Dr Ian Billinghurst and Pet Food Reviews interview - Discussion on how we should raw feed etc

[MeAndMyBC]

An interesting conversation, mostly Dr Ian Billinghurst who invented BARF talking about raw feeding. Some interesting points about prescription diets not being the best solution (well, compared to raw), and generally some good nuggets of information.

 

 

 

 

[Mairead]

An "evolutionary food" for a dog would be a whole animal it caught itself, or carrion!

Always ask if they are trying to sell you something. Independent reports are less easily found in these times of monetizing. 

And diets from scratch are not easy for the average owner to achieve, as Dr Billinghurst does mention. Vets deal with the effects of "feed your dog a bone" quite often. Any spare time the owner has is better spent on exercise and training. 

 

Edited April 9 by Mairead

[sandgrubber]

My hackles went up at the first sentence.  Dogs are omnivores, NOT carnivores.  As compared to wolves, dog DNA shows they are far better endowed to digest starch.  They evolved eating refuse and probably feces from primitive and early agricultural people.  The next oops came in saying cooking "destroys" the nutrients.  So we humans get no nutrition from eating cooked meat?  

 

I couldn't listen to the rest.  Veterinarian or not, the guy is NOT a scientist.

 

I bought Give Your Dog a Bone when it first came out.  I remember recipes that included raisins.  

 

I have fed raw when I have had good sources, and, yes, most dogs love it, and if you stick to soft bones of an appropriate size to avoid choking, without too much fat, they do well with bones added to their daily fare.  But no need to make a religion out of it.

[MeAndMyBC]

On 09/04/2025 at 2:45 AM, sandgrubber said:

My hackles went up at the first sentence.  Dogs are omnivores, NOT carnivores.  As compared to wolves, dog DNA shows they are far better endowed to digest starch.  They evolved eating refuse and probably feces from primitive and early agricultural people.  The next oops came in saying cooking "destroys" the nutrients.  So we humans get no nutrition from eating cooked meat?  

 

I couldn't listen to the rest.  Veterinarian or not, the guy is NOT a scientist.

 

I bought Give Your Dog a Bone when it first came out.  I remember recipes that included raisins.  

 

I have fed raw when I have had good sources, and, yes, most dogs love it, and if you stick to soft bones of an appropriate size to avoid choking, without too much fat, they do well with bones added to their daily fare.  But no need to make a religion out of it.

 

I would say dogs are definitely more carnivore than omnivore, and I am a scientist (nutritional science).

 

We're omnivore, right? Even simple scientific facts like coefficient of fermentation suggests a dog isn't far off a cat in terms of biology and dietary needs. Short digestive tracts are inherently geared to digest animal matter. Plant matter requires a longer digestive tract to absorb nutrients, which is why we're omnivore, whereas these nutrients would be mostly wasted on a dog.

 

Needless to say it benefits the pet food industry if we believe dogs are omnivores, as plant matter is a far cheaper inclusion in their products than animal matter.