The UK’s leading canine dietician has warned of the dangers of feeding dogs nothing but raw food, without a full awareness of the facts.
Kristina Johansen, whose company, Elmo’s Kitchen, specialises in creating diet plans for dogs, is concerned with the amount of blind faith given to raw food diets without a complete understanding of the science behind them.
Kristina is not against feeding dogs raw food, nor does she want to frighten people away from them.
However, she believes we need to sort nutritional facts from fiction to be able to make the best dietary decisions.
The most frequently used argument in support of raw food is that is that it closely resembles the diet that dog’s ancestors, wolves, would have eaten.
However, Kristina is unconvinced about this. Science shows us that dogs are dogs, not wolves. The changes in living environment, social relationship and diet that went along with domestication has led to irrefutable changes in dogs.
The dog has been domesticated for 10,000 – 15,000 years and they have been eating cooked human leftovers for the vast majority of time.
Kristina said: “Saying a poodle should eat raw food because that’s what wolves ate, is the same as saying that I should eat solely what chimpanzees ate.
“Yes, in the wild, canines will eat raw food, but the vast majority of dogs are domesticated and can survive just as well on a cooked diet.
“I also have difficulty with the claims that raw food is somehow more ‘natural’. Just because something is more natural doesn’t mean it is good. It is natural for a dog to have fleas but I don’t know any owner who would think that a good thing.”
According to Kristina, many of the health benefits claimed by raw feeders such as better weight control, longer life span, more energy and better oral health are anecdotal and have scientifically neither been proved or disproved.
Nevertheless, raw feeding can lead to bone compaction, choking, perforated GI tract and broken teeth. Even though these may be rare occurrences, they are a risk owners do not want to take.
Kristina added: “Raw feeders tend not to be concerned with the specific amounts of minerals and vitamins that a raw dog food contains as their philosophy promotes a balance of nutrients over time.
“My diets are always balanced to meet the National Research Council (NRC) recommended allowances. I am not a fan of diets that show no or very little nutritional values.
“Nutritional deficiencies can take years to show up but be irreversible when they do, so don’t be fooled just because a diet appears to be working.”
Kristina’s largest concern with raw diets is food-borne illnesses. Salmonella and E.Coli are only two of the many bacteria in raw foods. Some raw feeders claim that the bacteria are not harmful to dogs but the fact is that dogs can become ill from such bacteria.
She said: “Most do not become clinically diseased, but some do and could pose a threat to other animals, including their own puppies or humans. Some raw pet food manufacturers have started using high-pressure pasteurisation (HPP) to destroy bad bacteria. However, HPP also destroys all the friendly bacteria that prevent bad bacteria from multiplying.
“Once these friendly bacteria are destroyed during HPP, there is nothing to keep the bad bacteria from growing out of control if the raw food is re-contaminated during manufacturing or customer handling.”
For Kristina, the debate needs to move away from emotional arguments and become based on the facts.
She said: “The raw versus cooked food debate has become a faith based discussion rather than one centered on science. If we neglect science the only loser will be the dog.”
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