Question About Raw Feeding?
I currently don’t have a dog, but I have been reading up on raw feeding..and there are still a few things I don’t get, for when I eventualy adopt.
Like, wouldn’t the best raw meats be the raw meat wolves eat in the wild..like rabbit? I remember reading that dogs have evolved from wolves, only by temperment and color, not the digestive system. So wouldn’t the best meat be the meat wolves eat in the wild?
Also, when you buy meat at the grocery store, isn’t their added preserves and whatnot? And usualy since the cheaper meat isn’t as good as quality because of how the cow was raised on cheaper food, isn’t it better to buy the more expensive meat?
Oh, and do you feed them like a hunk of meat once a day, or how does your dog’s daily, or weekly, menu look like?
Thanks a Ton!
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1st question – Doesn’t matter what wild wolves would eat. A wild wolf’s diet is based on whats in its territory. Some wolves eat fish while others don’t. Your dog can be fed a VARIETY of meats you are only limited to what you can get your hands on. I will post a link to a list of just what you can feed.
Grocery stores – You want additive, enhancement free meat. Read the labels. Your best bet will be to try places like Whole Food Market or similar places. If you can and want to feed expensive meat you can but you don’t HAVE to.
Feeding – you feed based on your dog’s weight, or what they are SUPPOSED to weight if they are over/underweight or puppies. Only a handful of raw feeders feed once a day and they are usually LARGE meals for adult dog. On average pups are fed 3-4 times a day based on age and twice a day when adults.
80% muscle meat
10% raw meat edible bone
10% organs half of which is liver
Here are some links. Plenty of information so start reading.http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawCh…http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawPu…http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Rawfe…http://www.rawfeddogs.net/http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.htmlhttp://www.mypetcarnivore.com/rawfeeding…http://rawdiettruth.blogspot.com/ – Blog of a raw feeder from the raw groups – She has her pets on the raw diet. There are pictures and videos of them eating as well as a few other links.
Just some of the meats you can feed
* Whole Eggs
* Beef (any parts, except dense weight-bearing bones)
* Liver (any species)
* Kidney (any species)
* Green tripe
* Heart (any species)
* Spleen (any species)
* Sweetbreads (any species)
* Lung (any species)
* Whole rabbits (or parts)
* Chicken (whole or parts)
* Turkey (whole or parts)
* Quail
* Pheasant
* Duck
* Goose
* Pork
* Lamb
* Goat
* Deer
* Elk
* Bison
* Pronghorn antelope
* Ostrich
* Kangaroo
* Emu
* Whole fish (avoid fresh salmon)
* Canned fish (use sparingly)
* Rats
* Squirrels
* Mice
* Moose
You need to be very careful if you’re going to feed your dog raw. People who say “You’ll kill your dog if you feed it raw!” don’t know what they’re talking about. I know several dogs that have lived long healthy lives on a raw diet. Meat alone isn’t enough for dogs – they need bones, marrow and suppliments to go with it. Dogs evolved from wolves, but they aren’t wolves so they can’t eat exactly what wolves eat.
Rayven gave you great info.
You can feed rabbit. The whole point is variety.
You can soak the meat in water which can remove some of the solution. Make sure its cold water.
Rayven helped you with this part really well. It helps to get a scale and if you are going for more than one dog or bulking up on meats, have containers to store the meat in instead of the ziploc/gladd bags that are not resuable.
Ravven is correct, wolves would eat whatever is widely available in their environment. They would eat everything from elk and deer to mice and scavenge anything they could. Some eat fish when they are plentiful, some never have a bite of it in their lives. Lots of raw feeders feed rabbits, chickens, quail, even lambs and calves whole when they can. It’s not a very common thing because many people can’t or won’t obtain such animals. Those who can’t get this kind of prey approximate a whole animal using a method often called “franken-prey” where they use various animals to obtain a ratio of 80% meat, 10% edible bone and 10% organ, half of which is liver. Lots of people just use chicken for the bone content and supplement occassionally with other bones like those in pork ribs or various roasts and lots just use calf and chicken liver and get other organs when they can. It’s about balance over time, and not balancing each meal.
There aren’t any preservatives in store bought meat. The cattle, chickens, pigs, etc may have been fed antibiotics and what not, but only those with quite a bit of money can usually afford to feed all organic meat. I mean most people can’t even afford that for themselves, let alone their dogs. Grass-fed is best, but feeding a variety of meats and supplementing with fish oil can make up for the defficiencies of corn fed meat.
Mine don’t really have a set menu, it’s whatever I can find on sale. So they get chicken a lot, boneless pork to make up for the bone-heaviness of chicken, chicken livers, turkey wings, and soon some lamb heart and organs as well. I’m working on getting more boneless meat, but we’ve only been going about a month, so we’re not up to the variety of those who have been feeding for a long time. http://www.rawfed.com/mythshttp://pets.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/r…
I’m not a Raw feeder, but know a bit about it. The whole carcass of rabbit for instance is fed, bones,lungs heart, liver and all. Then they may feed a whole chicken, bones and all. The nutrition comes from the bones and organ meats. Different animals are fed not just one all the time to mimic what a dog would catch in the wild. BARF feeders also feed raw, but are more concerned with the feeding of vegetables and fruit to mimic stomach contents that they think the dog would eat. Organic meat is better if you can get it. I don;t think store meat has preservatives, but they do put gas on hamburger to make it look pink.
I feed my dogs raw, a decision I made after I discovered my newer dog was allergic to wheat.
In the wild, wolves also eat things like deer, birds, and basically whatever they can get their teeth into. The best meats are the ones that are closest to wild state, so yes, organic free range. However, that can be expensive, especially when feeding a larger dog. I do my best to use free range or grass/grain fed, but it isn’t always a practical choice. I get most of my meat cheap from a local butcher, he puts aside a whole bunch of scraps that he can’t sell(some organs, bones, carcasses, etc.) which I usually flesh out with things like chicken necks and beef/lamb/pork ribs, and various other cuts that I can get cheap. If you can’t get your hands on free range/organic, ask a local butcher if there are preservatives or additives in the meat.
Ask the butcher if you can get cheaper off cuts, they may do a deal. Also, you could enquire about older meat- It can’t be sold due to it being past its use by date, but your butcher may give it to you for free or a low cost. Dogs love ‘ripe’ meat, they’re totally disgusting like that.
As far as feeding goes, it varies depending on what I could get my hands on. The only certainties are that:
*My dogs get whole raw eggs three times a week.
* Raw bones, usually ribs(they’re the favourite of my two, But you can experiment) are an everyday thing.
*Having said that, they don’t get any heavy duty bones- Femurs, knuckle bones, etc. They can crack a dogs teeth.
*A whole fish is a weekly occurance, if I don’t have fresh, frozen isn’t a big deal.
*No cooked food at all. No table scraps, nothing.
BARF diets include vegetables to simulate stomach contents of prey, but it’s unnecessary. Wolves don’t eat the stomach contents.
Feed a dog depending on its size, age and weight. I feed mine once a day, at night, after I eat. They get a bone during the day. I feed my 1 year old Staffy cross who weighs roughly 30kg about half a chicken carcass at a time, give or take, and my 10kg 6 year old Jack Russell cross about an eighth of a carcass. That’s including organs. That’s roughly how I judge their diets, but there are several exact calculators online if you want an exact amount. Don’t cut up the meat, or crack the eggs when you give them to a dog- They work to break down the meat and the eggs, which exercises there minds and jaws. Oh, and they eat eggshells quite happily without problems.
The only aspect of Raw that I disagree with is their anti vaccination stance- I am thoroughly for vaccinating and regular vet visits- But that’s a personal choice.
I hope I helped. I’ve left an address for a great website, it has links to others on it.
EDIT- I’ve fed my dogs raw for months now, and have had no problems. Feeding a dog raw meat isn’t ‘gross’, it’s much healthier. When consulting with a vet, be prepared to get coerced into believing raw is evil. Vets are given cuts of whatever dog food they sell by the company that makes it, so obviously they are going to teach that. Most veteranary associations are sponsored by dog food companies.
Raw meat does contain bacteria, I’m not denying that. And yes, proper hygeine is essential, the same as when preparing raw meat for yourself. However, what raw meat doesn’t contain are wheat, corn(known allergens in dogs) animal by-products(these are made through rendering of things like fur, scraps from the abattoir floor and anything else useless) and salt. Excess salt, additives for colour, favour and preservatives are not good for dogs- Aren’t they bad for people as well? And a dogs digestive system is far superior to ours- Again, how come a dog can bury a chicken for days, wait for it to ripen, then eat it with no problems if it can’t consume raw meat?
Dry food does NOTHING for a dogs dental health. I’ve never brushed my dogs teeth or payed for my dogs to have them cleaned, that’s a bones job.
And the change in diet has greatly helped my once disgustingly smelly Jack Russell- No matter how often he bathed, he had that strong doggy odour. It doesn’t exit on him anymore, so I no longer need to bath him monthly.
Sometimes dogs do experience vomitting and diahrrea after the initial change. As long as the dog eats and drinks normally, and this doesn’t last any more than a day or two, don’t be too worried. Don’t switch back to dry food if it continues, take the dog to a vet because clearly there is an underlying health problem, a dog with a weakened immune system may experience salmonella, but it’s less severe in dogs than in humans.
never feed a dog raw meat unless you want to kill him. would you eat raw meat or bad meat? if you wont eat it dont feed it to a dog….never.
one time i gave my dog a raw bone and he went retarded and a little obsesive. I looked up on the internet if you boil the raw meat its good (for about 45 mins)
Raw meat isn’t really a good idea. There’s just too much depending on correct packaging, proper handling, etc.
There’s a huge risk that you’re taking by giving your dog raw meat. If you’ve seen any of the Dateline specials or Cnn specials about meat making people sick, it works almost the same for dogs.
Raw meat will NOT kill your dog. Only someone with little to no knowledge would say something that stupid. The digestive system of a dog is different than that of a human, obviously. It WILL, however, make your dog sick on occasion if it wasn’t handled properly or etc. because of the bacteria in it.
I don’t feed my dog raw meat. To me, it just seems gross. I’ll sometimes give her a few bits of cooked meat mixed in with her hard food as an extra treat. You have to be careful with that anyway, unless you want a picky dog that will hold out for human food rather than eat what they’re given.
The whole raw egg thing for a softer coat does work. You do run the risk of getting a dog with some raunchy diarrhea though, as with any raw feedings.
I’d consult with your vet before putting anything raw into your pet’s diet. High grade dog food like Science Diet & etc. cover what dogs need during the various stages of their life with no real need for extras like that. So it’s pretty much up to you and your best judgment on what you think (& what your vet thinks) is the best option for you and your dog.
Hope that helps!