Check out this story about raw meat and pets.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/pets/2012/10/03/raw-meat-diet-right-for-your-pet/YQS1LeFjJHraPN8gvEAhbP/story.html

 Do you feed your pet raw meat?

No.   I personally would not be comfortable with the risk involved.

From the article provided in your link:   Domestic dogs have been eating cooked food for over 300,000 years and thus cannot be compared with their wild ancestors. Cooked meat is in fact more easily digested by dogs.

Furthermore, raw diets carry the risk of parasites, toxoplasma, salmonella, and nutritional deficiencies. Dogs do not do well on a raw diet, says Rollin.  (Quote)

Nope.

No way. Although our sometime's outdoor cat may find his own.

Yes! Been doing it for 15 years.

2 dogs and 3 cats--everyone happy and healthy on raw.

 

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I've been feeding my dogs raw food for the past 6 years. They've thrived on the diet.

There are 2 things that you should do if feeding your dog raw meat or raw bones is freeze the meat/bones between getting it at the store and feeding it to your dog.  The freezing kills any parasites that might be in the meat.

The other thing is to add a supplement, such as Missing Link.  But I would do that even if I was feeding cooked food.

Raw food is much easier for them to digest.

Again, the key is to freeze the meat after you get it from the store to kill any parasites that might be in the meat.

As far as bacteria goes, their systems are better equipped to deal with bacteria than our systems.  They have a much, much shorter digestive system than ours.  That means that means that have a harder time digesting some types of food.  Raw food contains enzymes that help them digest food.  But it also means food (bacteria) spends less time in their systems and have less time to develop into a problem.

Humans can eat things that give dogs problems.  And dogs can eat things that give humans problems.

You can cook any veggies you give the dog. 

We used to give Gracie raw marrow bones from the grocery store that we'd frozen until we learned from a doggie periodontist that they can break their molars.  It's a shame because she loves them and they kept her happy for hours.

i can attest to the old, bacteria laden meat being less of a problem than one might assume.  Gracie has found and chowed down on all manner of carcasses in the woods and has been totally unaffected.  Not that we'd feed them to her on purpose, but that stuff is out there, and we hike with her unleashed.

In response to Robin39's comment:

It's weird that people have this notion that dogs have been eating only cooked meat for hundreds of thousands of years. It's logically flawed.

While people have certainly been giving dogs cooked meat, plenty of dogs have been fed raw meat, or have hunted for themselves, in that 300,000 years. It's only since the invention of dog kibble that the majority of dogs have switched to an all-cooked diet.

My dog turns down raw meat, unless it's fish. Raw meat simply doesn't smell as strongly as cooked meat, and I think he dislikes the texture.

I wouldn't consider "nothing but rabbit" to be a balenced raw diet.  There's a reason why raw diets are supposed to contain as wide a variety of meat as possible.  Not to mention that if said cat was living wild and catching their own dinner rabbit would not be likely to be a huge percentage of their diet....

 

Both my dogs are raw fed.  A healthy dog is much less inconvienced by the bacteria that would shut down a human, there's a reason your dog can scarf that roadkill and be non-the-worse for it.

Hi Ruth, nice to see you here!   I think it depends on the dog/breed,  my corgi will wolf down anything raw or cooked and be fine,  but my delicate little poodle mix vomits after eating raw meat. 

Her favorite thing is buttered toast,   I have to give her a teeny piece every morning....no way around it!

PS: I have a lot of wild bunnies out my way.  They don't last long, easy prey.

Many dogs vomit up raw at first.  Their stomachs often don't contain enough of the right enzyme to break it down properly.  It varies quite a bit from dog to dog.  But owners who are looking to feed raw are advised to allow the dog to eat that partially digested raw meat, its a gross, but effective, way to help the stomach build up the right stuff to break it down.

My boys chase the wild rabbits fairly frequently here, but I rarely see with neighbor hood cats with anyhting larger than various small rodents.  Which isn't to say they'd not enjoy a bunny if they caught one, but its not a staple by any stretch.

I do not feed Bella raw meats.  I figure if I wont eat it, why should I let her.  However, she LOVES raw and cooked veggies.  Give her a carrot and she munches for a long time!!

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