Raw dog food people!!

[warmfuzzies]

I am thinking about this but I have some questions.

We could feed a lot of wild meat, like antelope, deer, pheasant, waterfowl and dove. Would it be a good variety, as long as we included enough of the smaller animals to provide plenty of bones?

Also, we are not supposed to eat wild rabbis here during the warmer months due to some kind of disease. Would it be safe for the dogs? What about prairie dogs, which no one eats, but we shoot because they are horrible pests here.

We have plague which is carried by fleas on the rodents, mainly the prairie dogs and rabbits. Would they be dangerous, and how would you fix that problem?

And, can dogs eat the animals right from the kill, or should they be gutted and skinned?

 

[Wolf-Kim]

When we fed our dogs raw, we always processed the animals BEFORE we gave them to the dogs. I didn't want them associating their food with the LIVE animals running around on our farm. LOL

Whether it worked or not, we did it anyway, I didn't want to run the risk.

Not sure about the questions regarding the rabbits and prairie dogs.

-Kim

 

[homesteadingcowgirl]

We raw feed our Great Pyr- I never do any processing of anything beofre hand. But he knows the difference between mom's critters and his food. One night I killed a rooster for him and gave it to him but was called away quickly. He sat by the dead rooster all night long without touching it, just guarding it. He didn't eat it, because "mom" hadn't given him permission. When I saw in the AM, I went out and "okay-ed" it for him to eat and so he finally did. SMART dog!! Ithink raw food is a great choice, there are some books etc... taht are great resources. All of those game choices would be great-I do know to be careful to alternate with beef as allergies can develop (I think it requires a lot to do so). Also, you might check with your vet, or several vets, depending upon how your's feels about the issue for info. on the prarie dogs here. I think for the most part and except for in specific cases, it would be fine.

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

We take the fur and feathers off the meat. I feed wild animals to mine alot and including rabbits. We only feed them wild rabbits when it is legal to harvest them. I have an uncle and aunt who raises rabbits too though. My dogs love deer the best...just like me

I take chickens that I don't want to keep and feed them to the dogs alot.

 

[Brindlebtch]

I think the rabbit illness you are worried about would be tularemia and yes, dogs can catch the illness from a sick rabbit and there have been cases where it has then been transmitted to humans. So you might want to google 'dogs tularemia eating rabbits' or something close to that.

I would not feed one of my dogs a suspected sick rabbit or prairie dog. Do you want to handle the prairie dog even though it might carrying plague infected fleas? I believe dogs can also catch plague, but I'm not sure.

Prairie dogs can also carry and die from canine distemper and trasmit it to dog. I'm sure they can carry other things I'm not aware of, so you might need to research this a bit more thoroughly before you start feeding these critters to your dog.

 

[warmfuzzies]

Thanks! DH looked at me like I was nuts when I mentioned the prairie dogs. He said you don want to even go close to them. They are nasty. The rabbit info was great, I diddnt know what the disease was called. I think they are fine during the freezing months, even though you can hunt them anytime, you are just not supposed to eat them.

 

[Akane]

This type of raw feeding is a prey model diet if you want to go googling for more info. Fur and feathers are good for them. Generally so long as it's prekilled and they don't chase it down it doesn't encourage them to chase living animals or kill anything. It's the action that triggers their desire to hunt not the food. If you really feel the need though you can skin the prey but everything you remove has the potential to throw the ratio off. You can give the bones from large animals too. Mine get deer and beef bones all the time including legs. My akita can turn a beef knuckle bone the size of her head into a 2" diameter chunk in a couple hours. The closer you can get to feeding entire whole prey without removing anything the healthier it is and the easier it is to balance their meals. The ratio you want when feeding bits of various animals (called frankenprey diets) is 5-10% organs, 10-15% edible bones (leg bones and things too hard to chew up completely don't count here), and 80-85% muscle meat. If you feed the whole animal this is about the ratio you get anyway which is why whole prey diets are easier to keep track of than frankenprey diets.

When starting on a raw diet always observe your dog. It can take some dogs awhile to learn how to properly chew bones and raw food so they don't choke or swallow large chunks. Some will also get too excited and into it cracking their teeth on harder bones. You should introduce things slowly starting with safer items and make sure the dog is chewing properly.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

Why don't you check out the yahoo group for rawfeeding? There's a wealth of information there. I think most of what you have access to can be raw fed as long as it has been frozen for a period of time.
Just google yahoo groups and type rawfeeding in the yahoo page that pops up. The first group that comes up is the one I'm referring to. I'm sure that will address some if not all your questions.

 

[breezy]

You, your dog, and your cats all can get plague from the local wildlife. You dont have to handle them to get it either, you just have to get bit by a flea carrying the plague bacteria. I am a dog groomer in Arvada and I can tell you one of my clients who lives in old Denver just had to treat her airedale for plague. Gotta say that this year has been one of the worst Ive seen for fleas and I have been grooming for 20 years. We havent seen much in the way of ticks or bot flies though which is a relief and not one single case of canine lice which is really great. Good luck with the raw diet

 

[Brindlebtch]

We have a place locally that sells WHOLE and I mean whole ground rabbits and chickens. You can buy them by the 1 rabbit or chicken. It is expensive, of course.

My dogs break up knuckle bones too fast so the same lady that sells the whole ground animals suggested I try a whole (non-ground) goat head. I took a look at the goat head and had to draw the line there. No more raw.