My dogs and cats are on a raw diet, prey model version. Cats have been on it for about 6 years, older dog has been only for about 3 years (we got her about 3.5 years ago), and puppy has been on it since February (got her in January). My animals are doing fabulously. I am a firm believer in a (proper) raw diet being the best diet for dogs and cats, no processed food can come close to the results I have seen since switching my animals, and they were on high quality processed diets before the switch! Their dental health is better than any animal I have EVER had, and prior to making the big switch, my animals were on kibble! In fact... my animals' dental health is so good, my vet doesn't even recommend dental work for them. My senior cat (RIP) did need dental work, after being on kibble for 13 years of her life. At that age she looked old. She was arthritic, stopped jumping, her eyes were getting glossy, and she was starting to lose condition. After I switched her over to the raw diet, the years literally melted off her. Her eyes became clear again, she started jumping again and generally moving easier, and she regained condition. She looked so good for her age, the vets and vet technicians couldn't believe she was as old as she was, they were convinced she had to be at least 2-3 years younger! She made it to just before her 18th birthday. Seeing the change in her, I am fully convinced of the holistic benefit to raw. My current cats are about 8 or 9 years old. My vet calls them "geriatric" because that's what the books say apparently. Well, my "geriatric" cats run around like kittens on a daily basis! They have no health issues at all, all their wellness checks are clean and clear, vet has nothing but good to say about their health and condition. Same with my dogs - they are healthy and fit. They maintain good weight, neither too fat nor too thin. They are slim, trim, and muscular, the way they should be. No skin or fur issues, no allergies, dental health is great, no other issues of any kind, wellness checks are clean and clear.
The "concerns" with raw really aren't issues with the raw diet itself, as it is the ingredients of that diet, how the food is handled and stored, and the animal itself. I have had NO problems at all with my dogs OR cats and bones. I have had NO problems at all with bacterial issues. In fact... my puppy is a parvo survivor. While recovering from parvo she was on a processed diet until I could get her switched over to the raw. After parvo it was coccidia then giarrdia. She kept having relapses of these issues, was on some kind of medication for nearly a month! By that time I decided to go ahead and make the switch over to raw. Like magic...these issues cleared up and she's been clean and clear since! Today, you would never know she had any illness at all! She looks and acts like a normal healthy dog, her only "issues" are typical adolescent behavior. However I am also careful about knowing where my animals' food comes from and am careful about following good food handling procedures. I treat the food as it if it were my own. Kibble and canned food can have issues too, consider how many recalls there have been in the last few years, for quality food even! The problem with kibble and canned is we really don't know what goes into it, as the recalls proved. At least with raw, as long as I know the source of the items, I know what is going into my animals. My animals are also good about not gulping their food. My animals know how to chew their food, and the bones will not splinter the way cooked bones do. If my animals were not good about their bones, then I would have to look at other alternatives: such as crushing the bone for them or using ground bones. That's not a problem with the raw diet, that's a problem with the animal and how I choose to deal with them. I can't see myself ever going back to a processed diet of any kind, not with what I've seen in my animals.