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Raw food diet for dogs


Mishu

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We are picking up our pup in a week or so and the breeder mentioned that she has been feeding the pup a raw food diet. She commented that the pups have been doing so well on this diet, she is considering moving her adult dogs to a raw food diet as well.


I have started looking into what a raw food diet entails and thought I would also ask here. Does anyone have any useful links? Is there anything in particular I should be aware of?

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Kiwi Bicycle

See if you can pick up the book Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale, and Australian vet. He was a webiste rawmeatybones.com.

It goes into the reasoning, and how to do it.


I actually did his book publicity in NZ when it launched. The pet food industry are very very anti and exerted a lot of effort to stop Tom's message. It was great fun getting a huge lot of tv and print media for him and watching the pet food companies go nuts trying to counter his message..

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Thank you, we will be getting information from the breeder and a week’s worth of food. I was interested since learning a bit more about this and the pups grows -that book will be useful KB

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AweAndWonder

My DH did a lot of research into this and as a result we feed our dog barf dog food. Works well for him (the dog that is, not DH!).

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Our two dogs have only known a semi-raw food diet of human grade food as I can't bear the thought of them eating the hideous canned stuff and the kibble can be full of crap too. However, one of our dogs is a rescue and we had to adjust based on vet feedback. It costs us roughly $10 per week per dog, which is less than the cost of canned/dry food and I'd like to think healthier for our dogs too. Although it does take a little bit of time and prep, and also a bit of freezer space. We store a single serving in a container per dog, though have used freezer bags in the past (just trying to also be environmentally friendly).


Our dogs get one meal per day around 5PM, consisting of:

1x raw chicken leg or thigh (depending on what is on special)

1x raw beef bones (not soup bones which are too hard)

1/4th cup of tinned tuna (we buy two tins)

2x pieces of roasted sweet potato

1x kidney or portion of liver/other offal


For a puppy, you probably could go a raw chicken wing or neck and a single egg (with or without shell).


I would say that what we try to do is have a mix of meats if possible. So if we had beef bones one week, we'll try for lamb bones the next. Or if another tinned fish is on special, we'll substitute that. The roasted sweet potato is to aid digestion of the bones. The kidney/liver is not necessary, just a treat for them.


Oh, edited to add, the more raw the meal, the better the dog poo. We don't have smelly, fly-attracting dog poo in our yard, as what is passed quickly dries in the sun, turns white, and disappears into the grass. Massive bonus.

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Our greyhound has been on a raw BARF diet since we got her. I DIY her meals based roughly on


70% muscle meat

10% bone

5% liver

5% other secreting organs

10% veg/seeds/fruit


Variety is key to getting all the nutrients I think. Asian/Middle Eastern butchers are amazing for less common meats/parts (pork lung or duck heads anyone?). With growing puppies though, the balance is very important, so if you’re not familiar with raw feeding it might be best to get a good quality pre-made raw.


Lots of Facebook groups too!

Edited by Cookiegurl
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Hills Mum Bec

Our dogs are on a raw meat diet. It costs us about the same as supermarket canned food but so much better quality. We get ours from a pet food store, the meat is minced with a bit of bone for calcium and a bit of veg. The hardest bit is finding fridge/freezer room as we buy two weeks worth at a time. Comes in 1kg plastic takeaway type containers and we wash them and give them back to the pet food guy who refills them for us because I was concerned about the environmental impact of the packaging. I don’t have links to the benefits but our older dog was on supermarket tinned food until we got our new puppy two years ago when we put them both on raw. Older dog loves the new food, she would sometimes turn her nose up at the tinned food.

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Our greyhound has been on a raw BARF diet since we got her. I DIY her meals based roughly on


70% muscle meat

10% bone

5% liver

5% other secreting organs

10% veg/seeds/fruit


Variety is key to getting all the nutrients I think. Asian/Middle Eastern butchers are amazing for less common meats/parts (pork lung or duck heads anyone?). With growing puppies though, the balance is very important, so if you’re not familiar with raw feeding it might be best to get a good quality pre-made raw.


Lots of Facebook groups too!

 

This is really interesting as I’ll be adopting a rescue greyhound later this year. I’m going to check with the fostering group but hope I can do this too.

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Our labradors are on a raw diet. They are thriving! With my husband being a commercial fisherman, they eat whole raw fish daily. Their favourite is mullet , this makes them so shiny!


We have my brothers elderly Labrador here at the moment who has only ever been fed kibble. She is thriving on the raw food! She is back to running, jumping, he coat is no longer wirey and he stools are better! Totally the best motivation to know our babies are well looked after

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I belong to a Facebook group who are very helpful. It's "Fresh Food Feeding for Dogs - Kibble Feeders Welcome!"


My pup is still on kibble but I do add a little raw and cooked meat to his meals each day.

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nom_de_plume

We don't currently have dogs, but when I did previously, I fed raw. I did a combination of pet meat from the pet shop (which is meat, bone, fat and offal), bones (rotated for variety), fish oil and a small amount of veg. We occasionally used a premium dry food (Blackhawk) when items were unavailable or we went away and someone else was feeding the dogs.


It's handy if you have a chest freezer as you can buy most of the ingredients in bulk and save a lot of money. My dogs always had great teeth and coats, and yes, stools tend to be less and well formed.

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Our greyhound has been on a raw BARF diet since we got her. I DIY her meals based roughly on


70% muscle meat

10% bone

5% liver

5% other secreting organs

10% veg/seeds/fruit


Variety is key to getting all the nutrients I think. Asian/Middle Eastern butchers are amazing for less common meats/parts (pork lung or duck heads anyone?). With growing puppies though, the balance is very important, so if you’re not familiar with raw feeding it might be best to get a good quality pre-made raw.


Lots of Facebook groups too!

 

This is really interesting as I’ll be adopting a rescue greyhound later this year. I’m going to check with the fostering group but hope I can do this too.

 

Do! And join a greyhound walking group in your area, the Snooter Strolls are a great way to meet other hounds!


When we first got her from the rescue, she was being fed a 50/50 mix of large breed kibble and beef mince. While she was in pretty good health, her teeth had a bit of plaque and she had some dandruff. Raw meaty bones and sardines/mackerel have fixed that, she now gleams in the sun (she’s black)! I wish she would eat raw whole fish as PP mentioned above, but if fish are not fillets she just sniffs at it and gives me a side eye.


Another PP above mentioned a FB group that I’m also a member of. Lots of information, admins are canine nutritionists I believe.

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Thank you everyone, this is really helpful info. I’ve ordered a couple of books to read more about this and will check out the Facebook page. I will also speak to our vet to see if they can offer advice, particularly during the puppy stage. DH is home most days so that will make it easier as well.


There are a couple of us in the family with IBS so we are aware of how food can impact overall health -we are very keen to see how we can use real/raw food rather than commercial for our pup.

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