You may know that a raw diet is best for your pet & that is great! But do you understand the basic components of a raw diet & the role that they play in the diet? Today, we are going to take a look at these individual components so that we can create a better understanding of the raw diet.
The three basic components that we will look at today are meat, bone & organs. Let’s dive right in!
Meat
Meat forms the largest part of the raw diet for carnivores. Meat includes parts like muscle meat, lungs, heart, tripe & tongue. These ingredients are full of an assortment of nutrients, especially amino acids! You may be familiar with amino acids, these nutrients are grouped together as protein.
Protein is essential for a number of things in the body, including muscle building & the creation of enzymes. Obviously, strong muscles are very important for mobility & lots of unseen movement within the body. Enzymes are important for many processes in the body including digestion, chemical reactions in the body & much more!
Feeding a variety of meats is important in a raw diet. There are two different types of variables to think about: variety in the animals that you are feeding (beef, chicken, beaver, etc.) & variety in the type of meat (muscle meat, tongue, tripe, heart, etc.). Variety is key since the muscle meat of a muskrat has slightly different nutrients than that of a sheep. Similarly, a heart & a tongue will have different nutrients. So, be sure to feed a variety!
Bones
Bones do several things in a raw diet! Generally, bone will take up 10% or more of a raw diet. Bones are the main source of minerals in a raw diet. Minerals help with many different body functions including making enzymes & hormones. Minerals are also helpful for bone health.
It is important to note that there are 2 different kinds of bone that you can feed your pet. There are recreational bones & edible bones. Recreational bones are those that cannot be fully consumed. They are typically thick, heavy bones that are weight-bearing. These bones include things like femur bones, shoulder blades & pelvic bones. Bones like this are good more for chewing pleasure than to add nutrition to the diet.
Edible bones, on the other hand, are bones that can be fully consumed. Things like necks, feet, tails & pretty much all poultry bones. These are rich in minerals & healthy fats.
It is vital to know that what is considered an edible bone for one pet may be recreational for another. For instance, a Rottweiler might be able to chomp through pork ribs with no problem, but pork ribs would be recreational for a cat, ferret or Yorkie. Size is not the only consideration. You will also want to take into account your pet’s desire to chew & tenacity in chewing. You could have two pets the same size & one might completely consume a duck foot while the other might enjoy chewing the foot, but not totally consume it.
Both recreational & edible bones can provide your pet with chewing pleasure! That chewing pleasure can help to clean teeth & strengthen the jaw & shoulders. If you would like to know more about the benefits of chewing you can check out our blog post about chewing.
Bone is also useful for hardening stool. However, with too much bone & your pet may become constipated. Keep an eye on your pet’s poo to know if they might be getting too much or too little bone.
Again, variety is important for bone content as well. The same bone from different animals will have different nutrients (a cow femur & a lamb femur will differ). Likewise, bones from different areas of the body will have different nutrient makeup. For instance, a turkey leg will have lots more delicious marrow than a turkey neck. So, like with meats, it is important to feed a variety!
Organs
Think of organs as multivitamins for carnivores. They are chock-full of amino acids, fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins & much more! Organs, while gross to us, are an essential part of a carnivore’s diet!
As I’m sure you can understand with all the nutrients, organs are very rich! So, too much may result in loose stool. If you notice loose stool after feeding more organs, you might want to back off a bit. Generally, 10-25% organs is good for a raw diet. Starting at 10% & working your way up is the best option. Remember, keep an eye out for loose stool.
Variety is even more important with organs! Each organ is uniquely designed to do a very specific job that requires very specific nutrients. Thus, each organ is made up of very specific nutrients. Aim to feed as much variety as possible of organs. Again this is twofold. You want to feed a variety of organs: liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas, etc. You also want to feed these organs from a variety of different animals (cow, sheep, duck, chicken, etc.). So, always feed a variety of organs from a variety of different animals.
In conclusion, a raw diet is mostly meat with 10% or more bone & 10-25% organs. Variety in all three categories (meat, bone & organs) is key to providing the best diet possible for your carnivore!
Resources:
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/mistake-raw-feeders-make-with-organ-meats/
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/why-organ-meat-is-important-for-the-raw-fed-dog/
https://peterdobias.com/blogs/blog/16688340-what-bones-are-good-for-dogs
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/?s=bones&_ga=2.201349465.919859900.1661347704-318502055.1661347704
Hey there. My name is Rilla Banks. I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Wellingtin, who I have been raw feeding since about 2015. I am constantly on the lookout for natural ways to improve his life. I love to research all things dogs & I am happy to share my finding with you!
