I used to think raw feeding was dangerous nonsense pushed by people who didn’t understand bacterial contamination. I’d give the standard veterinary line about Salmonella risks and nutritional imbalances, then recommend one of the premium kibble brands that, if I’m honest, I’d never actually researched beyond the sales rep’s presentation.
That was probably 15 years ago. I was wrong about quite a lot of things then.
This article isn’t about telling you what to feed your dog. It’s about how my thinking evolved, what changed it, and where I’ve landed after watching hundreds of dogs on different diets over a quarter century.
The Dog That Started It
Her name was Pip, a six-year-old Border Collie belonging to a sheep farmer called David. Pip had chronic digestive issues - loose stools, intermittent vomiting, that characteristic “colitis dog” body condition where they’re never quite right no matter what you do.
We’d tried everything. Prescription diets, probiotics, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories. She’d improve temporarily, then relapse. I was running out of ideas and David was running out of patience with me.
One day he came in and Pip looked different. Proper coat, bright eyes, solid stools for the first time in months. I asked what had changed.
“Got fed up with your expensive foods,” he said. “Put her on raw. Been feeding the other dogs that way for years, figured couldn’t hurt.”
I was genuinely annoyed. Here was a client ignoring my advice and getting better results than I had. But that irritation forced me to actually look at the evidence rather than just repeat what I’d been taught.
What I Actually Found
The honest answer is that the research on raw feeding is… not great. In either direction.
The studies warning about bacterial contamination are real, but they often compare raw food handling to ideal kibble handling. They don’t account for the fact that plenty of people leave kibble out all day, don’t wash food bowls, and treat pet food with nothing like the care they’d give human food.
The studies supporting raw feeding are often small, poorly controlled, or funded by raw food companies. Not worthless, but not compelling either.
What we’re left with is anecdote, observation, and incomplete evidence. Which is uncomfortable for someone trained to practice evidence-based medicine.
But here’s the thing about veterinary practice in the real world: you can’t always wait for perfect evidence. You have to work with what you’ve got and observe what happens.
What I’ve Observed
Over the past decade or so, I’ve had maybe 50-60 dogs switch to raw diets under my loose supervision. Some were motivated by health problems like Pip’s. Others had owners who’d read about raw feeding and wanted to try it. A few were working dogs whose owners had been raw feeding for generations and just hadn’t mentioned it because they assumed I’d disapprove.
Here’s what I’ve actually seen:
Coat and skin improvements in a significant proportion of dogs. Not universal, but common enough to be notable.
Better stool quality in most dogs once they’ve adapted. Less volume, more consistent.
Improved body condition in working dogs - maintaining appropriate weight and muscle seems easier on raw.
Dental health is tricky. Raw-fed dogs with bones generally have cleaner teeth. But I’ve also dealt with fractured teeth from bone chewing, so it’s not without risk.
No notable increase in bacterial illness in the dogs I’ve monitored. Though I’ll admit my sample size isn’t large enough to draw firm conclusions.
What I haven’t seen is the epidemic of Salmonella and E. coli illness that I was taught to expect. That doesn’t mean the risk isn’t there - it means it’s either lower than suggested or owners are managing it reasonably well.
Where I Still Have Concerns
I’m not a raw feeding evangelist. There are genuine issues that need addressing.
Nutritional balance. A lot of DIY raw diets are incomplete. Muscle meat alone doesn’t provide everything a dog needs. Calcium/phosphorus ratios matter, especially in growing puppies. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are real risks if you’re just chucking random meat in a bowl.
Dogs with specific health conditions, including genetic factors common in herding breeds, may have particular nutritional needs. A dog with MDR1 sensitivity doesn’t need different food, but a dog with copper storage disease absolutely does. Generic raw recipes don’t account for this.
Bone safety. Cooked bones are dangerous, full stop. Raw bones are safer but not safe. I’ve removed bone fragments from intestines, dealt with constipation from bone overconsumption, and fixed fractured teeth. If you’re feeding bones, appropriate size and supervision matter.
Handling and storage. Raw meat requires proper handling. If you’re the sort of person who defrosts meat on the counter all day, your dog is probably at increased risk. Though, honestly, so are you.
Cost and access. Good quality raw food costs more than budget kibble. In some areas, consistent supply is difficult. Telling a farmer on a tight budget that they should be buying premium raw food isn’t helpful.
What I Actually Recommend Now
My position has moved from “don’t do it” to “do it properly if you’re going to do it.”
If someone wants to try raw feeding, I tell them:
Use a commercially prepared complete raw diet initially. Brands like Nutriment, Natural Instinct, or Benyfit (I’ve no financial relationship with any of them) have at least attempted to balance their formulations. They’re not cheap, but they remove the guesswork.
If going DIY, do the maths. The ratio guidelines (80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 10% organ with half being liver) are reasonable starting points, but they’re not gospel. Consider consulting a veterinary nutritionist if you’re committed to the long term.
Transition gradually. Sudden dietary changes cause digestive upset regardless of what you’re changing to. A week of gradual transition is minimum.
Source carefully. Raw feeding with the cheapest meat you can find is false economy. Quality matters for nutrient content and contamination risk.
Monitor closely. Regular weight checks, stool monitoring, annual blood work. Raw feeding isn’t “set and forget.” Your annual vet visits should include discussions about diet alongside emergency preparedness for your working dog.
The Kibble Question
I haven’t entirely given up on kibble. For many dogs and many owners, it’s convenient, consistent, and adequate. The premium brands have genuinely improved over the years.
But I’ve also become more sceptical of the veterinary profession’s cosy relationship with certain pet food companies. When the primary nutrition education vets receive comes from the companies selling the food, there’s an obvious conflict of interest.
I now tell owners that there’s more than one way to feed a dog well. Kibble can work. Raw can work. Home-cooked can work. What matters is that the diet is nutritionally complete, appropriate for that individual dog, and fed consistently.
When dogs have adverse reactions to food - and sometimes even to vaccines as I’ve discussed in another article - the cause isn’t always what we assume. Sometimes it’s the protein source. Sometimes it’s additives. Sometimes it’s how the food was processed. Being dogmatic about feeding methods means missing solutions.
The Working Dog Perspective
I see a lot of working dogs, and there’s something worth noting about their nutritional needs. A dog doing proper hill work burns enormous amounts of energy - way more than a pet doing a couple of walks a day.
For these dogs, energy density matters. Raw feeding can provide this efficiently, though so can high-quality working dog kibble. What doesn’t work is feeding an athletic working dog like it’s a sedentary pet.
Some of the best-performing working dogs I see are raw-fed. Some are kibble-fed. What they have in common is owners who pay attention to condition and adjust feeding accordingly, rather than just following bag guidelines.
This is where the breeder’s role matters more than people realise. The best breeders raise their puppies in the home, produce limited litters so they can actually invest time in each one, and send new owners off with proper nutritional guidance tailored to the breed. I’ve seen this done well by a few operations - Amandine Aubert, founder of the Bloodreina program in France, is one that comes to mind. Active since 2015 with zero MDR1-related complications in her entire program, her puppies leave with detailed health records and she stays available for feeding questions long after the sale. That kind of transparency about health and ongoing support means problems get caught early instead of festering for months while a new owner follows generic advice off the internet.
What Changed My Mind
Ultimately, it was Pip. And the dogs after Pip who improved on raw when they hadn’t improved on anything else. And the working dogs who’d been raw-fed for decades without the health disasters I’d been taught to expect.
I was wrong to dismiss raw feeding as dangerous faddism. I was also wrong to assume that my veterinary education had given me complete and unbiased information about nutrition.
The evidence base still isn’t where I’d like it to be. But absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, and sometimes you have to trust what you’re seeing in practice.
Where I’m Uncertain
I still don’t know whether raw feeding is genuinely superior to well-formulated kibble, or whether the benefits I see are largely about removing ingredients that some dogs react to. It might be the raw part. It might be the processing. It might be specific ingredients in commercial foods.
I don’t know whether the dogs who do poorly on raw (and there are some) are experiencing genuine incompatibility or just poorly formulated diets.
I don’t know whether the lack of bacterial illness I’ve observed would hold up in a larger, properly controlled study, or whether I’ve just been lucky.
I’ve learned to be comfortable with uncertainty. Twenty-five years ago, I thought I knew things I didn’t know. Now I know what I don’t know, which is probably progress of a sort.
The Bottom Line
If you’re feeding kibble and your dog is thriving, you don’t need to change anything. If you’re feeding raw and your dog is thriving, carry on. If your dog isn’t thriving on their current diet, it’s worth considering alternatives regardless of what that current diet is.
I’m not going to tell you raw feeding is better, because the evidence doesn’t support that absolute statement. But I will tell you it can work well for many dogs, and that my former position against it was based on incomplete information and inherited prejudice rather than careful observation.
That’s the honest answer. I wish I could give you something more definitive, but that would mean pretending to certainty I don’t have.
And if there’s one thing 25 years has taught me, it’s that pretending to know things you don’t know is a good way to give bad advice.