[2dogs]

What is the best piece of advice or the number one reason you would offer someone to persuade them to switch to raw? I am trying to encourage my parents to switch over. You would think the health of my dogs would be enough to make them at least wonder....

Their poor dog! He's probably around 10 years old, slightly overweight, not a great coat and right now he is an uncomfortable, itchy mess! I feel awful for him. He's got a big (growing) hairless patch on his tail and backside and his chest is scabby and red. He's always backing up to the furniture and rubbing his tail area. They are my parents...I can't really tell them what to do. There is even a few local places that sell raw, ground meat (more expensive, but a good starting point).

They talked today about taking him to a vet, but in my opinion they would look at him, tell them he's allergic to fleas and/or has a skin infection, give him a steroid shot and maybe an antibiotic and that's it. That's what they did for me....no reason as to WHY my dog was itchy, just treated the symptoms. I know for certain it was the diet switch not the $100.00 vet vist that helped.

 

[rannmiller]

You could tell them about our other member on here BGBY I think was her name. Her dog had almost the exact same thing going on and within days of her switching to raw, the dog already smelled better, was more active, her hair was growing back, and she just seemed happier.

Tell your parents that a raw food diet for pets is the absolute best and cheapest diet they could give their dog. The dog will eat less, shed less, poop less, and have a much better coat and teeth. As my sig says "An ounce of nutrition is worth a pound of vet bills." They will spend much more money treating the symptoms and all the problems of this poor dog than they will switching to raw, guaranteed.

Ask them to give raw a try for 8 weeks and if they don't start to see any improvements by that time, then they can laugh in your face and tell you you're wrong and you will have to tell them they're right and take the dog to a vet (sometimes just getting to prove someone wrong and hear them tell you that is reward enough for some people, I know I love being right :biggrin. Or some sort of similar deal. Just ask them to give raw a try for 8 weeks, prey model raw (the premade crap has too many allergens in it to guarantee an improvement), switching how you/we recommend.

 

[2dogs]

They saw one of the dogs before I switched over (I got the other after, she's only had raw). She had similiar problems. I was apprehensive at first (a friend encouraged me to try) and I haven't looked back. I'm giving them a book tomorrow and we'll go from there. I'll even give them some of my food if they'll try it. I like that line--An ounce of nutrition is worh a pound of vet bills.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[jeserf]

You could always tell them to give it a try for 6-8 weeks and see what improvements it makes.

I would advise not acting like Raw is the only way to feed a dog, or that people who do are better to their pets, etc. It's been a huge turn off to me in the process - no one likes to be lectured (my dog never took to it, went without eating basically for 3 days), so I'd show them some stories of people who switched, give them some print outs of easy "menus", and just tell them to take a 2 month or so switch.

The benefits with regard to skin/coat will be seen very early on, so that might be enough of a benefit for them to keep doing it.

 

[BGBY]

Hello!

Thanks for mentioning Casey's story ranmiller.

I saw Casey improve almost immediately from the the new RAW diet. She is still healing from years of being fed kibble. :smile:

 

[rannmiller]

Yay! Hadn't heard from you in a bit, I was hoping that meant she was doing great!

 

[BGBY]

DH and I had some differences but it seems he's coming along which is all I can ask for. :smile: