feeding my dog.

madlyn

While i have just been chopping up some steak for tonights meal, i gave my dog a pea sized piece and she loved it, so i gave her a little bit In fact i think she would eat the entire steak if i let her.
since then i've been thinking, it's raw meat as natural as you can get and i'm guessing not filled with the stuff her dried food is.
so if i was to start feecing her a raw diet what is the best way to do so, where do i get the meat from and what and how much do i give her?
She's a jack russell by the way.

Babbawah

Dogs existed quite happily for 100's of 1000's of years before "prime sized meaty chunks full of natural goodness" became available.

Whatever you do DO NOT GOOGLE any keywords like raw - dog - diet - food etc.

This sort of thing can only be resolved on MSE.

Paradigm

Do google raw food suppliers if that's the way you want to go...pets at home do a range of frozen raw food to start you off.


I don't feed raw due to storage issues but others on here do & will be along to help I expect

Soot2006

I do RMB (raw meaty bones) diet for a GSD x Rottie ... She's 8 yrs old now and been on this diet for 6 years. I started with chicken wings, as do many people. Simply stopped giving her dog food after she had pancreatitis and never gave her any ever again.

I buy my meat from local butcher. Costs me about £5/week. Also include fish when it's available cheap. I bought a small chest freezer which lives in garage and dog gets all her food frozen. She takes her meat/bones out into the garden and lies down with it for about 20-30 mins.

She gets mostly chicken carcass, but some duck, turkey, lamb + pigs feet, fish. Occasionally she gets joints or larger bones, but that might be a bit much for your Jackie! We haven't looked back and she looks great

Rev

I feed raw too. I use manifold valley meats. Google them. There plenty of other suppliers though. If you check petforums.co.uk in the dog health and nutrition section they have a raw suppliers list so may find one closer to your area.

You feed 2-3% of body weight per day depending on if he is deal weight, needs to lose or gain etc. Google raw food calculator and you should fine one.
Rule of thumb when feeding raw is 80/10/5/5.

That's is 80% muscle meat. 10% bone. 5% offal and 5% liver.

Obviously all dos are different. But that's a base, and forms a complete raw diet.

One of mine only has around 2% liver as any more gives him the runs etc


What I would recommend to do is read, read, read when you think you have all the info you need. Read some more as getting it wrong can cause a lot of issues down the line. It's not just a case of feeding raw meat. It's has to be the correct ratios (not every meal, I follow that ratio over a week).


Variety is also key as they get different nutrients from different meats. I feed anything and everything besides beef (again too rich for one of mine). Lamb, chicken, turkey, venison, pheasant, various fish, rabbit literally anything.


And I feed fruit and veg or fish skins for treats.


Best part is the output. My 27kg dog has one poo a day that looks like it came out of a small cat. No waste going in, no waste coming out.

I can't recommend it enough. My eldest dog had horrific stomach Issues. Everything went through him, at one point he cousins eat anything besides mashed potato. That's no life for a dog is it. On top of that he had severe skin issues. Since switching to raw he has never had an upset stomach and his skin is 99% better. He gets occasional Flare ups in the summer. Raw gave him a new lease of life.

Babbawah

This sort of thing can only be resolved on MSE . . . so you is in the rightest of places.

DO NOT feed your dog any raw food that doesn't comply with the above proportions, cos' more than 10% bone and 5% liver is fatal !

In fact, before extremely convenient (to the human) canned food became the norm, dogs only ever ate their kill in the above (recommended) proportions.

Rev

Babbawah wrote: »

This sort of thing can only be resolved on MSE . . . so you is in the rightest of places.

DO NOT feed your dog any raw food that doesn't comply with the above proportions, cos' more than 10% bone and 5% liver is fatal !

In fact, before extremely convenient (to the human) canned food became the norm, dogs only ever ate their kill in the above (recommended) proportions.

Thanks, such a helpful contribution to the discussion.

If only the OP could feed their dog pointless and uncalled for sarcasm.

catkins

As another poster has said, there are lots of suppliers of raw food. There are a few groups on facebook and you can get a lot of good advice on them.


I did try my dog on raw but he would only really eat chicken and occasionally beef. I just could not get him to eat lamb, pork, any offal, fish etc. Sadly I have had to go back to tinned

Johnny_Dangerously

Oh now, this debate always gets heated! One thing i'd suggest, is speak to Kimberly over at Keep the Tail Wagging. She's a nice lady and helpful. You'll get into all kind of debate over whether it's good/bad/natural or not, but do what you think is right for you.

Interestingly, my local butcher was telling me his staffie is starting to slow down at the ripe old age of 15. I asked him what he fed her on, thinking this would be a strong endorsement for feeding raw meat off cuts.

His reply.....Bakers.

Go figure!:rotfl:

pawsies

Lots of useful facebook groups-

Rawfeeding Rebels
Raw Feeding UK

or websites

http://www.rawfeedingrebels.com/
http://rawstartexplained.webs.com/

They will start you off

I also recommend ordering from Berriewoods. I had bad issues with DAF (Durham Animal Feeds) but lots of people rave about them for some reason?
Nurturing by Nature is also good.
Nutriment and Natural Instinct are good complete raw diets if you don't want to do it yourself (which is a lot cheaper)

Rev

pawsies wrote: »

Lots of useful facebook groups-

Rawfeeding Rebels
Raw Feeding UK

or websites

http://www.rawfeedingrebels.com/
http://rawstartexplained.webs.com/

They will start you off

I also recommend ordering from Berriewoods. I had bad issues with DAF (Durham Animal Feeds) but lots of people rave about them for some reason?
Nurturing by Nature is also good.
Nutriment and Natural Instinct are good complete raw diets if you don't want to do it yourself (which is a lot cheaper)

I had issues with DAF too so switched to a local supplier of MVM and the quality is IMHO much better.