Starting Raw Diet

[DREMEN]

Instead of feeding my puppy weetbix and cooked mince I have decided to give the RAW diet a go.

She has always loved chicken and meat/bones so I thought this would be the best thing for her.

A few questions:

Where in Western Sydney would I buy whole Chickens from? Ones that I can cut into 4 and feed?

I can't remember ever seeing them for sale in shops anywhere

I will be feeding mostly chicken (wings, necks). A small amount of liver. The occasional fish. And recreational bones such as lamb shanks and brisket bones.

Edited June 7, 2005 by DREMEN

[Sunrij]

Baida Poultry's factory outlet.

Frames 95 cents a kilo.

Necks $1.30 a kilo

Wings damaged $ 1.00 a kilo.

orders placed the day before you want it, damaged wings seem to be normal to me, the dogs dont care about there looks too much

13-15 Amax Avenue Girraween NSW 2145.

Ph 02 9842 1137

Mon-Fri 5am-3pm

Sat 5am-12noon

[DREMEN]

Thanks. What about whole chickens with the organs still inside?

[Purple Julie]

It's difficult to buy whole chickens with the organs inside. If anyone knows of anywhere in Melbourne that does that, I'd like to know too!!

I buy whole chickens (minus organs) for my dog from at a Chinese butcher. They are called 'boiling chickens' and are only $2.20 a kilo. I don't know Sydney, but I'm sure there are some suburbs with a high Asian population where you can find some Chinese (or other Asian) butcher that may sell them. I can also buy chicken hearts, chicken giblets or chicken liver separately from that butcher.

[Prydenjoy]

Hey!!! Not fair!!! I travel over an hour to our nearest Biada wholesalers and pay much more than that! They're not selling the damaged wings anymore either - so I asked how much it was for 6kg of human wings and was told $11.50. So I went and picked up a huge order and thought the price was a bit funny but left anyway as they were closing. I looked at the receipt later and they had charged me $15 for 3kg of wings!!! That was a bit obsurd, especially considering they were just for the dogs! Sorry about the rant

But in answer to the original question, if you can find a poultry farm you may be able to get whole birds. Aside from that I would recommend a larger variety of RMB's, not just chicken. Depending on what you mean by "a small amount of liver" you might not be feeding enough for proper eye etc development. RE offal it should be 10% of the diet, half of that liver ie 5% liver.

[DREMEN]

Alrighty, no luck finding whole chickens (organs included). But I have started the RAW diet anyway.

She loves chicken, drumsticks, wings, necks. I am going to start buying whole chickens and chopping them into 1/4's.

One problem I have found is that she won't eat chicken liver which I am trying to fed her. She is currently only eating chicken and the occasional rec bone.

[Purple Julie]

I gave Jyra chicken liver, and she wasn't too keen on it either. She likes lamb liver though, so maybe try that. Jyra also likes chicken giblets.

[DREMEN]

Thanks Purple Julie I will give those a go

[Netti]

$15 for human wings that sounds so cheap. Just think of the saving of fuel costs if we could fly I would order a couple for myself Sorry, I just couldnt resist saying it

Edited June 4, 2005 by Netti

[Prydenjoy]

I was really asking for that wasn't I??? ;)

[DREMEN]

Bad news ;) I have chickened out of feeding a raw diet

After two days of feeding chicken wings, necks and carcass I watched our Beagle struggling to goto the toilet. He poo's were really small and hard. It looked like it was really hurting her ;)

So at the moment I am back to recreational bones

[MolassesLass]

DREMEN - ;) sorry to laugh but sweety, that's a healthy dog poo! You may have over done it a bit, but in general dog poos will get smaller and harder when on a BARF diet. I'd almost pick them up without gloves they're so innocous.

This is for a few reasons, but basically they're smaller due to not having a lot of grain filler like commercial foods that runs straight through and they're harder because it's full of a lot of digested bone.

It is good to see a dog straining a reasonable amount to poop. This means the anal sacs are being emptied too.

ETA: You do need to feed other types of meat as well as fruit and vegies and a few other important ingredients. Have you been feeding these or has it been 100% chicken for 2 days?

Edited June 7, 2005 by molasseslass

[espinay2]

Yes, there is a lot of bone in wings, necks and carcasses, so their poos will be smaller, dryer and will often crumble to a powder. Are you feeding anything else? These are great things to feed, but they are not all you will need to feed on a raw diet. Generally IMO they do not have enough meat so may need to compensate for that with other things. I personally tend to feed more meatier bones a large percent of the time and personally dont feed a huge amount of chicken. My dogs get a variety of things including lamb (flaps/necks), rabbit (whole), beef (brisket mostly but also boneless meat), Kangaroo (tails and boneless meat), pork (tails, trotters, hocks), plus chicken frames, duck frames or whole and turkey necks. they also get organ meat such as kidney liver or heart every couple of days, whole raw or canned fish at least once a week, vegetables about once a week and eggs once or twice a week.

I don't personally feed to a fixed schedule or menu, but some who do follow plans set out by those such as Billinghurst may feed, along with the chicken RMB's, something like his pattie recipe which usually contains boneless meat, vegetables, eggs, organ meats etc either in the same meal or separately. Do you have a copy of his book or one by another author such as Kymythy Schultz that you can follow for a while until you get the hang of things?

I would encourage you not to give up just yet, but as your dog is handling the chicken fairly well (with the exception of the constipation) perhaps start adding some things to the diet in addition to the chicken with will essentially make things slide though a bit more easily.

[Purple Julie]

Some raw feeders find that if they give pureed pumpkin to their dogs, it helps with their poos when they are constipated and when they have diarhoea.

[PAX]

One of the best things about BARF is less poo with hardly any smell. Just add the vegies with lots of leafy greens. A couple of times a week you can give them a good slurp of olive oil. You can also add cod liver oil, flax seed oil, fish oil, you need to read the book. Once you get used to it, it is so easy. You should try it for at least a month...............be brave

[DREMEN]

Don't I feel like a fool ;)

I was feeding chicken wings, necks and I tried to feed chicken liver but she wouldn't eat it.

I did notice all her poo's had turned white and were tiny. Todays were back to HUGE black/brown poo's!!

edit -> Thankyou to everyone who corrected me.

Also, I think I might have overfed her on the raw diet. Because one day she wasn't really interested in food. When I gave her a chicken wing she just went and buried it. ;)

Edited June 7, 2005 by DREMEN

[TiffanyAmber]

They do tend to eat less when on a raw food diet. I call the can foods, junk foods now. When I first fed raw, all my dogs were putting on weight a bit. Now I have cut down and some of them are back to normal. Sheees, the chi's will be lucky if they get an egg ring full. I find that when they look a little on the thin side, I add more food. When they get too fat, I give them less.

How about adding some pysillium husks (sp?) or like I do, some Lowan Natural Oat Bran. I have a dog who gets bloat a bit and I find that adding these every second meal along with Cod Liver Oil helps with her pooing and wind.

[Kirra_Bomber_Zeus]

Don't I feel like a fool ;) :D

I was feeding chicken wings, necks and I tried to feed chicken liver but she wouldn't eat it.

I did notice all her poo's had turned white and were tiny. Todays were back to HUGE black/brown poo's!!

edit -> Thankyou to everyone who corrected me.

Also, I think I might have overfed her on the raw diet. Because one day she wasn't really interested in food. When I gave her a chicken wing she just went and buried it.

Dont feel like a fool Dremen! I had NO idea what I was doing when I started feeding raw - but you learn!

One of my dogs has problem going to the toilet if I feed him chicken necks to many days in a row (but my other dog doesnt) and my other dog is allergic to beef, so sometimes you just have to play it by ear and figure out the best foods for your particular dog too.

and dont worry, I didnt get that they would eat quite a bit less on a raw diet at first either (and I admit to picking up food and waving it in front of one of my dogs faces every time they didnt finish their dinner for a while ;) ) After I figured out there was just so much 'filler' rubbish in processed food and I was giving them 'whole' foods now I adjusted the amount accordingly (ok, and after I noticed my older dog was getting rather fat!!)

Jen

[Akitagal]

Hey dreman. Have you read dr billinghursts books. Just wanted to double cheak that you are including other stuff like vege pulp, overripe fruit ect... its important to not just feed a meat based diet with this it needs to be in balance.

[DREMEN]

I haven't read his book (yet).

I hadn't even gotten that far. I was planning on feeding some veggies during the week but 2 days I got scared and chickened out