Another Question about the RAW diet

Labs and Dylan 6 months whose about lab size atm. So they haven't had offal for 2 weeks, which was kidney, they have had whole rabbit but thats it. I feel I have the type of dogs who eat anything so hope I don't have too cook it.
 
Toffee44 said:
Question. Have been given load of pig offal from organic farm I seperated lung, kidney, liver and hearts. However in month or so I have been doing this I have not yet fed liver other than what they would have out of rabbits. The liver is quite big. Do I chop up give half each or is that still too much?
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The purist's ratio is 10% bone, 10% offal, 80% meat (this is the recommended ratio but I personally don't worry about too exact measurements: if you're happy raw feeding, then your main way of judging might be the state of poo!).

I'd start slowly with liver as it's very rich. My pups have probably about 100 grammes a couple of times a week, maybe more. They have roughly 600 g a day altogether.
 
Fab if they ate it, my adult dog won't. When I get a load of offal, I divide into bags (enough for the two who will eat it:rolleyes:) and freeze until required. One way of doing it is to bag up meal sized amounts, ready mixed with whatever you feed, makes sense and saves time. :)
 
I am still in the research phase at the moment.

I have some questions.....

I have two big dogs. Could anyone give me a breakdown of what they feed.

(I know it's been done already on this thread, but I'd like another view)

And how much would it cost on average?
 
An individual meal for one of my 26kg dogs would be one of the following:

3 chicken wings
2 chicken drumsticks
1-2 chicken thighs
1/4-1/2 a chicken carcass
300g beef or lamb mince
300g tripe
2 pork ribs
1/2 a breast of lamb
1-1 and a 1/2 lamb's hearts
1-1 and a 1/2 lamb's neck/scrag end
1-2 joints of rabbit dependent on size
1/4-1/2 a pheasant
1 tin oily fish
1/2-1 trout
1 handful sprat/whitebait type things
1 mackerel
250g Fish4Dogs kibble with 1 pouch cooked salmon mousse

Plus small pieces of raw liver as and when they'll take it (50p sized bits a couple of times a week), the odd kidney, small amounts of cooked meat scraps and cooked vegetables, dried tripe sticks, pig's ears, live yoghurt/probiotic culture, marrowbones with a decent amount of marrow and meat scraps on, tuna cake for training. Also a zinc supplement but that's breed-specific.

They have two meals a day and average out to about 650g a day per dog.

As a rough guide anything under £3 per kg is acceptable in my eyes, most of the above are well below that and a lot of it is free (marrowbones always free, I get turkey carcasses and wings by the sackful at Christmas again totally free, butcher will sling in a piece of liver or a couple of hearts if it's the end of the day and they can't be offered for sale the next). Make friends with a butcher! I don't imagine I spend much more than £10 a week and could do it a lot cheaper if I had a chest freezer to buy in bulk.
 
My two have about 600g a day of:

whole rabbit minced
Lamb tripe
Beef chunks
Chicken mince
Economy mince (feels like lung:o)
Raw meaty bones
Chicken wings
Liver
Heart
All of the above are between 35p-75p a pound, I think
Lamb breast £1 a pound

Does this help? I use the company below mostly, but getting matey with your butcher, as Blackcob says, is very handy.

I went down Edgeware High Street a couple of weeks ago, superb, they had everything like trotters, fish heads, brains, pig heads, tails, ears, all fresh. :)
http://www.thedogfoodcompany.co.uk/products.html
 
Thank you very much - please keep them coming.

I have another question. Chicken wings for my two (large dogs) are not recommended according to advice.

But - I have fed 'frozzie chops' in the past as a treat....these are frozen chicken pieces from supermarket. My two loved them still frozen.

Is it OK to feed this way occasionally?
 
OK, I'm on Day 3 of Raw.

They're on chicken pieces for the week.

Inuit thinks all his birthdays have come at once......old dog...hmmm not so sure.

She's shy of chewing, even though vet says her teeth aren't too bad.

I'm not convinced she's eaten for last two days as she buries the chicken and Inuit goes and digs it up and eats it.

I gave her chicken breast today and she was happy with that and has eaten it.

But she needs bone - what do I do? Would commercial food be better for her?
 
Do you know any greyhound men? They could help you source a good producer of a mix of meat and bones - some butchers will make a ground mix of meat, will mince bones through it, tripe and even fish through it. Stinks but it is great for them!
 
Oberon said:
OK, I'm on Day 3 of Raw.

They're on chicken pieces for the week.

Inuit thinks all his birthdays have come at once......old dog...hmmm not so sure.

She's shy of chewing, even though vet says her teeth aren't too bad.

I'm not convinced she's eaten for last two days as she buries the chicken and Inuit goes and digs it up and eats it.

I gave her chicken breast today and she was happy with that and has eaten it.

But she needs bone - what do I do? Would commercial food be better for her?
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Hi, oh the stress these animals put us through!

My dog is just the same with chicken wings, she buries them and doesn't seem that keen to go back to them, and you can't really leave raw meat lying around in your garden for days on end. I feed her Naturediet packs once a day (moist meat,rice + veg) and then for the other meal she has either baked potato or brown rice,raw chopped veg and sardines in oil or raw mince or chopped chicken and I get her raw bones from the butcher. Is working well for her and she is enjoying eating which she wasn't with the raw chicken wings. They're all different I suppose!
 
I've just walked them and she's passed some bone - so she must have eaten some of the chicken pieces.

Is it OK to wizz them in a blender for her?

She's always been a '4 poops per walk' mutt and I'm LOVING the 'one small poop' dog - so I'd really like to stick with it.

I don't mind blending - as I was going to buy a new blender for my new kitchen anyway - so she can use the old one.
 
I would keep going. Do you unfold the wing? How about offerring a beef rib. See what she thinks of that.

I don't understand fussy dogs. Mine don't do fussy. One ate a whole liver once and there are people on here who can't get dog to eat them. Only tine I had a fussy dog was when two were raw and one was kibble because of his age I didn't switch (15yrs) he's now raw can't even get him to eat tinned meat!
 
Inuit will eat anything.

But the old girl has been shy of chewing things for the last few years.

She's even careful when yawning not to open her mouth too wide - vet just thought it was inflammed ligaments and gave her a course of NSAIDS, which she loved but didn't last forever.
 
Just an update to say the old girl led down and cracked on with eating the chicken wings this morning with no fuss - phew!

Re getting started on an Raw diet, I have found this resource to be very helpful.

http://preymodelraw.com/how-to-get-started/

I'm only on day 4 of Raw, so no expert but,

From what I have learned in the last couple of weeks, there are two fractions of raw feeders....

The BARF people who believe dogs are omnivores and need raw bones mixed with raw veggies, supplements and fruit.

And the Raw Prey people, who believe dogs are carnivores and only need raw meat and bones. They have a ratio of what bone, muscle and organ meat should be fed and following the dog's stools advises you on how they're doing.

I am with the latter myself. Looking at my dogs teeth suggest they don't need cabbage to survive!

Golden rule is not to feed weight bearing bones of large animals (like beef) as they are too hard for teeth.

Chicken pieces (like the frozen bags in the supermarket) is a good place to start.
 
Blending bones is all very well but part of the point of raw is to give bones for them to clean their teeth by breaking them up themselves. Some companies offer raw minces with ground up bone, so all good, but I give lamb breast, pork ribs, pig trotters, chicken wings, all whole.

The ratio is 10:10:80 bone offal meat if you go for prey model. I give whole carcasses of chicken and whole rabbits.

I'm appalled at the vet saying chicken bones will pierce the dog. You do have to hold bones to start with so a dog new to it gets the idea of not swallowing whole.

I think vets get a day or so on nutrition for all animals, so they're not brilliant at the feeding and are sponsored to sell Science Plan, not a stunning feed.
 
My vet said he only supports and understands raw as that is what he feeds. Infact he said it was best thing for Will since his weightloss. They only way I can get him to eat vitalin is to soak in watery blood. Yuck
 
Just to update.

I've been feeding Raw a week now.

They've been having exclusive chicken peices from Sainsbury's.

Not the cheapest, but as we're sticking with chicken pieces to introduce it, it won't be as cheap as the 15kg sacks of kibble for £12;)

Salem (inuit with rash) is barely scratching any more and thinks every meal is Christmas:)

Xara (the old dog with the sore jaw and 4 poops per walk issue) is happily eating the bones now as long as she is outside and left alone for as long as she needs (Salem would steal her dinner if he was allowed to). She is pooping only twice per walk. She has a bit of breast added to the next meal if she seems a bit too firm.

They've had a couple of tins of fish in tomato added to chicken pieces for a meal and this has also gone well.

They've had chicken this morning and I'm going to give some pork this afternoon for the first time.

It's been amazingly easy so far. Salem vomited a couple of times in the first days, but not since. Xara has vomited a three times. But I'm not panicking as I understand it can happen at first while they get used to digesting something new.

The information I have gleaned from all the online resources linked on here has been key.

Going slowly and just feeding chicken for the first week, has made everything kinder on the dog's system and much easier on me emotionally!
 
Would also like to add that before - picking up poop was a chore.

Now it's something I look forward to as it gives me information and reassurance!
 
Well done so far, but now you need to try and source the chicken from somewhere where you can get it cheaper, Chicken factory, local butcher, market butcher or buy in bulk from a supplier as supermarket stuff can work out expensive if you are feeding a few dogs.
 
Oberon, where you based? I can think of three companies that deliver raw around the south or north. Maybe pm me with a vague location if you like.


http://rawtogo.co.uk/ Abergavenny, Wales, delivers nationwide via courier, leaves delivery outside if necessary in polystyrene so doesn't defrost.


http://www.thedogfoodcompany.co.uk/ Delivers south of Lincolnshire. Truly fab, IMO. Keep phoning/emailing til you get an answer. Based in Suffolk. I use him, I'm in Watford.

http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/ Durham/north east and Sittingbourne, weirdly.
 
Blackpool.

I have got pally with a local, dog loving, butcher so hopefully should get some cheaper cuts.

Would appreciate all suggestions as I am struggling financially right now.

I've introduced pork and they had (seared) chicken livers the other day.

Turkey drums tonight. Yum!
 
Google your nearest abattoir and go make eyes at them. Talk to all your local butchers. Phone Rawtogo: nationwide delivery. Find a greyhound trainers or large breeding kennels.

Life is much easier if you get a cheap freezer and stock up. :)
 
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