How Much Raw To Feed(weight)

[BCPuppy]

Dont be daunted by feeding raw, its great for both you and the dog! I agree wholehearted with the formula Sandra777 has suggested. My girl is around 20kg and I feed around 400-450 gms a day, spread over 2/3 meals.

I get a variety of meat and bones out of the freezer once a week and parcel it up into daily bags, usually 1.75kg meaty bones, 750g meat (beef,chicken,roo, goat whatever i have) around 300 gm fish, then some offal and vegies. I process vegies/fruit. Hit the supermarket for the left over/damaged/marked down ones and put a heap throught the processor, freeze in blocks around 100g, and can do enough to last about 6 weeks in one hour session. Extras I add are Omega oil daily, leftover rice/pasta if there is any, tsp natural yogurt, an egg occasionally. Nothing is precise and will vary slightly from week to week.

The comment on water content is so true, we are in the tropics and I am amazed at how little water my girl drinks.

As has been said, introduce different things slowly, balance over time, learn about your breed specifics and above all dont stress

[Collstar]

when a dog consumes the stomach of an animal

Except for small creatures such as rabbits and the like - wolves do NOT consume the stomach contents. There are numerous modern studies to show this, the wolves will rip the stomach/rumen/whatever and shake the contents out. Makes sense - the stomach of a herbivore is full of very strong acids to break down cellulose etc.

They DO eat the contents of the intestine - which has already been partially digested. Anyone who's ever had their dogs around cattle horses or sheep will know how much they enjoy the poop of larger herbivores - which is also full of predigested vege matter.

Thats what i also thought, thanks for clearing that up

some people say that they do eat it, some dont!

Good luck with your dalmation

feeding a raw meat diet is a fantastic idea! it should keep her healthy! if you want to feed raw DONT mix it with vegies, a dogs digestive system isnt able to digest plant material, and dont benefit from vegies at all, they are carnivours

Dogs do digest plant matter, the cellulose is the problem. Put veges in a food processor or juicer to bring the cellulose to a digestible state. Vegetables provide the balance - minerals and vitamins to add to the meat, as do eggs, brown rice, fish and so on.

ok if they are able to digest plant material... do they actually gain anything from doing so? as in do they absorb vitamins and minerals from plant material?

plus you dont see wolves going around and grazing on grass and trees, they eat exclusively on prey!... do correct me if im wrong

Edited December 3, 2010 by Collstar

[persephone]

wolves going around and grazing on grass and trees,

well..no, but AFAIK they do eat berries and fruit in small quantities ..and they probably also eat herbivore droppings ...

[dogmate]

Hi

I bought some chicken wings so far this morning was day 3 of 2 wings a day and shes been ok. I'm going to wait until the packet is finished to be real sure and then try her on the beef. She hasn't reacted to beef before but it will be interesting to see what happens. I haven't converted her over yet she has still been having her normal dry food with the addition of the chicken wings as i wanted to not change anything else just one thing at a time. I have spoken to my vet and on Tuesday when i go in shes giving me an epyleptic diet chart so we will probably stick to that I'll share with everyone whats on it when i get it. I have got my fingers and toes crossed and hoping she has outgrown the chicken allergy last time it was always chook necks so i thought i'd try the wings not sure if that made any difference or not??

My neighbour goes hunting so he is going to supply me with some roo meat i also asked for the tail not sure how i'm going to cut that up yet. He also gets rabbits so we will be able to give her a whole rabbit

Thanks for your support

[noisymina]

plus you dont see wolves going around and grazing on grass and trees, they eat exclusively on prey!... do correct me if im wrong

I have seen my dogs peel bananas. Just hold a piece of banana in front of our Dobe and watch her drool all over the floor.

Watch them grazing in the mulberries, acerolas, joboticabas, black sapote etc etc and even grazing the grass alongside the horse!

Oh - and the Wei used to crack Macadamias and eat them. Before you tell me they are "poisonous" you shoudl know she went on good and strong to 16 years. I don't think she actualy ate many of them since it was such hard work. We never sat and fed them to her in any quantity.

They do all that voluntarily - not because we teach them to do it.

[dogmate]

Hello

I got the feeding chart for an eplyeptic dog.

Basically no oats,bran, and esp wheat, beans, beef pretty much everything else is ok. Extra calcium apparently some seizure dogs lack calcium and i reckon mine probably does before being desexed she had massive phantom pregnancies and as a pup she went right down in her pasterns so that will be intersting to see

I already had made up some packages with brown rice, beef and vegies and i add calcium so will use that and change meat. She has been having one chicken wing daily with no reaction so far so good i wonder if they grow out of allergies like kids can???

[Aso]

Hello

I got the feeding chart for an eplyeptic dog.

Basically no oats,bran, and esp wheat, beans, beef pretty much everything else is ok. Extra calcium apparently some seizure dogs lack calcium and i reckon mine probably does before being desexed she had massive phantom pregnancies and as a pup she went right down in her pasterns so that will be intersting to see

I already had made up some packages with brown rice, beef and vegies and i add calcium so will use that and change meat. She has been having one chicken wing daily with no reaction so far so good i wonder if they grow out of allergies like kids can???

Hi dogmate ...

How is your dog going with the new diet? How is she with chicken now, still okay? Sometimes the allergy may be mis-diagnosed, i.e. it wasn't the chicken she was allergic to, something else in her system at the time might have been causing the reactions. Are you feeding a raw diet now?