Raw & Home-Cooked Pet Food: Pros & Cons

• The notes cover the pros and cons of raw and home-cooked diets, reasons owners choose these diets, health risks, ways manufacturers reduce bacterial contamination in raw food, monitoring pets on alternative diets, compliance and nutritional adequacy concerns with home-cooked diets, and methods for detailed diet analysis.

Home-cooked diets

• High digestibility
• Nutrient customization
• Useful for managing health concerns
• Provides more control over ingredients
• Time-consuming
• More expensive
• May have nutritional inadequacies
• Owners may not comply with recipes over time

Raw diets

• May be more digestible
• May lack essential vitamins and minerals
• Balance over time is important (BARF diet)
• Can be commercial
• Increased fat and protein content
• Increased palatability
• Limited ingredients
• Fewer additives

Reasons for Choosing Home-Cooked Diets

• Aligning pet food choices with personal beliefs
• Belief that home-cooked food is healthier, more organic, and free-range
• Desire to avoid processed foods
• Distrust of commercial pet food due to recalls, etc.
• Misunderstandings about pet food
• Use or avoidance of certain ingredients
• Pet likes/dislikes
• Lack of availability of appropriate therapeutic diets

Potential Health Risks of Raw Diets

• Pathogen contamination if not handled correctly
• Raw food on dog food is equivalent to raw diet
• Types of pathogens include Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, Campylobacter, Mycobacterium bovis, and Toxoplasmosis
• Service dogs may spread pathogens to the public
• Liability if human disease occurs due to contaminated pet food
• High fat content can cause GI upset
• Dental fractures can occur
• Clinical hyperthyroidism
• Can be deficient in vitamins and minerals
• Contamination poses risks to human health
• Risks outweigh the rewards

Reducing Bacterial Contamination in Raw Food

• Methods include irradiation and high-pressure processing
• Irradiation may cause neurological disease in cats

Monitoring Pets on Alternative Diets

• Screen for nutritional diseases through lab work twice a year
• Perform additional tests if deficiency is suspected
• Check for diet drift
• Conduct physical exams
• Adjust calorie intake based on body weight condition
• Update recipes every 1-2 years

Concerns with Home-Cooked Diets

• Nutritional inadequacies because recipes are often not formulated by veterinary nutritionists
• Recipes may have nutrient excesses or deficiencies
• Many recipes are not balanced, even if they claim to be
• A board-certified nutritionist should formulate recipes
• Diet drift occurs when recipes are altered over time, knowingly or in error

Nutritional Adequacy Checklist

• The recipe should be clear, replicable, and without variation
• Include an animal protein source
• Include a fat source/essential fatty acid source (can be the same ingredient)
• Supplement with a calcium source (most common deficiency)
• Use multiple human supplements or pet supplements designed for home-cooked foods to ensure essential vitamin and mineral intake

Detailed Diet Analysis

• Computer analysis can be done by a board-certified nutritionist and is cheaper and quicker
• Chemical analysis involves sending the diet to a lab, is expensive, and rarely used

Additional Notes on Raw Diets

• BARF stands for biologically appropriate raw foods
• Vulnerable populations (YOPI: young, old, pregnant, immunocompromised) are at higher risk
• More commonly recalled than other diets
• Pets are not immune to bacteria; growing, gestating, or sick pets are at higher risk
• Service animals interact with the public, so contamination risk must be avoided
• Veterinarians have liability: counsel clients on risks and infection control

DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act)

• There is no requirement for safety or efficacy data prior to marketing supplements
• Supplements cannot be marketed for purposes of "treating, diagnosing, preventing, or curing diseases."
• Manufacturers must follow Good Manufacturing Practice and ensure accurate labeling
• Requires adverse events to be reported
• Technically it does not apply to pet supplements

Fatty Acid Metabolism

• n3 and n6 fatty acids cannot be interconverted
• Animals cannot create these de novo
• Obtained from diet or elongated from precursors

Omega 6 Fatty Acids

• Linoleic acid (18:2 n-6) is found in plant oils
• Linoleic acid is a precursor to arachidonic acid
• Arachidonic acid (20:4, n-6) is not found in plants and is essential for cats
• Arachidonic acid is a precursor for eicosanoids, part of the inflammation pathway

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

• Common sources include fish oil (DHA, EPA) and flax, hemp, chia
• Can incorporate into the diet or as a supplement
• DHA is beneficial for gestation, growth, and brain development
• The dose in the diet and in supplements should be evaluated