The Veggie Meal (Part 1)
13/04/09 19:33
I am often asked about veggie meals for dogs. Should dogs eat veggies? Do dogs need veggies?
Lets start with a definitive - Maybe!
When Dr. Billinghurst broke onto the raw feeding scene back in the eighties, he was the dietary guru that many based their feeding plans on. He recommended high percentages of RMB’s (Raw Meaty Bones), relatively high levels of veggies and fruits, to be served pulped/pulverized, moderate amounts of organs (offal)and grains and specific recommendations for vitamin supplements. I have spoken with him via email several times, he seems a jovial sort, willing to help and advise based on his experience.
His dietary guidelines certainly allowed me to completely change the way I fed my animals, but at the time it seemed hard to keep up with some of the specific demands. One of those was the “veggie meal”. I remember shopping carefully for leafy greens, plump summer squash, fruits and herbs. Then I would haul home the bounty and begin to wash, sort, chop and separate it ready to put it all through the juicer. I would then spend probably an hour juicing and combining fruits and veggies until I felt I had created something my dogs would appreciate. I would carefully re-mix the veggie pulp and the juice, then pour a cup or so into each of my Great Dane’s bowls, and then portion the rest into plastic tubs to freeze for the next weeks “veggie meal”.
I found that most of the time they ate the veggies, occasionally I made a particularly fabulous batch and they seemed to really enjoy them. I also made some stinkers that they refused to eat without adding offal/organs or meat to it to make it worthy of their attention. One time, I really made a mistake and added too much broccoli, which, alone was bad enough but when I added several raw eggs to make it palatable, compounded the situation. Poor Sarah, who was at the time a toddler and directly in the “line of fire” still talks about “the time you fed the dogs broccoli and eggs and they had THAT gas” - the poor child will be forever scarred by the experience - and multiple Danes with gas definitely qualifies as an experience!
As with any trend, over time some of the “BARFers” (Bones and Raw Food) began to splinter off into another camp and they became the “Prey Model Feeders” who’s cause was championed by another Aussie vet, Dr. Tom Lonsdale. The prey model feeders were a more aggressive, often more strident crowd that poo-pooed the ideas of Billinghurst specifically and seemed certain that Prey Model was the Holy Grail of raw feeding. The biggest difference (other than the more abrasive and confrontational tone) was reduced bone, more muscle, the need to fast your dog and adamantly NO VEGGIES! In fact, this crowd was quite convinced that if you fed veggies or fruits to your dogs or anything less than a moose in the back yard for them to scavange over time, you would more than likely burn in hell for eternity. This led to some interesting “exchanges” on various forums and sadly, a lot less discussion. The raw feeding community appeared to be split pretty much between the two camps with newcomers more confused than ever by the contrary opinions and opposing feeding styles.
As someone who “wants to KNOW” the answers, I decided to attend a seminar about wolves, hosted by Dr. David Mech several years ago. The flier had bulletin points about the items that would be discussed and promised boundless information about what a pregnant dog should eat, what the pups would eat, how prey was consumed and which parts were favored all based on the studies of Dr Mech based on wolves, and there, on that list was “do wolves eat veggies?”. Finally, my chance to know. I’ll go more into what happened at that seminar in my next post.
Lets start with a definitive - Maybe!
When Dr. Billinghurst broke onto the raw feeding scene back in the eighties, he was the dietary guru that many based their feeding plans on. He recommended high percentages of RMB’s (Raw Meaty Bones), relatively high levels of veggies and fruits, to be served pulped/pulverized, moderate amounts of organs (offal)and grains and specific recommendations for vitamin supplements. I have spoken with him via email several times, he seems a jovial sort, willing to help and advise based on his experience.
His dietary guidelines certainly allowed me to completely change the way I fed my animals, but at the time it seemed hard to keep up with some of the specific demands. One of those was the “veggie meal”. I remember shopping carefully for leafy greens, plump summer squash, fruits and herbs. Then I would haul home the bounty and begin to wash, sort, chop and separate it ready to put it all through the juicer. I would then spend probably an hour juicing and combining fruits and veggies until I felt I had created something my dogs would appreciate. I would carefully re-mix the veggie pulp and the juice, then pour a cup or so into each of my Great Dane’s bowls, and then portion the rest into plastic tubs to freeze for the next weeks “veggie meal”.
I found that most of the time they ate the veggies, occasionally I made a particularly fabulous batch and they seemed to really enjoy them. I also made some stinkers that they refused to eat without adding offal/organs or meat to it to make it worthy of their attention. One time, I really made a mistake and added too much broccoli, which, alone was bad enough but when I added several raw eggs to make it palatable, compounded the situation. Poor Sarah, who was at the time a toddler and directly in the “line of fire” still talks about “the time you fed the dogs broccoli and eggs and they had THAT gas” - the poor child will be forever scarred by the experience - and multiple Danes with gas definitely qualifies as an experience!
As with any trend, over time some of the “BARFers” (Bones and Raw Food) began to splinter off into another camp and they became the “Prey Model Feeders” who’s cause was championed by another Aussie vet, Dr. Tom Lonsdale. The prey model feeders were a more aggressive, often more strident crowd that poo-pooed the ideas of Billinghurst specifically and seemed certain that Prey Model was the Holy Grail of raw feeding. The biggest difference (other than the more abrasive and confrontational tone) was reduced bone, more muscle, the need to fast your dog and adamantly NO VEGGIES! In fact, this crowd was quite convinced that if you fed veggies or fruits to your dogs or anything less than a moose in the back yard for them to scavange over time, you would more than likely burn in hell for eternity. This led to some interesting “exchanges” on various forums and sadly, a lot less discussion. The raw feeding community appeared to be split pretty much between the two camps with newcomers more confused than ever by the contrary opinions and opposing feeding styles.
As someone who “wants to KNOW” the answers, I decided to attend a seminar about wolves, hosted by Dr. David Mech several years ago. The flier had bulletin points about the items that would be discussed and promised boundless information about what a pregnant dog should eat, what the pups would eat, how prey was consumed and which parts were favored all based on the studies of Dr Mech based on wolves, and there, on that list was “do wolves eat veggies?”. Finally, my chance to know. I’ll go more into what happened at that seminar in my next post.