Questions About Raw Meat Diet for Dogs

[FlightsofFancy]

Oh, I am so glad this thread started!!!
I have just rescued a 2 yo Biewer Yorkie from a breeder/hoarder. She was living with 20 others and was getting bullied away from the food. She is horribly under weight and refusing food. At first when I would give her the food she would bury it for about 20 minutes. Then walk away and not eat. I tried everything, but no interest in any type of food. So, I went to a partially raw food (I steamed or microwaved it). WOW! What a difference!! It has been 48 hours and I am already seeing a huge inprovement.
So this is my question......What are your thoughts on the designer/store bought raw diets? The medallions in particular. (I don't want to name names, but it's the one with the golden retriever on the bag) She only weighs 4 lbs so the cost would not be too bad. Also is it bad to cook it a little? She is having some digestive issues already (an infection) so I don't want to over load her system with raw organisms until I get her healthy.
Thank you!!

 

[JessicaGrant]

I don't have any food advice but wanted to say...Awwww...she's adorable!

I raw feed my standard poodle...mostly chicken quarters and liver, other organs as I get them and some table scraps. He is really healthy, though the vets always cringe when I tell them what Spencer eats...AFTER telling me his weight, teeth, etc are great. Good luck with that cutie!!

 

[brandywine]

The commercial raw would be *fine* for such a tiny dog. I mean, how much can it cost? I'd go that way in your position.

Since she is likely to be a bit immune compromised at this time, I would not switch her to raw right away. Cooking the raw a bit is probably a good idea. Lots of changes for this little girl right now, so don't throw too much at her at once. And while it seems impossible now, remember that it's dead-easy to overfatten a little dog fast, and that's not good for her either.

I once fostered two little hoarder dogs who were *skeletons* when they came to me. Putting meat on their bones, getting them healthy, and teaching them about the wide wonderful world was so rewarding. Of the 80-something inbred beagle-dachshund mutts (probably all descended from one original pair) confiscated from the filth-hole, over 70 survived and were rehabbed into marvelous little lap pets. It was a big change from my usual foster assignments, which are big dogs with behavior deficits, usually spoiled dominant young males that need lots of training to bring them down a notch. These poor girls needed to be built up -- much more difficult, IMO. One of them had a truly wonderful temperament, and if I had a niche for a lapdog here, I would have happily kept her. She's doing that job for someone else now.

Jessica, I know what you mean about the vets. Mine are oddly quiet, finally, after the pet-food recalls of last year, all the poisoned dogs and cats. And now a human salmonella outbreak traced to dog kibble. My hard-working dogs are splendidly healthy, never need a dental, live years longer than their breed expectancies (good genetics working there too), and are always in great body condition. But I still used to get crap from one of my vets about how I was going to kill them. You know, I've got the same textbook he had in his single small animal nutrition class in vet school (I bought mine -- Hills gave him his, and also wrote it, and also provided the instructor. Do the math.) And have done more independent nutrition study than most vets. Have an advanced degree. Am married to a medical science writer with a doctorate in biochemistry from Harvard. I think we can manage to feed the dogs without killing them!

 

[Arctichicken]

A dog's digestive system is much different from ours. They can eat raw food with no problems, it is what they eat in the wild cause there is no kibble in the wild. You should put her on a de-wormer for sure and just give her small amounts of food several times a day. And don't forget lots and lots of TLC!!!

As far as what type of raw food to give her, it's best from a meat processing plant, raw bones too. I would give her a high quality kibble to give her vitamins, grains etc and some raw meat on top.

She is adorable, it was nice of you to take her in and give her a loving home. Good Luck

 

[Rosalind]

American GSDs, and some of the European show lines, have some of the crankiest digestion in dogdom, and you will rue the day you irritate it!

Can you elaborate on this please, and what to do about it? That is, if there's anything to do about it other than just gradually introducing raw food.

I have a 1y.o. extremely purebred Great Pyrenees from a show dog line, who is currently on Wellness Large Breed Puppy. His teeth were getting oogy and he tries to eat the toothbrush every time I brush his teeth. He never had this problem when his favorite pork bones were available from the feed store, but alas the feed store no longer carries them. So I got raw organic beef bones from Whole Paycheck, and he happily gnawed them to death and sucked the marrow out of the inside. One 8" bone per week, I figured, oughtta do it, right? Nice clean chompers. If he did well, I thought, I'd start getting him more raw food gradually over the summer, and then in fall when DH shoots some venison, he can have that mixed with a wee bit of fruit and veg and vitamin powder, right?

OMG. The diarrhea. It was the worst, nastiest doggy diarrhea on earth. It was gelatinous. Slimy. All over the living room. ALL OVER the living room. I nearly barfed myself just cleaning the floor. And it lasted, like, three days! I kept giving him mashed pumpkin, plain rice, a spoonful of yogurt to fix it, didn't help a bit. He was all sorry and mopey about it, too, like, "Sorry Mom, I know better, sorry sorry."

Should I start even more slowly than a couple tablespoons of beef marrow? Like, teaspoons of ground beef? Is there something else I should do? He normally eats all sorts of horrible things with no ill effects: chicken poo, cat poo, grass, catnip-filled cat toys, pieces of plastic he ripped off his dog toys, pieces of his own dog bed...Never imagined that he'd have a hard time eating actual raw meat.​

 

[summerwindsfarm]

I sincerely believe there is no better diet for dogs than RAW. I changed my 16 year old service dog over to raw with no problems. These are the best raw recipes ive found

http://rawfeddogs.net/Recipes

 

[JessicaGrant]

Quote:
I saw this web site when I first started raw feeding and wasn't sure what to feed Spencer. I agree. These are the *best* recipes!! Especially the chicken!

 

[poussin_noir]

Quote:
Not all Salmon is safe!
Salmon poisoning (which kills dogs) is from raw salmonids West of the Cascade range (Pacific northwest) this would be about southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to the very northern part of California.
Cooked/canned, even from there, is fine.
Salmon and other fish that swim upstream to breed can be infected with a parasite called Nanophyetus salmincola. The problem isn't the parasite, but an infection of the parasite with a rickettsial organism. Salmon feed on snails that carry the fluke that can be infected.
Any part of the raw salmon can contain these flukes and bacteria, but the head and guts contain the most, and are also the parts most often encountered by the dogs near fishing areas and campgrounds. Freezing, cooking, and smoking can kill it. I have read in some sources that only cooking and hot-smoking are 100% certain.
If your dog has been near such raw salmonids and may have eaten any, I'd go to the vet right away and explain. The treatment is simple, and the death rate without it is very high.
I feed salmon and all kinds of fish just not salmon from that area.
This link might come in handy for you raw feeders in Canada and the US, I found some great deals. You have to scroll down the page a bit to get to the different suppliers. Hope this helps. http://lepusreg.tripod.com/NRS1a.html

 

[truegrit farm]

The Yorkie is darling! Regarding the little darling........one thing you could try is turkey burger which is cheaper than hamburger. I use to start my puppies on it. Not much fat like hamburger and you can just barely cook it and I think it would be easy on her stomach and still a great meat source. Yougart, scrambled eggs would also be good.

As far as vets........OMG, I have fought with vets off and on for years all of them telling me I am killing my dogs. They seem so surprised when they see even my old dogs in great condition, with super clean teeth, and great vigor. I just ignore the vets when it comes to feeding and like was mentioned they are taught nutrition by Hills Science DEATH.

Also, don't get me started on vaccinations either grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

Good luck FlightofFancy with your little girl I bet she will be good as new in no time, they good loving home will help her the most.

Carole

 

[warcard]

Rosalind - It was probably just too much marrow at once ad the fact that he had never had it before. Marrow is very rich! Next time either limit his chewing to small intervals space over a couple days, or scrape out a lot of the marrow.

Wolf-Kim - My one girl who has eaten kibble her whole life just didn't know what to do with the chicken wing when we tried it. It helped if I held it and made it almost a tug-of-war, once it got ripped she seemed to get the idea better.

I don't feed raw (I would love to, but I barely cook for my family

), but I hear from other cairn owners that the Raw Foods group on Yahoo! is a good place to get advice to start. I really need to start doing the chicken wings every other week or so to help clean their teeth, I hate putting them under anesthesia for teeth cleanings.

Vets...GRRR...finally found a decent one this move, didn't even ask if I wanted to titer, they expect their clients too, sells Natures Variety (kibble), and Stevies Real Food (raw).

They even do chiropractic! (I am trying it because we do agility, and I know it can be stressing to their joints) They are a 45 min drive, but well worth it. Don't even get me started on my old Vet in back-of-the-behind TN.