Raw Feeding, Dogs, Advice?
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Question & Answer on
Nov 25th, 2009 |
12 responses
Ok So i’ve been up all night researching this and I had asked a question before about this.
My dog will be 1 next month she has only eaten kibble her whole life (hates it btw) so i’m thinking tomorrow i’ll start her on raw food.
Is it ok to feed her chicken everyday? Like a quarter of a chicken once a day? what about the lungs and heart and kidneys?
She won’t choke on the bones right?
Btw she is a cairn terrier/jack russell mix and she is 13 pounds.
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Raw food is great for dogs! I have a 7 mo old american bulldog that I feed raw and the difference has been night and day in him. You need to do a lot of research about the raw food diet for dogs before you decide to “try” it because it truly is a way of life. Starting your dog with chicken is a great place to start. It is most easily digested of all the meat varieties. what you do to start with is figure out what his ideal adult weight should be and feed 2-3% of that in food every day.For example, my dogs adult weight is #100 Lbs I feed him 3 lbs of food a day because he is a very active dog.The way to make sure you give him a balanced diet is to give him/her approximately 80% meat 10% digestable bones and 10% organs (heart, liver, kidnesy etc) The idea of a raw diet is to feed them as close they would eat in the wild such as their cousin the wolf. I began by just giving him a chicken hindquarter and it took him a little bit to get used to the idea that he actually had to chew his meal LOL then over time I slowly went through all the different parts of the chicken leaving things like liver and gizzards etc until last because dogs tend to take a little longer to get to eating these and because you only need a small amount at a time in their over all diet. I could go on and on about raw diet but the best way to show you is for you to go to http://www.yahoogroups.com and search for the RAWFEEDING group you can find out everything you ever wanted to know. And the best testimonial I can give you is from my happy healthy shiny coated 75 lb 7 mo old american bulldog who went from being underweight because he wouldn’t eat the kibble, had food allergies and was generally miserable to the gorgeous boy we have today. (even our vet wants to know what we’re doing with him)
Obviously the previous answers are unaware raw feeding methods. At 13lbs your dog would do better on smaller parts of the chicken, probably about 1/8 of a chicken each day. The organ meats are very healthy as well, if she will eat them. Be sure you give her a balanced diet with veggies and fruits as well. She will not choke on the bones, and they will not splinter as long as they are given raw and not cooked. It is best if you use more than one protein source, so throw in a meaty beef bone every week or two. Otherwise it is fine to give her chicken every day. It may take her a day or two to figure out how to eat her chicken wings, but once she gets it, she will love you for it, and be healthier than you have ever seen her. Good luck!
You’ve been given great advice.
Vet tech student:
Leave the nutrition to the people with master degrees in animal nutrition, not your SD paid for education in all likelyhood. (Not giving you her site though) Question asker: Email me if you want the site, I have no problem giving it out I just dont trust the poster below me that thinks they know everything about nutrition, yet the are really an animal nurse(in training). My moms an RN and couldnt tell me a dime about human nutrition. Nutrition isnt my moms field and neither is it hers.
I got help with raw feeding from this forum and figured I would give it to you as well: http://www.bigdogsporch.com Many raw feeders on there that can help you get started with help. I was a nervous wreck when I first started feeding raw.
Here are some group you should join as well as some websites. All of these are raw diet/prey model – meat, meaty bones, organs, eggs and fish, no fruits or veggies. Dogs need very little plant matter.http://www.rawfeddogs.net/http://www.rawmeatybones.com/http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.htmlhttp://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawCh…http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfe…
For your dog’s weight she needs about 0.165 pounds (2.5 ounces) for one meal at two meals a day. that 2.5% of her weight. You can take this up or down based on whether she gets slim or gets round.
chicken is what everyone starts out with. A week of chicken and then start introducing liver. Kidneys are fed as organs but hearts at least Hearts and lugs are fed as muscle.
80% muscle meat – including heart
10% meaty bones
10% organs 5% of which is liver.
No bare bones and no weight bearing bones like fermurs. No Rec(wreck) bones from the store either. These are too hard and will damage her teeth.
if you ask me, don’t feed it chicken.
why not feed her some mince or if you want to spoil her you can cook wat i cook for my dogs.
you get about 1kg of meat (red meat), cut up some carrots, pumkin and spinach then add 1/4 kg of rice, add some water and cook on stove until the meat is cooked.
Yay! for your lucky dog!
I would start with chicken, and introduce other meats at intervals over the next month or two. Just chicken to start with is fine. Just chicken forever does not provide enough variety. A quarter of a chicken is a LOT! Depending on your dog’s activity level and metabolism, you will probably be feeding her somewhere between 6 – 10 oz. per day… this is a couple of small thighs or less. I would get an inexpensive but accurate kitchen scale… some people do well guessing quantities, but others like me (even after seven years!) continue to weigh food.
Start with chicken (maybe remove the skin to start if she has loose stools, then begin to leave some of it), add maybe 1/2 ounce of liver or kidney per day in a week or two and see how that goes. A week or so later, add one of the red meats… a lamb shoulder roast will whack up into lots of meals, and has pretty easy-to-eat bone or lamb neck… rabbit is great, if you can afford it (cheap rabbit comes from China, and I would avoid it).
Get a good book (Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy For You And Your Dog by Carina MacDonald is simple and funny and helpful). Join an e-mail list for guidance (I am on RAW-lite on Yahoogroups… we help new folks all the time!).
Don’t worry about bones. Don’t worry about germs. Don’t worry about scary things said here. Don’t worry about ignorant things said by your vet. Your dog will be fine and healthier and happier!
Congratulations on a great decision!
I would not feed her raw food since it can cause problems later with things like worms. Don’t feed her chicken everyday mix up cook chicken with other cooked meats(steaks, beef) and in small doses. Don’t give her the bones not because she would choke but because chicken bones can and do splinter and can cut her throat really badly. Have you tried the new sauces the have out to add to the dry dog food? You can pick them up at Wal-Mart and they are cheap. I have a picky dog myself and she loves these sauces.
No bones!! Never chicken bones EVER!! Bad idea, their too small and will kill them. But yes chicken is fine, probably cooked better, only the breast from pre-cooked chicken. Raw chicken, not too sure about. Cooked is probably the best solution
But not too often, more as a treat because it can be handy when training, dogs LOVE chicken!!
giving any animal bird is bad. the bones splinter. and i would just change up the dog food, give her a choice with different flavors. i wouldn’t give her human food. i did once and now my dog won’t stop begging when i’m cooking.
she might choke on the bones but other than that go right on and feed her chicken
Please do not give your dog chicken bones, the could splinter in her throat and she could die.
I wouldn’t feed my dog raw meat, they can still get salmonella and other germs from raw meat. Dogs have been bred down from wild dogs and there stomachs have become more sensitive and can not digest everything they once were able to.
Feeding your dog raw chicken is kind of like letting your dog eat road kill. You don’t know if the chicken had any parasites in it that cooking would kill.
Dry dog food is one of the best things a dog can eat, unless you know how many calories, minerals, and vitamins your feeding your dog a day. Dog food companies have all this down to a science and there dog foods are made for a dogs body. You can try mixing a little bit of water or chicken broth in once in awhile for a treat for the dog.
If you insist on feeding your dog chicken, please cook it and don’t give the bones to the dog!!
Oh, and raw eggs are horrible for dogs, it doesn’t make their coats thick and shiny, it actually does the opposite. It makes the fur fall out! Just in case you’ve heard that myth.
Boy, do I see a lot of bad advice posted here! Raw bones do not splinter and dogs need the calcium they provide. Cooked food has a lot of nutrients cooked out. It is certainly better than any kibble but comes in second to raw. You just don’t see wolves and wild dogs cooking their kill! LOL! As for vegetables and fruit, dogs lack the enzymes in their digestive system to extract any nutrition from them so it’s a waste of time. Dry dog food is the worst thing you can give a dog and that is evident just by reading it’s ingredients. Even the top of the line kibble only imitates raw so why not go with the real thing? Kibble causes diabetes, obesity, kidney problems and lots more.
Chicken is a good meat to start with and it is good to start out feeding one protein source at a time for a couple weeks because sometimes an animal has allergies to it and this makes it so easy to know what the allergy is. However, having said that, chicken is lacking in zinc and iron which dogs need. Those are present in correct amounts in red meat only. This means that 80% of your dog’s diet should be red meats like beef, pork, lamb, deer, goat, etc. The other 20% should be poultry and fish.
Of that, 80% should be meat, 10% bone and 10% organ meats like liver, kidney, gizzards. Most recommend that you go heavy on the liver but be careful at first because it can cause diarrhea. Indeed, if you don’t feed enough bone you can end up with the same problem. Feeding raw meat does not cause worms.
One of the best foods you can feed is green tripe. It is the 4th stomach of a cow and not available in grocery stores like most everything else. Please do search some out though. My dogs go nuts over it!
Many areas have raw food co-ops or people who sell raw food to dog owners so look around in your area for that.
Your dog will probably not be able to eat a quarter of a chicken in one day at that size. Don’t worry about her choking, it’s really rare for that to happen, especially with raw bones.
Please read these links for more good information.
http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/rawdog/
http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html