Domestication of Dogs and Raw Food Nutrition
Sent on July 1, 2018
Domestication of Dogs and Raw Food Nutrition
On a scale between 1 and 10, with 10 being – “It couldn’t get any better”, how would you rate your relationship with your pet?
Did you rate that relationship based on dependability, trust, love, companionship, or maybe something else? Okay, now hold that thought…
Did you know that relationships between dog and man developed over 30,000 years ago and there is some evidence that the relationship started between man and wolf?
When you think about it, it’s interesting to think about our mutual, beneficial relationship with our animals and it all started out as man used their dogs’ sense of smell, good alarm system and hunting ability, while man provided food and a home for their dog(s).
Win-win, right?
Of course, over the years, our relationships with our animals has evolved in some ways, thinking back to how you may have rated your relationship personally, but it is most definitely still mutually beneficial.
So let’s jump into behaviors and traits as those concepts largely impacted the domestication of dogs. Man works with the behaviors and traits that the animal already possesses and can strengthen those traits but cannot teach them beyond their normal genetic makeup. For example, say I had a Black Labrador and wanted Chocolate puppies. Coat inheritance is a trait that the animal already possesses and can be breed based on appearance and knowledge of gene dominance.
We can also breed to exaggerate current behaviors or traits that our animals are already programed for. Another example would be, breeding based on strong hunting skills or robust sense of smell.
But when we talk about nutrition, generically, dogs are still wolves as they have the same digestion and metabolic pathways as their ancestors. Biologist, Robert Wayne, looked at DNA of 7 breeds of dogs and 26 grey wolf populations around the world and found that the genotype was identical with only one or two restriction sites. The modern dog’s entire DNA sequence only differs from the wolf by 0.2%.
So raw feeding is about feeding a dog as close to our Creator's model as possible. On average, a dog will consume around 2% of their ideal weight. Puppies will need more, senior dogs less.
Remember the basic guidelines for raw feeding a canine:
- At least 80% of a raw diet should consist of muscle meat.
- 10% diet edible bone
- 10% of the diet secreting organs [liver, kidney, spleen, etc.] with 5% of the organs being liver.
Follow safe handling practices just the same as you do when preparing meat for your family.
- Fridge time: 2-3 days
- Freezer time: If a freezer stays at 0 F or lower, meats will keep for 1 year minimum.
- Defrosting: Do not defrost frozen meat and poultry products at room temperature. Keeping the products cold during defrosting is the key to preventing bacteria from growing.
- Thaw in fridge. I find it is easier to open the chub bags while frozen by cutting down the side and putting the frozen meat in a bowl to thaw. You want to feed the blood as well.
- To defrost meat or poultry products in cold water, do not remove original packaging. Be sure the package is airtight or put it into a leak-proof bag before submerging the product completely in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes so that it continues to defrost.
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