Can dogs eat raw hamburger?

flutterby

Fly away!
easy child bought 5 pounds of hamburger and dropped it on the floor. Even though the kitchen is swept daily, with 6 cats and a dog there is animal hair.

Anyway, my question is, can we feed it to Jewel raw or should we cook at least some?
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Lucky dog! :)

I wouldn't serve it raw, Heather, but boiled hamburger is something vets prescribe for sensitive tummies. Just be careful because any big change in a dog's diet can cause problems. You could serve a little at a time with her regular food, and freeze it in chunks for future meals since five pounds is a lot.

Suz
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
No risk beyond it giving them the runs if they aren't used to it. My dog LIVES on a raw-lamb based raw diet. He does fabulously on it. Just remember that raw burger is not nutritionally complete and keep that it mind while feeding it.

If you are uncomfortable about feeding it; it can always be mixed in with the usual diet. Most dogs actually find cooked meat, specifically the fat, harder to digest than raw meat.
 

klmno

Active Member
I'm with Suz, too, just to be on the safe side. And if you serve it with a little cooked rice it would be great! I know it's controversial but our vet told us that there are some bacteria that some dogs' systems can't handle yet. And boiling it gets the fat out. So while some might be able to handle it raw and by itself, it's safer to boil it according to our vet.
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
Heather--

Dogs are carnivores--raw meat is fine....from an evolutionary standpoint, that is!

Our coddled house-dogs probably cannot tolerate a sudden feeding of raw meat, though. Mix it in their regular kibbles with a little bit of rice. They will aboslutely love it. And in small portions it should not upset their digestive system too much.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Whenever I cook hamburger, I toss Buddy a terrier-sized bite. He's nearly 10, so I guess it hasn't hurt him!
 

Marguerite

Active Member
As has been pointed out, dogs in the wild eat raw met, they don't have access to microwave ovens or barbecues.

Cooked meat is OK for dogs, but not cooked bones, especially cooked bird bones. These tend to splinter and can get stuck in a dog's craw and cause serious problems. But raw bones are great. This includes raw bird bones - we can buy chicken wings or chicken necks to feed to dogs. Chewing them keeps the dog's teeth clean. We also feed our dogs on raw kangaroo meat. Roo bones are especially good for dogs to chew on. Or a big beef bone.

Where raw meat is a danger, is where you have diseases in your country which can be contracted/spread by dogs eating raw meat. For example on an Aussie sheep station, dogs have to be kept away from eating any dead sheep lying around, it could have hydatids. So where farm dogs have access to dead sheep, they have to be regularly wormed. Hydatids tapeworms are no problem for the dog. But a human getting a hydatids cyst - it can be life-threatening.

If in doubt, check with your local Dept of Agriculture.

Marg
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
If your dog currently enjoys cooked foods or dry dog foods, then you should cook it. DO NOT MIX RAW WITH COOKED/COMMERCIAL FOODS.

The reasoning behind this is that commercial/cooked foods take longer for your dog to digest. Alternatively, one of the many ideas behind feeding your dog a total raw diet is that the food is more easily and quickly digested and thus, moves through his digestive tract faster and combined with the amazingly harsher stomach digestive enzymes that humans do not have, there is little chance of them getting sick from raw foods. If you combine the cooked with the raw, the raw has more opportunity to ferment in their bellies and cause illness.

If you choose to feed it raw, my advice is to fast your dog for at least 12 hours and then combine with raw veggies and feed separate from commercial food.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I have also heard that you should fast a dog for a day before switching over to raw. Raw does go through a lot quicker than processed foods do. Dogs have incredible stomach acids. They can digest stuff that would kill a modern human.

That doesn't mean that one should give "spoiled" meat to a dog by any means; just that dogs're a lot less likely to get food poisoning than we humans are. I can't speak for kangaroo meat, but if I lived in a place where it was available, I wouldn't hesitate to feed it to my critters.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
For humans, roo is also available. It's higher in iron and is a very lean, dark meat. Flavour similar to beef. We buy it packaged as roo rump, but other parts of the roo (including the really tougher cuts) are sold for dog meat. Frankly, the chef in me would like to get my hands on the rest of the roo also, you would get some fabulous casseroles from the tougher cuts. It's priced similar to farmed venison.

The "original Australians" prefer kangaroo tail as a delicacy. They roast it as is over a fire.

Marg
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Well do NOT ask Casper our American Bulldog. He's the one that ate his leather collar with his tags (all 3), buckle in tact, a plastic milk jug, and we think a football. Raw hamburger would have been a walk in the butcher shop. $800.00 later and a pretty amazed veterinary staff - Our bouncing baby boy was up, staggering around, with a belly full of stitches.

I can hear all the furkids in Flutters house screaming - "FIVE SECOND RULE":tongue:
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I shouldn't laugh about Star's dog; that's a big vet bill, too.

5 second rule has always cracked me up. Back in the cattery days, we fed a home-made (BARF) diet. One day husband dropped a whole chicken on the floor and the latest litter of kittens were on it like mini-lions on a small wildebeest.

The funniest part? When husband tried to rescue the chicken, the little fluffballs all growled and snarled and hissed at him. He cut off the neck and the wing tips and the poor abused kitlings had to content themselves with that.

As husband said, "Life's rough when you are the apex predator!"
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Star, about your dog - I'm a cheapskate. Unless the dog clearly had problems, I'd have been waiting around the dog's rear end with a catcher's mitt...

And GN, a uni lecturer that husband once had (and that I also knew) used to give talks on his experiences raising Aussie wildlife (and writing papers about them). He told of a Grey Kangaroo he had raised that stole a chicken carcass off the kitchen bench and then sat in the corner hunched over it, growling. He said, "It's supposed to be a herbivore!"

I don't think there's any research on what happens to a kangaroo that eats cooked bird bones...

Marg
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't give mine very much raw hamburger because of the amount of fat in it. The most I've ever given them is just enough to hide a pill in, but that's about it. I use ground beef as sort of a topper for their dry food every morning. I brown it, drain the fat off, and mix in some rice and green beans. Some will eat the green beans, some won't. I have one who will pick all the green beans out of hers and put them next to her dish!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Marg, as I understand it; 'roos have rather specialized digestive tracts. I'd wonder if it could actually digest the bones. If so, hey...more calcium and phosphates.

Of course; I've had cats that would kill you for a bit of cucumber, melon, or grapes. One of mine even liked tangerines and citrus is widely used in cat repellents in the US.
 
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