Raw Food For Puppy

[fluff1234]

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Edited August 5, 2013 by fairystar

[minimax]

http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?app=core&module=search&section=search&do=search&fromsearch=1

[luvsdogs]

Puppies don't need mince, it is like eating stodge for them to just suck it up. They are better off with large chunks of meat. You will have a big dog so better off with raw chicken quarters to start going on to 1/2s as he grows. They don't need vegetable matter or milk after weaning.

I feed my dogs chicken legs, lamb flaps & remove excess fat, turkey wings & legs if they are small ones, beef roast chunks - bigger than their head so they can chew & tear at the meat. Good for keeping teeth clean. The occasional raw egg & chicken hearts & feet, chicken liver & lamb kidney. The raw food forum says 80% raw meat, 10% bones & 10% offal of which 5% is liver. I feed more bone than this though to keep the motions firm.

No weight bearing bones like beef leg bones in fact it's not recommended to feed any beef bones as they are too dense & can chip or break teeth. I read on a raw food forum that with puppies you don't need to transition slowly as you do when changing kibble & also if you feed lots of meat types there is less likelihood of having allergy.

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

eta: link for feeding dogs/puppies

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/diet/exp-diet-guide.pdf

Edited August 1, 2013 by luvsdogs

[Dogsfevr]

Ask the breeder they are the ones that now what suits there breed the best .

There diet chart should cover the ages .

Give them the first call & discuss what they think & what will/won't work.

Raw doesn't suit every dog no matter how much you wish to feed it & not all meats are ideal for some breeds so do your homework first .

[fluff1234]

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Edited August 5, 2013 by fairystar

[Nekhbet]

I use the Vets All Natural range and would happily raise pups on it. I can vary the protein amount between the dogs I have depending on their needs and also what kind of protein I put in. I even used it to raise baby ferrets (just the nutritional powder and mince) they're all bouncing and very healthy.

There is no more risk to your children eating raw then there is a commercial diet. By that logic you shouldn't kiss your kids on the cheek after eating sushi ;) the digestive and immune systems are made to handle bacteria and invaders quite easily, nothing to worry about.

[julesluvscavs]

Miah's been on and still is predominantly on a raw diet, i do give her as an alternative every so often 4 legs food and I have given her some puppy dry food from the vets (only because we got them for free)

Breeders guidelines are usually the best to go by while they are puppies then you can make a few small changes as they get older.

You are supposed to worm them more often if they are being given a raw diet.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Jules❤3Cavs

[~Anne~]

You can feed the mince cooked, not the chicken wings or any bones though. Raw uncooked is actually the same as raw cooked. Many dogs do better on cooked meat as raw meat can upset sensitive stomachs. The veggies cannot be processed by his digestion system unless they've been put through a processor or cooked anyway.

[cassie]

Raw uncooked is actually the same as raw cooked. Many dogs do better on cooked meat as raw meat can upset sensitive stomachs.

How can raw be cooked? Then it's not raw anymore?

[minimax]

Raw uncooked is actually the same as raw cooked. Many dogs do better on cooked meat as raw meat can upset sensitive stomachs.

How can raw be cooked? Then it's not raw anymore?

I was wondering that too.

[blakkjackal]

Cooking meats isn't actually quite as bad as everyone says but there is some loss of vitamins so it's not the same as uncooked (from memory it's about 20% depending on method). Cooked meat is somewhat easier to digest than raw, but since we're talking about a puppy there really is no need to cook. Pups normally adapt quickly and don't need transition times. In most cases cooking is just a waste of time and frankly just unnecessary as raw is ideal for a healthy dog. I'd consider cooking for a sickly or weak, recovering dog that cannot handle any extra stress.

Luvsdogs' post is good. I agree mince isn't something you should spend your money on.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Hockz

[BoxerB]

You can feed the mince cooked, not the chicken wings or any bones though. Raw uncooked is actually the same as raw cooked. Many dogs do better on cooked meat as raw meat can upset sensitive stomachs. The veggies cannot be processed by his digestion system unless they've been put through a processor or cooked anyway.

Sorry but completely disagree with this.

A dogs digestive system is designed to ear raw meats.

Also we 100% know that cooking foods takes away some of the nutritional value so raw and cooked meats are not the same thing.

That being said, some dogs will get upset tummy's from certain raw foods. This will probably have more to do with issues with certain proteins or reactions to certain meats, or a problem the dog has with their digestive system. Nothing to do with raw v cooked.

Back to the OP's questions, unfortunately if you're feeding raw, you do have to balance what they're getting.

Not as hard as some make out but definitely needs some thought. You can't just feed chicken for example.

Heaps on the topic is floating around, but when i started with raw, i was mixing it with Vets all Natural which my pup did great on.

This was important as in the initial periods you can't just throw all different raw meats at a pup, they need time to adjust. Alot of raw feeders will start with something like just chicken for 2-3 weeks and slowly introduce other meats. which i did as well, however after a few weeks also introduced the Vets all Natural for a while as i wanted to ensure he was getting everything he needed. It is expensive though - well was for me anyway :)

Now as he's grown he just gets raw foods only.

At the moment, in a single week, he'll get

Beef and Roo mince (nice and lean, high in protein, minced in chunks not fine blender type mince)

Complete chicken mince (good because it has livers/kidneys/skin/fat etc minced in - all important)

Chicken frames - bones bones bones

Turkey necks (great for cleaning teeth, and calcium - bones)

Wild Deer - (nice lean meat, and only non weight bearing bones eg Ribs)

Sardines - fish oils

Lamb necks - not much meat, more a good bony chew

I rarely feed pork, more so because he's doing quite well on the above which is all readily available for me so there's no real need for it.

The main thing though is know your dog.

You'll become an expert on poo, and you can see the change in their mood and skin/coat condition if something is not right with foods

Re kids and licking, i was quite worried about this and did a fair bit of research into it. There are not to many documented cases of raw foods leading to harmful bacteria being spread to humans. It can happen but from what i found very rare, and it was important to me, i have 2 kids under 10.

Hope some of that helps :)

Edited August 2, 2013 by BoxerB

[~Anne~]

These threads always make me laugh. Not all dogs are good with raw. This blind faith that people have in follow a diet based on the eating habits of wolves is a cracker.

I have Pugs. My pugs have NO left over link to any wild dog. The same goes with many breeds and domestic dogs in general.

Some dogs can't eat raw. Mine can't. The OP is concerned about the bacteria in raw meat. Cooking it will resolve that problem and it resolves the problems my pugs have with digesting raw food. As for it removing nutrients, good grief, feeding dogs is not meant to be science. Do you eat your meat raw so you get all the nutrients? The loss of nutrients is negligible.

They cannot eat raw whole veges though regardless. Veges have to be cooked or processed.

Over the years I've known dogs that have lived till their late teens eating Pal and no-name kibble and scraps.

You can say you disagree all you like BoxerB. I've been around long enough and had enough debates on the canine diet to be very comfortable with saying to anyone that well worn saying "the best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on".

Fairystar, my advice to you is to listen to all thoughts, do your own research and the feed your dog what you think is best. You will not kill your dog by not feeding it raw. You will not kill your dog by feeding commercial food. Cook your meat or feed it dripping with blood. It's up to you to determine what suits you, your dog and your family.

[blakkjackal]

These threads always make me laugh. Not all dogs are good with raw. This blind faith that people have in follow a diet based on the eating habits of wolves is a cracker.

I have Pugs. My pugs have NO left over link to any wild dog. The same goes with many breeds and domestic dogs in general.

Wrong. Their digestive system is pretty much exactly the same (minus the slightly better ability to digest and use carbs).

[minimax]

These threads always make me laugh. Not all dogs are good with raw. This blind faith that people have in follow a diet based on the eating habits of wolves is a cracker.

I have Pugs. My pugs have NO left over link to any wild dog. The same goes with many breeds and domestic dogs in general.

Wrong. Their digestive system is pretty much exactly the same (minus the slightly better ability to digest and use carbs).

And you know, the whole adapting to processed foods thing.

All dogs are different, not every food works for every dog for many reasons.

[cassie]

Anne I really don't think anyone is saying that all dogs do well on a raw diet, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone on here who DOESN'T agree with "The best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on."

I wish we could *all* accept that just because someone does something a different way to you, doesn't make it wrong.

[BoxerB]

These threads always make me laugh. Not all dogs are good with raw. This blind faith that people have in follow a diet based on the eating habits of wolves is a cracker.

I have Pugs. My pugs have NO left over link to any wild dog. The same goes with many breeds and domestic dogs in general.

Some dogs can't eat raw. Mine can't. The OP is concerned about the bacteria in raw meat. Cooking it will resolve that problem and it resolves the problems my pugs have with digesting raw food. As for it removing nutrients, good grief, feeding dogs is not meant to be science. Do you eat your meat raw so you get all the nutrients? The loss of nutrients is negligible.

They cannot eat raw whole veges though regardless. Veges have to be cooked or processed.

Over the years I've known dogs that have lived till their late teens eating Pal and no-name kibble and scraps.

You can say you disagree all you like BoxerB. I've been around long enough and had enough debates on the canine diet to be very comfortable with saying to anyone that well worn saying "the best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on".

Fairystar, my advice to you is to listen to all thoughts, do your own research and the feed your dog what you think is best. You will not kill your dog by not feeding it raw. You will not kill your dog by feeding commercial food. Cook your meat or feed it dripping with blood. It's up to you to determine what suits you, your dog and your family.

Nowhere did i say my dog was a wolf. I said a dogs digestive system is designed for raw food, which it is like almost every other animal.

And if "blind faith" to you means months if not a years worth of research and closely monitoring how my dog is looking.behaving, then yes i have blind faith!!

I also specifically mentioned that not all dogs do well on raw food, and actually said KNOW YOUR DOG

My disagreement with you was the fact that you're telling someone raw and cooked are the same. They're not, and that advice to someone who wants to feed raw could play havoc of the poor dog if they mix raw and cooked every day.

And the OP's concerns about bacteria was around transfers to humans which i also addressed.

I also said nothing about kibble or raw is better, i was simply replying to the questions the OP had! But since you've brought it up, when i eat nothing but dry biscuits my whole life, I'll feed the same to my dog.

But hey, since you don't feed it to your dogs i must be wrong i guess.

Anne I really don't think anyone is saying that all dogs do well on a raw diet, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone on here who DOESN'T agree with "The best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on."

I wish we could *all* accept that just because someone does something a different way to you, doesn't make it wrong.

Exactly!

Edited August 2, 2013 by BoxerB

[megan_]

If you have a family member or someone who comes into regular contact with the dogs with a suppressed immune system (eg a cancer patient, some auto-immune diseases) then the bacteria from raw can be an issue. This is why therapy dogs who visit cancer patients need to restrict their raw food before a visit.

[~Anne~]

Anne I really don't think anyone is saying that all dogs do well on a raw diet, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone on here who DOESN'T agree with "The best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on."

I wish we could *all* accept that just because someone does something a different way to you, doesn't make it wrong.

Oh I totally agree. That's why I suggested cooking the meat. Cooking it doesn't make it wrong. :)

The implication though from some posters is that it is the wrong thing to do because you're removing nutrients. It's not wrong. It's an option. A very good option in my view and the nutrients lost are negligible.

The argument that domestic dogs should be fed a diet resembling wild dogs is not accurate and I will say again that my pugs have no bearing on wild dogs. I'd also suggest that raw feeding causes just as many health problems and illnesses in dogs as commercial feeding.

Feeding dogs makes pet owners paranoid these days. I've seen people lay heavy handed guilt trips on those who choose to feed a commercial diet or a kibble only diet while the push the argument that dogs should be fed raw.

I don't feed my dogs raw. I used to. I have seen an overall improvement since I stopped feed raw meat.

BoxerB, my comments are generalised. I don't care what you feed. I'm sure you think you're feeding what is best.

[BoxerB]

Anne I really don't think anyone is saying that all dogs do well on a raw diet, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone on here who DOESN'T agree with "The best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on."

I wish we could *all* accept that just because someone does something a different way to you, doesn't make it wrong.

Oh I totally agree. That's why I suggested cooking the meat. Cooking it doesn't make it wrong. :)

The implication though from some posters is that it is the wrong thing to do because you're removing nutrients. It's not wrong. It's an option. A very good option in my view and the nutrients lost are negligible.

The argument that domestic dogs should be fed a diet resembling wild dogs is not accurate and I will say again that my pugs have no bearing on wild dogs. I'd also suggest that raw feeding causes just as many health problems and illnesses in dogs as commercial feeding.

Feeding dogs makes pet owners paranoid these days. I've seen people lay heavy handed guilt trips on those who choose to feed a commercial diet or a kibble only diet while the push the argument that dogs should be fed raw.

I don't feed my dogs raw. I used to. I have seen an overall improvement since I stopped feed raw meat.

BoxerB, my comments are generalised. I don't care what you feed. I'm sure you think you're feeding what is best.

Which no-one in this thread did until you started on wolves, and kibble and blind faith straight after i posted an answer to the questions the OP was asking. Bit of pot - kettle - black action i think.

But i'm done here, like you said, I don't care what you feed. I'm sure you think you're feeding what is best.