The Raw Diet For Dogs

Have you ever wondered what goes into dry dog
food? I don't mean the biscuits, although the same
applies to them too in fact but they are normally quite
costly. I mean the dry dog food that comes in big
sacks and proclaims to be a complete dog food. What
is in it? Really.

Wheat seems to be the largest element, so how can
you buy this stuff for $1 a pound, but a good, two-
pound loaf of bread costs $3 or more (in the UK)? The
ingredients in the dog food have to be second-rate,
don't they? Dog food has to be fit for human
consumption in the UK, but that doesn't say much either.

Most of this dry dog food, particularly the cheaper
brands, must be full of ground bones, fish heads,
feathers, sweepings off the granary floor and syrup to
boost the calorific value. Surely, it is the canine
equivalent of junk food? I fed my collie-cross almost exclusively on dried dog
food for eight years, because I could put the food
down in the morning and it would not go off while I
was at work. She ended up with canine diabetes
mellitus.

I took her to the vet one day because she had become
blind 'overnight. She had advanced cataracts due to
diabetes. From that day on, I had to collect some urine
in the morning, test it, and then inject her with insulin.
Occasionally she had a fit. I carried on feeding her dry food and during the next
months, I had to increase her insulin regularly. Soon it
was nearly a full syringe and I did not want to give
her two shots a day, so I looked for a answer on the
Net.

A veterinary on a pet forum said that it was 'common
knowledge' that the high sugar content of cheap dried
dog food often caused canine diabetes after extended
use. Perhaps, it is common knowledge, but I didn't
know. A different forum member told me the same and
suggested a raw diet consisting of 1 lb green beans,
1/2 lb carrots, 1 lb raw mince meat, 2 raw eggs,
calcium powder, bran, multivitamins and 8-12
cranberries. Process the green beans and carrots, mix
everything except the cranberries together and partition into four. My 45lb dog had one portion and
2-3 cranberries two times a day.

The very first day I gave it to her she had a fit. I had
measured her blood-sugar with the old food in her.
The new food did not contain as much sugar, so I had
given her too much insulin. The next day her insulin
requirement was about 35% of what it had been the
day before.

My dog lasted another two years with the new diet,
which my vet said was uncommonly long, because
animals do not get the same level of after care as
humans. I experimented with the diet during the years and
discovered that adding an apple or two or a few
Brussels sprouts did not have an effect on my dog's
blood-sugar. Ever since then, when I see someone
lifting a large bag of dry dog food into a trolley, I feel
sorry for their dog.