Dog owners: do any of you feed raw?

[PamNY]

I'm interested in other human food diets, too, but mainly raw. I have two friends -- both educated, smart women -- who swear by raw feeding.

I'd always dismissed it as woo-woo, but the glowing reports from these two have piqued my interest. Both these women had difficult dogs. One bought a bulldog at a pet store (this was years ago and she knows better now). The other has very reactive bulldog; her interest in positive training has led her to become a dog trainer, and even in this economy she's done well. Both are educated professionals and diligent about veterinary care.

If you wonder why I'm raising this question in a bike group, I'm moderator of the bulldog group I belong too, and people get in such heated arguments about dog food. I already know what they think anyway. Plus lots of people here seem well-informed about food, health issues, etc.

Pam

[smurfalicious]

Yeppa! Been a big raw advocate for a very long time! My terrier's teeth were nasty and after a month on home prepared raw including raw bones, they were and still are gorgeous. You'd never my dogs weren't pups looking at their teeth.

The big thing with feeding raw over dry is the nutrition. Heat processing robs food of enzymes and vitamins. Raw doesn't have that problem. Also most dry dog foods are packed with grains and other things the dog simply doesn't need. Dogs were designed to eat raw meat, bones, and the partially digested vegetation of their prey. My dogs kindly gave me an example of that one morning, ick. Because dogs digestive tracks are so short bacteria is less of an issue.

Currently because of my roommate situation and life in Colorado being much more expensive my dogs get a combo. Hank doesn't tolerate grains well so they get grain free foods and I switch every bag. Currently they're eating Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit. I also use a product called Honest Kitchen that is a dehydrated food. The meat isn't technically raw because it's prepped in a human food facility, but it's heated to very low temps. So they get 50/50 Honest Kitchen and Nature's Variety. I also give them salmon oil and a vitamin/joint/digestive enzyme supplement.

Usually I feed raw patties but since our freezer is feeling fickle lately I haven't been. I use Stella & Chewy's patties because NV's prices just went up and S&C has a process that kills bad bacteria without harming the enzymes and such.

I could go on forever, but I'd probably leave stuff out. My dogs are doing great, you'd never know Lucky was 8. Their coats are gorgeous and they're energetic, not spastic. Like I took their Mountain Dew away and gave them fresh squeezed orange juice.

Anyway, my store has some really good resources, and you cruise for product info and reviews while you're there:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/Knowle...%26+Diet+-+Raw

This site also helped when I first started feeding raw:

http://www.pet-grub.com

This is sad, but good reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Meaty-Bone...5714365&sr=1-1

This is incredibly useful too, but he's big into grains and I don't agree:

http://www.amazon.com/Pitcairns-Comp...5714413&sr=1-1

Good luck!

[Eden]

I have cats rather than dogs, but I did try raw food with them. It went well for the switch over period, when they were getting some raw food and some of their regular. Unfortunately they started throwing up when they were transitioned to all raw food, so I discontinued it.

They do get an all canned 100% meat diet (cats are not omnivores like dogs - they are obligate carnivores). I think they definitely are healthier for it. They are not overweight and have very glossy, very soft, dandruff free coats.

Recently I've been giving them dehydrated chicken breast dog treats - the same company makes cat treats, but the dog ones are bigger. It gives the cats something that they have to chew on. I figure its probably good for their teeth.

[tulip]

I'm a new dog owner. I feed my dog Taste of the Wild dry dog food, and supplement it with raw stuff (beef bones and chicken necks from the meat dept. of the grocery store). I haven't tried an all raw diet with him yet because I've been living for 6 months without a kitchen, and I was worried about bacteria and the mess. I know you can buy prepared frozen raw patties, but they're pretty expensive. I'm interested in learning more about raw diets for dogs.

Does anyone know if turkey necks are also good as raw food for dogs? I saw some in the store, but I wasn't sure if they are okay.

[Andrea]

Thanks for the links, smurf!

I'm thinking I may switch my dogs to a raw diet- I didn't realize it was so easy (you can prep/freeze ahead of time)

[ItchyBits]

Check out Judi's blog - she has 2 dobes that she feeds raw food
www.milesandmadness.blogspot.com

[Biciclista]

I've been feeding 50% raw food to my cats for about 2 years now. Their coats are gorgeous, i have no obesity problems (and I have a cat who was overweight when we started).

I feed my cats whole ground chicken with a concentration of heart and liver. The only thing they never get are the thighs (which I eat) It really makes me feel good to know that they are eating food that I would eat, after the melamine scare, I have a thing about that.
Meanwhile, I am also feeding them some dry cat food, it's made locally and i always add water to it before I feed it to them.

It's a pain in the butt to grind the meat up, but so is doing laundry, etc, etc.. it's just another chore that i do.

[Eden]

I'm pretty convinced that my male cat's UI problem was from tainted food... I read recently that *kids* in China who got the tainted milk have been suffering from not only kidney problems, but also bladder stones....
If my kitties had been able to keep it down, they would still be getting raw, but it just didn't work out for them. They love the food they get though (Ziwi Peak) and it is very high quality.

[roadie gal]

I admire people who can do the raw diet, but it just isn't feasible for me. I feed the dogs and the cats the best kibble I can, that they will tolerate. Right now they're all getting Innova EVO.

I belong to a dog forum where this is an endless discussion.

[Biciclista]

I belong to a dog forum where this is an endless discussion.

ha, i'll bet.

I have two big concerns with dry food.
1/ is that it is based on carbs; wheat, rice, corn. For dogs, this is less of a problem than cats, because it is known that dogs don't need 100% meat.

2/ eating such dry food is really unnatural, in the wild, dogs and cats are eating animals, whose bodies contain a very high percentage of liquid. Your pet will eat its dry food until it is full and then drink some water. But is it really enough water to reconstitute the food, or are they fighting dehydration constantly? I think this part can be helped by wetting the food. The pet will get used to that.
I also don't believe in leaving food out all day for them, but that's another subject. Good luck.

[roadie gal]

ha, i'll bet.

I have two big concerns with dry food.
1/ is that it is based on carbs; wheat, rice, corn. For dogs, this is less of a problem than cats, because it is known that dogs don't need 100% meat.

2/ eating such dry food is really unnatural, in the wild, dogs and cats are eating animals, whose bodies contain a very high percentage of liquid. Your pet will eat its dry food until it is full and then drink some water. But is it really enough water to reconstitute the food, or are they fighting dehydration constantly? I think this part can be helped by wetting the food. The pet will get used to that.
I also don't believe in leaving food out all day for them, but that's another subject. Good luck.

You can find grainless foods (like the one I feed).

I believe that dehydration is more of a problem with cats than dogs. Dogs do have a thirst mechanism that makes them drink. Cats don't. They're "designed" to get most of their water from their food rather than drinking. A lot of folks make an argument that cats fed kibble are chronically dehydrated. I'm struggling with the best thing to do for my cats because of this. I like free feeding, but I don't want wet stuff that can go bad sitting out.

[ccnyc]

I've been feeding my two cats a homemade raw diet for 9 years. They both have beautiful coats and muscles and they love their food. I grind whole chicken and Cornish Game hen with liver, heart and gizzards and also grind beef and lamb and add calcium to make sure it's balanced nutritionally. I add additional supplements also. It takes me only a few hours from start to finish to make a big batch of food which I freeze in small containers. Then it's as easy as feeding canned food. I make food about once a month.

You can get very high quality raw food (ground whole prey and parts) from a place called Hare Today.
http://www.hare-today.com/

Carol

[TsPoet]

My dogs get dry for breakfast and 25:75 dry:raw for dinner. I started this diet when my little guy was 7 years old. His fur returned to puppy fur right away, and he lost ~1 lb (from 21 to 20, so that's significant). He also returned to being more energetic and bouncy. He was beginning to act really old. This change in an old dog to a middle-aged dog is really extreme. We even started agility at the old age of 8, and he's doing great. He could not have done agility prior to the raw food, he was too old and slow moving.
My Shiba-x also has almost normal fur, instead of the typical shiba wiry stuff. She was 1.5 when I started her on raw food, so haven't noticed any health differences in her. They've been on this diet for 1.5 years now.
Their stools were unpleasant to clean up for about a month, now cleanup is better than it's ever been.
I feed them this
http://www.columbiarivernaturalpetfoods.com/
I really like that I have a somewhat local brand to get. At first I got meat only, because I was under the impression that dogs couldn't absorb veggies. After doing research on it, they now get chicken/veggies or turkey/veggies (I'm cheap and the others are more expensive.

The other thing to note is it's gross - the chicken and turkey are the least gross (fatty). Also, at first I lightly microwaved the meat - for me. Now I just grab a handful of the stuff and plop it in the bowl, no qualms. The dogs love it.

[Biciclista]

I've been feeding my two cats a homemade raw diet for 9 years. They both have beautiful coats and muscles and they love their food. I grind whole chicken and Cornish Game hen with liver, heart and gizzards and also grind beef and lamb and add calcium to make sure it's balanced nutritionally. I add additional supplements also. It takes me only a few hours from start to finish to make a big batch of food which I freeze in small containers. Then it's as easy as feeding canned food. I make food about once a month.

You can get very high quality raw food (ground whole prey and parts) from a place called Hare Today.
http://www.hare-today.com/

Carol

oh, wow, they sell rabbit! (and ergh, ground mice!)

[Kalidurga]

I've been feeding my two cats a homemade raw diet for 9 years.

Carol, your cats (in your avatar) are gorgeous. They remind me of my Ivan.

I'd love to do raw food for my cats but, like roadie gal, it's just not feasible with my schedule. So they get wet food twice a day, with a very small amount of kibble left out in between. I recently found a new kibble from Spot's Stew that apparently has no meals and the only grain is oatmeal. The cats wouldn't touch the Spot's Stew canned food, but the kibble smells like something I'd like to eat and Olive and Ivan love it.