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One thing I love about raw feeding communities is the wealth of knowledge that a group of pet parents
Why I Add Supplements to Raw Dog Food
Like many raw feeders, I add supplements because I want to make sure my dogs get all of the nutrients they need in their diet. Despite the many raw feeders who have assured me that my dogs will get what they need from the meat, bone, and organs in their diet – I wasn't convinced.
We have a supplement industry that is doing it's best to convince me that I need to buy their products. However, seeing so many dogs thriving without a 1/4 cup mixture of various supplements added to their meals has made me question the myth that supplements are a requirement in a raw food diet.
A Common Mistake Raw Feeders Make
My list of supplements when I began raw feeding was redonkulous. My boyfriend compared our kitchen to a mad scientist's lab as I added a scoop of this and a pinch of that to feed my dogs the best diet on the planet. I threw the kitchen sink at my dogs. Every time someone mentioned or recommended a supplement, I was placing an Amazon order.
And if one of the leaders in the raw feeding community made a recommendation – forget about it. I didn't need to know why; I just needed to know that they said it was good and I was stocking up on a supplement my dogs may not have needed.
Things have changed a lot as I've grown as a raw feeding. I can thank the leaders who inspire us to do our homework, my love of reading, and responsibility as a blogger – no one is going to read a blog post that says “add this supplement because someone on Facebook said it's good.”
CLICK HERE to see a full list of supplements that I currently add to my dogs' diet and the benefits.
5 Whole Food Supplements for Raw Fed Dogs
When I was new to raw feeding, I received a lot of advice on what supplements my dogs need in their raw food diet, including the following. What I didn't realize was that many of these supplements are already a part of our dogs' raw diet.
- Fish oil
- Joint supplement
- Digestive supplement
- Multivitamin
- Iodine
I've been feeding raw for more than four years, and I feel like a dolt that I've just figured out that I don't need to buy a ton of supplements to give my dogs a healthy diet and meet any health needs. This year, I made the following changes, none of the dogs suffered, and I saved a lot of time and money.
Alternative to Fish Oil for Dogs
I add fish oil to my dogs' diet to offset the Omega 6s in the meat I feed with a healthy dose of Omega 3s, to support joint and immune system health, skin and coat health, and heart health. Our dogs receive the same benefits from canned sardines.
There was a time when the only fresh sardines I could order came in a
My dogs get a whole sardine each or another source of Omega 3 fatty acids nearly 5 days each week. I alternate between the
Alternative to Joint Supplement for Dogs
I began added a joint supplement to my dogs' diet when Rodrigo and Sydney developed arthritis at an early age. I always thought that dogs eventually needed a joint supplement because their system would stop naturally producing glucosamine. What I didn't know was that an unhealthy system could also lead to the need for joint support. Sydney needed a boost to her liver health, and Rodrigo needed pancreas support – once my dogs got what they needed, I no longer needed a joint supplement.
Today, my dogs receive joint support through diet:
Duck feet are a natural source of chondroitin, which helps to naturally rebuild cartilage and repair tissue damage after activity or injury.
Beef trachea is a natural source of glucosamine (and chondroitin), which helps build cartilage around the joints to support the joints.
Bone broth made from joint bones also provides a natural source of glucosamine and chondroitin. The best bones are duck feet or chicken feet.
Turmeric Paste and Green Lipped Mussel (fresh or powder) both work to reduce inflammation; turmeric paste also help with pain.
If you find that the above doesn't offer enough support (for a senior dog, for example), I've had great success with the following:
Alternative to Digestive Supplement for Dogs
Because of Rodrigo's history of gut issues, I became convinced that all dogs need a digestive supplement. That changed last year when I met Robert Mueller of BARF World and read his book Living Enzymes. All a healthy dog needs is raw dog food – the living enzymes in that food combined with the enzymes naturally occurring in a dog's digestive system will be enough.
While Rodrigo will require a pancreas supplement for the rest of his life because of his EPI-like condition, he will also do well on fresh, raw pancreas. My other dogs no longer receive a digestive supplement. Instead, they get…
- raw goat's milk or kefir sourced from a local farm or Answers Pet Food
- fermented fish stock sourced from Answers Pet Food
Feeding Whole Raw Instead of Ground
Feeding a dog a whole, raw diet instead of ground gives a dog's digestive system time to get primed and ready to get to work. When a dog eats a 100% ground diet, they eat too fast for their digestive system. I'm not talking about gulping, although that's a risk too, I'm saying that when our dogs' gut isn't ready to process the food being consumed, our dogs stay hungry until the gut kicks into gear. This increases the risk of overfeeding as we add more food to our “hungry” dog's dish. Who can resist those puppy eyes?
This week, I added whole duck carcass to my dogs' diet partly to give them something new to eat and partly to test out this theory I've learned from other raw feeders.
So far, so good.
Alternative to Multivitamins for Dogs
One question that comes up a lot in raw feeding groups is “what multivitamin does my dog need?” What we forget is that while dogs may need a multivitamin when fed a kibble diet, they don't need it with a raw food diet – they get all of their vitamins from their food.
Instead of giving my dogs a multivitamin, I add a raw egg to their diet. Raw eggs are a superfood. Someone explained that an egg is an incubation chamber for a chick. Therefore, it has to have loads of nutrients for the chick to grow. That made perfect sense and I chucked the multivitamins (basically, most of my supplements) and began adding a raw egg to my dogs' meals every other day.
I prefer to get eggs from local farms (or bum them from friends). The difference between fresh farm eggs and grocery store eggs is astounding.
- Farm fresh eggs are twice the size of grocery store eggs.
- The yolk of fresh farm eggs is a gorgeous yellow while the grocery store eggs are a pale yellow.
- I can feed my dogs the shells of fresh farm eggs because they haven't been washed with chemicals.
Alternatives to Iodine for Dogs
And finally, one of the scary conversations that kept repeating for me is “are you adding iodine to your dog's diet?” What????? Why do I need to add iodine? Isn't that for wounds? Should dogs be eating iodine? Around this time, I shut down in raw feeding groups and stop asking questions, afraid of how complicated raw feeding was becoming.
What people didn't explain was that iodine is great for thyroid health and my dogs were already getting it in their diet through the eggs, sea vegetables (I add ocean kelp), and fish. Without enough iodine in the system, our dogs will experience…
- hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism
- hair loss
- low energy
- health issues due to an unhealthy thyroid
- restlessness and anxiety
- heart issues
- lung issues
- non-cancerous breast lumps
My dogs get Life Line organic ocean kelp in their meals. I small amount gives them the amount needed to support a healthy thyroid system.
Choosing the Right Supplement for Your Dog
When it comes to choosing the right supplements to add to your dog's raw diet, I have three pieces of advice to share:
1 – Don't supplement right away; allow your dog to transition to raw without the added ingredients. Unless you're working with a veterinarian or nutritionist experienced in raw feeding and the supplement is recommended for your dog's specific and not just some product they're pimping.
2 – Be wary of adding supplements recommended by strangers. Raw feeding groups are filled with a lot of experience. Always keep in mind that no matter how many years of experience these well meaning dog lovers have – they have zero experience with your dog. File away their advice while you do your research; this will provide you with a complete understanding of the benefits of various supplements.
3 – Supplement based on your dogs' needs. When fed a balanced raw diet, a healthy dog needs very few supplements; all of their nutritional needs are met on a balanced and varied diet of raw dog food. Feeding too many supplements can be harmless, it can result in a vitamin toxicity (with fat soluble vitamins), or different nutrients can cancel each other out (like apple cider vinegar and raw goat milk).
Hi Merry…
Great timing. I’ve been reading up on kelp in a dog’s diet because I began to wonder if it’s really necessary. Kelp is a great source of iodine, but so are eggs and dairy. My dogs get eggs several days a week, so to avoid over-supplementing them, I’ve cut out the iodine. Long story short, feed raw eggs too. The iodine is in the yolk. 🙂
Hello, Kimberly,
I came here to see your take on kelp in a raw diet. My girl, Willow, and I are navigating the waters and I thought things were going well for the last 10 months. Then we got a diagnosis of arthritis in both knees and displaysia in left hip. I read your articles on your pups and their joint problems and purchased SystemSaver to see if it helps her move without so much discomfort. BUT why I came here now was because I just found Willow’s food sensitivity test from a few years back and noticed that kelp was a big no. Back then I didn’t give it any notice because of a deficient kibble diet. I’ve been giving her kelp powder and now I don’t know what to substitute it with! I also can’t give her oysters so I hide a zinc pill in soft cheese to get that down her. I also have to hide her SystemSaver’s in cheese. Gosh. She used to spit out the pills and eat the cheese until I melted the cheese a bit and can now hide them in a soft “pill pocket”. BUT WHAT DO I DO ABOUT THE KELP? Thank you so much for reading this!
Responding on the blog for others following the discussion:
I had someone help me create a nutrient spreadsheet to help me understand what my dogs need in their diet. You can also use an app or software program. Two programs I know are Pet Diet Designer and Animal Diet Formulator. There are several apps, just look for raw feeding in your phone’s app store.
Here is a blog post I wrote about balancing my dogs’ diet:
https://keepthetailwagging.com/nutrients-in-raw-dog-food/
My 2 dogs are small (12.5 lbs each) and one is diabetic. I only started feeding raw a couple months ago so I’m just in the thick of figuring out the supplements. I got a meat grinder so I could get whole birds with bones for them and make a month of meals at a time. I also serve sardines several times a week and include eggs in their food recipe. I do add some veggies with it and as snacks through the day. What resources would you suggest in terms of figuring out what amounts of vitamins to offer. I don’t know where to look since it seems most things are designed for bigger dogs.
Thanks!!!
I’m not familiar with her vitamin mix. You can still get her book on Amazon. If there isn’t print available, you can get the Kindle version. I just looked online and you can get a copy of the hardback here: https://amzn.to/2Gii8lv
Hi Kimberley,
Can you perhaps tell me what type of salt and how much of it Dr Karen Becker is using in her Vitamin Mix? It is not clear to me.
Many thanks,
Poppie Oosthuizen from South Africa
I understand her book is out of print.
Raw dog food doesn’t provide everything my dogs need; I found that out when I started looking into the nutrients my dogs need and what I was providing. If I were to stick with where I started, my dogs would have lost out on a lot. Today, I track everything in a nutrient spreadsheet. The whole food supplements are for the things each of my individual dogs needs because of health issues.
Rodrigo has digestive issues due to being on antibiotics several times before I switched him to raw (and got a new vet). So he gets more probiotics and digestive enzymes than my other dogs.
Sydney has joint issues so she gets golden paste and a joint supplement that supports her ligaments.
I don’t think that allowing my dogs to kill their own prey is safe or humane. My dogs are domestic pets so I don’t trust that they’ll know how to catch and kill their own food, nor do they have an opportunity. I’m sure not going to do that to live animals.
If you’re looking for resources on raw feeding, I created a page on my website that will give you a lot to look at and you can determine what’s right for you: https://keepthetailwagging.com/my-top-raw-feeding-resources/
Hello to all! I just started a raw diet again. The first was darwins. It worked for about 5 meals then they refused it. I now realize it was my fault by not forcing it. Now I’ve went with bravos freeze dried turkey and it has worked for 1 meal. I tried it dry and he ate it this time but I don’t know if it will keep working this way yet. My question is if raw provides all they need then why do you supplement with anything else at all? I understand that buying the commercial whole prey raw may not have the organs/skin/feathers and such but what about buying the prey live myself and offering that? It seems to me that it would then truly be as in wild. I would think they would eat the parts that they instinctively know they need. I’m just confused with all the tremendous amounts of information out there. So much contradictions. If they not only survive but thrive in the wild on their own then how can it be wrong? I’ve spent months researching and am at the point of just being tired of it now. Everyone has their own opinions and although most are very similar, there are still many differences. Please help me put something into perspective.
so how did the whole duck thing go? did it have everything in tacked feathers guts etc.. or was it moslty just the frame. i curious cause i thought about trying whole quail but nervous to try . the only whole prey i have fed is herring. i have fed parts ears feet necks bone hearts. along with grinds
That sounds wonderful! Your dog is so lucky!
My 12yo lab has a pancreatic tumor so my vet recommended “Golden Paste” Its made up of Organic Turmeric, Organic Ground Black Pepper, and Organic Cold Pressed Coconut Oil. My dog didn’t love it… so I heat a 1/4 cup of Bone Broth in a sauce pan and dissolve the golden paste in it. Then pour it over the Raw in his bowl. He loves it.
Hi Katie – I found it complicated to supplement iodine and feel comfortable that I’m not adding enough or that I’m adding too much. So I switched to Life Line kelp (http://amzn.to/2wOmIzy) which is formulated for dogs and has serving amounts on the package. I spoke with the owner of this company and he’s amazing. I feed a little less than the recommended amount by not adding it daily because I read that iodine is also in eggs, raw dairy products, and some seafood (my dogs get sardines regularly).
Kim – How much iodine do you supplement? I’ve been feeding homemade raw a couple months and the recipe I’ve been using as a guideline is by Steve Brown who has a couple raw books and formulates Darwin Raw. It adds 350 mcg per 1,000 calories of food (about 350 mcg per pound of meat or a 40 pound dog’s average daily diet) by including a kelp blend. But I read Dr. Karen Becker’s supplement mix for a complete homemade diet that includes meat, organ, egg, salmon/sardines (all of which I’m feeding using whole grinds as a base), and Dr. Becker’s recipe only includes 65 mcg per pound of raw food also using a kelp supplement. 350 vs 65 mcg is a huge difference. Do you think I’m over supplementing iodine using 350 mcg as I’ve been doing?
Hi Jenn
I mostly feed sardines and fish oil. The weeks when I add fish stock, I don’t add sardines of fish oil.
The turmeric powder doesn’t work well with my dogs and someone explained that it’s because they need the paste instead; the coconut oil and black pepper help a dog’s system absorb the turmeric and put it to use. Without those two ingredients, most of the turmeric would just pass through as waste.
Hi there! I am new to your site and LOVE it! I have been feeding Answers raw to my 2 labs for 2 years now, and like you, I only wish I had found out sooner. I love the Answers line and thought that was all we needed until we had some recent injuries and age (maybe?) related issues and started looking into supplements. I am curious that you do a fish oil in addition to the Answers fermented fish stock. Why the two? I am also learning about and experimenting with turmeric….is there any reason the powder can’t just be added to food or kefir? Thanks much!!