I want to feed our cat and dog raw food but I'm a bit scared

[plain jane]

and could use some advice from those who have BTDT.

 

My biggest concern is having little kids in the house. We did start the cat on raw and I have to sit and watch it eat as it sometimes drags the meat out of the bowl to chew outside the bowl. :glare: No big deal, I just use a paper towel with a light bleach solution and wipe the floor when the cat has left and I'm okay with that. It's sort of a pain to sit and watch the cat eat, but with very young kids and toddlers I'm worried where that raw meat will end up.

 

Also, I'm concerned about bacteria on the animals' mouths. I know cat/dogs don't get ecoli or salmonella (or it's rare if they do) but what about if they eat raw with the bacteria on it? How long is the bacteria in their mouths? The could contaminate my kids with their mouths, couldn't they?

 

Am I insane for wanting to feed the pets raw? How do I do this safely with children in the house?

 

FWIW, I do not have a separate "porch" area or anything where I can feed the animals- they both eat just outside our kitchen area. Since they used to eat canned/kibble I wasn't too concerned about this but I really have no where else to feed them.

 

Another concern I have is the cost. I do not know of any local butchers but there are a number of pet food places that sell high quality food (both animals are on high quality food now) and sell frozen raw. The dog's food costs us about $75 a bag and I was shocked that raw for one month would cost us far more than that. Ack! (doggy doesn't tolerate chicken so raw chicken, which is cheaper, is not an option). What to do? I know I've read that raw can be more economical but I need help on how to make it so.

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[ktgrok]

Your concerns are valid. I have NO issues with dogs eating raw when there are not children in the house. But with kids in the house yes, the dog could transfer c-coli from his mouth to the child by licking his face or hands. It has happened. A homemade cooked diet might be a good compromise for now. For me the high levels of contamination in our meat these days makes raw not an option for my animals.

 

Katie (the certified vet tech)

[2cents]

We had a very bad experience with the BARF diet. It made the dog so sick. We didn't have access to fresh meat. We just had the store meat which even though it may seem fresh may in fact have been frozen and thawed. It was quite expensive but we would have kept with it if it was healthy for our dog. But she had very bad loose stools and vomiting. She also had a difficult time actually eating the raw diet and made a huge mess when she tried to eat it. I would not do that again. I have however made our own dog food but it was cooked and ground muscle meats. She did well on the cooked diet. Cooked it in a slow cooker, ground it up (juice and all) and put it in freezer zip locks. I would do it once every 2 mos and each ziplock held enough for her meals for a day. Now she is on Pedigree. We were making the dog food when the contamination scare was going on.

[Laurie]

It's not only raw that has the potential to make kids sick. :sad: This was reported recently:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/dry-pet-food-linked-salmonella-children/story?id=11344300

[plain jane]

It's not only raw that has the potential to make kids sick. :sad: This was reported recently:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/dry-pet-food-linked-salmonella-children/story?id=11344300

 

Ugh! Gee, that was... so... reassuring. :blink::tongue_smilie:

 

Sigh. I love my pets, I love my pets. :lol:

 

Thing is, the cat especially, does so much better on the raw food. I don't know if I'm potentially harming my children for the cat's benefit. :sad:

[Peela]

We do raw for both our dogs and as for cost..we buy specials whenever we see them, I do buy a premade raw mix sometimes and raw meaty bones...yes it is more expensive than normal food but I feel much better doing it...and when I find the meat in bulk on special, even frozen, I will bring it home and thaw it and mix it with various things and then pack it in small bags. My dogs also do eat chicken carcasses and chicken necks. Overally they have a lot of variety in their diet and they also get table scraps.

One thing we do is feed the small dog in her crate before she gets out of it in the morning...and the ouside dog gets her food outside...but often they will end up wrestling over a bone inthe backyard too.

 

I can understand your concern about small kids. I just dont worry about that sort of thing much, I guess- not that we have small kids any more. Raw food makes the dogs smell a lot better than canned and kibble, so it must be better for them, so in that sense, if their systems are healthier, surely they are less likly to , in a general sense, pass on diseases.

 

We didnt have dogs when the kids were small for various reasons. I honestly think it would be unlikely to catch ecoli from a dog eating raw food...but if it has happened, it has happened, and it's your call I guess, since there is a small risk. I am not a bacteria phobic person at all and would most likely not even consider it.

[Catwoman]

Personally, I wouldn't consider a raw diet for my pets, for their health as well as for that of my family. It's not necessary, and pets can live long and happy lives eating a high quality commercial food. One of my cats lived to be 23 years old and never ate raw food in her life. All of our dogs have lived well beyond the "average" age, and again, they ate a good, name brand commercial food.

 

Cat

[plain jane]

Personally, I wouldn't consider a raw diet for my pets, for their health as well as for that of my family. It's not necessary, and pets can live long and happy lives eating a high quality commercial food. One of my cats lived to be 23 years old and never ate raw food in her life. All of our dogs have lived well beyond the "average" age, and again, they ate a good, name brand commercial food.

 

Cat

 

 

I do think this is the case with our dog, who seems to do very well with the high quality kibble. The cat, OTOH has been having digestive issues for quite some time and from what I've read and from talking to the vet assistant, going raw sounds like something that would finally fix these issues. The cat seems healthy enough, but there's just something not quite right.

[hornblower]

My dogs are on raw & I've never had a concern about illness. I don't have toddlers though.

 

I do pick up bowls, feed out of stainless steel (or on a towel/plastic tablecloth/shower curtain). I wash the bowls in the dishwasher. If I had smaller kids I think I'd just do the same. I wipe down the counters where I prepare their food with a lysol wipe, & I also do the fridge handle & anything else I might have touched.

 

Because I have multiple dogs & often fosters here, I never feed unattended anyway. I'm always in the room when food is on the floor. I do not want to have any fights & I make it quite clear that I will not tolerate any dog stealing (or even coveting!) anyone else's food.

 

Have a look at this article : http://www.rawfed.com/myths/zoonotic.html

 

As far as where to find good deals. post on your local craigslist in the pets section asking for tips on sources of inexpensive but good raw. It anonymizes your email addie so don't worry about spam. You'll likely get a fair bit of replies.

 

We have a local butcher who sells a fabulous selection of meats, gov't inspected, whole or ground & I swear the guy does his business all by word of mouth. His stuff is not sold in regular stores; I have to drive out to his shop. I go every few months to stock up.

 

It is cheaper for me to feed raw than a high quality kibble like Orijen or Taste of the Wild. & while some other health benefits may be debatable (though one of my dogs was prone to UTI's and stones & switching her to raw has been nothing short of a miracle), I'm certain that if nothing else I'm saving money on dentals. My dogs have sparkling white teeth.

 

Here's a funny: My setter needs regular check up's because of an eye problem & I once saw a locum instead of my regular vet. The locum was just doing her regular spiel & was just starting to say 'I didn't see any record of a dental recently? At your dog's age you need to think about .......' when she actually looked at his mouth. And stopped talking. LOL. Nope, he doesn't need a dental so we won't be booking that $350 procedure.

 

I don't think everyone has to feed raw; it's not something I can get fanatic about. I have a foster here now who was on raw but we switched him to Orijen & he's doing just fine with that & a weekly bone for teeth cleaning. I'm not a purist about it either. Some people freak out about how you cannot mix raw & kibble. Meh. I've run out & given them a scoop of their emergency ration kibble & they've been fine.

 

I don't think 'dog food' per se is necessary either. When I was growing up, there was no such thing as kibble in Eastern Europe. My mom cooked for our dog & doggie bags from restaurants were really DOGGIE bags.

[Catwoman]

I do think this is the case with our dog, who seems to do very well with the high quality kibble. The cat, OTOH has been having digestive issues for quite some time and from what I've read and from talking to the vet assistant, going raw sounds like something that would finally fix these issues. The cat seems healthy enough, but there's just something not quite right.

 

When one of our cats was younger, we received a similar recommendation -- a long song and dance about how he would do better on his "natural" raw diet. Well, it made him sick. His system just wasn't accustomed to digesting the raw food. We switched over to boiled chicken and rice for a while, and his digestive problems improved rapidly. We gradually re-introduced the dry cat food into the chicken and rice diet, and he did very well with it.

 

I think that, if you try the raw foods, you might want to consider doing it gradually.

 

Cat

[cmarango]

I fed my dog according to the guidelines found in the book The Holistic Guide to Healthy Pets (I beleive that is the name). I did that for many years and just recently we switched to Blue Buffalo. I have to say that he is actually doing better on this food than he was when he was on the other diet. I still give him raw bones every now and then for teeth cleaning purposes, but he has a special rug that he can eat them on that is then washed.

 

It is a hard decision to make, but there certainly are quality commercial foods that are available now. I think that the dog food scare a while back has made them more widely available.

[Nature]

I agree!