Natural Feeding (Raw Diet)

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pocomoto

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Is anyone out there feeding raw, just a poll really just celebrating 10 years of feeding raw food!

Love the no cooking smells, no nasty smelly can food, no nasty little dry wheat buscuits, no itches, no ear problems, no runny tummies, few fleas picked up, no vets visits for skin conditions or teeth cleaning, no chewing furniture and no stinky sloppy waste products to "pick up", big plus feeding 2 cattle dogs for a month for less than £5

Interested to hear your thoughts shock horror!
 
All of mine are on it! Apart from lactating bitches and young pups I'll never feed anything but BARF!

Much healthier dogs. Dogs digestive systems are built to eat 99% protein and fats, they are not supposed to eat carbs(apart from grass and a few veggies or fruit), especially not complex carbs (wheat) yet the majority of the country insist on putting c*ap in their dogs tummys, can't fathom why
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This argument will rattle on and on and we fed both commercially prepared feed and our dog would have raw meaty when he caught it himself! He died last week of Osteosarcoma, the number one killer of wolfhounds. Not feed related! We have friends who have wolfies that have been very long lived and have always fed commercial food and others who swear by barf. Whatever suits is right. Your dog will soon tell you otherwise.
 
Have always fed green tripe to adults, but supplemented with complete to in whelp and lactating bitches and pups. Have never had tummy problems and GSDs can be prone to them. I do know plenty of people who swear by complete feeds though. During last months F & M scare couldn't get tripe and had to feed complete. Old bitch lost quite a bit of weight and whilst none had upset tummies, I must hve had 3 times the amount of poo to clear up! Apart from that factor don't think I could afford to keepmine on complete all the time. It costs me between £3 and £6 (1 or 2 tripes) a week to keep 3 adult GSDs.
 
But surely Woolly, whats natural is right, dogs/wolves would never have eaten wheat or biscuit food, they're diet consists of 99% meat. The first thing the girls do when they come out in the morning is take a few mouthfuls of grass, the Indians years and years ago only found out how useful plants were from watching wolves, its the only Carbs they ate and the only carbs they need.

Simple is always best. And remember alot of cheap biscuit food is full of rubbish, addatives and preservatives...certainly wouldn't put that in my dog!
 
I don't feed raw, but I feed homecooked (made by a local holistic pet store). Essentially, it is organic turkey breast, zucchini, squash, broccoli, plus various vitamins, minerals and flax. My Boston Terrier does very well on it, and has great condition in her coat.

My new dog will be put on California Natural dry when we first get him, and we'll see how he's doing in a few months.

Here's shiny Stella
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Logic would completely agree with you severnmiles. I do applaud you as it is screamingly obvious you have nothing but the best interest of your animals.
It is so interesting and our Wolfhound frequently caught his own dinner ( wabbies) and given half a chance would have liked a bit of venison. We fed him on the natures choice tripe and meat and it never 100% agreed with him. He liked it but it would only be totally perfect with a commercially prepared dry mix. He hated pasta/potatoes/bread and only liked Basmati rice!
Now he never ever used grass as a emetic and only grazed on 3 specific plants, Gallium arparine, courgette leaves and some form of wild plant. He refused all veg cooked and raw.
He did very well on what he caught and what we bought. He never had 'biscuits' as such as he hated them. He had Pero gold although had tried most pet food available. He didn't tolerate too much fat well.
Given his choice a nice soft freshly caught wabby was the best but not enough to survive on. I find it all fascinating and what ever works stick with.
 
That reminds me of our JRT, he's teeny and picked up a whole rabbit and ate the lot, fur and all (which is good roughage for the digestive system) all that was left were 4 feet or rather pads and a tail! The little mite didn't eat for about 2 days.

Do you still have a dog?
 
I feed my dog a combination of homecooked and raw
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He looks great on it and loves his food.
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I do keep a couple of packets of naturediet handy in case we going away for the weekend - but would never go back to comercial pet food.

Is a personal choice - I just wish more people would read the labels of commercial pets food (Like don't buy stuff that says meat derivatives.. cos that isn't meat...)
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there are some good ones and some really bad ones... so long as people know what they are feeding then commercial food is also ok...
 
I don't quite understand how the BARF/Raw diet works? Can someone explain to me please?

The Beast is fed the Burns pet food. She has to be on a low protein diet.

Tina is fed a meal formulated specifically for her. Not sure what all is in it but it changes depending on her condition and whether it's the shooting season.
 
Burns is a good one
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the diet I feed includes things like raw meaty bones (eg. lamb ribs, chicken wings etc.) for breakfast... then a homecooked or raw dinner (eg. meat porridge) which includes some veg and carbs. Mine is a breed specific diet - so as my dog is a lab and they were orignally bred for retrieving fish - he gets fish once or twice a week. He also gets game and some offal eg. liver/ heart / tripe etc...

BARF would mean it was all fed raw... but I prefer to do some homecooked...

Not sure I have explained well
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So do you buy all raw ingredients and prepare it yourself? How do you work out quantites etc?

Beastie seems quite happy on Burns. She was horrified at the fish and brown rice flavour to begin with as she'd never had anything fishy but now seems to love it. She also gets an oil added as her skin can be a bit flaky.
 
Yes - mine has oil added too...

The diet sheet gave me quanities for Loki up to the age of 6 months (The woman who does the diet sheets does them for a donation to dog rescue - she is a behaviourist/ trainer as well and is helping us with our training - especially as I had hoped to see if Loki might be suitable to work
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So he is 9 months now and I have adapted the diet to reduce the number of meals but keep the same quantities... and I know as he gets older his needs will change. So the ratios in the diet will too)...

It is easy to buy the ingredients and the raw part is almost no preparation at all... even the homecooked bit isn't really a pain - eg. just cook some meat up with some rice - add some oil a few veggies and split into portions - freeze the excess for future days. He doesn't get exactly the same thing each day - it is supposed to be a balanced diet over time - like humans I guess?

Sevenmiles will prob be abvle to explain better cos she does fully raw I think?
 
Loki is a good ad for it as he looks so healthy!

How's he gettin gon with his training btw? Little Cindy is starting to sprout up a bit and is darkening to a more golden colour. And big Tina is just glad to be out proper shooting again!
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I shall get more on Sunday when I am over. If I can get her to sit still that is! She has the sweetest temperament and loves retrieving things. Always a good start!
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I think a lot of dogs tend to go through this stage. Now we're back in full swing she will be out every Saturday probably unless my uncle is working. Not always full days though, sometimes just short shoots. My uncle tends to go down south for the shooting, it's better than NI. In all honesty we're not sure how much longer we'll have Tina in full work. We're going to see how she goes this season then take it from there.

She loves it though! As soon as she hears the gun cabinet being unlocked she's sitting ready at the front door!
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I am just deciding whether to feed BARF or not. Ordered the book. We do already get bones from the butchers, which go down a treat!

Just a query can you give any bones? Butcher said they get pork bones, would they still be OK?
 
I give any bones to my dog.

Some people don't feed pork bones - again - personal choice. Mine is fine on them. He also gets beef bones - but some breeds of dog don't get on well with beef (meat or bones) and get itchy/ have a reaction - Guess depends on your dog - you can try any bones, just never cooked bones.

Interestingly - I was speaking to my Vet the other day and she was telling me that she feeds her dog raw bones. Although not a full BARF diet. Which I was surprised about because vets don't always go for the natural feeding thing. Although that vet on that TV programme about obese dogs and their owners (can't remember the name of the prog - help my dog's as fat as me - or something?) and he put all the dogs on BARF to help them lose weight...
 
Sorry bit tardy replying been out to bum dinner off my sister sushi, no only joking.

Wish I had had the courage to try raw sooner as my first little mutt sadly died prematurely from colon cancer that really did it for me when I talked to someone feeding raw and realised that I could possibly have helped her. So I went off researching.

I read Food Pets Die for by Ann Martin (not for the feint hearted) But I was really disappointed at the end when she started cooking the food!!! I then read Aussie Vet Ian Billingshurst’s books but a few things he fed in there didn’t really inspire me because I was now thinking what a wild dog would eat, so on to Kimithy Scholtz and then I found this site members.aol.com/Brushbow/src/species.htm, so bits from each really.

Now I have 2 rescued Aussie Cattle Dogs, VERY active loud mouthed blokes. Both have had behavioural problems in the past obviously as they have ended up with me, but raw diet has helped with their temperament (no E’s, colouring’s or overdoses of sugar) and of course it provides them with exercise even when eating.

They both “help out” with the horses, and come out on rides so are very fit and like most blokes are VERY competitive, when chasing a ball its through it or over it never round and always at full tilt, so they use a lot of energy.

I feed mainly chicken carcasses and I also buy wings, out of BBQ season.

The carcasses have quite a bit of meat on them and sometimes arms as well so 1 carcass each I find maintains the weight well. Wings depending on the size 4-5 each.

I use the knuckle lamb bones for a treat but they don’t last long, must be the dingo genes! But they have one side of a rack of lamb ribs, with meat still in between the bones as a meal.

I also get pigs trotters with the bone above and one of those each occasionally is a meal, but like venison and beef bones they are quite hard (+ makes them fart!)

They will also get rabbit, if I can with the fur still on and if I have time not too badly mutilated road kill Rabbit! They don’t catch them for themselves, preferring to herd them neatly back down their holes, whilst looking over at me for approval!

They also get the odd salmon head and bits of fish from the fishmonger though they are not that keen. Occasionally I will give them tinned sardines in tomato sauce for omega 3 and a bit of a treat, usually when I have forgotten to defrost tea! Sometimes they just get it frozen, lamb popsicles are a favourite.

Offal of some kind they have once a week – Mine prefer lambs liver but aren’t that keen on it, they don’t like lungs or kidneys, but love hearts and unwashed tripe.

I do differ in opinion from some BARF diets in that I do not over feed veg. Once a week I get some in season veg, I do like spinach for them and bits from the fridge I have forgotten about and chuck it in the blender with some kelp tabs and pumpkin seeds (for worms) and blitz it with an egg then they have it over a soft meat meal, such as mince.

Sometimes they will have an egg each as a treat.

If they occasionally do get a bit of the runs, usually me giving them too much meat, I use lamb bones as roughage, the result you could, if that way inclined, write on a board with!

I do up the portions if they look like they are loosing a bit of weight or if they have worked very hard and of course down them if they look a bit porky!

They do get “sweeties” now and again in the form of the odd biscuit and air dried jerky, they didn’t like the dried fish jerky though. Sometimes I add a little honey to their veg mix as I figure, like bears a wolf wouldn’t say no to that. One of my boy’s loves blackberries and will pick his own so probably a pack would have snacked on these sorts of fruits every autumn.

For smaller or older dogs I would chop up the bones a bit with my trusty axe from B&Q.

To those thinking about it I’d say do your research on what a wild dog would eat then compare that to what ingredients are in commercial dog food. Have a look at what the regulations are on what goes into commercial dog food and what they do and don’t have to declare is in the food. Then look at the effects of what they have declared particularly colorants and additives many of which are plastics especially the extenders and preservatives, then look at the % cereal/rice content. Then make an informed decision as to if you want to continue feeding that to a member of your family?

Personal opinion - long may this debate go on for if one person from this posting gives it a try I will have done something useful today.
 
I feed raw. Just buy the raw meat 'packets' from my feed store. My older bitch can be fussy but she loves the all raw diet although neither of mine will eat chicken and heart... don't know why but they hate it. they love tripe although the smell makes me retch.

on the odd occasion they get tinned they both spend the next 24 hrs passing really vile wind (
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pocomoto - I feed sea kelp and pumpkin seeds too
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I have to say I wouldn't go back now to comercial food - but then I wouldn't eat ready meals myself anymore, and I used to... And look how people's opinion has changed on ready meals etc. I hope the same will happen for dogs and cats... they don't deserve to have crap food cos we are lazy.

Maybe more high quality pets food will appear as well - which would also be a start
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I've thought about feeding raw but not really sure what to feed and how much to feed.
Also how do you all fit it in in your freezer??! Cos doesn't the raw food have to be frozen first to kill any nasties?? I don't have time to be going to the butchers every couple of days and not sure if i'd have room in frrezer to store food fo rthe dog for 4-6 days.
I've give my dog the occaisional chicken wing raw which she loves.
 
I too also want to change to the raw diet, we have given them frozen steak a couple of times and defrosted mince and they loved it, in fact Im not sure if thats why Amber went off her dry food as she got a taste for the meat. They are both on Autarky at the moment, can anyone tell me where you can buy chicken wings from? Ive looked in Asda and Iceland and still havent found them???

Can I also just clarify, uncooked chicken bones are okay arent they, its just cooked ones that can splinter and they can choke on???

When you say chicken carcess, can you buy these? Are things like thighs, legs and drumsticks okay? Im very squemish about things like offel are they necessary? (might just have to get hubby to deal with that bit!)

Im fed up of their horrendous wind and runny bums, they liked the raw so much better, we tried them each on an egg the other day, raw with shell and all, dante loved it and ate the shell, but amber wouldnt eat the shell.

We havent got the worlds biggest freezer either... more trips to asda I think! How much a day would you give a 37 kg dog and a 27 kg dog?

Full of bleedin questions aren't I!!!!!!!!!!
 
Great started something!

Widget - couldn’t agree more feed the horses on shock horror grass all summer and haylage and simple systems in the winter, makes me laugh how commercial feed all smells nice and has bits of dried apple in it just for the owners!!! Likewise cant stop laughing at the ads for dog food with pasta and peas !
Managed to persuade a friend to put her cat on raw, sickly thing no appetite on diabetic medicine, Poor thing was a house cat. Within 2 months off meds and she had to put a lock on the fridge door! Bit more difficult with cats though can be fussy.

Sadly few quality pet foods on market and almost all are cooked and no bones. Shame thought about starting a prepacked frozen company but regs with raw meat and bones are terrible.

Smokeybabes

For chicken carcases you need to chat up your local butcher as all the supermarkets have processing plants to do the boning and unless you live near one then forget it. Mine charges a bit for his time but still works out months supply for my two and my sisters 8 is £5! They have to pay someone to take all the bones away. But carcases are ideal as like wings they are a perfect bone to meat ratio for dogs. The bones are important, bet you or someone you know has had their dogs anal gland squeezed? Expensive? Well its purpose is to help grease the passage of rock hard poo made up of almost pure calcium. Of course with the slop that results from kibble and canned gelly it's out of a job!

Bought a cheap freezer for £20 in the garden shed but if you buy an axe you can thump them a bit and get quite a few in the freezer. I find if you buy from the butcher for yourself they hardly charge anything and you get better meat too if you can spare the time for a weekly or 2 weekly visit. Lamb ribs are great as they are really flat and stack nicely.

The dog’s digestive system is very short because they are naturally scavengers, a short gut means a short digestive period and less time for bacteria to take a hold. A dog with a healthy gut should be able to eat just about anything (and mine do) without any danger of nasties like salmonella. I know someone with akitas who wont eat rabbit unless it is hung till its skanky! Alternatively a Elephant is so big as it’s gut needs to be so long in order to get anything out of the extreme fibre they eat they need to ferment it for long periods leaving them open to attack by nasties.. Trouble is we feed our dogs fibre in the form of complex carbohydrates and it weakens their resistance to pathogens by slowing down gut action.! Good old Wheat and rice.

Dante
Most big supermarkets have wings but through the summer sometimes they are in short supply due to BBQ’s . The local butcher should be able to supply them and if you order in bulk you usually get them cheaper. I can always be found at the reduced fridge in supermarkets getting bargains for the hounds, so look carefully no shame Tues are best! I have also found a game butcher locally and spend a lot of the winter rummaging through his bins! Not squeamish any more! Sorry work in old money what sort of size/type are your dogs, my two probably weigh about 2 ½ to 3 stone. My feeding is as above and the Cattle dogs are a medium height 2 ½ ft tall but quite heavy boned and muscled breed compared to collies. The beauty of this diet is that you can “wing it” a bit (Ha Ha)! Feeding by eye is great you can even weigh them periodically if you like, but you don’t have to worry about balancing their diet on a daily basis and it’s a one meal a day job and i supplies all the vits and mins they need over he space of a week or two. But is not good to mix the diets it’s an all or nothing job.

Don’t be surprised if your dogs go through a detox period when you start out, its getting all that rubbish out of the system and can take a few weeks but it is worth persevering, my oldest had been on crap for some time when I got him and he scratched for a while.
 
About a month and 1/2 ago I started my dogs on the RAW diet and wouldn't go back on kibble for anything in the world - my dogs are getting healthier and the coats and attitudes are improving!!!

Anybody interested in learning how to feed a RAW diet to your dogs let me know I'll explain to you how to do it's easy! Start with chicken...

Brandi
Max, Duke and Catori (the GSD gang) and the one and only Roxie (Whippet mix) and
Chief (my first Missouri Foxtrotter)
 
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