Raw Meat Diet?

Firestarter, I recommend you give them a mixture of kibble with a supplement of raw meats for the meantime. You certainly have not done your homework yet. You must, must do your research before going ahead with a long-term change in feed.

I will get you started:

First, organ meat such as liver and kidney are very nutritious. So, you should not give them too much of it at once. Otherwise, you will have dogs with loose stool which ultimately means that they are not completely absorbing all the nutrients. Personally, I give my >53# dog 1 pound of beef kidney in 5 servings (5 days). One pound of it is usually about one whole kidney (just a reference).

Second, greens and other veggies help add antioxidants and other vitamins/minerals essential to a well-rounded meal. Remember that when we are feeding a raw diet we seek to feed a complete diet OVER TIME. This is a contrast to kibble feeding which was developed to feed a complete meal each and every time.

What greens and how much of it to feed? Well, it is recommended that an athlete dog's diet be composed of around 5% greens. Personally, I have chosen to feed about 4 oz of my "green" mixture each week. Other people choose to feed it a higher quantity once a month. Regarding ingredients in the glob, well, it is my opinion that the ingredients should vary a bit so that all possible nutritional elements are fed. Some of the constants are: Carrots, spinach, lettuce (there is one type that is not used because of the lack of nutrients), tomatoes, and green & red bell peppers. These are constants meaning the base of what I use. Egg plants, zucchini, cauliflower(sp?), etc are variables used on and off.

Remember that there are many things that need to be taken into account before starting a raw diet. It is not as easy as just throwing meat into the bowl. This is why i no longer recommend it to the masses. It takes a lot of record keeping and intelligence (or experience) to produce a balance diet over time.

Regards,


RH

 

Thanks for the info RH....I am currently giving them a combination of kibble and raw. I'm giving them 2-3 days raw followed by 1 day kibble. I have been doing plenty of research believe me. I was reading on "Raw Dog Ranch" that he doesnt really feed veggies and it seems this guy really has his feeding down to a science as yourself. I was able to get a link to that site from reading this forum. Check it out...tell me what you think, and thanks again.

 

Man that was long but informative, however i heard a bout lots of cases that the dog gets used to eating human food and refuse to eat dog food, what do u think about that?

 

You don't feed a dog table scraps or "people food" in a RAW diet.

That said, if you switch from RAW to kibble, and the dog doesn't want to eat at first, take the food away until the next mealtime. Sooner or later, the dog will get it - after all, no dog ever starved to death while food was available.

Do otherwise and you wind up training a dog to be a finicky eater.

 

My dogs get a variety of meats such as: moose, elk, buffalo, chicken, ostrich, green tripe, etc. I feed about 80% - 90% protein, and 10% - 20% veggie mix depending if its show season & how hard I am working them. No grains. In the wild, the stomach contents which is what the wild dogs go for first is where they get their veg. from so in this pre-digested state they are able to utilize it. Any veg you feed must be pureed for the dogs to be able to assimilate it properly. If you feed a low meat high veg. combo, you will end up with lack of muscle development & dry skin.

I have attended alot of courses & seminars put on by holistic vets on raw feeding, vacccinations etc. and here is how we overall break the feeding down. Now it sounds really complicated but once I started doing it every day, it becomes second nature. We also don't try to balance everything everyday. I aim for balance over at least a couple of weeks.
We feed about 10% of the dogs body weight in grams ie; 40 lb dog - 400grams (just under a pound) of food. This I also eyeball as everydogs metabolism is different and adjust accordingly.
Diet basics:
80% protein
15% veg
5% organ meats

to break that down more, out of the protein, about 2/3 meat to 1/3 bones.
organ meats include:liver, heart, kidney, brains. (don't overfeed liver as it can cause Vitamin A hyper-vitaminosis)
veggies-ground down in a food processor to a predigestive state, 2/3 dark greens, 1/3 other (spinach, lettuce, chard, watercress, chinese greens, parsley, alphalph, arugula, herbs)
not reccommended are tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cukes, eggplant as they are part of the deadly nightshade family (alkaloids), onions (amemia) .
We also have a "fast day". This enables the dogs stomach to shrink back to a normal size. With kibble, when you feed one day to the next, alot of times there is still kibble in the gut and the stomach doesn't get the proper exersize of being able to extend then shrink back up.
Do I supplement? yes I do. They get some wild salmon oil every day (GSO)I also give them 1/4 tsp of SG Seameal for any trace elements they may be missing from eating out of clean bowls as opposed to in the wild & off the ground where wild dogs would pick up minerals etc. from the dirt.
Okay thats enough for now, gotta go work the girls

 

Raw Dog Ranch is a VERY informative website, I follwo his advice. There are two versions ( actually MANY but we will stay with two) RAW and BARF. I follow RAW which calls for no veggies. But if you want to feed them to your dogs there is no harm done either way. I used to follow BARF and two of mine refused to eat veggies so I hid them. I pureed them & added yogurt, cottage cheese, organ meat, oil, eggs, anything to make them appealing to them. They ate it with no problems. I do feed veggies sometimes but it is not a huge part of their diet.

 

Why would you want to feed dog food after switching to a raw diet? My dogs will still eat dog food (they will eat anything I put in their bowls) but I would rather they not.

 

Ok...so you know what I'm talkin about. The man from Raw Dog Ranch seems to know quite a bit so that's what I tried. I did alot of reading on this issue before I tried it. All I know is that my dogs LOVE the chicken quarters and every other meat I give em. Today I'm going to give em brisket for the first time. I know not too many people on here feed them brisket, but I've heard of a few with success. Does anyone have any opinions on brisket??

 

Brisket is fine to give. Just make sure meat isn't the ONLY thing your dogs eat. They also need eggs, cottage cheese and/or yogurt, fish oil....things like that. RDR does agree with this also. They also recommend a daily vitamin which can be any number of supplements like the Sealmeal that CDpits feeds. I feed kelp which does the same thing.

 

Sorry for the stupid question.....but what is kelp?

 

Kelp comes from seaweed. Kelp is rich in B-complex vitamins (riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12), and are a good source
of calcium, magnesium, choline, iron, zinc, selenium, biotin and dietary fiber.

I buy the powder from a man on ebay.

 

thanks, i was also thinking of mixing the food 2 would that work

 

It was just a question, because i went to inglywood to visit family and they only had kibble.

 

Ahhhh, in that case I jsut make a quick trip to the store. I always take at least one dog with me when I go on vacation ( what's that again??) and instead of packing their food I just stop at a grocery store where I am & get what I need. Some dogs ARE picky though & will refuse to eat kibble.

 

We feed our dogs BARF. We don't have the problems in AU associated with raw meat as opposed to other countries. We do however, give them some Eukanuba mixed in, just for variety.

 

I will assume you made a supplemental question not related to anything I previously stated.

Obviously we have improved the way food tastes through centuries of trial and error. We started eating meat, raw, like the animals we transformed into the modern dogs through more than 100,000 years of human adaptations. So, it is logical to think that dogs will prefer food that taste and smell like what they have been unintentionally bred to approve (smells and tastes) over the latest balanced diet of dried balls. In other words, they (dogs) will choose the smell and taste of human food over little dried kibble balls. This does not mean (their preference) that their choice is ultimately the best. In fact, taste is augmented by the fat content of diets.

I doubt too many people will have too much of an issue with a chewer dog fed brisket. Yet, kinds of meats should not be focus of your attention. The focus should be on feeding requirements. There are minimum and maximum acceptable levels of mineral intake, required nutritional ratios, caloric requirements, etc. to be concerned with which meat will taste better to the dog.

 

well, ive benn hearing a lot about nibble what do u guys have to say about can dof food?

 

thanks did that, lol u should have been there i walked in the store with my APBT and every one was sacred 10 - 15 feet away. She was on a leach, right next to me(wagging her tail happily at every one) , and still they got all scared, giving nasty faces

 

oh yeah i forgot to say how about cooked meat?

 

According to some theoreticians, best to feed a dog raw meat. That way the meat has all vitamins and minerals, and the dog is best equipped to digest raw.

If you're going to feed raw, you need to do a lot of research first. What the folks here have given you is just the beginning.