processed).
> I am feeding combination: beef, chicken and all other meet and organs, except pork is raw. But, pork is allwayes cooked. Rice and spinach are boiled.Vegetables (carrot, apple, peach, green pepper) fresh. Also, as a supplement, I add grained linen, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds (half of tea-spoon per day). When feeding eggs, yolks are raw but whites boiled or cooked.
> I would like to hear some comments about this method.


My understanding is, they do NOT eat the stomach. I know when our cat kills rabbits he brings them on the porch and eats the entire rabbit, EXCEPT the stomach. Its always left, along with what looks like intestines. I'm pretty sure wolves are the same and avoid the stomach.


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

naturalfeddogs said:


> My understanding is, they do NOT eat the stomach. I know when our cat kills rabbits he brings them on the porch and eats the entire rabbit, EXCEPT the stomach. Its always left, along with what looks like intestines. I'm pretty sure wolves are the same and avoid the stomach.


Myths About Raw: Do wolves eat stomach contents of prey?



Azra maltese said:


> I really do not understand, why it has to be raw OR cooked??? Why to exclude combo?
> Yes, wolves are eating raw, but they are starting eating with the stomac, and eat everything in it (grass, grain, etc, semi-processed).
> I am feeding combination: beef, chicken and all other meet and organs, except pork is raw. But, pork is allwayes cooked. Rice and spinach are boiled.Vegetables (carrot, apple, peach, green pepper) fresh. Also, as a supplement, I add grained linen, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds (half of tea-spoon per day). When feeding eggs, yolks are raw but whites boiled or cooked.
> I would like to hear some comments about this method.


Why do you cook the pork? There's no need to

Why do you add all of the non-meat products?

You can feed the entire egg raw. There's no need to cook any of it.


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## Azra maltese (Oct 5, 2011)

I thought it's very well known, but ok, I'll be brief now cause of being in hurry, sorry:
-Pork MAY contain a virus which is not dangerous for humans but for the dogs is. So, I am boiling it to remain on the safe side.
-I am adding some ingrediants to improve balance of the food. And yes, wolves are eating sheep's stomach and everything in it, and they are eating it FIRST, and that's the fact.
-I agree that I can feed "entire egg raw", no harm. But, while yolk contains a number of vitamins, raw whites contains anti-vitamine supstances which are neutralizing benefits of yolk's vitamines. As you said, no harm in feeding entire egg raw, but it's much better (for the dog) to boil whites.
Thanks for prompt reply!


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## Diana M. (Oct 5, 2011)

jdatwood said:


> Myths About Raw: Do wolves eat stomach contents of prey?
> 
> 
> 
> Why do you cook the pork? There's no need to


In our country there is still a risk of

Aujeszky's disease - Pseudorabies virus

so we must cook


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Diana M. said:


> In our country there is still a risk of
> 
> Aujeszky's disease - Pseudorabies virus
> 
> so we must cook


in the united states, other than a re emergence of this disease in feral pigs, this disease has been eradicated in domestic pigs.

i can see why you would cook the pork.


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## sandra0606 (Dec 22, 2011)

Cooked food also has all the essential nutrients. Cooking does not necessarily destroy all the nutrients in the food. Although raw food is the best food for dogs as its healthy for them and even they love it. Check Free Home Made Dog Food Recipes. On this site there is a list of all the things you can make at home and also their recipes. Just click on the particular dish for the recipe.


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## alangrylls55 (Feb 2, 2012)

I generally give my dog raw food to eat Except that I prefer giving him Orijin. He get Very excited when Sees it and always Starts jumping.


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