Dog owners: do any of you feed raw?

[PamNY]

If you want the brand of the ground meat I'd be happy to make a call for you.

Yes! I would appreciate that. One of the friends I mentioned in my post is planning a 13th birthday celebration for her bulldog. That's really old for a bulldog, and very inspiring to me. I might make the switch soon.

Now I have to fret about taking my dog food business away from the small, independent retailer who treats every customer like royalty (and delivers my food within 30 minutes, regardless of weather). She sells some frozen raw food, but it's pricey. Hope I can buy at least something from her.

Pam

[Andrea]

So after being inspired by this thread and a LOT of research, I fed my dogs their first raw meal this morning...



Turbo, polishing off a chicken wing

[lph]

This thread is fascinating. I'd never even heard of feeding raw before, as a concept. Will have to look into it once we decide on who is the one to come home and be our new kitty

[PamNY]

Hey, Turbo looks like he approves of this change. Lloyd's had a couple of raw meals and seems to agree.

I haven't yet summoned the nerve to feed a whole chicken wing; I've been cutting them up with poultry shears.

Does anybody feed fish? I can get lovely fresh fish trimmings for $2 a pound.

Pam

[Andrea]

Even my smaller dog can chomp right through a whole chicken thigh or wing in just a few minutes! It's funny, because it used to take Turbo about 20 seconds to inhale her kibble, but now she's forced to slow down & gnaw instead.

From what I've read you can feed them just about anything!

[mtbdarby]

Pam - sorry it took so long to respond. I haven't been good at checking in.

Anyway, the raw food I've used is called Natures Variety. Check www.naturesvariety.com

Hope that helps.

[andtckrtoo]

I just wanted to say that this thread has convinced me to go raw. I've been hovering on the edge for a while - fed a home cooked diet to my Eskie who had cushings and diabetes because the canned the vet recommended had no food in it, only isolates and other chemicals! She lived a lot longer than my vet thought she would. Jimmy benefited from that too but when Kimo died, I stopped and he started getting fat on the commercial food - even the high quality stuff.

So far he LOVES it. I started simple with chicken parts, and veggies mixed with egg and shell, but I'm slowly adding more things. This morning he had sardines with his veggies and lapped those up like it was nothing. So far his digestive track is happy. I had to laugh last night though because I was going out and wanted to get his food ready so that I could leave. I took the veggie mix and put it in his bowl, then got the chicken out and he started dancing around. I have never seen him so excited to eat in my life. Now, this is a dog who adores food, so that's saying a lot. I need to cut back on the amount - he's not finishing everything. So, I'll play around with that until I get it right. But I have to admit that it takes a lot less time and effort than I thought (much less than the home cooked), and it's a ton cheaper than buying the commercial done raw.

[tulip]

Christine, how did you determine how much to feed? (I haven't gone on line to do all the research I need to yet, but it's on my list!)

[andtckrtoo]

I was basing what I feed Jimmy on several different articles based on 55 pound dogs (he's 60, so I figured it'd be similar). But as each dog is different, it's really a matter of experiment. Jimmy was starting to look a little slimmer (he's probably about 5 pounds overweight, but as Aussies tend to gain weight easily, I want to keep that under control), but after the past two days, he's been bulking up again. I cut about 1/4 cup of what I feed him to see if that does anything. If not, then I'll cut a little more. But I don't want to starve the poor guy either, so I'll do it slowly.

[PamNY]

I've temporarily suspended my raw feeding experiment. I did try the Nature's Variety and it seemed excellent (though pricey). I've learned that I have to do lots more research to find affordable meat sources that will work for me (Manhattan apartment, no freezer, no car). There is a Yahoo group on NYC raw feeding that will probably be useful.

Another discouraging point: Lloyd was thrilled when I brought home kibble. It wasn't even dinnertime, and he's not the most food-motivated dog. I did a whole clicker session with kibble and he worked his little heart out for that stuff. I resisted calling him an ingrate, realizing he doesn't know how far I have traveled and how much I have spent. Sigh.

Pam