raw diet - Page 1

How many ppl feed raw diet.
i want to get into it.
if people can can they give me maybe there take on the whole raw diet thing and what hey feed there dog(how many meals per-day, how much, what parts etc.) also how do you make it more affordable 

Might help us if you gave us some more info, as far as affordable are you in a rural or urban area, do you have access to slaughter houses, lots of hunters, farmers, or will you be buying everything at the grocery store? How many dogs, size activity level etc? I can say I just recently switched my bunch over to raw and they are loving it, everybody is doing great.  I have several slaughter houses near by that let me go through the bins of organs, bones and scraps the customers do not want for free I just have to get there before the organ guy does on kill days, and of course I have to get all yucky digging through it.  I also am in a more rural area and have lots of hunters, farmers last week we bought a goat, killed it, cut it up and put it in the freezer.  I have a 3 acre stocked pond so we have all the fish we need.  Rabbits everyone  here has so we are just going to put up hutches and raise our own.  I told my husband today we have one female that demolishes EVERYTHING in her kennel, to include galvanized metal pails, pans etc.. Constantly have to worry about her play things and if she is eating them bc she plays so rough. ... Loves to roll a ball around so next year I'm planting pumpkins in the garden then I don't have to worry about it, and when she is done demolishing it she can just eat it.  I haven't fed veggies, (pumpkin for poop problems) but I figure it has to be better for her than eating a horse ball, food bucket, dog house etc..

Yep, I say go for it.  As far as prices;  I shop but am in the city so do not get great prices, same we pay for outselves sometimes day old stuff a little cheaper, however, the benefit for the dogs is what I was looking for.  You can feed anything and everything, I am a little careful with fish, I do poach it as my resources are not very good for fish.  I feed twice per day, but if you want to feed prey model style you could probably get away with once per day.  Not for a puppy though, puppies need several meals per day depending on age. 

I try to stay with unprocessed foods, fresh and sometimes organic though hard to find and expensive.  Try to find some resources like hunters, or slaughter houses or goat farms, farmers, to get fresh meat/chicken/duck/turkeys and the list is endless.  If you have to buy from the grocery stores your prices for raw feeding is more.


My now 12.8 year old female has been my inspiration;  she was limping pretty bad when I started her about l l/2 years ago;  she looks better now than she did a year ago and is still going strong, stopped limping (thanks to chicken feet) etal and it has really taken her far.  Just wished I could have started her years ago as her teeth went to shit on kibble and had quite a few pulled, was having to do 2 dentals per year for her, now they sparkle and she does fine with missing teeth.  Amazing.  Now my 11 year old has not done quite as well, but he wouldn't eat kibble either so he is just a crappy eater.  One of those.  He is a challenge to feed and always has been but I don't blame it on the raw diet;  I also have 2 younger dogs that are still pretty active that are thriving.

Here's an example of what I buy (grocery style):  chicken leg quarters or you can guy whole chickens with organ meats (foster farms OK) pork necks, beef necks, beef shanks, pork niblets or medallions,  ground meats of all kinds, beef, turkey, pork, chicken, or if all else fails (Bravo has ground meats with bone added, you can get vegi's or not included) I sometimes add plain canned pumpkin, cottage cheese, yogart, eggs, but went to occasionally due to added cost;  organ meats, liver/heart/kidney meats, I have a butcher that will grind for me and I find that to be more cost effective or you can feed whole; but watch the amounts at first can cause diaherria if given too much at one time of organ meats.  Whatever is available to you is good.  Bravo also has ground duck, rabbit, venison, and of course all other meats like chicken, beef, turkey formulas.  Those are sometimes good as they are a balanced diet if you are trying to get balance to start with it makes it a little easier that way until you get the hang of it.  Best of luck,  Nan

Donnerstorm; that is too funny about the pumpkins;  I might try that and let them play with them and eat raw when done.  We'll see.  Nan

kt484...do a search on here...there are tons of threads on the subject...

I buy Foster Farms chickens when they are on sale and stuff them in my extra freezer-dog freezer.

I just got some for $.79/lb. When I defrost them I cut them up in a particular fashion.  I cut along both sides of the spine and cut the spine in half.  Then, I cut along the breast bone splitting it in half so there is cartilage on both breast halves.  Then, I cut off the leg quarter and separate it into thigh and drumstick.  I cut off the breast meat from both halves and save that for me (quite a savings getting boneless breast meat for $.79/lb).  Then I cut the wing off of the frame.  I parcel out the parts, neck  and the liver/giblets/heart daily to each dog, trying to balance, roughly, the bone/meat/organs daily.

I give each dog a cup of Origen mixed with a 1/2 pound of ground meat/bone/veggies from Excel K9 diet - http://www.excelk9diet.com/home.htm 

I squirt salmon oil and a few drops of Vitamin E and a multi-vitamin for dogs and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and mix it all up.  The excel food arrives in packets, frozen hard and sent UPS.  I keep a good supply in the dog freezer.  I used to buy green tripe separately but in my next order, I am ordering an excel mix that has green tripe mixed in.

I also have a food grinder capable of grinding bones.  So, whenever there is a big sale on drumsticks, I buy a whole lot and grind it up and freeze it.  That means I am almost never out of dog food.

The dogs love their food and look like a million dollars.  They couldn't be any shinier or have thicker coats.

Michele

Do your research and get info as you are attempting on this forum and others. I switched my female to raw after her 1st hear cycle. She just stopped eating her kibble and it was stressing me a little bit. Due to finances I switched her back to kibble. I like the kibble not bad quality. My female is picky sometimes she will eat it sometimes will not. And that is bringing back my stress. She is very active. When on raw she almost seemed to stop shedding. Of course she was shedding but nothing like when on kibble. I have a 9 year old beagle I switched also and saw same think with the shedding and I loved it. The shedding started back once switched to kibble. Nothing compares to it. My GSD was never picky on raw loved it. My beagle is a little spoiled and didnt like it at 1st and I had a hard time keeping weight on her so I would not go raw with her again. But I dont think I can do kibble any more with my GSD. I am gonna get her back on raw. Everyday is an issue with her eating kibble and I am not gonna start switching kibble. It is not easy to feed raw have to be disciplined. Easier to put kibble in a bowl and I started to get lazy at times. But when on raw I was never concerned if she was eating. And after recalls on kibble it felt great to take control of my dogs ingredients. I REALLY LOVED IT.
Reggie

These links should give you most all the info you need. Take Care  Pete
ps I feed once a day.
http://www.saveourshepherds.org/raw.html
http://preymodelraw.com/

well maybe be ya can help i got a 50lb GSD thats only 6months old yes hes a big guy but built no fat at all. anyway and a 3yr black lab mix i use taste of the wild and im now giving them fish oil for there coats.

So wat type of stuff should i feed them and how mush would ya say and i live  in the city and i dont know no hunters farmers etc.

I started feeding a raw diet due to the sloppy "Mr Whippy" faeces and intermittent diarrhoea the kibble fed dogs were producing, even on 'quality' dog food.
The raw diet immediately had an impact on the faeces - small, non stinky, firm and easy to pick up.
Cleaned up the tartar that was accumulating on teeth, and although there was some initial bleeding from gums that had developed gingivitis, the old girl wasn't long before her periodontal problems were sorted out. 
Overall, just a great improvement in general gut health, dental health and haircoat. Moults are moults, not constant year round shedding. Skin condition is excellent. Dogs look forward to eating, and the proper 'chewing' is much better for them than hoovering up dried kibble.

With raw feeding, most people are able to safely feed a huge variety of meats and offals, switching between species without the stomach upsets that so commonly occur between differing brands of processed foods. The 'balance' comes over a period of time, not on a meal to meal basis.

But raw isn't for everyone - you do have to learn what's good, and adjust ratios of meat/fat/bone/offal - you do have to have a decent freezer 'dedicated' to your dog's meat, and you do have to pay attention to hygiene when cutting and packing meats- not so much for the dog's sake, but so that you don't infect yourself with some potentially pathogenic bacteria.  Some, like campylobacter are self limiting, if uncomfortable, but E.Coli infections in humans can have disastrous consequences, and you don't want the Public Health beating a path to your door because you've given yourself a notifiable, commumnicable disease from unsafe handling of raw meat products.

As you read up, you'll learn - I've always felt that raw feeding, although a based on the science of bio-availabilty of amino acids/long & short chain fatty acids, mineral composition etc, and the canine's naturally occurring enzymes and amylases to break down their food, correct feeding is more of an 'art form' and this comes with experience, so I'd encourage you to join raw feeding forums and read books by Tom Lonsdale, maybe even Ian Billingshurst, et al so you can absorb the philosophy, pick brains and create for your own dog's needs.

A good starting point for most people is to feed a few raw chicken wings, discounted meats in the supermarket, heart, liver (not too much, it can be very laxative) kidney. Eggs.  Look on line for the companies that will deliver pre-packaged, frozen dog meats to your door.

I feed around 80% meat (including a proportion of offals)  10% fat, 10% edible bone.  A 40kg adult shep gets 1kg food/day, which works out to about 2-3% of their bodyweight, which is about right for them and their activity levels.  I like to base their diet on fresh green tripe, adding other offals and muscle meat.  Not too much bone. Some canids, particularly Huskies, seem to be virtually able to live off bone, but too much can be very constipating for most dogs, and defininately a bad idea for growing puppies to have more than 10% bone. 

I feed once a day, generally, usually about an hour or so after exercise. I generally feed around dusk, so in the summer, that's late, in winter, they get their meal earlier.  Some people withold a meal altogether once a week or so.  I might feed a bit of 'breakfast' to the dogs occasionally.  If I do, it's usually if the weather is cold enough to warrant the extra bit of food.

I'm lucky enough to be able to have an abattoir/cutting plant near me, so I get direct from them human grade meats, plus the category 3 by products such as green tripe, lungs, etc. £50 will feed them for two months.