Can Huskies Eat Raw Meat?

Unlike most other dogs, huskies have unique diet requirements, thanks to their “working dog” status. When raising a husky, ‌be extremely particular about what it eats and how it burns all those calories to stay in good health and shape.

 Huskies can eat a variety of raw meat, including poultry, beef, lamb, and seafood. Like every other dog, a husky is a carnivore. It thrives on raw bones, fresh meat, and organs. The organs you could feed your husky include liver, kidney, pancreas, thymus, and reproductive organs.

 Though your husky has no trouble eating raw meat, there are a few things you need to consider when serving it to your husky. Keep reading to learn what those concerns are and other aspects relating to the topic.

Types of Raw Meat You Can Feed Your Husky 

There are different kinds of raw meat dogs can technically eat. The following are amongst the safest to feed your husky: 

1. Chicken: Chicken meat is commonly served to dogs as food. Chicken is lean and contains a solid amount of protein, which helps your dog build muscle and mass. Also, chicken is packed with nutrients that support bone health, shiny coats, and healthy skin

2. Beef and steak: Red meat is also quite nutritious for your husky. It contains fatty acids that benefit your dog’s joints and muscle mass. Red meat, like chicken, contains omega-6 fatty acids. Besides adding to the calorie count, omega-6 is involved in cell function and cell membrane structure too.

3. Lamb: Lamb meat is not just nutritious but is also quite tasty. Most importantly, it consists of dietary fats that sustain your dog’s energy levels – while, of course, maintaining its skin, muscle, and fur. Like chicken and beef, lamb meat is also available as packaged dog food. I use sometimes these lamb Jerky cuts treats from Chewy, if you’d like to give your husky a nutrient-rich lamb meat treat.

4. Turkey: If your husky is sensitive to certain kinds of meat, put it on turkey meat. The lean white meat packs in highly digestible protein, which is good for your dog’s muscles.

If you’d like to cook a special meat treat for your dog, this video might help: 

Types of Meat You Should Avoid Feeding Your Husky 

Now that it’s clear the animal meat varieties huskies have no problem ingesting, you must also be aware of the kind of meat your dog should always steer clear of.

1. Raw pork: Uncooked pork could contain the trichinella spiralis larvae parasite. Upon ingestion, the pest can lead to an infection with visible symptoms to show that include vomiting, fever, diarrhea, stiffness, and lethargy.  
2. Processed pork: Pork is fat-laden meat and specific processed cuts such as bacon, hams, and sausages could be fatty and also contain loads of salt. High-fat, processed meat is not recommended for huskies as it could lead to pancreatitis. The high salt content of the meat could also cause stomach and dehydration issues in your dog.
3. Uncooked fish: Raw fish could have food poisoning-causing bacteria. Fishes such as trout, salmon, and sturgeon could also contain parasites that cause the “salmon poisoning disease” or “fish disease”. When the fishes are fully cooked, the parasite gets killed. 

Why Raw Meat is Not Ideal Dog Food?

Though huskies and most other dogs have the same lineage as wolves, that doesn’t mean you should feed your dog a wolf’s food. Doing so would be completely disregarding the evolution dogs have had over several thousand years as a species living alongside humans.

Related Article: Are Huskies related to Wolves?

Raw meat is typically not the most nutritionally balanced. Several studies have found raw meat to contain low levels of calcium and phosphorus, and excessive amounts of vitamin A and vitamin D, besides being fraught with several other imbalances. Perhaps the biggest concern with raw meat is its impurity.

Kindly note, it’s absolutely fine to feed your husky raw meat if you know how to do it. But, if given an option, try to cook the meat before you put in on your dog’s plate.

Raw Meat Ingestion Could Cause Health Issues

Raw meat is arguably the most contaminated and toxic form of food. Uncooked meat usually contains harmful bacteria such as listeria, e.coli, and salmonella. And these bacteria could be found in the meat of beef, poultry, pork, fish, etc. Needless to say, the consumption of uncooked meat could lead to a host of health issues in your dog. When cooked, however, the meat ceases to present pretty much all of its bacterial concerns.

 The worst part is that the health concerns related to raw meat are not limited to your dog. According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), raw meat not just poses risks to your husky but also to you (the owner of the dog) and other people in the house. (Source)

 There are a few ways the infection could spread from the meat or the meat-eating dog to you or your family members. Here are a few: 

• Handling or touching the raw meat
• Allowing the husky to lick your face
• Touching surfaces contaminated by the dog
• Cleaning up the dog’s feces

If you opt to feed your husky raw meat, refer to and follow the safety tips or guidelines the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recommend. If you cannot strictly adhere to those directives, cook the meat instead. 

When cooked to a certain temperature, the bacteria in the meat gets killed. Also, perfectly cooked meat helps make the food a lot more digestible. When your husky is able to digest the meat, it could use the nutrients in the meat to produce energy, build muscles, and support its immune system a lot more effectively. 

Store-Bought Raw Meat is the Bigger Concern

Generally, compared to carcass meat, the risk of contamination or bacterial infection is more with raw meat bought from the store, as meat processing plants have a much higher likelihood of cross-contamination.

A lot of chopping and mixing take place at these plants, which could cause bacteria to get right to the core of the meat. Though freezing the meat thereafter could decrease the level of bacteria found in the meat, the chilly conditions won’t kill all the germs.

 That said, meat sourced from wild carcasses is not necessarily safer to ingest than commercial or processed meat. In other words, parasite contamination is a major issue with carcasses. 

The Lowdown on the Raw Food Diet 

If you decided to feed your husky raw meat, then you might consider transitioning  to the raw food diet. Raw food diet is a diet that consists only of raw food.

This diet is high in protein, moderate in fat, and has a minimal amount of carbohydrates. It primarily consists of:

In 1993 an Australian veterinarian named Ian Billinghurst proposed this raw diet be extended to all dogs in his book, "Give Your Dog A Bone." He called his feeding suggestions the BARF diet, an acronym that stands for Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.

Dr. Ian Billinghurst, along with other advocates of raw food diets, contends that dogs thrive on a diet that has an evolutionary base; that is, a diet that canines ate before they were domesticated — particularly those that were given grain-based commercial pet foods to eat.

A carefully planned raw diet can have many health benefits over time. Conversely, it can present a few challenges and might not be suited for every Husky. Let’s explore both sides of the coin.