Do we really need a degree in animal nutrition to feed a healthy pet dog?

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HeyYout

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Seriously, I'm not talking about treating disease through diet but it seems there are so many people here that think you can never feed your healthy pet dog a 'balanced nutritous diet' without having a degree or buying commercial food or feeding a prey model diet.

What about how dogs lived for years by our side, scraps were cooked up, odds n ends used up and a raw bone/raw meat scraps from the butcher now and again, and they DID live long and healthy lives. So what happened (apart from the men from marketing on planet petfood) that we all suddenly believe that if the vet wrote guidelines for a raw diet its fine but so is a very processed diet from the pet food manufacturers (no matter how 'great' the pet food ingredients list is, it's all VERY processed 'fast food for dogs') but they say its 'complete' so hey, must be great!

So, the question is, what do you believe? and WHY?
Im talking about 40 years ago when the staple diet was say, potatoes, meat and some veg, maybe a bit of gravy made from the meat juices, or liver and ground meat etc dogs got what was left plus any trimmings/blood from the meat before cooking. They also got raw bones from the butchers and the butchers trimmings once a week. Once pet food came out they maybe got a tin or two once a week as a 'treat' but still lived 10-15 years old.

Surley variety of nutrients over time is whats best? In the same way a toddler is given a variety not a 'balanced' convenience meal?
Veg was mostly home grown too.
 
I've always fed my dogs commercial dog food, and they've always been just fine. I give scraps to my outside dogs, don't see anything wrong with it. I don't give it to my inside dogs just in case it upsets their stomachs for some reason, I don't want to clean up after that kind of mess!
I think its just a preference thing, I know commercial dog food isnt high quality, but it works for me and my pets.
 
I agree with you. Most ppl with common sense can take care of their dogs just fine. I feed my dog some commercial food and some regular cooked meat (without salt added) and he is more than happy with that. He also likes raw carrots, oatmeal balls (wet oatmeal with water and roll into ball, make sure to use regular oatmeal, no sugar added), eggs, cheese sometimes, and an occasional hotdog. They need a variety just like us.
 
I'm a raw feeder. You don't need a degree. There are some principles you have to know - but overall it's fairly simple.

So simple in fact, you could get everything you need to raw feed in the meat section of any Wal-Mart.

80% meat / 10% bone / 10% organ (and some say organ should be 50% kidney)

Bones must be raw, preferrably meaty, and not from weight-bearing parts of larger animals, (b/c such bones are extra hard and couldfracture teeth).

You should keep an eye on your dog - closely at first - when they're eating bones to make sure they're eating them 'right' - chewing them down into pulp bit by bit, not trying to swallow them whole.

Congrats! you now have an associates degree in raw diet!

As for the dogs who lived for years by our side getting table scraps - there is no scientific data preserved from the dogs of days past demonstrating that they lived as long as todays dogs, or were as healthy.
 
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