Feeding your dog raw food

[Bettacreek]

Does anyone raise their own meats? Our dog has reactions to most foods, and has only done well on Beneful (eww!). We are limited to grocery store brands, as it's just not feasible to drive over an hour and a half away to pick up dog food, so it's really no wonder that she has issues. Anyways, I had thought about using quail and rabbits for her, since I plan to breed them for our consumption anyways. She already gets scraps while I'm cooking (raw meats). Would you feed them whole, to give the stomach contents as well? How many would be a good number in general for maintaining a 45lb dog? Would that be too much meat?

 

[freemotion]

I don't, but if I had to, it would be rabbits. I think I would prefer to feed them whole for convenience, but they should probably be fed outside.....For civilized indoor feeding, I would process them and cut them into parts and freeze them in serving portions, like I do now with purchased wings.

My two lucky dogs got home-raised chicken tonight because there are no wings to be found after the Superbowl. Gunnar got the two wings and Biscotti, needing more weight, got a big meaty back.

VB, your dog might do better with ground chicken wings, backs, ribs, necks, etc. Grind 'em whole, skin, bone, and all. Just a thought.

 

[The Vail Benton's]

Champ is epileptic and although he is on some pretty heavy duty meds, his epilepsy has thusfar not been controlled. Maybe changing his diet will help.

http://www.examiner.com/x-798-Denver-Low-Carb-Examiner~y2008m10d24-Low-Carb-Diet-Help-Epileptics

WZ thank you for the link - wow - that's pretty interesting. It sounds like maybe we are finally moving in the right direction! I'm very hopeful that this could help him.
Free, I think I will try grinding as you suggested. I have a whole chicken thawing as we speak and will reserve the pieces you mentioned for my boy.
So... how much do I feed him per day? He eats am & pm because food is pretty much all he thinks about. He is about 90 lbs.- which is almost twice the size of the breed standard but he is not overweight, not even a little. He is just big. I would suppose it would be best to start out by mixing raw with his current diet for a couple days. Maybe I should go back and read this whole thread again from the beginning.

ETA: ww.canine-epilepsy.com/KetogenicDiet.html
Unfortunately, it hasn't been proven that this type of diet will help with the epilepsy - but we're giving it a try none-the-less as I do believe there are other health benefits.
My dogs love raw veggies & some fruits. Tonight they had raw eggs, raw broccoli stems, half an apple each, and raw carrots. I thawed a chicken back I was saving to make a broth out of & the bully's shared it after I cut it up into smaller pieces. I was suprised that they didn't wolf it done, but instead seemed to savor it. Maybe because they've never had anything like that before.

Champ seems very calm & relaxed tonight - he gets very restless and does alot of pacing. This could be a coincidence or maybe due to the fact that he didn't get any kibble/carbs tonight. He will get more raw for breakfast in the morning. If the pacing stops or is reduced, I'm forever sold.

DH & I discussed raising rabbits for the dogs (we don't much care for it ourselves, but are not opposed to our dogs enjoying a rabbit meal. I am thinking I will also incubate some eggs and raise a flock of meaty's specifically for them.

 

[freemotion]

How much to feed a 90 lb dog? Hmmm....it is so individual, you will really have to experiment. My 30 lb dog gets two wings and my 18 lb dog gets 3 or more, along with raw eggs and milk to fatten him up a bit.

It takes far less bulk to satisfy your animal when you are feeding raw, so you may be startled at how little you need to feed them.

I caved and gave some pizza crusts to the Biscuit a couple nights ago and the next day he scratched himself bloody. Hmmm. I learned a lesson, yet AGAIN. I'm a slow learner!

 

[The Vail Benton's]

Free, we have 2 raw meals under our belt and I AM suprised at how little it is taking to satify my eating machine. It also suprises me that he is just as happy with a raw carrot or broccoli stem as he seems to be to get raw meat. He also is taking more time to eat. He and Bella each got a wing chopped up with large pieces of carrot & apple, and smothered in raw egg - I cut up the whole rest of the chicken before they were finished - they are now napping peacefully. I sometimes wish I were a dog.

I decided against giving raw chicken to Scooby as he is a chicken killer. This morning I broke down and gave him a piece with his kibble & raw egg (I don't have anything else to feed him the raw way yet) - but he wouldn't eat his food until I took the piece of chicken back out of his bowl... okay, it makes sense now - he's a trophy hunter... baaaaaad dog!!! Maybe he will eat raw rabbit - he certainly spends enough time chasing the Cottontails around.

 

[Wildsky]

My girl is doing rather well, I'm feeding mostly raw chicken - wings for the most part with other parts thrown in. I had to buy a special mat for her so she could munch and enjoy her food, she kept trying to bring it into the living room

She's pooping alot less, thats what I notice above all else. Summer will be so much more fun without dog poop scooping all day.

 

[freemotion]

And the poop isn't as rank-smelling, either!

Mine eat in a plastic airline crate, which I started the day my first one decided he wasn't that hungry and would save one wing for later. So he buried it in the sofa cushions.

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[Dace]

I just wondered how all the new raw foodies are doing?

I am still comtemplating what to feed my dog. Bagged 'good' food is extremely expensive!

I am really on the fence with raw. I could get chicken backs really cheaply at the asian market...but it is factory meat.

I am not sure that he will eat it either...he is 10 and pretty set in his ways. I did start giving him a large tablespoon of kefir over his morning kibble and I have not seen him this excited about breakfast in ages!

Tortoise mentioned prepping a dog for the transition to raw with plain yogurt....since I have kefir that is ok I assume?

I do want to get him off the grains.

What about the treats of livers and hearts...thse are raw too I imagine?

 

[Wildsky]

My girl is doing well, its so nice not to have stinky dang dog poop all over. And it turns white and crumbles or gets rained away without any fuss. It turns that white color within a day. No more nasty pasty dog poop - that for me is HUGE.

Ginja is loving it too. she does get a treat of hearts/liver etc now and then, but she doesn't like the liver much.

She's still on mostly chicken, but gets some beef bones and now and then some veggies etc that are left overs. But they're not a super big part of her diet. The chicken wings are factory meat, we don't process our own just yet , even being factory produced, its better than kibble by a good long shot.

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think she's been shedding as much as last year, there is hair around, but not as much as I recall from last season.


EDIT TO ADD: her teeth are super clean, I didn't really pay attention to how they looked before, and she is a young girl anyway, but her teeth are sparkly white - even the back teeth right at the gum line.