Raw Food Diet

[Noobs]

Avoid grapes and raisins. I've read also to avoid mushrooms. I gave Murphy some mushrooms with his food once - before I read that they were bad - he ate everything but picked all the mushrooms out and left them. Whew.

There are food items listed in this thread about things that are harmful to dogs: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5208

[pmcrae71]

Does that go for cooked onions and mushrooms? Say I made beef stew and added some to their kibble, would cooked onions and mushrooms be bad for them? I did that last night and they ate every bite!! and wanted more... Ooops, I hope that isn't going to hurt them.

Oh, BTW, I gave Connor a whole egg last night. He carried it around the yard and licked it and pawed at it, but lost insterest in it pretty fast. I cracked it open and he went to town on the insides. He didn't eat the shell, too crunchy I guess.

Oh, Melissa, I'm sorry, I feel that I have taken over your thread here with my questions. I just got excited when I started reading all this stuff.

Thanks to everyone for all the information. This is great. Glad I didn't leave.

[Nettle]

Best to avoid the onions and mushrooms, cooked or uncooked, in the future, but I'm sure yours will come to no harm from a one-off. My dogs got through quite a lot of onions and mushrooms many years ago before I realised it wasn't the greatest idea same with chocolate before we all realised it was bad for them.

[emmabeth]

I wouldnt think the amount of onion or mushroom in a bit of stew would be a problem, but I wouldnt regularly cook them something like French Onion Soup... as Nettle says, best avoided wherever possible.
.

[pmcrae71]

Ok, good! Thought I'd have to make a trip to the vet's office. That is an oops I won't make again.

Nettle, you mentioned chocolate being bad for the dogs, I have heard that once before, so I have never given it to them, all though Ozzy has stolen a snickers bar a time or two from my husband, lol. I have seen chocolate treats for dogs, is that a different chocolate than what we would eat? I haven't gotten it for them because I wasn't sure if it was a 'speacial' chocolate for dogs (so to speak).

[***Melissa***]

Oh, Melissa, I'm sorry, I feel that I have taken over your thread here with my questions. I just got excited when I started reading all this stuff.

No worries, I'm still learning too & when you ask questions, chances are that it's something I didn't know either, and did't think to ask

BTW, it's going well with the new diet (breakfast is dog food, dinner is raw), but during next week I want to make the complete switch to raw - still very unsure about the quantities though - they way I understand is that you're suppose to calculate the amount of food as a % of bodyweight (it's different for different size dogs, ages etc). Now if I do it that way it's really not much food they're getting. I'm afraid it won't be enough & they'll still be hungry But I guess I'll figure it out somehow.

[***Melissa***]

Oops, used the instead of
I'm not really mad

[emmabeth]

It will LOOK a lot less food - but then take a look at how much poop they produce on a totally raw diet - that is also a lot less. Which means its a pretty simple equation to figure out that much of the money you pay for complete dog food.... is in fact paying, for poop!

If you do think they are still hungry afterwards (and they probably arent!), give them a raw carrot to munch on, whole. Being whole they wont derive much actual nutrition from it, but it will fill them up a bit.

[***Melissa***]

Thanx Em, will try that

[Leigha]

Ok, good! Thought I'd have to make a trip to the vet's office. That is an oops I won't make again.

Nettle, you mentioned chocolate being bad for the dogs, I have heard that once before, so I have never given it to them, all though Ozzy has stolen a snickers bar a time or two from my husband, lol. I have seen chocolate treats for dogs, is that a different chocolate than what we would eat? I haven't gotten it for them because I wasn't sure if it was a 'speacial' chocolate for dogs (so to speak).

I think the chocolate for dogs you're talking about is actually carob which is supposed to be a safe alternative. I have a doggie-safe brownie mix at home that's made from carob, but I haven't used it yet b/c I got consumed with cake-baking for like 4 months.

[Nettle]

Dog chocolate has had the theobromine removed, which is the substance that is dangerous to dogs but not to us.

Personally I don't even give dog chocolate to them. I don't want them getting a taste for it. Probably pointless but makes me feel as if I am doing something sensible

[emmabeth]

My dogs think dog choc tastes foul anyway (and yes.... Ive tried it, and I agree with them!), it ranges from real choc with the poisonous stuff removed, carob (which tastes naff all like choc anyway) through to fat mixed with sugar and flavourings and coloured brown... All rubbish and ive never had a dog yet would actually 'work' for it and few that ate it at all!

Much better if possible that they never get a taste for it, mine have a taste for enough things as it is!

[Leigha]

So today we did our "big grocery trip" and went and bought a bunch of stuff for our boys to start really doing the raw food diet.

I got a bag of spinach, a bunch of broccoli, used 6 celery stalks, 1 apple, 1 pear, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 or 3 carrots (can't remember), a red bell pepper and some beef broth. Put it in the blender ground it up and had enough to do like 3 or 4 weeks of veggie cubes. So that was really cost effective YAY! Hopefully I did that right.

Then we got chicken livers, beef heart and beef kidney (amazingly enough it was super cheap, and please tell me beef heart and kidney are okay). They came in these super huge packs and we want to pre-portion them into little baggies but we don't know how much a serving should be for them. Any ideas?

Does this sound right overall? Anything I should change or add? Thanks!

[emmabeth]

Well.... the heart doesnt count as offal really as its actually a muscle.... so consider that 'meat' rather than 'offal'...

The rest is proper offal and you dont want to over do it as they contain vitamins its possible to OD on - feeding a tablespoonful once or twice a week should be ok though.

I find my dogs do NOT like the texture of whole liver or kidney so we blend it (sorry it is DISGUSTING to blend it, especially liver it looks like blood soup and you get all stringy bits round the blades... bleurgh) and then freeze in small portions to add to a meal. You could freeze it in icecube trays and a couple of times a week, give an icecube of offal alongside the veg and some chunks of heart as a meal.

[Leigha]

Okay, so I'll just go back to the store and buy more ice cube trays and I'll put the kidneys and livers in the food processor and chunk it up that way. I just don't think I could bring myself to ever use my blender for my morning smoothies again if I did the kidneys and liver in it. The heart came pre-sliced, and J just cut it up into 1" cubes (there about). I think I'm going to have to thaw out the veggie cubes for Kole. He refused to eat his in frozen form. Lu ate his which really surprised us. Bruiser ate it, but I think that he just ate it because it was food. I only put in 2 garlic cubes, but dear lord the veggie cubes have stunk up my fridge, freezer, and kitchen. I've had to light a melon scented candle to mask the stink. Do they normally have a strong smell?