Is Raw Feeding Difficult?
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Oct 15th, 2009 |
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I have been reading the book Give Your Dog A Bone and Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats and it seems that raw feeding is complicated. There was stuff like bonemeal and lots of vitamins and there was juicing the veggies and putting the juice back with the veggies. I would like to do raw feeding but it seems very time consuming and I worry I will not be meeting the dogs nutritional needs. Anybody have some advice or suggestions?
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Billinghurst and Pitcairne are more into the BARF diet then the RAW diet. The difference is one has veggies, fruits, supplements and the Raw doesn’t. Raw feeding is quite simple. I would suggest you pick up Tom Lonsdales book called ‘Work Wonders’. It is raw feeding.
There are a lot of sites for you to visit also.http://www.rawlearning.comhttp://www.rawfed.com/myths/
I have a sample menu and how to get started page on my site..http://www.eastwooddanes.com
Below is a sample diet for people starting out. I have used this diet on my dogs for years, and they are great on it. It suits pups, as well as adults.
RAW CHICKEN WING DIET FOR DOGS
The following is based on a dog weighing 25lb. (11kilo) Adjust accordingly for your dogs weight. For pups, adjust for weight, then multiply by two.
MORNING:- Roughly 1/2 to 2/3 SMALL MUG ( 1 – 1 1/2oz) Porridge Oats + pinch Lo-salt………Soak above overnight with cold water. In morning add:- 1 Mug (2 1/2 to 3 ozs oz) cooked vegetables [ See Notes.], 4 Philips Brewers Yeast tablets, 1 teaspoon desiccated coconut, 1 teaspoon Cold pressed Sunflower oil (Five days per week.), 1 teaspoon cod liver oil (Two days per week.), 1 – 1 1/2 ozs offal [ See Notes.], 1-100iu Vit E capsule once per week.
EVENING:-
9ozs Minced Raw Chicken Wings, 5 days per week.
7ozs Minced Beef, 2 days per week.
4 Brewers Yeast tablets.
Notes:-
Vegetables. Give a good selection over the week of veg that’s in season. E.g. Carrots, turnip, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc.
Offal. Give a selection of heart, kidneys, liver, tripe, over the week.
This diet has been balanced, so that your dog gets all the nutrients it needs. Yes, it has cereal, which a lot of people don’t use, but my dogs have done fine on it. (My oldest dog is 11 years and doesn’t look it, and not one of my dogs has been to the vet with any illness whatsoever.) I cook the vegetables, because too many people juice raw veg and forget that too much of the cruciferous family can cause thyroid problems.
It really is easy. Costs very little, and when you add to that NO vets bills, then you’re laughing. If you want help with it, you can join any raw diet list. I am the moderator of the one below, and although in the UK, all are welcome. This diet can, of course, be changed to no cereal, more meats, etc., but I advise that this is only done when you are completely confident with what you are doing.
GOOD LUCK!!!
Raw feeding has 2 different branches: Prey Model and BARF.
Barf if more complicated, requiring juicing and pulping veggies, supplements, etc. Contains about 50% bone.
Prey model is very natural: 80% meat, 10% edible bone, 10% organs. Feed about 3% of ideal adult weight.
Prey model is as easy as taking a raw chicken or a pork roast out of the bag and handing it to your dog.
There were few very good raw feeding websites mentioned in the postd above.
I have a 7 month old akita, she has been on raw since she came to my house at the age of 8 weeks.
Her health is picture perfect, her teeth are perly white, her breath does not stink, no doggy smell at all, and back yard cleanup is a breeze because her body digests everything.
Every time she goes to the vets office for a check up, everyone raves how healthy she is and how perfectly she is developing. I will never go back to dog food.
It’s not hard at all!! It’s a little more difficult than feeding dry kibble, but the dogs are so much more healthy.
There are debates about whether cooked or raw meat is best so you can research that, but I personally cook my dogs meat and I make the food for a week and keep it in the fridge. If you feed a good variety of food, then just a multi vitamin supplement is plenty to keep them healthy. It takes me about 30 minutes to make a weeks worth of food, and I buy meat in bulk because it’s cheaper that way and freeze it until I am ready to use it. You can also do that if you choose to feed it raw.
As far as the juicing, what I do to save time is juice TONS at one time and then freeze it immediately to preserve the nutrients. I put it in baggies that are appropriate serving sizes and I pull it out of the freezer at feeding time and they don’t even mind that it’s frozen. That way, you spend an hour or so juicing enough for awhile instead of having to pull the juicer out everyday.
Give it a try, it’s really not that bad once you work out a system that works for you.
There are easier ways to do it.
Look up BARF on the internet. It’s a great resourse for new raw food feeders.
Also, FarMore sells whole meals that you just thaw and serve. It’s very easy.
Hold on a sec, I’ll get their site.
Innova EVO is the closest thing to the raw diet that’s still in kibble form. Great nutrition, and very easy to store, prepare and serve. http://www.naturapet.com for more information.
It is really only as time consuming as you make it! I personally make HUGE batches of raw food for my pets, and freeze them in individual feedings. I take it out for the next days feeding. I have to make time for it once every 2-3 of weeks, and it does take me about 2 to 3 hours from start to finish. But it is so worth it!
I have been feeding raw for awhile now to a miniature poodle that has severe allergies. That is why I switched to the diet. I feed raw meat and add a multi-vitamin to make sure he is getting all his vitamins and his blood work has been great! As long as you give bones and meat at each meal or almost every meal you should be fine. You monitor the feces. You firm it up with more bone and loosen it up with more meat. As long as you can keep the bowels normal then he is doing good, just keep giving the multi vitamin. There are multiple groups on Yahoo that are about Raw feeding and BARF diets. They can help you out a lot. Its not really complicated but you do need to know the ins and outs before you get started. Check the Yahoo Groups out and see if its right for you and your dog.
Yup, stick with a good quality kibble, well balanced, and nutritionally complete.. Something natural, without corn, wheat etc. That way you don’t have to worry about creating an imbalance.
What happens if you have to go away or board your dog.. Will the person that takes over for you and cares for the dog go to that trouble? You want him able to eat a food that someone could go to the store and by or else he won’t likely eat under someone elses care.
No…
Those are good for a beginning, but try going to http://www.rawmeatybones.com and reading Lonsdales 2 books.
Then try these websites:
http://www.rawlearning.com
http://www.rawfed.com
http://www.rawfeddogs.net
and on yahoo, join the group: rawfeeding
I thought it was going to be horrible, but it is so EASY. I just grab a couple of bone in chicken breasts… give them to my dogs… Then I add in a little organ meat (liver/kidney, etc) and give them a capsule of Fish oil/salmon oil for the Omega 3s and that is all. I do their shopping when I do my own. I watch the sales at the grocery stores, and I keep my costs below $1/lb.
It is not at all time consuming, and the benefits are so worth it.
Smaller, almost odorless poops; clean teeth, great skin/coat, few to no health problems (like ear infections, etc.), and they LOVE to eat this food. Sometimes it takes a bit to get them started on certain things like Liver, etc. (i think it has to do with texture), but once they go raw… they never want to touch kibble again. I know mine won’t. They turn their noses up at it.
Those websites will more than get you started, but for good advice try the yahoo rawfeeding group. They can make it so easy for you.
trust me!! it is only as hard as you make it! it sounds confusing, but its not hard once you have done it for about a week, and know what your dog likes and dislikes. you will get into the groove of things quickly. dont worry to much about vitamins, most healthy dogs dont need them. just feed your dog depending on how big he is or what age etc. most puppies and small dogs tend to like chicken wings because they break easy and are easy to eat. you can feed any kinda of meat you can find (good quality of course) for extra’s you can give raw egg,yogurt,and canned pumpkin (for loose or hard stooles) they should have fish about once a week, i find canned mackeral a good one for that. go to this site and there is a link at the top for a spreadsheet, download it, make sure you read the directions, its kinda confusing at first, but once you read and understand the directions it should be fairly easy. good luck, i hope you decide to switch, it makes all the difference! that site has just about everything you need to know.http://www.rawdogranch.com/howmuch.htm