Feeding Raw

[gerbilgirl]

I would much appreciate if others can forget previous posts and give me some genuine advice here without snide remarks. Thanks .

I'm thinking of feeding raw but would like an idea of the cost per dog. Obviously it will vary with size so, for an idea, ours are about 18kg to 20kg each.

Also, has anyone fed raw to cats? How did it go, how much it did work out about, etc? I have 15, and at the minute it's costing about £40 per month to feed the cats (although 4 are still very small kittens so obviously this will go up a bit).

And were do you get the meat/bones to feed raw, do you go to a butchers, a grocery store, or straight to the factory, if so, do you arrange a deal of a particular amount every day? If going straight to the factory, how much work has to be done to the carcass (or whatever you would call it, as I'm thinking chicken heads, etc, correct me if I'm wrong on this too) to make it suitable for eating? There seems to be a lot of different opinions on safety of feeding chicken bones, so any opinions on this?

What is the favoured type of animal to feed, do you vary it? Same for cats if any experiences. Do you feed any supplements to prevent food poisoning, etc? Do you feed vegetables, rice or anything alongside? Also how often do you buy meat, every day or every few days, or would I be completely mad to assume it would keep a few days?

Also anything else I need to know? I'm completely dull on the topic so will be very interested to read. Thanks again.

 

[soloabe]

You don't have to worry about food poisoning! It ain't gonna happen!

In England it cost me about £15 a month for one 35kg dog and one 20kg dog.

So i would say probably about the same for you depending on where you get it from.

You will need a fair amount of freezer space to make it cost effective.
I have a whole freezer for my dogs.

So we got a bag every 2 weeks of offcuts from the butcher, so its worth having a chat with them. Things like chicken necks some meats that didn't sell ect.

Then you have to become champion at raiding the bargain bin at the super market for meat.

We always had a few of tescos cheap chicken cut up the the freezer in case we got low and also a couple of bags of mince.

We feed the prey model which after a lot of research i feel is the best.
80% lean meat 10% bone and 10% organ a day.
At 2-3% of their body weight.

So say your dog is 18kg that = 360g.

So you can get all your meat and bag it up into little freezer bags of 360g each then you just have to grab a few bags out of the freezer the night before instead of weighing it out everytime.

We did join in with some friends from a training club and get a delivery of meat but we had to get over 70lbs of meat at a time and it didn't work out much cheaper for us than getting things from the butchers.

Chicken is your best bet for starting off, legs and wings are good although be careful they are not to high in bone content.
Try not to feed many weight bearing bones because they can crack teeth on them. so no beef legs ect.

Don't need to feed any rice or veg or anything. Dogs don't digest it well, it does them no good.

What you can do is feed them eggs a couple of times a week. Start off cracking it over the food and then you can just give it them whole.

Any more questions you can PM me!

 

[lizziebell]

Also, has anyone fed raw to cats? How did it go, how much it did work out about, etc? I have 15, and at the minute it's costing about £40 per month to feed the cats (although 4 are still very small kittens so obviously this will go up a bit).

Katielou is raw expert so I can't really add to her post, however regarding cats - its a lot more difficult to convert them due to the nature of them being rather particular about things. Our dogs are fed raw and we are trying to convert our cats too but its a slow process. They will eat raw chicken diced small with no bone, but won't eat any other raw meats or anything larger than small dices of meat. We are trying to overcome this by giving cooked meat (NEVER EVER COOKED BONES!!), and gradually reducing the amount it is cooked so that overtime it is cooked less and less until they will eat it raw. It is definately a challenge with cats, but I hope with time it can be acheieved.

 

[gerbilgirl]

I don't think our cats should be as difficult to convert as cats that are used to being picky choosy about food. Our cats are usually pretty quick to eat whatever they're given as they know it goes fast with so many lol. Only trying it will tell though!

 

[gerbilgirl]

And also thanks for the great and indepth advice Katielou_houston. It also seems very cheap compared to what the food's costing at the minute!

 

[sonjafoers]

OK, let me start by saying I am absolutely NO EXPERT on this but I can give you an indication of my experiences having converted to raw meat for my 2 rottties in the last few months. What I will say is I read a lot about the BARF diet and I got a lot of helpful info from people on here but I have not followed the BARF diet strictly due to practicalities etc.

My local butcher was unable to provide me with the quantity of meat I need for mine, so I have had to take a 'middle route' so to speak and order frozen meats from our pet shop. I get blocks & mince from AMP (check them out on-line) and also Landywoods can deliver meat & bones too.

My dogs weigh about 50kg each & they get 800g of meat a day (either 2 x 400g blocks or 2 x 400g mince) plus bones and a holistic biscuit - I think this is frowned upon by BARF followers but I have spoken to my very knowledgeable pet shop & my vet about this and so far I have had no problems.

Mine get raw rabbit, chicken, fish & lamb products as they cannot tolerate beef or tripe. They also get poultry necks or chicken wings and I would say 20% of their diet is bone & the rest raw meat. I give them a cup of the biscuits each a day seperately to the meat, and I also give them a vitamin supplement a few times a week. Once a week they get oily fish such as mackrel or sardines from Tesco and they love it. My mum also brings them lamb chops with the small bony bits in as a treat which they wolf down.

I have tried to add small amounts of veg & rice to their meals but they get very upset tummies with even the slightest amount of veg and they tend to pick the rice out!

I reckon I spend about £50-£60 a month for the two.