A Dog’s Dinner: Factors affecting food choice and feeding practices for UK dog owners feeding raw meat-based or conventional cooked diets

Food selection is an area of dog ownership where owners have direct control over their pet’s wellbeing. While commercial cooked complete foods remain the majority component of many dog diets, there is increasing interest in alternative options including natural and raw ingredients. This study aimed...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Preventive veterinary medicine 2022-11, Vol.208, p.105741-105741, Article 105741
Main Authors: Morgan, Genever, Williams, Nicola, Schmidt, Vanessa, Cookson, Daisy, Symington, Carrie, Pinchbeck, Gina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Diet
Dog
Kibble
Public health
Raw
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Food selection is an area of dog ownership where owners have direct control over their pet’s wellbeing. While commercial cooked complete foods remain the majority component of many dog diets, there is increasing interest in alternative options including natural and raw ingredients. This study aimed to provide further data regarding feeding practices and diet choice for UK dog owners with a focus on raw meat diets. An online survey available to all UK dog owners and advertised through sources including social media and at Crufts was conducted from February to March 2020. Feeding practices and diet choice were assessed, and owners were categorised as either feeding a raw meat diet (RMD) or non-raw diet (NRMD) based on their responses. Descriptive, univariable and multivariable data analyses were undertaken to determine dog and owner factors associated with feeding RMD, and thematic analysis was undertaken on free-text responses. A total of 1831 owners completed the survey (915 RMD, 916 NRMD) detailing information for 3212 dogs (1754 RMD, 1458 NRMD). Dog breed (German Shepherd), Border Collie, Crossbreed (p 
ISSN:0167-5877
1873-1716
DOI:10.1016/j.prevetmed.2022.105741