I was always told not to feed dogs pork...........but why? I spoke to some folk the other day who were telling me how they fed their dogs during war time. The dogs had whatever was on offer and appeared to thrive - including pork. It would be interesting to have some views. A pet nutritionist once told me that rabbit was the best protein for dogs and she was amazed how little this figured in UK dog food. All the manufacturers prefer chicken - even most non-chicken brands do in fact contain chicken derivatives. [We have a dog allergic to chicken but that's another story...] So what is best? Lamb? Beef? What do the experts say?
Thanks
Wendy Harris, via email
Richard Allport, alternative vet, says...
The only reason that pet food manufacturers prefer chicken is because it is cheap. I’ve never seen any evidence to back up the old wives’ tale that dogs shouldn’t eat pork. Any good quality protein source – fish, chicken, lamb, rabbit, beef, venison and pork is fine in my view, unless a particular dog has a known allergy or intolerance to any specific protein. I’m sure there are some dogs that don’t assimilate pork well, but that can occur with any other meat, including chicken, as your dog has found out. A variety of foods is best and there is nothing wrong with pork as part of the variety unless proved otherwise.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteFor many years we have been told never to feed our dogs anything with pork in as it could cause Aujesky' Disease, a disease of the brain, something that comes from the pig, not very common in the Uk but it has happened. I do notice it is creeping into some of the dog food now so perhaps opinion has changed.
Judith Stephens
I understand that meat from pigs raised in the UK is safe to feed. My dogs have pork as part of their raw diet.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing a while ago that pork is used in some manufactured feeds but is rarely listed because people have precisely this prejudice - but "meat and animal derivatives" hides a whole multitude of sins!