Raw Meaty Bones and Offal, Where To Start?
TLDR: To help dog parents navigate the minefield of information regarding the various diets and feeding methods, I will discuss some of my favourite tools and materials for new and experienced dog feeders in a series of posts. First up: Tom Lonsdale's "Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones".
Sometimes, it can be hard to know what to feed our dogs. As pet parents, we want to make the right diet choices, but a jumbled array of options confronts us when making a selection. I think it's fantastic that store shelves (both online and physical) cater to alternative diets, but if we are to decide between options that include things like air-dried, freeze-dried, cold-pressed, raw, home-cooked, and so on, we need to be better informed than ever.
Despite being a pet parent for many years, I started unaware of even the choices available to me. As my knowledge of this area expanded, and along with it Charlie's diet, some outstanding resources proved instrumental in helping me navigate the world of canine nutrition. The first resource I will cover is a book to help with the contentious issue of feeding your dog raw meaty bones and raw offal.
It wasn't until I read veterinary surgeon Tom Lonsdale's first book, "Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health" that I felt I finally had a balanced, informed view, and my opinions began to shift. In the book, Tom discusses how, after five years at veterinary school and fifteen years as a qualified vet, he saw firsthand the damage caused by a diet consisting solely of 'junk pet foods' and the profound health changes in dogs that shifted away from processed food to a diet of raw meaty bones.
The book discusses how Tom took on the pet food establishment, and he includes just enough science to help the reader understand the diet he's promoting without being overwhelmed. It's a great read, but it was his second book, "Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones" that really got me moving. This book cut through the noise of born-again raw feeders on the one hand and naysaying veterinarians on the other, allowing me to find a path I was comfortable navigating.
Tom's message is simple: switching your pet's diet is the most important thing you can do to improve his or her physical and mental well-being. As Tom puts it, "Feeding raw meaty bones works wonders for the health of dogs."
Right up front, he deals with one of the major concerns that any pet parent who has spent time on the internet or talking to their vet might have. It takes only a few quick moments on Google to find many vets and clinics warning of the dangers of feeding raw meaty bones and recommending against them with phrases like: causes broken teeth, potential choking hazard, digestive system irritation, digestive tract perforation, and gastrointestinal obstruction. Scary stuff.
Tom notes that "…getting started, overcoming your fears can be a trifle unnerving. We've all heard the bad press about dogs choking on bones, the vet bills associated with the perforation of a dog's bowel and the nasty bacteria said to lurk in every mouthful of raw food ... Relax, wipe the sweat from your brow and dry your palms. Switching your pet's diet is the most important thing you can do to promote health, vitality and longevity. Happily, most dogs are in touch with their inner world and seize on the first juicy bone you offer."
Tom is outspoken in his condemnation of the pet food industry and the damage it does - seen firsthand in his work - and is a passionate advocate for raw feeding. But he never verges into polemics, keeping his views firmly rooted in his years of knowledge and experience as a veterinary surgeon.
Tom's book also deals with another concern that many home feeders (raw, cooked or otherwise) have, i.e. providing their dogs with the right nutritional balance. I have encountered numerous online discussion boards with questions like, "Is this meal adequate for my three-year-old border collie?"
Tom makes answering questions like this straightforward. His book was the first time I had read a raw feeding guide that made it seem simple. Tom deals with quality, quantity, and feeding frequency, provides a few fundamental principles, and covers the specifics of meats and cuts. He believes the best option is to feed whole carcasses, and the second best option (combining convenience with health and value) is raw meaty bones and table scraps.
"By ripping, tearing and crunching their way through tough, chewy carcasses (or large pieces of raw meaty bones) carnivores also wash, scrub and polish their teeth and gums. We humans maintain dental hygiene by tooth brushing and flossing after we eat. Carnivores brush and floss as they eat. Clean teeth and gums are an essential part of what it means to be healthy."
Tom looks at handling the switch to raw food, including for fussy dogs, and risk management for those problem areas vets often write about, such as choking and stuck bones. Microbes and parasites are another concern he covers, as well as methods for minimising risk (freezing meat is a standard solution) and a couple of items to avoid when feeding table scraps.
He talks about the various diseases dogs can develop due to poor diet, both externally (skin, hair, ear, eyes, nose and mouth) and internally (digestive tract, liver, pancreas, kidneys and so on) and devotes an entire chapter to dentistry for dogs, providing an excellent overview of the anatomy of a dog's jaw and the epidemic of periodontal disease.
Tom notes that many pets fed a processed diet have dirty, plaque-ridden teeth and sore gums. Besides causing doggie breath, diseased teeth and gums (periodontal disease) impact the rest of the body, pointing out a link between animals with periodontal disease and liver, kidney and immune system problems. By the end of the chapter, you will feel comfortable identifying the signs that something is amiss by taking cues from a dog's breath and the state of its gums.
There is a simple sample menu at the back of the book. For those who have read similar books regarding home feeding, one noticeable aspect is that nowhere do Tom's canine meals require the addition of expensive supplements or the purchase of additional nutrition courses that you need to buy from the author!
Tom is a fascinating figure, and if you are interested in feeding your dog raw food, either as a primary meal source or in combination with other foods, then I encourage you to look him up online. There are some great articles, podcasts and YouTube videos where he discusses these issues in more detail. Tom's most recent book, published in 2023, is the "Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud: Hiding In Plain Sight". The book and additional resources are available on his website: The Pet Food Con.