Barf diet.

Sometimes a person will find an amazing fact, and use it to jump to amazing conclusions.

Sometimes the jump to conclusions is more like transporting into solid rock.

People have made both good and bad out of the study of Pottenger's cats.

I found the link on wikipedia, while searching about the barf diet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_M._Pottenger,_Jr.
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding#Pottenger.27s_cats

I understand that there is a book on it, but I have not read it.

I have heard lots of people talk about the barf diet - unlike what wikipedia says, I was told it stood for "Bones And Raw Foods" - but wikipedia is probably right.

The 'information' gleaned by some breeders from reading about this is that raw meat and raw foods are good and cooked foods are bad. Which then begs the question of why people have been cooking meat since ancient times?

History buffs, is there a recorded time, when people ate their meat raw?

Cooking kill germs. Pasteurizing milk helped end terrible diseases. You don't want to even think about eating raw pork.

On the other side of the coin, cooking does denature (kill or mess up) some proteins and nutrients.

Your body, and that of your animals, SHOULD be able to extract the nutrition that it needs from a variety of sources, including cooked foods.

But "should" is often just another word for "wasn't, didn't, can't".

We have grown crops that are bigger, more plump with starch or sugar, and who yield more per acre - but we have not increased nutrition, and have sometimes decreased nutrition of crops.

We have depleted soils, then 'replenished' them with chemicals that might lack nutrients, especially those not yet named, and those that MOST people or animals don't need.

If you read the links above, you will know that Pottenger removed the adrenal glands of cats.

Normally, such cats would die. But he got too many cats, and so did not bother to cook the food for some of the cats - and those cats did better. The raw food fad was born.

Does it have merit? Yes.
Can it be dangerous or deadly? Yes.

From Pottenger's findings, what would I conclude?
If your cat has had it's adrenal glands cut out, feed it raw meat and raw milk.

(And from common sense, don't exhaust a female cat without adrenal glands, by letting her get pregnant!)

His study has helped people with adrenal disease.

But, it has allowed purebred dogs, who would have normally died before being old enough to mate, to live, and pass their mutations to the next generation.

This is NOT to say, that the generation of dogs with ill health thrived, or lived more than a few years - just that they lived long enough to multiply their problem.

Would I buy a puppy from a breeder who fed her dogs raw foods? NO!

While some people worry about a dog that is eating raw meat, passing on bacteria to people, my bigger worry would be:

If the breeder sees that her dogs are healthier on raw meat, than what they were on dry dog food - then isn't she saying that there is something wrong with her dogs that they can't thrive on dog food like other dogs do?

If you or your dog are sickly, then yes, find help finding a diet which helps you thrive.

But I would not encourage someone to breed dogs that can not live on dog food.