| There are a few dog feeders who foolishly insist that | | | | percent of its weight as meat |
| meat is the only thing a dog should ever be fed. Meat | | | | All meats except pork can be fed to a dog either |
| alone is entirely inadequate for a dog. The foremost | | | | cooked or raw, but will usually furnish more |
| deficiency in a diet of meat is its lack of calcium. lf the | | | | nourishment in the raw state. Vitamins are destroyed |
| meat is trimmed of fat there is also likely to occur a | | | | by the heat of cooking. Fat also is driven out of meat |
| deficiency in energy. There are numerous other | | | | during cooking, and unless it is poured back into the |
| deficiencies, but none as dramatic as these two. | | | | ration, it will become lost as an energy source. The |
| Meat, nevertheless, is the single most important source | | | | only real justification for feeding a dog cooked meat in |
| of protein fed to dogs. Thousands of tons of horse | | | | a homemade ration is because it is pork, or because |
| meat and beef are used each year in producing | | | | the dog does not like raw meat. Dogs having a |
| commercial dog foods. Hundreds of tons more are fed | | | | genuine dislike for raw meat are few and far between. |
| as a supplement to commercial foods or in | | | | The nature of the animal from which the meat comes |
| home-made rations. | | | | does not seem to be too important where protein is |
| When fed as an addition to a balanced commercial | | | | concerned. Nutritionally, most proteins from different |
| food, meat can be added up to 10 percent of the | | | | animals seem to be about equal. For years it was |
| weight of the mixture. When added in any greater | | | | contended by some dog owners that pork could not |
| amounts it will dilute the commercial food to the extent | | | | be fed to dogs. Feeding experiments do not find this to |
| that the diet will no longer be balanced or adequate. | | | | be true. In fact, pork liver is probably among the most |
| When used as the sole source of protein in a | | | | nutritious livers commonly available to dogs. The only |
| home-made ration, meat should constitute at least 25 | | | | restriction which pork has when being fed to dogs is |
| percent of the total weight of the diet. However, | | | | that it be cooked. |
| home-made rations should ever contain more than 75 | | | | |