[briteday]

"Many clinical nutrition books discuss biotin (one of the water soluble vitamin B complex) as being an essential nutrient which can be bound by avidin, which is found in raw egg white. This binding prevents it's absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. Fortunately cooking deactivates this effect of avidin, and egg yolk is so high in biotin content that biotin deficiency does not occur when whole raw eggs are fed. So, whilst biotin deficiency is a potential problem - in reality it is unlikely to be seen in domesticated animals unless they are fed an extremely imbalanced ration that is predominantly egg white.



My dogs eat a totally raw diet and have no problem with an egg or two per week. But even when they were eating kibble I gave them eggs mixed in with their food. Healthy dogs are not harmed by raw eggs. Just be careful if your dog has a lot of allergies, feed in small quantities at first to watch for any reaction. Some owners feed the egg with the shell, some without the shell. The shell is very high in calcium and if fed with the contents of the egg, creates a very balanced phosphorus : calcium ratio. The shell softens in the dog's stomach acid and will not harm the intestines.

As for salmonella in eggs...remember that the egg comes out of the same "vent" as the waste does in a chicken. So most eggs will contain some amount of salmonella, whether they are grocery store eggs or farm fresh eggs. Dogs aren't bothered much by a small amount of salmonella as they have short digestive tracts that don't allow much breeding of bacteria to take place. Humans on the other hand are best off to cook their eggs since we have long digestive tracts that makes breeding of bacteria highly likely.