Raw feeding/food woes....

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WeedySeaDragon

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Is it possible to raw feed without using chicken?

We're having trouble feeding our whippet, everything we try seems to have something wrong with it. He was fed Fish4Dogs as a puppy and we kept him on that as our other two have been on it for years. He was fine for ages but all of a sudden turned into a poop machine, needing to go up to 7 times a day including at least once during the night. It's not a case of him needing to learn to hold it as when he's fed other stuff (which has other downsides) he'll happily sleep through the night and only go out a few times a day.

He did well digestion-wise on just Naturediet fish but he doesn't have a big enough appetite to eat enough to keep weight on. He dropped weight quite drastically as he just couldn't eat enough of it.

We tried Orijen Six Fish, introduced very gradually (over the course of a month) and it gave him diarrhoea which wouldn't clear up.

The obvious solution seems to be to try raw feeding but I am completely phobic about food contamination and it's bad enough when the OH cooks chicken. The idea of having to handle, prepare and then feed raw chicken pretty much every day honestly makes me feel sick. Red meat and fish, offal, whole rabbits, anything else I'm fine, it's just chicken.

So, is it feasible to raw feed whilst avoiding chicken? We need to find a solution that suits us all and other than non-poultry raw I'm not sure what else to try :(

Creme Eggs for anyone who has managed to read all that!!
 
I'm not overly keen on handling the raw meat either, my OH prepares the meals into freezer bags then into the freezer. When the meat is thawed (still in its wee bag) I carry the bag into the garden and tear it open and chuck the meat onto the grass without touching it :) (then run in and scrub hands!) Could you manage that?
 
Very easy to feed raw without chicken. Chicken gets used because it is cheap.

Just replace it with another meat and maybe some lamb breast for bones.

Sounds like fish doesn't suit your whippet. Have you tried a non fish Naturediet?
Why have you only tried fish based dry foods -try a lamb or duck based one.
Skinners field & trial is good and they will send samples.
 
I think trying to feed him outside would just result in him missing meals, I don't think anything would tempt him outside when it's cold/wet/windy :rolleyes:

We've tried all the flavours of Naturediet, he likes and eats any of them but we still have the problem with him not being able to eat enough to avoid dropping weight.

We tried him on the standard adult Orijen and it had the same result as the six fish, just constant diarrhoea from all three dogs.

We tend to go for fish based foods out of habit as one of our older dogs is quite sensitive and doesn't do so well on anything that isn't fish based.

I've had a look at the Skinners food but it's got vast amounts of rice in it and it seems counter intuitive to feed something with so much filler when we want him pooping less and not more!!
 
Can feeding a food too high in protein cause upset stomachs? I can't seem to find anything other than anecdotal evidence either way.

I'm wondering if something like Acana would be better than Orijen due to the lower protein content. Found a fair few incidents of dogs with upset stomachs on Orijen being ok when switched to Acana.

I will be honest and say that we'd prefer to feed complete foods rather than raw. We'll do raw if we have to to get him sorted but a good complete food that they can all have would be preferable.
 
Loads other raw to feed! Plus chances are he will eat it more readily because most dogs seem to think it's Christmas when you switch them to raw :-)
 
High protein can give them the runs I was warned about this when I switched to Acana from JWB. Currently feeding fish4dogs which doesn't help but I would try one of the other hypo allergenic foods in another flavour. Most will provide samples.
 
I think he needs some vet investigation ,it may be some bug or lack digestive ability ,and not diet at all. A swab to cover stuff like bacteria,worm count would be the way to go.A healthy digestive system does`nt break down so easily,dogs are tough..or should be.Once I had a GSD like this..he went onto Pro-Zyme for a while and was fine thereafter.
 
I'd be tempted to try Wainwright's trays. I used it on them instead of the old cooked chicken and rice if there is an upset tummy issue. It invariably helps.
 
If you want to avoid the runs on raw then you need to keep up the bone content, I often use lamb bones if they have too much muscle meat and get a little loose.

Most people use chicken as the bones are softer but also because it has the best nutrient levels of all the meats. Rabbit is similar so it would be fine to substitute. Lamb is next best on the list but some of the bones can be very hard. I feed breast of lamb because of this as mine are now getting older and I do not want to wear their teeth excessively on very hard bone.
If the dog has issues with dry food then probably best to switch straight to raw.
 
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