Dogs - Raw Diet Update

[Kaneman]

Originally Posted by azoomm

I'm moving Sadie to a raw diet this week. I've been reading up on it, here and elsewhere. It all seems just fantastic. She's getting up there in years - and we're starting to see some health issues. So, I'll feed her by hand for a while to make sure she can do the carcass chewing - it looks like that is the primary concern with older dogs.

But, my butcher is almost excited about it. They custom make quite a few dinner options and have a lot of scrap. Not all of it is *worthless*, it might just not all fit into the portions they are selling. The butcher section manager told me this is well handled and FREE. This includes the fish that doesn't make their date cutoffs - again, it doesn't mean that it's spoiled... just the date for purchase has passed.

I figure Sadie is spoiled in all other areas in life and she's truly a member of the family. I might as well feed her like one. And, that doesn't mean breaking the bank... just taking care of her health.

Thank you for this thread - it brought my attention to it!

Moira that is so cool! I'm excited to hear about that...and I wish I could find a butcher giving away free scraps too. You're the fourth person I've "converted" to raw so far...I'm startin the dog food revolution baby! Pretty soon men in black suits and sunglasses from Purina and Pedigree are going to be paying me a visit.


GasMan, you *could* feed raw chicken as treats but you won't see the types of improvements described in the thread without a consistent diet. Not to say that the dogs wouldn't enjoy the chicken though. Be weary of alternating raw meals with kibble meals. The kibble slows down the dogs digestive system which keeps the raw meat in their intestines longer than it should be. This can allow e-coli or salmonella bacteria to grow and possibly make the dog sick. However on a raw only diet the food passes as it should without any issues. If you feed raw chicken make that your only meal of the day.

Orrrrrrr....just switch them to raw everyday!

[Gas Man]

Maybe I'll ask the vet. I was thinking only the chicken for the day... would hopefully fullfill brink's desire to destroy stuff with his mouth!

[shmike]

We have a local place that specializes in raw foods.

It's like Whole Foods for dogs and cats.

It's more expensive than buying scraps but we love having the meals individually packaged for each day.

http://www.realfood4pets.com/

[HokieDNA01]

Just saw a pet raw foods plant on "dirty Jobs" show. Here is the website. Not sure of the prices but they seem to have a quality product.

http://www.greentripe.com/

Their main ingredient is cow stomach complete with grass residue. Looks like a great way to get your veggies and protein. Not sure of the pricing though

[Kaneman]

Still feeding Raw...and wishing I had an electric grinder. There's a butcher shop where they actually speak ENGLISH but its 5x as far as the 5 around me where they absolutely refuse to try to speak any english. I mean really motherfucker, you can't understand "chicken neck"....come on...

Anyway, the dogs are doing great. I also have a puppy who's been eating raw since the day we got him about two months ago. I feed around a half chicken a day and a couple legs and wings for the puppy. I also have my multi meat mixture that's grinded and frozen to alternate days with.

Grinding by hand is a pain and its kinda gross too. Def gonna invest in an electric one eventually.

[azoomm]

Josh,

Sadie says THANK YOU.

It's been almost a month - the pooping like a duck has subsided. And, so far.... it's dreamy. She's turned into a puppy again. So far, so good.

[shmike]

Originally Posted by azoomm

Josh,

Sadie says THANK YOU.

It's been almost a month - the pooping like a duck has subsided. And, so far.... it's dreamy. She's turned into a puppy again. So far, so good.

"Pooping like a duck"

Did you mean loose or often?

When we switched Ana to raw, she went from shitting twice a day to about 3 times a week.

Her nutritionist recommends ground sweet potatoes for loose stool. We haven't used them once.

[azoomm]

Originally Posted by shmike

"Pooping like a duck"

Did you mean loose or often?

When we switched Ana to raw, she went from shitting twice a day to about 3 times a week.

Her nutritionist recommends ground sweet potatoes for loose stool. We haven't used them once.

No, we expected her to poop often - she always has when changing her diet in ANY way. All the way to changing if she gets some table scrap or weird something.

The girls took her on a walk and called me... "Do we have to pick it up if she poops liquid?"

That was a few days, into a week. Then and now once a day normal/smaller.

[Kaneman]

YAAAAAAY!!!!! I have a friend with a 7 year old black lab I convinced to switch and his dog looks like a 1 year old now. Good stuff.

I think kibble is killin our dogs!!

[njchopper87]

My parents are the LAZIEST people I know. I've told them to read the damn site with the info on and my mom got half way and just stopped and says she doesn't have time when she's sitting there watching tv. They don't want to feed him when they don't know what's going on either. I'll never understand completely, but I think they're trying to say no by means of pissing me off.