Raw/natural Chitchat

[huski]

It looks like unless you know some one in the business then there is no sourcing it.

However I have been speaking with Laneka and she was able to get some - not quite green but certainly not bleached and said it went right through her dogs - so I think I may give up looking for it and do green leafy/root veggies instead.

If you do processed green veges along with some probiotics/natural yoghurt, IMO that's probably about as close as you're going to get to the real thing.

Thank you Star - I do feed yoghurt so I will note to combine the grated veggies with the yoghurt!

That's what I do - the dogs love it too!

[yellowgirl]

It looks like unless you know some one in the business then there is no sourcing it.

However I have been speaking with Laneka and she was able to get some - not quite green but certainly not bleached and said it went right through her dogs - so I think I may give up looking for it and do green leafy/root veggies instead.

If you do processed green veges along with some probiotics/natural yoghurt, IMO that's probably about as close as you're going to get to the real thing.

Thanks Staranais . Huski your dogs' diet sounds great!

I'm still working on some bone issues with my two. Madeline eats them beautifully, but I need to add more liver to her evening meal to keep constipation under control. Sarge still won't eat the whole bone, he likes to just pull all the meat off. He's not too bad with a chicken wing tip, but there's still more gulping than chewing

They just had a some turkey bone each and of course Sarge left the actual bone, so I smashed it up a bit with the hammer to encourage him. Well, he scoffed the lot and choked on a larger piece! Darn near gave me a heart attack!

Any suggestions on the bones people?

[Tru Borders]

Thanks Staranais . Huski your dogs' diet sounds great!

I'm still working on some bone issues with my two. Madeline eats them beautifully, but I need to add more liver to her evening meal to keep constipation under control. Sarge still won't eat the whole bone, he likes to just pull all the meat off. He's not too bad with a chicken wing tip, but there's still more gulping than chewing

They just had a some turkey bone each and of course Sarge left the actual bone, so I smashed it up a bit with the hammer to encourage him. Well, he scoffed the lot and choked on a larger piece! Darn near gave me a heart attack!

Any suggestions on the bones people?

Bones can be a little hard to get used to, well for me, I still cant watch Asher too much otherwise he wants to swallow the bone faster and then of course the gag reflex kicks in.

I think crushing the bone up in the beginning for Sarge will entice him to gobble instead of chew and crunch.

I would also stay away from smaller bones like Lamb necks for example, just until he gets the hang of it. My advice would be to feed lamb shanks.

Not the cheapest meal YellowGirl, but its a meat pulling bone (which Sarge is good at) and its not too big that its hard to handle, but its not too small that its swallow-able.

You could also try chicken necks or turkey necks. If he tends to gobble them down whole then maybe you could give them a bash just to break them up a little, but keep them in their form, so if he does swallow, its much easier going down that way. You might have some luck starting him of on necks. Tasty little morsels they are!!

[huski]

My dogs are so fussy about liver. They won't touch it on its own. They love heart, and I feed it to them once a week as the muscle is good for them and lean too.

I bought some lamb's liver this week and chopped it up (they wouldn't even eat the little chopped up bits!) then mixed it with a tin of sardines. Thankfully they ate it

I just bought some raw pigs trotters from the butcher today, the dogs have never had them before but boy were they excited when I showed them the bag They'll get one each tonight as a treat. They might be worth trying with your poochies Yellowgirl, as they would be too hard to swallow in one go. Chicken frames might be worth trying as well. Turkey necks are great too, some of them are bloody huge!

I feed the dogs twice a day, the morning is their main meal which is usually a raw meaty bone, or heart, dinner is either a small meal of pureed raw vegies and yoghurt; sardines/mackeral; egg; offal or maybe chicken necks or mince. I do feed a BARF diet so I go by the guide my vet gives me (she's a holistic vet so is very supportive of raw feeding).

Edited August 1, 2009 by huski

[Tru Borders]

Love your new avatar Huski!!! Daisy looks so adorable!!

[huski]

Love your new avatar Huski!!! Daisy looks so adorable!!

Thanks, HH It was taken a while ago at a DOL meet by PointeeBlab. I love it too

[oonga]

for those of you having trouble with dogs eating liver might be worth trying to give it frozen?

I never used to be able to get her to eat liver either, but frozen she would eat it.

I get the butcher to chop it up for me so i don't have to handle it then spoon it into ice cube trays then when frozen put in freezer bag and give her 2 ice cubes worth 2 or 3 times a week.

Though this method doesn't work with kidney :D

wonder if i get them to mince the kidney and mix it through the meat if she will eat it??

My butcher will mince liver as well which is what i used to do but don't need to anymore.

Now she will even eat liver fresh but for some reason i continue to freeze it into ice cube trays

Then i can do a bit of training with her and reward her with a piece of frozen liver

[huski]

for those of you having trouble with dogs eating liver might be worth trying to give it frozen?

I never used to be able to get her to eat liver either, but frozen she would eat it.

Funny you mention that oonga, when I bought the tray of liver this week it was already frozen. I was chopping it up when it was only a little bit defrosted, and took a frozen piece and gave it to the dogs... a little while later I found two pieces of now defrosted room temperature raw liver on the floor

Dogs, they can be such a PITA sometimes :D

[oonga]

for those of you having trouble with dogs eating liver might be worth trying to give it frozen?

I never used to be able to get her to eat liver either, but frozen she would eat it.

Funny you mention that oonga, when I bought the tray of liver this week it was already frozen. I was chopping it up when it was only a little bit defrosted, and took a frozen piece and gave it to the dogs... a little while later I found two pieces of now defrosted room temperature raw liver on the floor

Dogs, they can be such a PITA sometimes :D

ewwwwww ok maybe throw that theory out the window for you

might be worth getting it minced then and mixing through their meat? even if you put it through the food processor if you don't get your liver from the butcher?

[huski]

ewwwwww ok maybe throw that theory out the window for you

might be worth getting it minced then and mixing through their meat? even if you put it through the food processor if you don't get your liver from the butcher?

That was my backup plan if chopping it into little pieces and mixing it with tinned sardines didn't work... thankfully at least this week, it worked and they ate it :D I have no idea how long it will last though

The dogs had their pig trotter each tonight and they LOVED them - kept them occupied for ages too, they must be quite tough. Will definitely be feeding them again, lots of good mental stimulation too ;)

[Gayle.]

Mine won't eat liver or kidney on it's own, so I chop it up and mix it up with mince, veges, eggs etc. But if the pieces are too big, Dusty will pick them out and lay them on the floor beside her bowl, so they have to be finely chopped. I thought I could get away with just halving or quartering chicken livers, but I can't.

[BCPuppy]

Been lurking here for a while. What a great topic Learning heaps from you guys. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of a BC puppy from Rowesdale BCs, only 4 weeks to go. Have been doing heaps of research on different diets. I am leaning to RMB. Several reasons, apart from it just makes sense to me, I am in remote WA and the local supermarket has a very limited range and expensive as well, the butcher is not too bad and I will be able to work with him. I am in the habit of shopping around every 6 months so have a couple of large freezers at home, OH is looking very strangely at my shopping list for the next trip, think he thinks he is going to be on the same diet as the dog

We also have access to fresh fish and road kill (kangaroo). Is there anything I should be aware of before feeding these? I guess kangaroo is likely to have ticks etc, shoudl I freeze first? Very nervous about fish, all those little bones. Any thoughts would be welcome.

[Staranais]

Oooh a puppy! Good luck with her!

Can't advise you on the roadkill since your parasite issues are different to ours but hopefully an Aussie can help. I'd probably have reservations feeding raw roadkill myself, since you don't know the animal was "acting" healthy before it got bowled, and have no idea what it had recently eaten (any poison in the area?), but perhaps I'm paranoid. But failing better suggestions, I guess I'd suggest to do a basic post mortem to make sure none of the organs look unusual (make sure you know what normal looks like), and then freeze for a week or two at a minimum, since most wild animals have at least some fleas/lice/worms that you really don't want your dog to get.

Fish can be great IMO as a component of the diet, my dogs have never had problems with the bones, though as with all RMB you should supervise the first few times at least. Again hopefully an Aussie will chime in with any local fish diseases you should know about.

You can also ease your way in with half commercial, half raw food, if you're not sure which way to go. Others will disagree (this is the "no more dry food" thread, after all), but that's what I do, and think it works well:

a) I love the convenience of a part commercial diet

b) I can't afford to feed all raw (I'm on a student budget, and have an objection to my dog's food bill being higher than my own!)

c) I believe you get most of the benefit of a raw food diet from feeding only half the calories as raw, as long as the commercial you feed is good quality stuff. Others will disagree, but that's been my experience.

Welcome to the thread!

[Tru Borders]

OMG I thought I was hijacking a thread I hadnt posted in!!

Good name change YellowGirl

[yellowgirl]

Hi BCPuppy, welcome to the forum and our little thread :p

Basically... what Staranais said . Make sure you show us some pics when your litttle one comes home!

Staranais, I've changed the name of the thread. The 'no more dry food' title was relevent to me and my own furkids, but now that others are joining in, I thought it would be bettter to change the title to something that represents the open minded advice and opinions that this thread offers ;) . One size doesn't fit all when it comes to feeding our dogs!

[yellowgirl]

OMG I thought I was hijacking a thread I hadnt posted in!!

Good name change YellowGirl

Heehee, just keeping you on your toes :p

[Staranais]

Hi BCPuppy, welcome to the forum and our little thread ;)

Basically... what Staranais said . Make sure you show us some pics when your litttle one comes home!

Staranais, I've changed the name of the thread. The 'no more dry food' title was relevent to me and my own furkids, but now that others are joining in, I thought it would be bettter to change the title to something that represents the open minded advice and opinions that this thread offers . One size doesn't fit all when it comes to feeding our dogs!

Nice name change, I like it! Does that mean I can come out of the closet as a semi-raw semi-commercial feeder? :p

[Tru Borders]

Nice name change, I like it! Does that mean I can come out of the closet as a semi-raw semi-commercial feeder?

BANNED!!!!!

Just kiddin :p

[yellowgirl]

Nice name change, I like it! Does that mean I can come out of the closet as a semi-raw semi-commercial feeder?

Well, I'm just pleased that you feel safe enough to finally come out to us :p ;)

..... as long as you're not feeding Pedigree, Homebrand or anything of equal disgustingness

[Staranais]

Nice name change, I like it! Does that mean I can come out of the closet as a semi-raw semi-commercial feeder?

BANNED!!!!!

Just kiddin :p

Oh no! ;) But then I can't post on dry food threads either cos I'm a wacky part-raw feeder. I'll be homeless!