Raw Food Diet

[minkee]

I don't think she's still growing... but maybe she is and we need Aunty Jane to come visit and say 'why haven't you grown!' She's almost 2, now, but to my eyes hasn't grown in size for a good few months.

The sardine took some coaxing, but eventually she took to it and devoured the whole thing. Another thing-she-likes added to the list, hurrah.

[Nettle]

She has finished growing then - so you can enjoy feeding her a bit more until she is the size you want her to be.

[j-f]

Hey guys!

I found this on the internet - http://www.deliciousdogdiet.com
Has anyone bought it and do you think it's worth spending money on?
I think a book with explanations etc would be a good starting point for me in case I'm a complete beginner but want to switch my dog to raw food.

[Suzette]

I gave Piper (my 4 month old Corgi) a raw chicken wing on Saturday and she ate it just fine and had no problems. This morning around 8:30 I gave her another one and initially she did just fine, but around 1:00 this afternoon she had a very soft poo (they are usually very firm) and then around 3:00 she threw up some partially digested chicken and a small bone part. Then she asked to go outside and wretched three more times, but this time only a small amount of foamy liquid came up. Since then, she's been acting okay, just a little out of sorts and a bit tired.

I don't have her on a raw diet just yet, (she gets Taste of the Wild as her main food source), but my plan was to give her a raw chicken wing every few days and see how it goes. (I'm ready to start a raw diet, but hubby needs a tad more convincing and giving some raw wings now and then was my foray into helping him see that she can handle it. ) Thankfully, he's a reasonable man, so the fact that she threw up today didn't put him off the raw diet idea, but we both would like to know if this is a fairly common event when beginning raw food. Afterall, I know that when switching kibble brands, you have to introduce slowly to avoid stomach upset. So generally speaking, is it likely that this is just an adjustment period for her? No one can know for sure, but for those of you who are seasoned raw feeders, would you suggest giving it another go or two in the next few days? Of course, if she keeps throwing up, I'm going to stop, I just don't want to be hasty if this is somewhat normal for some dogs in the beginning.

Thanks so much!

[JudyN]

Suzette, I think what I'd do is try giving minced chicken with cartilage and bone included for a while, if you can get hold of it. Jasper used to do runny poos after chicken wings when he was still on mainly kibble, but is fine now he's totally raw fed. His first week was on just minced chicken with bone & cartilage, then a week of different minces being added in, and then he started on chicken carcasses. He can still throw up bits of bone if he has a big bone, which apparently means his stomach acid hasn't adjusted enough yet.

At the raw feeding specialist's suggestion we also gave a small lump of pig's pancreas before each meal, which is meant to help with the digestive process.

[Suzette]

Thanks Judy, that sounds like a very reasonable approach.

Hmm... pig pancreas. I'm not bothered by giving that to her, I'm just wondering where to get such a thing. I've also heard that you should give a bit of yogurt to help with enzymes and digestion. Could this take the place of the pancreas? (Fingers crossed! )

Also, when you say minced meat, I'm assuming that's a regional term that in my neck of the woods we call ground meat (like ground turkey, ground beef, etc., the type of meat you'd use to make hamburgers, for instance). Is this right?

And I'm wondering if the butcher in my local grocery store would be able to ground up the chicken, cartilage and bone for me. Have any of you ever asked your butcher to do this? Otherwise, I have no idea how I'd get that either since I have no kitchen appliance that would accomplish this.

Again, thanks so much. Your advice and direction are greatly appreciated!

[Erica]

I gave Piper (my 4 month old Corgi) a raw chicken wing on Saturday and she ate it just fine and had no problems. This morning around 8:30 I gave her another one and initially she did just fine, but around 1:00 this afternoon she had a very soft poo (they are usually very firm) and then around 3:00 she threw up some partially digested chicken and a small bone part. Then she asked to go outside and wretched three more times, but this time only a small amount of foamy liquid came up. Since then, she's been acting okay, just a little out of sorts and a bit tired.

I don't know how susceptible Corgis are to bloat, but dry heaving/retching with only foamy stuff coming up is one of the warning signs for it...my worst nightmare since our old GSD got it, but he survived and lived quite a long time afterward. Anyways, back to raw feeding stuff:

Are chicken wings okay to give to larger breeds, or are they too small? I remember something about trying to keep the bones the size of the dog's head...if your large dog is careful about eating (Opal stops/gives up when her bully sticks get too small), would chicken wings be okay? Opal's a GSD and Onyx is a collie/lab/shepherd thing.

[Sarah83]

Could just be it upset her stomach a bit. I don't feed chicken wings myself, there seems nothing to them for Rupert! I prefer to give chicken legs/quarters. I would carry on with the chicken and see how she goes, after all, dogs can occasionally throw up on a food they've been on for years with no problems then eat it with no problem for years after. I switched Rupe to raw cold turkey (no pun intended) and had no problems other than a slight case of the squits when we introduced beef. That lasted a couple of days then he was fine and apparently it's normal when first starting raw. I've been told they can also tend to throw things they haven't chewed properly back up and then re-eat it Haven't had that happen yet!

I don't particularly like the minces to be honest. They're the only way I can get anything other than chicken cheap enough to feed regularly here but I'd go with chunks of meat and bones over mince any day. Rupe likes his tripe one but refuses to touch the beef one, I think it has liver in since that is the only meat he's ever refused. I think in future I'm going to just order the tripe mince (can't get tripe anywhere else), chunks of heart and the rabbit legs to be honest and stick with what I can get cheap in the supermarket other than that.

[Suzette]

Thanks so much ladies! I appreciate all the info and you good ladies taking the time to answer my questions and concerns.

[JudyN]

Hmm... pig pancreas. I'm not bothered by giving that to her, I'm just wondering where to get such a thing. I've also heard that you should give a bit of yogurt to help with enzymes and digestion. Could this take the place of the pancreas? (Fingers crossed! )

Can't help you there, I'm afraid. I'm lucky to have a shop that specialises in raw dog feeding nearby so they sell it in convenient small lumps. I'm sure it's not essential though. They also sell the mince, so I've never had to ask my butcher. Definitely worth asking yours, though, unless you can find an online natural dogfood store that will deliver.

Also, when you say minced meat, I'm assuming that's a regional term that in my neck of the woods we call ground meat (like ground turkey, ground beef, etc., the type of meat you'd use to make hamburgers, for instance). Is this right?

Yep, minced meat is ground meat

Sarah, can I ask why you're not so keen on the minces, please? I'll be continuing with them anyway as with Jasper's guarding habit, the last thing I want is him having a meaty bone that will keep him going for an hour or more because I'll have to be constantly aware of how I approach him (he can polish off the carcasses pretty quickly!), I'm just interested to know.

[bendog]

Question:

I'm not ready to switch my dogs to raw completely (hard to get hold of cheap raw food here), but would it be ok to give them a raw egg from time to time?
Or even raw chicken breast if it's in the fridge and near its sell by so going to be thrown away otherwise?

If I gave them an egg would it be best to totally skip the kibble that day and feed only raw, then go back to kibble the day after?
Thinking of trying one day of raw feeding a week or something. But I'd like advice?

[Sarah83]

Sarah, can I ask why you're not so keen on the minces, please? I'll be continuing with them anyway as with Jasper's guarding habit, the last thing I want is him having a meaty bone that will keep him going for an hour or more because I'll have to be constantly aware of how I approach him (he can polish off the carcasses pretty quickly!), I'm just interested to know.

Feeding mince is just like feeding kibble, it goes in the bowl and the dog can just scarf it down. Yeah, you can put it in Kongs or whatever I suppose but if you've got a dog like mine that's horribly messy. I'd prefer to feed a 700g chunk of meat than 700g of minced stuff. It seems much more natural and Rupert seems to prefer it too, it doesn't take him a ridiculous amount of time to eat a 700g piece of meat, we're talking 10-15 minutes, but it gives him a bit of a chew as well as just a meal. If you know what I mean. Then there's the problem of too much bone. I'm feeding minces at the moment as it's the only affordable way to feed anything but chicken and I'm finding that if I give Rupert a boney extra as well as his mince then the bone content seems WAY too high for him and he ends up really struggling to poop. Freshness worries me too with them. I've read a lot of posts on various forums where somebody has opened a pack and it's obviously been off despite them having just received the delivery. But that goes for anything ordered I suppose, not just the mince.

Unfortunately I can only get tripe minced and the minces are the only affordable way for me to regularly feed anything but chicken so I'm kinda stuck with them for now but I don't like them. Rupert isn't too keen either, he's far more enthusiastic about non minced meals although they're either chicken quarters or smallish chunks most of the time.

[Sarah83]

Question:

I'm not ready to switch my dogs to raw completely (hard to get hold of cheap raw food here), but would it be ok to give them a raw egg from time to time?
Or even raw chicken breast if it's in the fridge and near its sell by so going to be thrown away otherwise?

If I gave them an egg would it be best to totally skip the kibble that day and feed only raw, then go back to kibble the day after?
Thinking of trying one day of raw feeding a week or something. But I'd like advice?

I gave Rupert the occasional raw food when he was kibble fed. I just timed it so that he ate his raw hours before his kibble as I've always read not to feed the two at the same time. Something to do with different rates of digestion apparently. I gave eggs when feeding kibble although never WITH kibble, they were always just an extra earlier in the day.

Rupe gets any meat that's hit the sell by date or is close to it and we're not going to eat it before it's out, he has done since the day I got him and my previous dogs got it too. I don't give it him if it smells or looks funny though, with no garden the last thing I want is him getting an upset stomach and me having to either clean the carpets or stand outside all night and then swill the grassy area down. Been there, done that when the ex gave him half a kebab with hot sauce on, not fun!

[Suzette]

This is a question I haven't seen in this thread (though if it's been addressed and I missed it, my apologies). My sister has begun a raw diet for her chihuahua mix, and she uses the pre-packaged, frozen patties made by Nature's Variety. These are so convenient, but very, very expensive. I was just wondering why she couldn't make her own. I was thinking, if she asked her butcher to grind up, say, a large package of chicken wings and then went home and mixed into that her pureed vegetables, fruits, offal etc. , she could then form her own patties and freeze them. She could also make patties with various ground up meat sources (and bones). Does this sound right? It sounds almost too simple!

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[Fundog]

Yes, it is that simple, and that, I think, is part of what scares people: they have this notion that feeding their dogs is much more complicated than that. In fact, it's really every bit as simple, if not easier, as making your own baby food for the human infant!