I have a 5 year old sable female, & she is my life! I have always tried to feed her the best kibble food; no wheat, corn, soy, no by-products, & I alwys try to get the first 2-3 ingreidents in it Whole animal, not  animal meal...  & also no beef at all in any of her food as I have read many articles that have stated that dogs cannot digest beef, & it doesn't supply any real nutrients. So I'm careful about her diet.

 She has always been so picky about her food,  & I can't buy the $50 bags, of which I 'm sure she would only nibble at anyways... I try the whole leave food down for 10 min. then pick it up untill next feeding. She would then only eat it cause she's starving, & I can tell she doesn't really enjoy it. You give her a peice of chicken, you'll see enjoyment. LoL. I've always of course been told no table scraps,  no human food, & deffenitely NO Bones! Ect... I've tried almost every dog food out there that meats my price usaly $35 a bag, & no junk in it.... Still she snubs it untill she almost has to eat it... Then 2 days ago, we went to visit a friend. A male dark Sable GSD, & whom of which Kozette abosulty LOVES!

Anyways, some how the topic of him eating raw came up, & her laeeting him eat the bones. I thought that wouldn't be "healthy"  but she said tha bones are actaualy really good for digestion. After talking to her, she convinced me how good the whole thing is. Her dog is beautiful, healthy, & intellegent, so I saw it & belived it. She said that she only pays about a dollar/ pound for his food, & he doesn't realy have any health issues. Kozette while not necesarly "unhealthy", she does have a touchy stomach, & has loose bowels often. I started resaching it more, & have found that a raw food diet is supposed to help with that. So I think I am nearly convinced to switch her. But I have no idea how to do it, where to get the food, what to ask for, ect... I have looked on so many websites, but am more & more confused at the end. I was really interested in K-9 craving, but it's no where around my area, & I'm sure I couldn't afford the shipping costs, if they even ship...

But I just want the best for her, & it sounds like doing the raw diet would be good for her. Oh I forgot to mention that I left Kozzette over night with them, & I forgot to mention that Kozette will probably not eat her food untill much later. SO when she noticed her kind of snub her food, she put a bit of "knuckle" meat in her food, & apparently she scarfed it down in a minuite! LoL. I guess they gave her the knuckle bone & she loved it! That made me even more convinced!

Any info. on this subject? I'm uterly confused! I'm not even sure what the "knucle" is! LoL.

Thanks! :)

me to ,so confused raw is raw not to hard to figure out

One last thing (ADHD!)

Buy what YOU as a human would consume,

That's all you need to know, no big mistery about raw food, it's stuff you buy to cook for yourself,

only, you don't cook it up for your dogs, they eat it uncooked, Chicken thighs are good, raw chicken livers,

things like that, the bones are not brittle unless they are cooked, raw bones digest very easily.

i recommend checking out www.rawmeatybones.com

My GSD girl is just very endearing to me, but she is not my life.

Chicken by-product meal is the meal ingredient of my dog food, $23 for 40 bags. I tried "chicken" and "chicken meal", which she doesn't seem to like any more. The skill and expertise of the maker is FAR more important than whether the ingredient is "chicken", "chick meal", or "chicken by-product meal".

I have to add about three ounces of chicken meat in her meal each day to get her to eat well, oterwise she won't eat enough for best health. She does quite well now.

I eat health food so for the most part  what I need to add to her kibbles is about what I eat. Table scraps can be very good for your dog, it depends. If you eat bacon then it may not be. The last time I ate bacon was about two years ago in a free breakfast in a hotel.

My meat is the leanest part of steamed chicken breast, so she eats what I eat as well, the fattier part closest to the ribs. I eat almost no processed food so neither does she. I feed her without seasoning added.

Is your dog getting enough exercise? My girl fast trot, almost gallop, for about 3.25 miles every two to three days. Just walk a couple of miles a day in between.

Raw is closer to natural, but I think it is also natural for a few wolves to die suddenly of bacterial infection. The risk may be  low, but I just won't chance it. Just my opinion.

IMO, nature must be best mentality is not always valid.

Nature is very harsh; a few wild wolves dyng of acute bacterial infection here and  there is not the main thrust of most scientists' survey or study. Yes, I believe a few wild wolves do die of acute bacterial infection in the digestive tract. Many vets say a few dogs on raw diet do so and I believe them.

It is possible that before the advent of medicine, most people could eat raw food. The few who could not had been kept to a very low number. Most of the suscetable died as children before reproductive age. This contiunal premature deaths had kept the suscitable population quite low, but a number of children, unfortunate product sof genetic diversity, had to die continuously for this condition to continue.

kikikatie, where are you located?

i feed raw, it's the best thing you can do for your dog.  but please be careful if you're buying meat from the supermarket.  you have to make sure the meat is antibiotic, hormone, steroid, etc. free.  it should be all natural (organic if you can get it).  for example, if the cow or lamb was given an antibiotic, and the antibiotic was still in the bloodstream at the time of slaughter, it could have an effect on your dog.  it doesn't effect us because we cook our meat, which kills the antibiotic, etc. there are some companies that have a sticker on the packaging that says no antibiotics given 3 months prior to slaughter.

it takes a little while to figure things out when you're starting, but once you get it, it's smooth sailing.

feel free to pm me if you need help

Hey! I had no idea that you were on this website. Funny.. small world... We would have called & asked you more info. but we figured you alreday had Kozette overnight, why bug you more? LoL. Thanks so much for keeping her over night! She is usaly not too comfortable with being apart from one of us, & we only usaly leave her behind If we must, & she of course lets us know how unhappy with us she is after. But when we came back & got her, she didn't act like her normal, "you left me behind how dare you" self..LoL. We both even said to eachother in the car, did you notice how happy & comfortable  Kozette was when we picked her up?

Anyways, I'm sure it's so simple, I must seem so dumb. LoL. But hey after 5 years of being told no this this & that by a million people who say she is fine, your just spoiling her, dogs aren't picky, give her her dog food & leave my office, LoL, you begin to just settle. So when anything new to us like this comes along, it's something totally against what we were always taught, so it kind of throws you for a loop. LoL. She has been like this since I could remember, & she's our baby, what can I say, so we just want to do what's best for her. So I'm going to ask alot of dumb questions & stuff untill I find what suits her best. :) Thank you for the info! & for even getting us started with this... I heard about it before, we always try to do whats best, & it seemed really interesting. So When you said something about it, it was kind of reliving to see such a great pup doing great on it, & I know you guys care alot about him, & try to do great by him, which made it even more convincing! :)

 Can't wait to get them together to play again, She needs more doggie friends. She's too much of a human! :) She really enjoyes her time with you all! Thank you so much!

Talk soon-

Thank you to everyone! I love places like this, where I can get real advise from real people.... Sorry if this seemed like a dumb question, It's just foreign language to me, but I'm learning! :) & I guess it did seem kind of dumb to list her coloring, like that makes a difference, but I'm new to his whole posting/forum thing too, & the couple of places I checked out I saw people introducing their dogs like that, but she does have a name, & instead of using her color, I should have used her name at first...  But just know that I really do love Kozette, & she IS my baby..  I guess I should make it a bit more apparent next time...( Poor Kozette... )

Thanks for puting up with a newbie.... :)

Many people said that dogs can die from bacterial infections...we'll come to think of it, i have never heard of a dog dying from bacterial infection because of eating raw meat.  Kibble is more dangerous. Hundreds of dogs died and that is why a lot of kibble making brands were re-called! I have heard of a dog dying because he chocked on a chicken bone because he didnt chew it and swallowed it. I have also heard of a dog choking to death because he ate his kibbles too quickly(gulping and inhaling)! So come to think of it kibble is more dangerous! Atleast on raw, your dog wont be suffering from allergies, obesity and gum diseases! Wolfs die quicker than dogs because they are not protected from predators, parasites, storms, forest fires, poachers...