Raw food diet - anyone follow it?

[Canshopwillshop]

We have a 14 week old lab puppy. At puppy training class last night, the trainer was advocating giving a raw food diet to dogs. She has a working dog who is on it and she feeds him raw meat, bones, eggs etc and the odd chicken carcass thrown in. She says it's much better for digestion and makes poos less smelly.

At the moment puppy is on Burns puppy food and Forthglade meat trays which I believe are fairly decent quality. Would a raw food diet be that much better for her I wonder?

[Buttholelane]

I do!
Done properly, it's fabulous.

You have three options

• the raw food/barf diet which is a mix of bone in meat, organ meat including liver (this is very important), fruit, vegetables and supplements
  
  
• the whole prey diet which is whole animals like whole chickens, whole pheasants, whole rabbits etc, completely au natural, fur, guts, the lot.
  
  

• the prey model raw/Frankenprey diet which is 80% meat, 10% bone, 5% liver and 5% other organs like kidneys, brain etc. Heart not included, this is classed as muscle meat.
  

Kiezebrink is good for whole animals, you can also get ready made Frozen raw food that you don't need to add anything to, some companies include natural instinct, nutriment, natures menu and ziezebrink again.

Bones are always raw, any sort except weight bearing bones of big animals - cows for example.

[Buttholelane]

This is how I feed my dog

• conventional good quality food (naturediet or forthglade) or frozen raw which I mix the following supplements : johnsons healthy dog condition tablet (1) johnsons garlic tablet (1) CSJ Billy no mates powder (an excellent powder that stops them getting fleas, cannot recommend it highly enough) and johnsons evening primrose oil (2)
  

• some bone in meat eg some pork ribs, half a chicken, some lamb ribs, two duck legs, maybe a carcass
  

• I brush her teeth then she gets a little bony treat like a chicken wing or a drumstick.
  

If she had a particularly bony item earlier, like a carcass this treat would be a lamb heart or a chunk of beef or something else boneless.

Look at the poo, if it's coming out crumbly and they are struggling to do it you have fed too much bone and need to feed a bit less.
If the poo is a little soft then you have either fed too much food or have not fed enough bone.
Try reducing the overall amount of food first then if the problem persists add more bone.

Organs need to be added gradually as too much at once will cause diarrhoea.

You start with one meat first for a week or two then add in another, this is to see if your dog is allergic to any.

Sometimes, when you first start any problems can get worse eg they might have a more prominent doggy odour or windy bums but then it goes.

[Buttholelane]

They can have fruit and vegetables if they like them.
Vegetables must be either liquidised or cooked first otherwise they offer no real nutritional benefit.
They can have nuts and seeds and beans aswell.

No onion, grapes, sultana/raisin, avocado or Sharon fruit as they are toxic.

[LadyTurmoil]

dogsdinner2.webs.com/ and Raw Feeding UK group on FB have all the info you need.

[niqnet1]

We do and have done for years. Dogs both seem much more healthy and poos don't stink bad. We get it delivered in bulk from natures menu.

[Canshopwillshop]

Thanks everyone. I will look into it further.

Buttholelane - about the Billynomates powder - is that all you use to prevent fleas? No spot on stuff? Does it stop tucks too? I would like to not use spot on stuff but I live in an area prone to ticks so use the flea and tick combined spot on stuff.

[Buttholelane]

I use the billy no mates by CSJ, I buy it from the ethical dog company, the johnsons healthy dog condition tablets are mainly Brewers yeast which also repels fleas and garlic also is a natural flea deterrent.
That is all I use, she has had the Billy no mates since she was nine weeks old and never had fleas.
I started the garlic and condition tablets when she was about a year but they are suitable for puppies.
She has never had ticks either and I often take her to woodland and overgrown fields.

[Canshopwillshop]

Thanks Buttholelane.