Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:01 am Post subject: Raw feeding
Since there seems to be a bit of interest about raw feeding recently I thought I'd start a post where people can ask away and get tips and advice from those that feed raw. I knew absolutely nothing about it until we got Indie, and had the benefit of advice from someone who had been raw feeding for several years. I knew I could ask the daftest questions and get good advice, so any questions no matter how daft or simple you might think they are I definitely have probably asked as well. And if I haven't I'm sure someone else has and will be able to answer
My partner Chris has fed raw for about 12 years now with only beneficial effects. We feed ad lib chicken carcasses to pups and young dogs. We also leave an all in one food down in a bowl for pups to help themselves to if required.
If you can get whole green tripes they are brilliant, too.
Feed according to exercise. If the dogs lose condition increase the amount fed and vice versa if they put on weight.
Costs nothing if your Butcher lets you have his waste to a max of about £1 per kilo if you buy Tesco Valu chicken wings or similar.
We feed also vegetables to all agegroups, and any other sort of bone from lamb rib cages to pigs heads to adults. Chicken is definitely favourite.
I am really interested in switching over to raw or at least partially raw food after Una goes into training (I couldn't give Mojo a lovely juicy bone while Una has a boring bowl of kibble ). However I would like to know if you can mix and match BARF and Complete Food sucessfully?
The thing is I often spend weekends away at other peoples houses, plus have weekend breaks away, so I can't commit myself to purely feeding raw meat...... A) Where would I store it while away and B) Not many people want a couple of dogs chomping raw bones all over their floors (some people are very fussy about germs).
So does anyone do a partial Raw diet for their dogs, or is it All or Nothing?
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject: raw foods
Mix and match to your hearts content - I might only have two Labradors of my own but between us Chris and I have thirty dogs of various breeds (mostly spaniels) and our dogs are used to swopping between diets
Similar question to Jules, but I'm feeding Natural Menu (very similar to Natures Diet/Natures menu) with puppy meal atm. Would I be able to feed that one meal (or 2 atm as she's still on 3 a day) a day and raw the second meal or would that not work? I would quite like to feed all raw but I'm concerned that I don't know enough to be able to provide her with a balanced diet and my OH is put off by the cost, would it be much more expensive?
Im another that is seriously considering changing over because the girls all love chicken wings and raw mince. The only worry I have is that two vets have told me off for feeding raw meat saying it can cause an obstruction, get stuck or cause worms
One vet even showed me an x-ray of a pup that had a bone stuck in its intestines
I sit with Jules in that I need to sometimes feed kibble - if we are out etc.
Im also confused about amounts of meat and veg and which supplements and how much of them.Thanks.
I have pretty much the same questions. Our butcher across the road seems great, and even popped his head out the other day as I was walking Brclay to say if I pop in on Wednesdays he'll have some bones for him.
He loves chicken and if it woud benefit him then bring it on. The thing is how to prepare and what amounts etc? And also would he need supplements?
And this might sound utterly stupid but ... is it just a case of giving him it raw with veg' or does it ned to be prepared first? I.e. cooked then frozen up for the week?
Our butchers give us a mix of free stuff and we have an order for them which, mixed with our own meat order comes to between £35-£45 per month, depending on what exactly is in that order.
We use the main basis for a boney meal as two chicken wings or equivalent. They get their boney meal on a morning and generally an offal or tinned fish meal as their early evening meal. Sometimes we switch if they're training or if we've forgotten to defrost something, it isn't a hard and fast rule except that boney poops tend to take a bit longer to pass through without going into too much detail
We also give ours left overs as long as it doesn't contain anything bad for dogs such as a high salt content, onions etc. So ours don't get left over curry for example, although I know some people who do give their dogs left over curry without any seeming ill effects, maybe I'm just too much a worrier
We also give raw eggs in shell, low fat cottage cheese and natural yoghurt to ours as treats or to bulk their meal out.
An important part of their diet is blended veggies, and it is important that they are raw and blended then either frozen or used straight away so that your dogs get the benefit of the nutrients being released. Now some may laugh but this is to simulate predators in the wild where they strip out the intestines of half digested vegetable matter, which is packed full of goodness and also you will more than likely have noticed your dogs like eating cow/horse poo, which is similar. And for any doubting thomases I have actually seen this in progress, lions love to gain entry by the rear and spend a long time licking the back end of a carcass to soften it up.
We also blend nuts (brazils, almonds, hazelnuts & walnuts) in with their veggies from time to time, and give other oils (olive, walnut, sesame) as well, although only very occasionally for the expensive stuff. And we give cod liver oil capsules every few days. A good one to get the coat nice and shiny is a desert spoon of cracked linseed, works wonders! Ours are shiny anyway but they look positively polished with linseed.
So the cost one is a bit difficult, I'd reckon on £18-£20 per dog for meat if you use a local butchers, then there is the cost of veggies, eggs, nuts, oils etc, which does all add up, but I don't think we spend more than we would on a good quality complete to be honest, and I like that we know what they're getting exactly.
Apols for delayed responses, having to work without wifi today and its bloomin nippy in our loft!
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). However I would like to know if you can mix and match BARF and Complete Food sucessfully?
