Questions about feeding dogs a raw diet

[Mahonri]

I loved the look of our Golden's poop today... it just looked healthier... she got the kidneys, lungs, liver and heart from the roo we processed yesterday. Just gobbled them up.

 

[Nero]

I am in the pocess right now of getting some rabbits so that I can have meat rabbits for the 5 dogs that I have. I know that I won't be able to keep enough rabbits to be able to feed all of the dogs every single day.. I don't want that many rabbits. I am also feeding chickens. They say, diversity in types of meat is good for them. Chickens for a few days, and mixing rabbits, or venison, or beef, buffalo, etc. You get the picture.
Yes, feeding raw meat and kibble in the same sitting is not a good idea... kibble and meat digest at different rates, which I hear, can cause the meat to start to cause bacteria building up, in turn causing an upset stomach or worse. If was able to feed a strictly raw diet, I would feed supplements. Just so I knew the dogs were getting all of their daily vit. and minerals.

Def. worth the extra effort..

 

[dak]

JMO as a vet, and a breeder to AKC champion Dobermans... Don't.

 

[scbatz33]

Oh and like with new babies(human), you only add one meat at a time. Start with one meat - go for a week. Then change it up the next week. Also helps with digestion issues.

Every thing I've read says it's a bad idea to do too many changes at once. Especially for dogs who have never been fed this way.

 

[bock]

I will probably start with chicken the first week. I have already been giving them a raw chicken breast here and there without any problems, but I waited until they had some time to digest their food.

My one major concern is price. Is this going to be the kind of diet that ''breaks the bank''? I will try to find deals on meat, and I am going to look for a local butcher. If it gets too expensive, maybe I will just give them one or maybe two raw meals a day. I hope it doensn't come down to that though.

 

[bock]

Quote:
Is there any reason not to? Dog's are carnivores by nature, raw meat is great for them.

 

[Tala]

I second the dogster forum raw section. I learned a lot there.
Switching a kibble dog can make you want to quit, as their stomach may not want to digest the bones at first, we had a lot of throw-ups for the first 2 weeks

but obviously we got over it and my doggy is fat now. At least you know that way their body/stomach is working properly by kicking stuff out that would otherwise sit in there and make them sick, at least that's the only upside I could find to it.
My other dog was rawfed from when we got her at 8weeks. She's been to the vet to get spayed and get her Rabies shot that's it. Never been sick, she's healthy, agile, has clean teeth, her skin/fur smell great, absolutely no complaints!
I wouldn't feed any other way.

We are on a budget crunch right now, so it's mainly pork chops and chicken quarters for muscle/bone, plus organs. It is important to get a variety of meats (unless your dog has an allergy) because eating ONLY chicken can cause deficiencies in some minerals. Chicken is cheap though, no denying that, and raw chicken bones are easily digested (compared to beef bones) so it's a staple in a lot of raw diets. Our WalMart has beef liver, beef kidney, and tubs of chicken livers. Liver is the main thing coz it has stuff (I forget) that no other meats have. I feed livers at least once a week, it's supposed to make up 5-10% of the diet I think. They love kidney more though. Feed organs with bones to balance out the poop, because they are rich and can cause the "splurts"
My big dogs can't eat beef rib bones, or anything larger, though if they are cheap I'll buy beef ribs and let them gnaw the meat off for entertainment value. It's somewhat of a "know thy dog" thing, if your dog tries to chomp up too-large bones he could break a tooth, so obviously you wouldn't want to give bones that were too big. Mine seem to do fine picking the meat off and leaving the bones.

Main benefits that I visibly see in my dogs:
*clean teeth
*less poop mess (less poop period, and it dries up quick)
*no more yeasty ears in the Lab
*their skin simply smells better

I usually buy their food with ours at the grocery store, and I really don't keep track of how much it's costing us. I usually only buy meat that is less than $2/lb, that's my definition of "on sale" or whatever. I laugh when they advertise pork chops "on sale" for $3.50/lb when last week I bought them for $1.97. On the expensive weeks, I just buy something else and wait for that $1.97 price to roll around again. Some people get deals from butchers and meat suppliers, and some people ask for freezer burned meat on Craigslist to help with the cost.

Because they are eating straight protein

That's not true. A raw meat diet is not necessarily a "high" protein diet. Chicken legs for example are about 21% protein (you can get breakdowns of cuts of meat from the USDA website) whereas "high protein dog chow" is about 28% protein.​

 

[xchairity_casex]

the best raw food is green tripe if you can find you some green tripe your all set since alot of dogs have tummy issues with chicken and other meats its quite rare that a dog will hve issues with the green tripe. try finding a butcher and ask for green tripe. with green tripe theres not much need to feed vegtables or other foods

 

[SourRoses]

We fed the barf diet too, when we had 4 dogs! When we were breeding our frisbee Jack Russell, Rosie, we weaned all the puppies over on it.. and they did fabulous! So cute to see the babies running around with their little chicken wings and grrring at each other in little pupy voices that didn't sound anywhere near as mean as they wanted to!

What alot of great advice you've been given. Of course, you know to never give a cooked bone and turkey skin is a no-no. We had no problems finding turkey necks, chicken backs, kidneys ect ect at the supermarket and it really wasn't that expensive, though we only had 4 15lb dogs and then the pups. We liked to mix the yogurt and egg yolks all the way through the greens to make them more attractive and add tiny amounts of garlic to deter worms and parsley to freshen their breath. At times when we were feeling extremely lazy (bad us!), we would switch them back over to the kibble for a week or two, and then right back to the raw, and we didn't have any upset tummys... then again, our dogs were the type that when Rosie tore her dewclaw out landing on a small tree, she came racing back with blood all down her leg and the frisbee in her mouth trying to get us to throw it again! My mom got all her raw advice from her Jack russell forum back then... and there was a lady on there who was a veternarian & a dog nutritionist... who said basically, that veternarians are not trained in dog nutrition, they are taught what the pet food companies choose to send only. She said that she was soo very disappointed with the nutrition information they were given in their education, thats why she pursued becoming a nutritionist as well. She also said that the vets are pursued by the food companies that offer them benefits to recommend their food, just like human doctors with meds, and thats why you see nonsense like science diet in the vet office. She fed her dogs raw diet and taught all her patients owners that would listen about the Barf diet too.
We never did add a supplement in our dogs diet, just kept it very varied, but you could always just go ahead and get one and then not have to worry so much about which meat you feed when.
Such clean teeth, such tiny poo, the only reason we ever stopped is because we had no food processor and had to shred the veggies by hand!

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
That's not true. A raw meat diet is not necessarily a "high" protein diet. Chicken legs for example are about 21% protein (you can get breakdowns of cuts of meat from the USDA website) whereas "high protein dog chow" is about 28% protein.

I guess what I should have said is they aren't getting all the crap fillers and other things that are in dry dog food that can cause a lengthy decomposition time.