Raw food diets and anaemia?

[Ruby Red]

Oh dear, I found this website [www.rawboxers.com], and was really concerned to read the following under ‘about raw’:

Boxer Specific Raw Diets

Boxers have special needs when they are eating a raw diet. Our veterinarian (who practices Traditional Chinese Medicine) has found that boxers tend to be borderline anaemic, if not actually suffering from the results of anaemia. In TCM, anaemia is a blood weakness and diseases such as cancer (mass cell tumours specifically) thrive in those conditions. In order to avoid the anaemic condition, we feed our boxers a greater percentage of red meat, organ meat and veggie mix than is considered necessary for most breeds.

[They feed:]

• 30-40% Raw Meaty Bones
• 25-30% Vegetable Mix and/or Tripe
• 30-35% Organ Meat

Just wondering what you guys think of this? Does anyone know for a fact that boxers ‘tend to be borderline anaemic?’

[PS: I’m not that impressed with their adult/senior menu – it doesn't appear very balanced - far too much chicken I think!]

[AussieGirl]

Ha, what a coincidence I was snooping around that site a few days ago. At first the anaemia thing got me a little worried (I was actually going to post on here to see if anyone agreed with it, though I was mainly interested in Missi's, thought being a breeder and at shows she would have had more exposure than anyone else - well that was my line of thinking anyway). Anyway as I read through their diet I found it very, very unbalanced, as you said way too much chicken, really all they feed is chicken AND in their vegie portions they include spinach - now from my research spinach is a good inclusion in SMALL amounts as it causes .......anaemia when large amounts are fed, so why would they feed it? even in a small amount I would not be feeding something linked with anemia to a breed that was "borderline anaemic".
Now this is just me speculating but if the menu example they have on their site is what they feed, I feel it could be the reason they have had some "borderline anaemic" dogs as they are lacking in red meat sources. Red meat and especially offal from red meat sources are a fantastic source of iron. The more I thought about it I realised I have never heard anything about anaemic Boxers. I too would love any input anyone else has to offer.

Thought I would add when I initially saw the site I thought that maybe I should add it to the links in the raw feeding thread, but as I read on there was no way I would recommend their menu example to anyone I was sooo shocked at how little variety it had, well thats my opinion anyway.

[Spyglass Sally]

Originally Posted by Ruby Red

Just wondering what you guys think of this? Does anyone know for a fact that boxers ‘tend to be borderline anaemic?’

I have never heard that, but I wouldn't be afraid of it. You can keep an eye out for it yourself. If your dog is anemic it will have pale gums, seem weak and have a faster pulse - although the faster pulse thing might be more difficult to assess if you don't have baselines to compare it to. But the others should be fairly easy to assess.

That diet looks to me like it's higher in the organ meats and things green veggies, which are iron rich, so if you were doing the 80/10/10 of muscle/bone/offal that's been discussed here and your dog did get anemic (which I really doubt) you could just give some more organ meats or supplement with nutritional yeast or kelp powder.

Bear in mind that anemia can be bought on by parasites so keep an eye out for that - check for fleas by running your hand back over the fur and seeing if you find dark specs, which are flea excrement. (Generally not a problem in a healthy dog.)

[AussieGirl]

Here is their menu sample so you can see how it lacks red meat (so you can understand the ramblings in my previous reply) but I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT, I WOULD NOT FEED THIS MENU TO MY DOG

Day One
AM Raw meaty bones (chicken)
PM Raw meaty bones (chicken)

Day Two
AM 2 - 4 cups of veggies with yogurt or cottage cheese, or tripe
PM 2 - 4 cups of veggies with yogurt or cottage cheese

Day Three
AM Raw meaty bones (chicken)
PM Raw meaty bones (chicken)

Day Four
AM Organ meat meal (approx 1 - 3 cups)*
PM Organ meat meal (approx 1 - 3 cups)*

Day Five
AM Raw meaty bones (chicken)
PM Raw meaty bones (chicken)

Day Six
AM Frozen fish (sardines or mackerel) or tripe
PM 2 - 4 cups of veggies with canned fish

Day Seven
This is an optional day for variety or lazy Sundays.
Beef or bison recreational bones
Beef or bison muscle meat (for thinner dogs)
Tripe
Eggs
Soaked oatmeal with yogurt
or just a additional day of the regular organ meat or a veggie meal

[brindlebox]

My friend who has boxers she also feeds raw and has had 2 episosdes with her dog who seems to be anaemic and she feeds a good variety of meat. The last I talked to her she was thinking of going back to kibble for one of her dogs.

[KeeperBoy]

I thought red meat had more iron than chicken? Why would kibble make a dog less anemic? It seems like the iron in raw would be more easier for the dog to process?

[daisy'smom]

That just doesn't make sense to me. If they are getting red meat and offal why would the diet have anything to do with anemia? I guess if you were feeding only chicken you would have to give all that organ meat. Anemia can be caused by things other than diet. I would really doubt raw feeding would be a cause. It seems to me that kibble would not provide the iron that a balanced raw diet would.

[whitedaisy]

I read this last year. I know someone who owns boxers and is also a Vet that treats boxers. She doesn't agree at all with that. If the dog is anemic it probably has other reasons for being so.

[brindlebox]

I'm not sure, I just know she said she is going to switch back.

I myself used to feed raw for 2 years and my dog was allergic to the chicken and turkey I couldn't find much here in my area to feed her that was a decent price so I switched her back to kibble she has been on Orijien Fresh fish now for almost 2 years and has improved 100% she went from having no hair to having hair now. There isn't too many foods here I can feed. I still give raw meaty bones every once in awhile cause they like them. If I could find other cuts of meat a decent price I would go back but my area sucks!

Originally Posted by KeeperBoy

I thought red meat had more iron than chicken? Why would kibble make a dog less anemic? It seems like the iron in raw would be more easier for the dog to process?