Raw diet

kjmtidea

Would someone be able to put a menu up of what their dog eats in a day that is on a raw diet please?

I am looking into this for my 2 year old springer spaniel and it is really confusing, either that or I'm incredibly thick (highly likely :rotfl:)
My partner has given him a few chicken wings over the last few days and he really loved them, it hasn't upset his stomach either which is a miracle as he has a very sensitive stomach.

Thank you!

krlyr

There are several trains of thought in raw feeding so the answer will vary from person to person. The most common two methods, as such, as probably BARF vs prey model diet. BARF is Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, and tends to consist of a higher proportion of bone, as well as vegetables and additives like natural yoghurt, honey, seaweed, etc. for the additional benefits they can offer. Raw feeding is based on the idea of a wolf eating a certain proportion of its kill - e.g. an elk, they would eat 80% muscle meat, 10% bone (excludes the largest, inedible bones) and 10% offal (organ meat - liver, kidney, etc.). Obviously we are unlikely to be able to feed stuff like elk so we make up our own 'frankenprey' with commercially available meats in the same proportions.

I follow the prey model diet mostly, though I do feed the occasional raw egg, leftover veggies (or blitz some in the food processor with fish for a low-calorie Kong filling) and the odd addition to their diet, so not strictly just prey/meat, but mostly that way.

I don't have a "typical day" anymore because now I tend to order in the meat in the right ratio - so if I order in about 100lb a month, I will order 80lb of various meat chunks and minces, 10lb of bones/carcasses and 10lb of offal. I then feed this in any order over the month and know that the dog has got the correct ratio, balanced over time. Afterall, we don't always eat the exact same proportions of protein, carbs, fats, etc. in every meal, we balance our diet over time too.

Just as an example week of what I might feed, for example (this is per dog - they need about 1.5-1.8lb of meat a day going on 2% of their bodyweight)

Monday - 1lb chicken mince frozen in a Kong for breakfast, 0.5lb pig pluck (mixed pig offal) for dinner
Tuesday - 1lb tripe chunks for breakfast, 0.5lb white fish
Wednesday - 0.5lb economy mince (mostly offal with some meat minced in) for breakfast, ~1lb sized chicken carcass for dinner
Thursday - 1lb beef chunks for breakfast, 0.5lb chicken mince for dinner
Friday - 1lb turkey chunks for breakfast, 0.5lb tripe mince for dinner
Saturday - whole rabbit (~2lb) for "brunch" (given slightly later as it may be their only meal for the day)
Sunday - 0.25lb liver, 0.25lb ox heart for breakfast, 0.5lb lamb & tripe mince for dinner

That's just totally made up but generally I follow some rules. I almost always feed two meals a day as they're large breeds slightly more prone to bloat. Breakfast tends to be the bigger meal of the day, because I tend to stuff it into a Kong and freeze overnight to leave down when I go to work. I generally feed similar amounts daily but might feed more one day and less the next - so if they had a 2lb meal one day (like the rabbit, or sometimes to keep them occupied I give them a block of meat straight from the freezer, it comes in 2lb blocks) they may only get 1lb the next day to balance things out. I try to feed offal (or economy mince which is high in offal) before or after bone meals - bone firms stools, offal loosens it, so feeding together can help prevent going to either extreme. I try to feed variety but don't beat myself up if they just have the same meat for breakfast and lunch, afterall dogs on kibble have the same flavour day in, day out. A variety of meats does help to cover the various nutritional requirements though, e.g. red meat providing more iron, chicken or fish being more easily digested forms of protein and so on.

If you're really confused and do want to give it a try on a more simple basis, there are some ready-made raw diets out there. E.g. Natural Instinct or Honey's Real Food. There's also the Prize Choice blocks, the Natures Menu nuggets, a few other brands of "complete" raw diets that have the various elements (meat, ground bone, offal) all balanced for you.

borderlakland

we have been feeding a raw diet for over a year now and never looked back. i found loads of help and advice on http://www.petforums.co.uk/ here. there are some very helpful threads on supliers, how to change your dog's diet etc. they are a very helpful bunch over there.
we currently feed mainly DAF minces and chunks,(these mostly have the correct ratio of meat/offal and bone) 1 block lasts 2 days, we also add duck wings and necks, meaty bones, tinned oily fish for variety..
word of advise though some vets are very much against raw feeding and will give you loads of horror stories, i know many raw feeders never mention to their vets what they feed. ours will admit they know very little about it, but admits looking at how healthy our dog is it is suiting her
good luck

kjmtidea

Thank you both, lots of reading for me! It's just difficult knowing how much to give and when, I really don't want to mess it up and make him ill. I think we will just take it very slowly and see how he goes.

krlyr

The general guideline is 2-3% of their ideal weight. So a 30kg dog would have 600-900g a day. If you did the prey model diet, it would work out to be 480g meat, 60g bone and 60g offal at 600g daily, for example, but you wouldn't necessarily have to balance every meal. You could just balance it out and give 420g offal and bone over the week, e.g. in two meals of around 200g and so on.
I did initially measure it all out, which helps build confidence I think, and when my mum switched her puppy to raw I bagged it all up in balanced portions for her so she literally had to grab any bag out of the bunch and knew it was balanced in the 80:10:10 ratio. She then gave the odd bone on top like a wing or two, or a small chicken carcass, to give the dog the benefit of chewing up raw bones.

Natural Instinct isn't the cheapest way of doing it but could be worth splurging on for a month or so to see if raw feeding suits without the need to do loads of research on it (you could give it 2 weeks, if it's going well, feed for another 2 weeks to give yourself time to read up, source a supplier, etc) and no need to invest in a huge chest freezer or do a large minimum order before knowing if you'll continue it.
http://www.naturalinstinct.com/

Remember to introduce new meats slowly to prevent upset tummies. If he's been OK on the wings then I'd try him with some chicken fillets next, and then maybe next week or the week after give him some chicken offal - Tesco do a tub of chicken livers you could divide into portions and offer small amounts of. After a few weeks of chicken, you can introduce the next meat, e.g. lamb (fairly easy to get hold of lambs liver, lamb shoulder, etc. in supermarkets), beef (ox liver, beef ribs, mince, etc), turkey (you may not find offal that easily but turkey necks can make a change from chicken wings for the bone part of the diet), rabbit (you may want to start with skinned, jointed rabbit but if you work up to whole, fur-on rabbit it's a very good physical and mental workout for a dog, and the fur helps give a good load of fibre to clean the gut out) - just give his tummy time to adjust to each meat. If anything upsets his tum, give him a few days to rest, maybe try introducing it again in a smaller quantity, and if it still upsets him you know to skip that one out. For example, mine can't have lamb without it giving them bad wind - the small amount in the lam & tripe mince I get is fine but I can't give them pure lamb mince, lamb chops, lamb bone, etc.

Kinski

I use natural instinct as I'm crap at getting the mix right and my pair ended up with squitty bums, I only have a couple of small dogs and it costs me approx £5 a week to feed the pair of them.

borderlakland

it sounds more complicated than it actually is. when i 1st started i was paranoid about making sure each meal was balanced exactly, but now as long as it works out over the month, you also get better at judging by poo, one of maddie's fav mixes is choice chunks (offal) but can upset her stomach as its too rich so add extra boney meals to compensate.
as long as you take it slowly and take your time adding new meats you shouldn't go too far wrong.
some people are lucky have lovely butchers who can supply lots of stuff very cheaply,

can thouroughly recomend petforums, even if you don't actually post like you said plenty to read, there are a couple of diaries that owners have written

look forward to hearing how you both get on

con1888

Is it okay for me to recommend a book ?

Ann Ridyard - The dogs dinner revisited. £12.99 on Ebay, I received mine yesterday and it is really good for starting out, helps you understand WHY raw is best and explains the do's and dont's. Obviously her method may not be the one everyone uses but for a beginner I find it really good.

kjmtidea

Thanks everyone, so much knowledge on here which is very helpful

Mara69

I've just read Works Wonders Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale and I am going to move my two onto this diet full time from Monday. They'll have mostly raw, meaty bones, such as beef rib, ox tail, lamb neck, chicken carcass, plus whole raw fish. They'll also get offal in the form of heart, tongue, kidney and liver. Veg, the odd egg and table scraps as and when.

antw23uk

I buy from Natural Instincts for my cats but they also do dog food. I was always worried about getting it right so kept a % of their diet in the commercial cat food ... slowly but surely the commercial cat food took over
After finding natural instinct they take all the guess work out of creating a complete diet. It actually works out more expensive than commercial food .... if you can work out the science then its cheaper and for dogs i do think this is easier than cats! You can bulk out the food on things like chicken wings. necks, lamb hearts ect which reduces the cost even more which i think we will look into.

Feeding RAW is like a breath of fresh air for you and your pet. Coats will be thicker, glossier and shine... teeth will be like a youngsters with no plague and no staining. Eyes bright and alert .... Temprement changes (no they dont turn feral, :rotfl:despite the rumours ) They are more balanced you know? they are calmer, more secure .. the boys certainly get on better and Ollie is actually more sociable :eek: Energy levels are increased.

Im a big fan of the RAW/ BARF diet as you can tell

I love my boys, I want the best from them and feeding RAW makes that happen