Raw diet, could you tell me about it?

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R.A.H

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As title says really?
Could someone tell me about the raw diet? What do you feed? Is it expensive? What are the benefits?
Thanks
 
There's a really helpful sticky at the top of this board.

I feed chicken carcasses (human grade), whole minced chicken and tripe as the main staples, costs about £12 to feed one dog for a month. I also feed good quality kibble from my pocket for training purposes.
If there are any other novel odds and sods in, like hearts, liver, lungs, kidneys, ox tails etc, I might pick them up for a treat, never anything more than £5 a bag.
I buy from a feed merchant who supplies greyhound tracks.

I also feed large raw bones which I get free from butchers.

Benefits are, shiny coat, excellent sparkly teeth, small dry infrequent poo, lots of energy and best of all it is what they are designed to eat.

You'll need freezer space. There are plenty of pre-packed options like Prize Choice, Natural Instinct, DUCK, etc.
 
i feed minces from berriwood and add my own veg mix, then they get a big bone as a treat every now and again. Costs me about £25 per dog a month (collies)
 
Thanks for the info. Thanks
For the link lexiedhb I was wondering where I could get the food from. How do I know how much to feed?
I have a springer spaniel bitch, she is 15kg. Plus do I change her gradually or change straight over?
 
feeding raw and dry at the same time can cause problems as they digest at different rates, i just went for broke and changed mine.

mine comes from here
http://www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/sec/5764/Berriewood/

i used to get from Natural Instinct (see below) and it is fab but expensive. A good way to start out though as each tub is a balanced meal with veg added and coming in 1kg tubs is easy to portion out how much your dog needs (3% on average of their ideal adult bodyweight). You really have to go by the dog infront of you though - i have one 'poor dooer' skinny bitch who is on something like 8%to keep weight on her.

http://www.naturalinstinct.com

look here for all the info you need
http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-health-nutrition/111437-raw-feeding-everything-you-need-know.html
 
You want to feed 2-3% of their ideal adult body weight. So if 15kg is right for your dog you'd want to feed between 300-450g per day, I feed by eye having weighed the food initially, so if he is looking a bit portly he gets less, a bit ribby he gets more (or fattier things like lamb).

You can change instantly- or do what I did and feed one kibble meal and one raw (as far apart as poss) for a while.

Start with chicken- wings/mince/quarters/thighs- for a week or so, then add in green tripe, then one other meat a week (some dogs are sensitive to some meats). + bones etc. Then add in offal (can upset tummies)! Fish/eggs are also good!!

Personally I dont add Veg- but some folk do.

The pet community forum also has some really good stickies.
 
When I first started on it, i rung all our local butchers to find out who could get me chook carcasses in. I get a box 15kg (roughly 80 carcasses) for £5.

Our local fishmonger gives me a bag of scraps - usually salmon, once a week for free, and another local butcher gives me two large bin bags of bones, and scraps - liver, hearts etc, a week, again for free :D

I also buy veggies which I puree for them (no onions, or potatoes, and try to make the above ground vegs equal the below ground veg), live bio yoghurt and eggs.

It cost me so little to feed 3 large dogs (the box of carcasses lasts me 10 days approx), thanks to local suppliers.

Just make sure, when you ask at your butchers for bones etc that you say you don't want the big marrow bones as they'll charge for them and also they are too tough for dogs teeth.
 
How are you guys not spending a fortune?! I tried to work out a monthly cost for feeding an entirely raw diet to my Rottie, and it worked out extortionate. I pay £30 a month for dry food for her and im yet to find a supplier of raw that has been cheaper.
 
It costs me about £12 to feed a dog raw for a month, that's chicken carcasses, tripe and whole minced chicken. I keep a big bag of dry food for training/hand feeding and pick up offal sporadically so I don't really count that but the additional cost per month is minimal.
 
How!? Where are you getting it from?! I've explored the options of using a company like honeys that stock complete minces but they're so unbelievably expensive, they quoted me £80 a month to feed my 6 month old.
I dont know of any local stockists of bits and pieces like carcasses and minces near me, (near preston if you have any ideas) Or do you know of any online companies that will deliver?
 
I honestly wouldnt know actually CaveCanem, i may have to do some digging! Thanks for the links Lexiedhb. How big is your dog?
I struggle a little gauging how much to feed Ella with her being a pup
 
DAF seems to deliver to Lancashire- if thats where you are lol

http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/content/1-delivery Look in their frozen section.

You wanna feed 2-3% of their ideal adult body weight. Some need more, some need less depends on the dog/exercise etc- Dex should be approx 27kg so should get between 540g and 810g a day BUT he puts on weight very easily, and is not being exercised as much as he was when I lived with him.
 
Id expect Ella will be almost double that, so that works out at about 1kg per day. Does that sound about right? Shes currently just over 20kg and 6 months.

Thanks for the DAF link, i'll have a look :D
 
Hmm, so by looking at DAF's chicken and tripe blocks, it works our roughly £27 per month? (i want to be absolutely certain before i go ahead as i need to give OH a good reason for us to buy another freezer :D)
 
lexiedhb said:
I so wish they delivered down south- great array of stuff. Tis not all about the money- tis much better for your dog too!
Click to expand...

I used to order from DAF when I lived up north. I now live in Wiltshire and they have a stockist called Raw2Paw in Weston super mare that delivers throughout the south and their menu is exactly the same as DAF
 
If your on Facebook Raw Feeding UK is a brilliant site

Puppies get up to 10% of their bodyweight, not 3%. 3% should only ever be a guideline for adult dogs. My 2 whippet type lurchers, who admittedly work quite hard get closer to 5%. So in my case a 15kg dog gets 500 to 800gms a day. You soon learn to do it by eye though.

You need to feed a ratio of 80:10:10 Thats 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% liver. The more variety the better. I have 7 or more different minces on the go and rota them all weekly or so.

It costs me £30 a month for my 2 and 2 cats. I could spend a lot less, and a lot more :D

I buy mine form DAF and Manifold Valley Meats. I prefer MVM, I prefer the packaging, and the fact they label it makes my life easier! But MVM is slightly more expensive. I also get freebies from the butcher and buy anything that looks edible from the reduced section.

Theres loads more I could write, but thats the basics :)
 
Dexter said:
If your on Facebook Raw Feeding UK is a brilliant site

Puppies get up to 10% of their bodyweight, not 3%. 3% should only ever be a guideline for adult dogs. My 2 whippet type lurchers, who admittedly work quite hard get closer to 5%. So in my case a 15kg dog gets 500 to 800gms a day. You soon learn to do it by eye though.

You need to feed a ratio of 80:10:10 Thats 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% liver. The more variety the better. I have 7 or more different minces on the go and rota them all weekly or so.

It costs me £30 a month for my 2 and 2 cats. I could spend a lot less, and a lot more :D

I buy mine form DAF and Manifold Valley Meats. I prefer MVM, I prefer the packaging, and the fact they label it makes my life easier! But MVM is slightly more expensive. I also get freebies from the butcher and buy anything that looks edible from the reduced section.

Theres loads more I could write, but thats the basics :)
Click to expand...

I've been chatting away on there all afternoon and im currently looking at second hand freezers :D
 
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