Raw food providers typically offer an assortment of recipes and feeding options, making your selection an important personal decision that should be discussed with your vet before being made.
Some pet parents may worry that raw diets might make their dogs sick. With proper handling and freezing techniques for meat products as well as the elimination of table scraps from dog’s meals, it is safe to give pets what nature intended them to consume.
Human-Grade Meats
Human-grade meats come from animals raised, slaughtered and prepared according to strict health and safety regulations. Before being used in pet food formulas, these meats must pass strict inspection. At BP raw foods we only source top-grade human-grade meats!
Pet foods marketed as human-grade can be deceiving; often using low-grade 4D meats. 4D meat comes from animals who have died, diseased, or been abandoned in feedlots or fields and the FDA has identified it as potentially contaminated with dangerous levels of pentobarbital (a medication commonly used to euthanise pets) and sulphur dioxide contamination.
New AAFCO guidelines will assist pet food companies in making false human-grade claims. For any product to qualify as human grade, all ingredients and finished product must meet all legal requirements – including vitamin premixes – so consumers can trust that their pet’s food truly meets human-grade criteria.
Allergen-Free Meats
If your pup is sensitive to certain proteins or experiences allergies that manifest as itching and scratching, raw feeding could be a solution. Commercially prepared limited ingredient diets (LID) are made in grinders and mixers owned by companies to prevent cross contamination of proteins; typically grain-free LID diets offer alternative meats like salmon, duck or venison as sources of protein.
Raw diets not only provide superior proteins, but are also rich in fibre and free from carbohydrates – this may aid bowel movement as well as help combat other digestive issues that some dogs and cats experience, including diarrhea.
Home pet parents frequently create raw diets at home for their animals, mixing various raw meats and bones together. It is crucial that these pet parents abide by food safety and sanitation procedures and speak to their veterinarian to make sure their diet meets all nutritional requirements for their animal companion.
