Globalpaw.com Dog Forum » General Dog Concerns & Questions » Dog Nutrition and Dog Food Forum

[knicks]

I have been feeding my dogs commercial food for the last 10 yrs now. I thought it was fine until I tried raw beef after all the recalls. My dogs are doing fantastic now. No more allergies,shiner coat, more active its unbelievable. I found this very informative site that also sells raw pet food natural dog foods plus more. If any of you dogs are finike eaters they won't be after eating this stuff.

Good Luck

[KidneyBeaning]

Congrats on switching to RAW! Your dogs will not only look better but you will be able to tell how much better they feel.

[knicks]

I know the food is unbelievable. Their coats are shinier and they are just happier. When dinner time comes they sit and watch and wait. They look at each other to make sure they aren't going to steal each others food.

[KidneyBeaning]

lol, yes, the food is great for them! How do you feed and what guidelines do you follow? I feed 60/30/10 and do not add veggies...I don't feel they need them and after much research believe this to be very true.

Here is a basic meal for my crew:

Chicken Quarter (bone in)
Chicken Liver
Egg & Shell (I alternate this with cottage cheese and yogurt)
Ground Beef
Ground Kelp
Apple Cider Vinegar (with the mother)

My males doesn’t get chicken, as he is allergic to poultry. He does get venison, elk, goat, lamb and rabbit. Remember that variety is very important to a dog diet.

[Rivsky]

Raw is a great way to feed, I think the hardest part is getting your head around it all to start with but after that it gets a lot easier!!

I try and base his diet on 80% meat, 10% organs and 10% bone though due to his anal gland issues I probably feed more like 15-20% bone.

I'll answer your query re: gorge and rest in this thread KB as it's more suited than the other one!!

I've given River what I would call a "gorge" meal twice now. The first time he ate the entire thing in one sitting (roughly about 3 days worth of food for him ), and the second time he walked away about half way through it. So in the first example strictly speaking he shouldn't have been fed at all for 3 days, but I'm soft and just gave him really tiny meals for a week instead.

The second time I gave him a really small amount of food the next day, and then offered him what he didn't eat again the day after that.

As for how often I do it, just whenever we can fit it in. As we do a lot of training for agility and obedience and some trials as well I try and fit it in on a spare weekend where we aren't trialling and don't need to do any really lengthy training sessions as I don't want him overeating. Then I can also keep an eye on him to make sure he isn't feeling any ill effects from too much food over the weekend as well.

I have to admit that when I have done this I find he actually looks a LOT better condition wise than feeding him normal meals all the time, though I haven't been able to work out exactly why that is yet!!!

[King Pup]

Raw food is full of live enzymes that are destroyed upon cooking. Enzymes basically digest your food for you and save your pancreas from having to manufacture your own enzymes. When you eat cooked food much of the energy in the food actually goes toward creating the enzymes to digest it. When you eat raw food you're basically getting the maximum amount of energy from it.

Even if you don't want to put your dog on a 100% raw diet, just feeding them a little raw food - like a carrot for example - before each meal does wonders. It lines their stomach with enzymes. All of this applies to humans too. I eat raw food with every meal and also take enzyme supplements. It's amazing the difference it makes.

[knicks]

I am an avid raw dog food feeder now. I have an older dog that is 14 yrs old. I started feeding him raw and all his allergies and fatty cysts that he had are all gone. Its remarkable
I have 2 labs on the raw and their coats are unbelievable. Its a little more money but its worth every penny. Less vet bills and less problems. If you are interested I buy my food from an online site called Petsrawedge. I live in Miami and the delivers to me for free.
Real informative site. Have a Happy New Year

[Beryl]

I started feeding raw 2 years ago. After a few months of using raw to supplement we went 100% raw. It has been terrific for my dogs. Boo (my crazy min pin) and Phoxx (the Pom) no longer have allergies and all three have wonderful teeth and good smelling breath.

In 30 years of feeding dogs, this is the first time my dogs have shown this level of excitement at meal times. They dance, run, and act crazy. Meal time last less than 1 minute until there are whole bones involved. I'll never feed kibble except as treats.

The only problem is my lack of freezer space since I don't have a stand-alone freezer -- yet. I always worry that I'll run out of raw meat and can't get to the store. The humans are mostly vegetarians so most of the meat in the freezer belongs to the dogs. I keep dehydrated raw and 100% canned meat (Evangers) as emergency food though.

[Rivsky]

Originally Posted by Beryl

The only problem is my lack of freezer space since I don't have a stand-alone freezer -- yet. I always worry that I'll run out of raw meat and can't get to the store. The humans are mostly vegetarians so most of the meat in the freezer belongs to the dogs. I keep dehydrated raw and 100% canned meat (Evangers) as emergency food though.

LOL I can relate to that - Riv and I got a new chest freezer for Christmas as the OH was sick of having to rearrange the entire freezer to try and fit some ice cream in amongst the dog food