Natural Dog Diet

[Lightning]

Hello, I have a Rottweiller who seems to be getting an upset belly on most conventional complete dog food. I am thinking of changing his diet to a natural diet. I have read up about this but what I can't seem to find it quantities to feed for such a large dog and also whether it will work out more expensive than buying a large sack of Ekanuba which seems to be the only feed he agrees with but finding the costs of this brand very expensive.

I also have a small mini jack russell who I also might change over, although he is a tough little thing with what he eats so would be interested in quantities for him.

Any help really or advise or even not to go down this route or suggestions for other feeds etc would be very welcomed.

THanks

 

[GinaB]

What dog foods have you tried them on? Have you tried any of the hypoallergenic dry dog foods?

 

[millimoo]

You poor thing, my lab is extremely sensitive to certain brands of quality all in one's.
At my wits end when she was a pup, my the vet receptionist recommended 'The Natural Dog Food Company' and we've not looked back.
Google their web site and read the feedback. You can also speak to them and they have a nutritionist they can get to contact you too.
Whilst they're not the cheapest, the quantities I have to feed is much less than other brands (admittedly she's a good doer) so a 15kg bag lasts me forever.
They will send you some free samples to try if you ask them.
Good luck

 

[KarynK]

If you mean changing to Raw then it can be an experimental process until you get it right for your dog. But that's the beauty of the diet, it is rubbish that a dog must eat a balanced meal at every sitting.

I would probably double up on my quatities for the rotti and halve them for the JRT, see how it goes but basically if you want to put on weight feed more muscle meat and more bone to loose, 80% bone to meat will give you maintenance, thats what you find on a chicken wing. I feed once a day as that is probably what they would do in the wild, but they get small treats during the day.

please excuse me if this has been up before but I keep it to copy and paste!!!

I have two Australian Cattle Dogs, medium sized but quite stocky! Most of the diet is sourced from the local butcher and he charges the princely sum of about £3 to gather bones together and that lasts a month!!! I have a small chest freezer so I can buy in bulk for them. I also get chicken wings from him at about 25p each, or from the supermarket. The supermarket reduced fridge is where you will find me! Basically I feed human grade food and organic where possible, especially fruit and veg.


It’s important no to mix the two diets as the raw food travels through the dog quite quickly and wheat and dried food does not, so serious problems can arise. Basically you don’t need to balance the diet on a daily basis and probably mine are balanced over a week or even two. If I am running low on something and they get Chicken for a week I don’t worry as wild canines would do that if there were a glut of some kind, like baby rabbits. So you need to think what they would get if wild. Sometimes they get it frozen if I forget to defrost it! They don’t mind at all!!

For each of mine:

1 x Chicken Carcass with a bit of meat on it or 4-5 Chicken wings form the basis of the diet and I would feed that probably on average 4 days a week. Sometimes I buy a chicken for me, remove and roast the crown and they get the rest. Wings are really good as they have a perfect meat to bone ratio of about 80%. Occasionally they get turkey as well.

1 day a week I will feed mince of some kind a large packet between 2, to this I add a couple of heaped tablespoons of blended veg, like spinach plus carrots and anything left in the fridge, fruit as well but in small quantities and blended so as to break down the cellulose and make it available to the dog, like they would find it partially digested in a preys stomach. I usually use an egg as liquid with cold pressed (uncooked) cod liver oil or olive oil. I will also bung in a handful of pumpkin seeds from the health store as this will help remove worms by irritating them, and sometimes a kelp tablet as a supplement. Sometimes I use the dog packet minces frozen from the pet store, but only when I am being lazy.

I feed lamb ribs 1 each if they don’t have a lot of meat on them, and they will have those once or twice a week and one meal of offal, mine are not very keen on liver and kidneys but love hearts. Sometimes I will lightly brown liver so that they at least get some. They have frozen raw green tripe from the pet store and I rotate that as part of the offal meal.

Then I will feed whatever comes my way from the butcher, pork trotters occasionally as it does make them stink a bit! Rabbit they like, and deer bones and other game if I can get it. The only cooked they get is a tin of pilchards in tomato sauce, sometimes they get a raw fish mixed in from the reduced counter, whitebait are quite good. They will eat salmon heads as well.

I give eggs as a treat or bits of fruit and veg and the odd biscuit as a treat or Bob Martins beef jerky. They also get lamb spine bones as a treat to keep them quiet and occasionally a beef knuckle, but as they are inclined to squabble I have to take them away when I’m not about to supervise.

 

[jaynedoc]

I have just bought a german shepherd pup (8 weeks old now)

and he was weened onto a raw meat diet with complan mix.

He is fantastic condition and growing fast..though I have noticed he dosen't eat alot of it...less than one pack a day at teh moment.

I love this diet as I can't abide the slmell of tinned dog food..makes me wretch...When I tell people he eats raw meat you should see thier faces...when i point out that it has no smell (just like when you open a packet of mince for your own dinner) they change their mind.