Raw Food Diet Info Please!

[laffi]

Well after lots of reading on DOL and changing my Chihuahua's diet a few times and worrying whether she is getting the best blah....blah....blah I have come to the conclusion I will feed her a bit of everything.

I cook up mince with a little garlic, add some rice, grated carrot, beef cubes and water and cook up a lovely doggy stew. I let this cool and add beaten egg and raw chicken carcass mince. Mix it all well. Freeze it in serving size quantities. When I serve it up to her I heat in microwave, just to warm it, and add some good quality dry food. She also gets some meaty bones a couple of days a week.

She loves her food and is very healthy and happy.

I often think of a Chihuahua we had years ago who just about lived on Goodos (horror of horrors) and he lived till 15 1/2 and apart from his puppy needles, never visited a vet. He was always happy and healthy.

By cooking the food your are depleting it from important nutrients. Why don't you just feed raw? (so much better than the "doggy stew"). She doesn't need the rice btw. I would NEVER microwave ANY bones, even to warm it up. Seems to me like you are feeding her as if she was a human baby not a carnivore that she is.

[Guest Tess32]

Interesting! Well we have a 11 week old German Shorthaired Pointer puppy, who we have been feeding Advance Puppy biscuits, as well as some fresh mince once a day which had been recommended. We just got home from the vets and she said to cut out the mince immediatly as it can cause osteoporosis. According to her, a little spoonful every now and again is more that sufficient. And that we should be feeding the Advance Puppy, as well as some cooked rice, pasta and vegies rather than the mince. Can anyone recommend specific websites that will give me some more information on the raw diet? I did google BARF but seemed to get directed to websites selling raw products rather than the principles and ratios behind it all! Thanks in advance

Pasta and Rice are crap.

They are fillers, no nutritional benefit.

You're vet is an idiot, find a new one.

The vet is not an idiot at all and is spot on about stopping the mince. Meat needs to be fed on the bone to enable calcium absorption.

A little rice and pasta is fine, although not necessary.

No, meat doesn't. As long as you have a reasonable amount of both meat and bone in the diet, it's fine to feed meat only meals. There's more meat than bone in every natural prey animal.

I often feed a small meat meal in the morning if they are having something bony like a chicken frame at night.

Mince isn't great anyway but stopping the meat and just having dry is just typical crap from vets. She should just suggest meaty bones.

[Just Midol]

I stand by my previous comment.

The vet is an idiot.

Pasta and Rice might be "okay" but it has no nutritional benefit.

Let me guess, they sell Advance don't they?

[westiemum]

I bet they do!!!

Cheers,

Westiemum

And no my vet is not a dry food 'pusher' - you can buy it if you want but he doesn't 'push' it.

I stand by my previous comment.

The vet is an idiot.

Pasta and Rice might be "okay" but it has no nutritional benefit.

Let me guess, they sell Advance don't they?

[Just Midol]

Yeah, same. Mine sells Science Diet and some raw type food but I didn't look much - they just suggested I try a different type of meat when Lily got her first ear problem but now we've figured out that diet isn't the cause. Never suggested I use the dry.