Is it safe to feed little dogs raw food?

LolitaLove

I have a beautiful little chihuahua (spelling?:P) and jack russel cross. She is now nine months old and still pretty tiny (just a small dog). She eats wet/dry dog food and cooked chicken, beef etc aswell as pasta/rice, carrots, apples and blueberries....the dog actually prefers veggies to meat :P
I bought some minced chicken with apple and carrot from a butchers...it says on the packet to feed raw...suited to raw bone/raw food diet.
I've never heard of feeding raw meat etc before.
I thought about giving my dog the raw minced chicken but I'm worried in case it would hurt her.
I guess I'll have to ask the vet but does anyone else feed raw meat to their dogs, is it safe?
Thankyou

krlyr

Yup, I know someone who rawfeeds their Chinese Cresteds, as well as lots of other little dogs.
The things to watch with raw meat, for any sized dog, is that any bones you feed are definately raw (never cooked) and appropriate to the size and eating habits of the dog. For example, one of mine had a bad habit of not chewing small bones properly and chicken necks were the perfect size to try to swallow whole, so I don't tend to feed them - if I do then I feed them frozen in a block of 2 or 3 so it's larger and she's forced to chew them properly. With a little dog, you don't have to worry about teeth being quite so dangerous so you can hold one end of the bone to make sure she chews it.
If you do feed raw then read up, you do need to balance the diet. Think of it as these complete diets with the shakes and soups - if you ate the recommended amount, it's sustain you and meet your vitamin and mineral requirements, like a dog's complete food. But if you cook your own meals, you're aiming for x amount of protein, y amount of carbs, 5 a day to get different vitamins and minerals and so on. When you raw feed, you're responsible for balancing the dog's diet, not the pet food manufacturer. There are some complete raw diets out there, either minces/blocks that will contain veg, bone and offal (organs - liver, kidneys, etc., important for giving vitamins and minerals) but you lose the benefit of whole bones, chunks of meat etc. which help clean a dog's teeth and stimulate them physically and mentally (need a tired dog? My two are gnawing away on some marrowbones from the butcher at the moment and it's kept them quiet while I've had a bath and done some housework)
There's several raw feeders on the dog forum Dogsey, so it could be worth signing up and posting a thread over there - there's a whole subforum for raw feeding.
You may find that your vet is appalled by the idea and tries to scare you off it. They may have some genuine points, but remember that they're not dog nutritionists. It's a bit like seeing your GP for diet advice, they just haven't done more than the basic research, that's why you'd be referred to a nutritionist. You might get lucky and find a vet who's looked into it as a personal interest, but more likely they will spout the stuff they learnt in the one or two lectures they had on animal diet - usually sponsored by Hills or Royal Canin (no coincidence that those are the two brands that you'll find for sale in a lot of vet practices!)
My two have been raw-fed for nearly 2.5 years now and haven't done so well on any commercial food. Not to say raw feeding suits every dog - or every owner - but it suits my two and me really well.

lisawood78

I'm a raw feeder, albeit giant breed.
Raw chicken is perfectly fine, I reckon your little darlings will love it :-)

Good luck

Caroline_a

Another raw feeder here with 2 large breeds though. Dogs look great, they do really well on it.

ka7e

Google "BARF" - (bones and raw food) for lots of info and forums, but be aware some are just shop fronts for pre-prepared foods! There is a formula for the ratios of raw meat/offal/veg you should use and these are applicable over a 7-10 day period. So you don't have to feed the same thing every day.

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#daily

LolitaLove

ka7e wrote: »

Google "BARF" - (bones and raw food) for lots of info and forums, but be aware some are just shop fronts for pre-prepared foods! There is a formula for the ratios of raw meat/offal/veg you should use and these are applicable over a 7-10 day period. So you don't have to feed the same thing every day.

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#daily

Does anyone know if I can combine the two? E.g give my dog raw food, and dog food, cooked meats etc? Or does it have to be cooked or raw, one or the other?

krlyr

There are people who say you shouldn't mix raw food and commercial food (e.g. kibble) because they digest at different rates, but I can't see this being a huge problem - we eat various foods in one meal that must be digested at different rates, e.g. cooked meat with raw salad. However, do bear in mind the balance of each meal, by cooking meats you're breaking down the nutrients and sometimes making it harder to digest. If you follow the normal ratios for raw, e.g. 10% bone, 10% offal and 80% meat, but cook all of the offal for example, you could cause the dog to not be getting all the benefits from it - so it might need more to make up for any nutrients lost in cooking. Ditto with meat (and you should never cook bone).
With feeding raw and complete dog food, you're have to ensure the raw part is equally balanced. If you were on one of these milkshake and soup diets (Slimfast?), you're getting a complete balance of everything you need. If you started eating a cheeseburger every day on top of that, even if you adjust the amount of soup you have to account for the calories, you're throwing off the balance - you're going to get more protein, fat, etc. than ideal in your diet, but you might start to fall short on vitamins and minerals (if the suggested portion of soups cover 100% of your RDA, and you cut down on the amount to allow for the calories of the burger, you may no longer get 100% of the stuff that the burger doesn't provide). Same with raw food, if you're feeding 50% kibble, it will be balanced for you by the manufacturer, but you need to balance the remaining 50% of the diet or you risk throwing it all out of whack - so rather than just feeding the normal dry food and adding a cup of mince to it each day, try to get the mix of bone and offal in there too to balance it out (and decrease the dry food slightly so you don't end up with a fat doggy!)

HappyMJ

LolitaLove wrote: »

Does anyone know if I can combine the two? E.g give my dog raw food, and dog food, cooked meats etc? Or does it have to be cooked or raw, one or the other?

Everything as krlyr says. If you didn't want to calculate the nutrients then the advice that I've seen is that no more than 20% of a dog's diet can be anything. Anything being from table scraps, veggies that are now past their best, a few snacks or a few bones from the butcher. The 80% of the diet which is complete food is balanced enough to be OK.

rubberbiscuit

I have 2 Chihuahuas and a Chiweenie (chi x mini daschshund) who are raw fed.
They cope with it really well, although one takes forever to get through his bones! Generally they have turkey neck pieces, chicken thigh or a third of a wing each for their bones (also chicken drumsticks for the bigger dog). Then beef chunks, tripe, chicken or heart for the meat. Also kidney and liver (I tend to freeze the liver into ice cube trays to make it easier to get a portion right). Also I include raw eggs, and tinned mackerel and tinned Applaws on occassion (although I keep the tinned to a seperate meal).
That is their tea, and I always feed raw minces in the morning as its more convenient. Im hoping I can work them up to small lamb bones and raw fish when they are abit more practised with it.
I also tend to feed natural treats like liver cake, jerky, pizzle, chicken feet or sinew.

It can take time to get them used to it at first (I spent about an hour patiently holding the end of a chicken wing for 2 of them until they got the hang of it).:D If you have the freezer space though and can bulk buy it works out so much cheaper, creates less poop and it does wonders for their coat and teeth!!

LolitaLove

rubberbiscuit wrote: »

I have 2 Chihuahuas and a Chiweenie (chi x mini daschshund) who are raw fed.
They cope with it really well, although one takes forever to get through his bones! Generally they have turkey neck pieces, chicken thigh or a third of a wing each for their bones (also chicken drumsticks for the bigger dog). Then beef chunks, tripe, chicken or heart for the meat. Also kidney and liver (I tend to freeze the liver into ice cube trays to make it easier to get a portion right). Also I include raw eggs, and tinned mackerel and tinned Applaws on occassion (although I keep the tinned to a seperate meal).
That is their tea, and I always feed raw minces in the morning as its more convenient. Im hoping I can work them up to small lamb bones and raw fish when they are abit more practised with it.
I also tend to feed natural treats like liver cake, jerky, pizzle, chicken feet or sinew.

It can take time to get them used to it at first (I spent about an hour patiently holding the end of a chicken wing for 2 of them until they got the hang of it).:D If you have the freezer space though and can bulk buy it works out so much cheaper, creates less poop and it does wonders for their coat and teeth!!

Thankyou so much everyone for your replies, think I will def. give the raw feeding a go!:) Thanks again x