Raw Diet - Page 1

I have a 3 month old gsd and the breeder I got him from had them on Science diet.  After a little investigating I found out Science Diet isn't good to give so I switched over to taste of the wild.  I like the results that bart is having with it, but I would like to switch over to a raw diet.  Are there any sites or books that anyone recommends?

Read all you can for growing up a puppy on raw.  The most informative day by day site I have found was a menu on von Lotta GSD site.  Also read Jane Andeson's PWD info;   raw diet on Yahoo;  Join raw diet Yahoo; and just possibly, I would not feed kibble and raw at the same time of day;  but I would just start adding a piece of chicken to his/her diet at one meal like a leg quarter in PM and kibble for AM feeding;  if puppy gets lunch give ground meat, cottage cheese, yogart, and  a hard boiled egg.  Eggs can be given raw later in the puppies life but for getting started and I would scramble/hard boil.  chicken backs, necks, and offal are good for puppies, wings also, Get some large beef marrow bones for chewing; give some raw beef also but do all this slowly, see how the puppy tolerates it all.  BOL  Nan


PS:  There are lots of books on raw feeding;  pick up a couple and get started.  YOu can adjust as you go along.  N

First let me say that I don't mean to stir the pot again and get every one riled up.  This topic seems to have generated a lot of....uh...emotion.

I have been reading all the recent posts on feeding raw and also a few books....the latest one being "Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs" by Lew Olson.  Also looked at the von Lotta website.
I didn't find the articles there at first until I noticed the menu bar at the bottom....Anyway.  I did not read all of their information yet but I intend to later today.

Ok. my question is Has anyone touched on the long term affects of feeding one diet or the other?  Maybe I missed it because I admit to skimming alot of the posts.  Sorry.  I'll go back and reread. Promise.

The reason I ask is because I have fed kibble for years.  But over the past few years I have lost several dogs to different forms of cancer.
I have fed different kibbles depending on the different factors such as an EPI dog, older dogs vs younger dogs and yes financial concerns at times dictated a cheaper kibble.
They all seem to do well at the time, however, my concern regarding long term effects is increasing.
Lew Olson's book does have a chapter outlining diet suggestions for feeding kibble in addition to raw and also kibble with home cooked food.

Like I said above...I don't want to upset anyone but I would be interested in sharing ideas, opinions, info etc.

Do you think it is an immunity problem?  Has anyone heard of or used "K9 Immunity"?  http://www.dogcancer.net/k9-immunity-plus.html 

Thanks for listening.
 

This is a great link for people switching to a raw diet.  I've been feeding raw for about a year now and the result's are amazing. 75% less crap, yes 75%!!! Spotless teeth, no bad breath, I had one eating crap. After raw diet, never ate crap again! The list goes on and on. Hope this helps.
Good Luck and Take Care.     Pete   ps I'll send you a couple more links when I get home.
http://www.saveourshepherds.org/raw.html

Yes you can check Von Marischal on this forum; she has fed raw for years and now has her 3rd generation of feeding raw.  I call that success in my book.  She has g. shepherds living into their teens.  Also Mirasmom feeds raw, Youschi, Slamdunk, all for years and have very healthy dogs into their senior years.  YOu DO NOT GET THAT WITH kibble very damned often.  I have cooked fresh with kibble, kibble alone, kibble, kibble for years, and YES we have been loaded with cancer, rotten teeth, shit eating dogs.  NOw totally raw, except I poach fish.  for the past year and a half.  Very happy with results and I too have a 12.8 year old, an 11 year old (skinny, picky crappy eater) also have 2 others thriving on raw but they are younger.  I will let you know about them in about 8-10 years or so.  Good luck  Nan

Just click on any one of the names above and they are all loaded with information on raw and experience.  Very helpful also.  N  If you are worried about vit/minerals and balance, just add a multi vit to their diets daily or every other day.  BOL  Nan

Thanks Nan,

I have spent most of the afternoon rereading past posts and picking up the links I missed the first time thru.
Also looking at the link Pete was kind enough to send.
I checked our local yellow pages and discovered a meat market that has their own slaughter house.  They can supply beef hearts for $1.89/lb. Is that a good price?  They can also save the kidneys and other organs (price to be determined, I guess).
I am really new to this even though I flirted with it in the past.  I guess I didn't have enough confidence in my abilities to pursue it.
 

We live in an area where human cancer is common.  So I didn't think too much about the first 2 dogs we lost, aside from the grief of losing beloved companions of course.
  I assumed it came with the territory and maybe it does to a certain extent.   
      We lost 2 dogs this year.  One 11 year old male who went into kidney failure and a 12 year old female who was having her third go around with cancer.  She had a malignant mammary tumor removed 2 years ago and this was her second case of mast cell tumors.There were 2 others in the past 8 or 9 years; a male at 7 yrs. to hemangiosarcoma and an 8 yr. old female with a tumor on the underside of her tongue.  So that's 3 dogs to cancer and one from kidney failure.I wish I would have tried the raw diet sooner.


Thanks for the support and advice.

 

 

 

I try to average my raw diet to $1.00 a Lb. It's a bit of work at first, but you figure it out pretty quick. What to get where. 1.39 here for this meat and .79 there for that. I try to keep simple. By no means does it cost me more to feed raw, compared to a medium quality kibble. IMO feeding kibble is like feeding your child Captain Crunch. I feed once a day. I should fast them once a week, but I don't. I have to slightly adjust amount as per how much I'm working them. I try to keep them as lean as possible. A lean GSD is a healthy GSD. I feed about 1.6 Lbs. a day. Hope this helps. Take Care
Here's another link                                                                    Pete
http://preymodelraw.com/

OK;  here's one issue:  I read thru the info above,  if you are going to feed prey model raw I would not let your GSD's gorge themselves; then you are asking for torsion trouble/bloat.  Since a lot of them ARE food pigs, I would measure their portions out separate,  I have never fed prey model raw as my guys would fight.  I feed a  measured amount, depending on how much exercise they are getting (lately none as it was 100 degrees the last few days;  so I feed a 60 pound dog about   1 pound to 1 1/2 pounds of food per day;  that is for a younger dog.  My old girl 12.8 years old, is a easy keeper so she might get l/2 pound to 3/4 pound per day;  while my other old guy 11 year old I cannot give him enough food, he is a hard keeper and very picky so I give him like tonight at least l l/2 pounds of meat; and some this AM.  AM feeding for him is not usually very good.  But he ate and is a rack of bones and has been raised until l l/2 y ears ago on kibble and is in kidney failure mode right now.  I know it was his diet that contributed, probably didn't cause this problem but has definitely been a contributing factor to the kidney failure.

Now, if you can average $2.00/pound of any food raw I think that is pretty good.  The beef heart is a good price.  Liver should be less, kidney will be more unless you can find a deal with a butcher to save for you.  As of lately, I am finding even $$3.00 per pound for some type beef around here to be cheap.  I can get chicken quarters, and chicken offal, cheaper than beef but it still works out to probably be $2.00/pound average.  That is as good as I can do around here, that is supermarket grocery meat, hopefully I can find grass fed.  I also love to get chicken feet, necks, backs any time they are available.    I found a butcher to grind liver/heart/kidney for me, I buy 25 pounds at a time for about $l.50/pound for all ground and mixed and bagged in l pound bags to freeze.  Turkey,pork necks, beef necks, bone included as they are soft bones are also good and cheap.  If you can buy in quantity it usually will be more reasonable.  A freezer is definitely needed otherwise you will be going to the store too often.

I have also used Bravo frozen dog food, the 2 lb. chubs and they make all sorts of varieties;  rabbit ground with or without bone, venison, beef and organ meats;  some with vegi's some without vegi's;  it is your choice,  chicken, beef, ostrich, emu, rabbit, lamb, beef, turkey, you name it they make it.  It's all OK to feed is not as cost effective but is probably more convenient and something you can get started with because it is somewhat balanced already;  you don't  have to worry about your balance right away like if you are buying separate from grocers.  JUst a little tip;  I sort of like some of the formulas, kind of a no brainer.  Whatever you do keep it simple;  give variety, and make sure it is fresh for them, I don't use tainted meats;  just do not think it's a good idea.  Just my opinion though, maybe OK for some.  Thaw in refrig if you can.

All for now, any questions, I'll try to answer.  BOL  Nan

Agreed Nan, just info to INFORM. I would never feed like that. lol     Pete