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March 22, 2011 By 6 Comments

Raw Dog Food Company seeking more veterinarians

With the wider acceptance of raw feeding for dogs, meaning feeding uncooked meats, with bone and vegetables and seeing how it is helping a number of dogs with health issues and improving overall health for dogs,  a couple of companies are reaching out to vets and have veterinary programs to help veterinarians determine when and how to institute a raw feeding program for their clients.
Nature's Variety Raw Food

Nature’s Variety has a program helping vets become more aware and more knowledgeable about raw feeding. I have their vet packet in front of me, which is filled with information and ways to find out more information. Interesting information such as case studies, online resources and a good explanation on why their raw food is safe, using High Pressure Pasteurization (HPP) which kills harmful bacteria but does not affect proteins, enzymes, nutrients, prebiotics, vitamins or minerals.

Nature’s Variety has been helping vets get over the other hurdle of feeding raw by going through the process of AAFCO food trials to be certified complete and balanced. According to NV they are the 1st and only raw food company to have done this; not that it matters to most raw feeders, but it does matter to the scientific community including veterinarians.

Some of the disease conditions that vets use nutrition to help treat that can be benefited by raw feeding are food allergies, obesity, digestive disorders, skin and coat disorders and diabetes.  I am really impressed by this company taking the time to try and integrate the raw feeding world and bring it to the scientifically based veterinary community that many times is concerned with new and non-traditional ways of treating pets and improving their health.

What are your thoughts? Would you like to see more companies like Nature’s Variety go mainstream and try to connect with more veterinarians or do you think raw feeding is a fad and will die off or become a cult for a select few?

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  • Matt_sgran

    I think there is much confusion amongst pet owners and veterinarians about what exactly constitutes a ‘raw’ diet. ‘Raw’ to me, means uncooked. I in no way want to be feeding uncooked meat, especially raw chicken or raw hamburger to my pets or risking contamination of the kitchen surfaces where I prepare food for my family. If High Pressure Pasturation (HPP) eliminates the harmful bacteria associated with ‘raw’ meats while preserving the nutrients, I would be much more receptive to trying it but they have to start calling it something other than a ‘raw’ diet to eliminate the confusion.

    • http://evetclinic.com Daniel Beatty

      Matt – what’s the difference to your kitchen surface if you are preparing a raw diet for your dog and uncooked meat for your family? Unless you are a vegetarian family there is no difference. You have to be safe and keep good clean healthy environment which means wash your hands and surfaces that raw meat were to touch regardless whether it is for your dog or human consumption.

      Also even though it has undergone HPP it still is uncooked and therefore is raw. Now the problem is that it does not eliminate what happens to the meat after HPP. Meaning secondary contamination after you get it home. If it is not stored properly and becomes contaminated and then you feed it you can still have problems. You need to be smart about feeding raw and that means being clean.

      Think about this – What is interesting is that a lot of contamination in restaurants does not come from meat but rather other uncooked foods such as salads (not going to explain how bad bacteria gets on there).

      You are so correct though that there is much misinformation and a lot of confusion about raw diets. Thank you for your input!

  • http://www.dogfoodcouponspro.com Dog Food Coupons

    Scientific approach definitely removes confusion so the people opting for the raw food for the dogs will be more aware of what exactly they expect by adopting to raw feeding to the dogs.

    • http://evetclinic.com Daniel Beatty

      Scientific approach most certainly does not remove confusion. Most of the time when there is good research it opens the door to more questions thus more confusion not less. I firmly believe that research and scientific studies are needed to help us, however one can not and should not discount the research of everyday life and anecdotal evidence.

  • Micha M.

    I’d like to know how an allergen in raw form won’t cause an allergic reaction but it will if it’s cooked. That makes no sense. Just like a lot of the other invalid claims for a raw diet. Properly cooking breaks down the proteins, making the food easier to process and digest (one of the reasons domestic dogs developed less musculature in their skulls, they no longer need the massive jaw power they used to need as wolves who hunt and bring down large game and consume it raw and live for about 6 years on average). Wild predators often recycle their feces as well because in raw form, the nutrients are harder to process. And properly cooking also doesn’t significantly destroy the nutrients. 

    There is no need for feeding raw meat, even if it’s rendered safer by HPP.

    • http://evetclinic.com/ Daniel Beatty

      Micha,

      Everything you are stating is just as hypothetical as the raw claims. You need more research, because despite what you are claiming the evidence and some of the research does not support it. 

      The statement that cooked proteins can be altered to the point where they cause allergic reactions whereas raw proteins do not comes from research done in humans on allergies. However the problem is that it can but does not mean that it actually does. Meaning that some people are allergic to the modified protein but not the raw form and others are allergic to the protein itself regardless of whether it has been cooked or not. I still have my clients avoid proteins that a dog may be allergic too whether it is raw, cooked or kibbled, because I can’t rely on an it might or it can.

      Cooking does modify food especially protein. You are correct that it breaks down proteins by destroying the hydrogen bonds, but if the food has any sugar in it which most muscle does (lactose or glucose) it reacts with the amino acids and forms a compound which is not digestible. So yes most of the meat is more digestible but there will be parts of the meat that are not digestible at all. In raw meat it is all digestible although it may take the enzymes in the body slightly longer to break down. It is also very obvious that cooking does significantly destroy nutrients if it did not then companies that make kibble would not have to add back vitamins and minerals to their diets during the processing. Overall more research is needed which was the point of this post. Thank you for commenting.Dr. Dan