Raw feeding

[victoria1140]

Just started the tribe on a raw diet and we add vegetables,eggs and occasionally coconut oil.

Anything else l should think to add as the reason we started them on it is the girls tend to chew their paws a lot and it also suited Bodies tummy and they seem to enjoy it a lot more than dried food.

 

[Darwinsnewfie@1855]

I have no experience with feeding raw, but I have been interested in it for years. Do people give supplements when feeding raw or do you just make sure the organs, bones and meet are in a specific proportion. I wish I could commit to doing it, but My lack of knowledge and feeding budget makes it scary! Please let me know how things go and if it's possible to do it on a 100.00 a month food budget? I have heard that it does wonders for allergies, skin and coats. Your dogs are sooooo lucky!

 

[victoria1140]

We buy minced blocks of meat,chicken carcasses from a supplier.
Other bits a local butcher keeps for us.

Veg is from our allotment or Aldi.l tend to use frozen veg if l am at work and fresh when at home.
Get through loads of free range eggs though and the shells get added to.

My biggest expense is going to be buying a chest freezer.

So far my budget is approx £120 a month for all three dogs, however it will probably reduce a bit once l get used to it.
I do have an industrial grade mincer l bought for the munchkin we lost to cancer. I use that for the butchers offcuts we get from him

 

[Darwinsnewfie@1855]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is the mincer for the bones or meat or both?

 

[victoria1140]

Mincer is for the offcuts of meat the butcher saves for us especially the beef heart.
However chop up a chicken carcass and throw it in and it minced those as well.

I haven't got the patience to try and juggle all the offal,etc needed so that's why l buy the minced blocks most of the time though if my butcher gives me 2 bags of offcuts then it's amazing how many meals the dogs get from them though l rotate as too much red meat sets bodies tummy off .

So they get any reduced fish bargains and chicken and tripe a lot.

 

[shellyk]

We feed raw prey model 80% meat 10% bone 10% organ. If their stools seem soft we add more bone. If they are straining too much we up the organ which is really rich. They don't get this ratio every day but over the coarse of the week. We supplement just to make sure they are covered for all nutrients. We give coconut oil, raw organic local honey, dried kelp, turmeric -golden paste, dried green lipped mussel powder, and a powdered mix that includes glucosmine/msm/chondroitin sulfate.

We also try to give a lot of variety of meats...pork, beef, beef tripe, bison, alpaca, lamb, sardines(/mackerel( whole not canned), emu. The only meats we really don't feed are chicken and turkey. One of the dogs has a food sensitivity to turkey and one of the others won't touch chicken. We couldn't survive without a stand alone freezer and our raw CO-OP. With the freezer we can take advantage of sales and season specials. We shop the sales at the grocery store and at Costco too.

Heart is treated at muscle meat not organ but it is supposed to be one of the most nutrient dense meats for them. I find organ meat to be more smelly and yucky than muscle meat but if handled when slightly frozen it's not so bad. For bones we give then cut up pork riblets - really cheap and easy to cut up for their bowls. They tend to fight over big high value meaty bones.

We also give them frozen green beans (cooked) for bulk as it makes them fill full but it goes right through them. We also give them seasonal fresh fruits and frozen blueberries. Recently they seemed to be eating a lot of grass in the yard so we added fresh celery. They seem to like it as it is never left behind.

 

[Darwinsnewfie@1855]

Thanks for sharing all your knowledge. I definitely plan on switching to raw in the near future. What is CO-OP? I looked into Some online raw K-9 food suppliers and they seemed pricy. However, many people say that you will spend less on vet bills and have a very healthy dog. I tried so many dry kibble brands and they all seem substandard. Most are filled with grains, potatoes, peas, just overall loaded with carbs. What is a good age to switch to raw, or is anytime ok? Ella is 14 months old.

 

[shellyk]

The CO-OP is a group of raw feeders that orders stuff in bulk to save on shipping and get better prices. The group we are in has members from Northern Oregon to the Canadian Border. I found it on a yahoo group. There are several around the country.

As for switching, I think 14 months is a great time. I know some breeders feed raw as soon as they are weaned but I would worry about the calcium/phosphorus ratio when they are doing the most of their bone growth. She is past her huge growth spurts.

With three dogs it is do-able as far as price. We are spending less on raw than we did on high end kibble with canned food toppers and supplements.

I forgot one of the hugest bonuses of feeding raw - LESS POOP...LESS POOP...LESS POOP. With three big dogs we had a lot of dog poop. Also the raw fed poop doesn't smell as bad.

 

[R Taft]

We feed raw prey model 80% meat 10% bone 10% organ. If their stools seem soft we add more bone. If they are straining too much we up the organ which is really rich. They don't get this ratio every day but over the coarse of the week. We supplement just to make sure they are covered for all nutrients. We give coconut oil, raw organic local honey, dried kelp, turmeric -golden paste, dried green lipped mussel powder, and a powdered mix that includes glucosmine/msm/chondroitin sulfate.

We also try to give a lot of variety of meats...pork, beef, beef tripe, bison, alpaca, lamb, sardines(/mackerel( whole not canned), emu. The only meats we really don't feed are chicken and turkey. One of the dogs has a food sensitivity to turkey and one of the others won't touch chicken. We couldn't survive without a stand alone freezer and our raw CO-OP. With the freezer we can take advantage of sales and season specials. We shop the sales at the grocery store and at Costco too.

Heart is treated at muscle meat not organ but it is supposed to be one of the most nutrient dense meats for them. I find organ meat to be more smelly and yucky than muscle meat but if handled when slightly frozen it's not so bad. For bones we give then cut up pork riblets - really cheap and easy to cut up for their bowls. They tend to fight over big high value meaty bones.

We also give them frozen green beans (cooked) for bulk as it makes them fill full but it goes right through them. We also give them seasonal fresh fruits and frozen blueberries. Recently they seemed to be eating a lot of grass in the yard so we added fresh celery. They seem to like it as it is never left behind.

Pretty much my plan, but I also feed a lot of raw oily fish.... guts and all. I love the big raw sardines of herrings.

I also make sure all my organ meat is frozen for a few days to minimize the parasite problem. I feed a lot of green trip, as it is the best and my dogs love it. I go up the % with that, as it is not like liver and kidney, it has all the healthy enzymes. I have done RAW since 1989... and all my pups too. It has greatly improved my Rescues who all had skin issues when we got them and also improved their muscle tone, but that could be all the swimming.

We add glucosamine, Vit C, Fish oil for all our dogs.

We use cooked grated carrot and parsley as a filler if we find they keep looking or more. I also keep mine fairly lean and they get a lot of meaty bones

I do feed chicken, I found since the chicken I bought now comes from an open range organic farm, our dogs have no issues. Annabelle is allergic to intensive raised stock, as they feed them a lot of wheat and corn.... So pasture raised it is and she is fine with that. So you also have to keep an eye out how the stock was fed........If you have skin issues

 

[victoria1140]

Our tribe are all just over 2 years old but l have always tried small raw meals and they love chicken carcasses.
So 14 months sounds like a great age.

One thing l found when trying to do research via some of the Facebook sites is some are so anti kibble or antiveg and also anti fruits.vegetables or supplements whereas for me l am happier giving them fruit and veg with mine.

I would worry if l didn't use the multi vitamin mineral horse supplement that l might be missing something from their diet.however a lot of fb sites refer to it as unbalanced .

I find red meat seems harder for them to digest and heart meat l can get but tend to cut it into chunks or Bodie gets the runs with too much.

Some of the raw stuff l still find confusing as some hate minced blocks as well whereas for me they make my life easier and l can't completely work out all the ratios apart from too much or too little bone.

 

[R Taft]

I just don't get runny poops at all, but I never feed kibble. I am very anti kibble, because of the stuff they put in it. I think if you mix raw and kibble you are more likely to get runny poop as the kibble changes the pH of the gut and that is another reason why us hard core raw feeders do not like it. It is why some people have issues with bones.... they still feed kibble and often even in the same timeframe, which means the stomach cannot absorb the bone properly... my dogs are pure raw and never have issue with uncooked bones... I never ever feed cooked or smoked bone. And yes those smoked bones are dangerous as is all that rawhide stuff... I do however feed fruit and veg. Mine love it and self serve anyway from our huge garden.

Just remember kibble changes pH.... and when the PH is changed you get mal absorption problems which lead to loose poop. I cannot remember when I last had loose poop with my dogs which has been a large number of dogs, including all the rescues and fosters. I get too firm sometimes and I just cut down the bone for a couple of days. Our dogs poops are also nice well formed and small and hardly smell. Unlike some I get to see at our Kennel Club or when out training....