What’s 4 Dinner Doggie - Page 2

We feed a majority raw diet. For me, the biggest part was getting a meal prep routine going as Like Jesse, I purée all the veggies. I do that once a week, freeze veg portions into ice cube trays then bag in ziplock bags. Label and date, pop out portions when ready to feed. This size thaws super quick. Green tripe, I don’t feed daily but I get it from a can so that’s easy enough. We keep our meat costs down by buying a whole grass fed cow locally for us and the dogs. I always get the butcher to include the dog (recreational) bones of course. We raise turkey, chicken and guinea fowl so digestible rubbery bones like necks and backs, etc are enjoyed by the dogs (as well as rooster, Tom meat) We buy lamb shank, cottage cheese, etc. supplement with salmon oil occasionally. We also feed kibble but at a different time of day.

I feed a prey model raw and the main PMR items are:
Rabbit
Squirrel
Duck
Quail
Pheasant
Chicken
Pigeon
Rat
Guinea pig
Oily fish

Anything that she can eat whole in one sitting, all with fur, feather, scales and innards left intact.

I will also feed portions of larger prey with some organ meat .

She also gets raw whole eggs and sheep or pigs head when in stock.

Sometimes I will make up a franken prey ( a word made up by a raw feeder online many years ago). So this is basically different parts of different animals to make up a whole animal; this can either be for one meal or made up through out the week so by the end of the week my bitch has had a whole franken prey dinner.

I do not feed dairy or add fruit or veggies unless they are already digested in the stomachs of the whole prey she eats. If she wants more greens, then she helps herself to the grass outside.

Been feeding like this for 20 years and never had a problem.

Ruger
Valk ~ Do you supplement with a vitamin/mineral additive? 

no. everything already is contained in meal

Are you ever concerned with the dogs getting a well balanced diet this way? 

if my dog is healthy and active, why i should be concerned?

How long have you fed your dogs like this?

always. back in Eastern block we didn't have dog food. my dog after relocating with me to West, wasn't enthusiastic about dog food, so i just stick to what i used before.

onion and garlic very bad for dog. vegetables should be cooked or freezed to break up cells. other way it won't be digested. i never have problems with bones. dogs just did crash and eat them, except beef/moose ones. those seems too hard, albeit they trying.

Ruger - here's a local (to me) company that makes a raw, ground food in several recipes for dogs and cats. This is probably typical of many other ground raw diets that are available throughout the countries.

http://www.petsgoraw.ca/

What about using ground organic bone meal?? Anyone but particularly 1Ruger1? Instead of ground bone?? Food for thought...

About bones...
Do you all really think that wolves, Coyotes or wild dogs use a bone grinder while eating prey? I think evolution has taken care of how bones are digested.

I am in several facebook raw-feeding groups, with a total of a few HUNDRED THOUSAND followers and contributors. Never once, have I read about a dog choking or getting perforations through CORRECT raw bone feeding.
 
Having said that...it is not impossible, but very rare. Probably more dogs die by ingesting other things, or simple choking on a ball, like a slippery rubber chuck-it ball, that can get lodged in the very flexible, stretchy and wide trachea of the dog, cutting off air supply. This, I have heard more often than raw bone issues.

The bones that I mostly use are chicken frame carcass, called chicken backs (very soft bones). In my store they have them for dog owners or for soup stock, for around 1$ pound and they are organic. One or 1 1/2 per day is enough bone content for a shepherd. Also I like duck necks a lot and use them often also at around 1$ p/pound. I don‘t like any turkey bones, they are too hard. Nor do I like giving them femur cow bones...they are too dense and many dogs will wear their teeth down as they try to scrape out the bone marrow or try to chew the large femor ball down. I‘ve seem some very bad dental issues from weight bearing cow and deer bones given to dogs. As soon as you see your dog scraping the bone constantly the same way, with his teeth, take it away.

To vary my proteins (although there are people that claim a protein is a protein and doesnt matter what animal it is from - and others are adamant about using at least 4 different animals in rotation)   I will use prepackaged frozen paddies made with rabbit and lamb. About once a week I pull these paddies out for variation. I like the K9 Frozen Raw from New Zealand, but they can no longer import into the USA as of recently because they refused to pressure treat the raw food which kills all bacteria, as the US import now demands. The bacteria in raw food is mostly beneficial and if killed by radiation or pressure treatment, might as well feed kibble IMO. But, we are getting less and less choice, so I use what my pet store offers, like right now I have NorthWest Naturals Lamb frozen chubs and several different mixes from Greentripe.com which includes some mixtures with raw pancreas for pancreatic hormones.

I don‘t use powdered bone, because a lot of it has high levels of arsenic. Being organic might not help alleviate this. No one in the feed groups uses it because of this.

I also feed about 2 cap fulls of Bragg‘s Organic Apple Cider vinegar (with the Mother in it, shaken slightly before pouring) into every second meal and a half a twist of sea or Himalayan salt into every 2 or 3 meals. I don‘t use fish or krill oil right now, as I’m feeding sardines (without salt brine). 1$ per can from Trader Joe’s. I do the virgin coconut oil and olive oil splash occasionally 2 times p/week. Make sure some of your meat cuts have a lot of fat. Dont only use lean meat. Leave some skin on the chicken. If some meat is on sale, like lean beef roast, without fat marbling, i will add some organic grass fed butter, which I also eat. Oh, and I eat a lot (almost all) of what my dogs eat too.

Vegetable glop can be anything excep for onions and avocado. I use a lot of red cabbage, white cabbage, parsley, cilantro, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower (but careful with these if there are thyroid issues), fennel bulbs, salad leaves, beets with leaves...really anything. I put them into my small Bullet blender raw,  with some water,  to make a glop. The dogs either need vegetable cooked, like Valk mentioned...but you can also just blend them up with a blender and pour over the meat, which is what I usually do. The dogs intestines are too short to really digest vegetable matter if left raw and whole. It will come out the back like it was put into the front otherwise.

I‘m sure I‘ll think of more...but this is it for now. I may post some more photos of my meals as I feed over the next few days for anyone interested. Oh, and the photos are not „staged“ like for Instagram (LOL), this is really  how I feed them and I just take a pic as I’m doing it. Come on over anytime Susie! 🤗
 

when I was active showing, I fed raw chicken quarters and some kibble for bulk. usually Purina One.

I didn't win every time out. or even close, but I never got beat on condition.

I never had an issue with the quarters, but reading some other experiences, I might would rethink it and maybe run through a grinder.

just my experience,
Rik

PS:
and the difference in poops is amazing. Nice, dry and tight and extremely small and low odor, as the dog is utilizing all the food properly.

Even with the best kibble, the poops are pretty enormous and smelly. Really GROSS actually when compared to raw fed or human food grade fed dogs.

Jesse said...." About bones...
Do you all really think that wolves, Coyotes or wild dogs use a bone grinder while eating prey? I think evolution has taken care of how bones are digested. " 

 

I couldn't agree more,

 

A pic of my dog at 16 mo...taken a few days ago, in natural stance.

Thin, as he should be...but pure muscle.
No layer of that undefined thick flub under, or in, the skin (even if they are thin!), as on many POOR QUALITY kibble fed dogs. 

Once you get an eye for a raw feed dog, you‘ll see the difference. Otherwise it might be hard to see with an untrained eye.

Thanks MrDarcy!

PS: Not saying there are NO nice looking kibble fed dogs. But, once they get older, you will start to also see more and more which dog ages well.