Inspired to RAW feed...

[swallowedAfly]

by all the encouraging posts on another thread. i have a dog and a cat and am going to try RAW food with both of them.

my lab is 13months old and happy to try anything food wise so i'm hoping she won't be too difficult to switch over. as an experiment of her willingness to experiment i gave her a raw egg today, after she'd mouthed it a bit and looked confused i cracked it slightly in her bowl and she loved it - lapped it all up and proceeded to eat the shell too. good sign i'm thinking

tomorrow i'm going to try her on chicken drumsticks, not sure if this is a bit ambitious bone wise to start off with but worth a go. have just done my online shop and have bought a load of chicken wings, thighs and some pigs liver (read a good tip for making training treats out of liver on the other thread). i also bought some whole sardines as after reading up i'm going to aim to give her whole fish once a week. am thinking just chicken for a few days then try adding in a bit of liver and if all is well give her a fish meal at the end of the first week.

as for the cat - well he caught a wood pigeon yesterday and tucked into well so i'm thinking his instincts should be in working order to deal with raw meat. i think initially i will just a few pieces of raw chicken off the bone then maybe progress onto a chicken wing - not sure if a cat will manage bone like that but i guess i'll find out. he'd happily live on fish (sometimes feed him canned fish and both the cat and dog get the skin whenever i prepare fish so know they both like it) but whole fish does not come cheap so i'm hoping he'll take to meat too.

so i guess i am looking for encouragement, support and words of wisdom. what can i expect with poos initially? and do you think my lab is likely to believe she is starving or something given she's used to kibble and the fill up of carbs? i plan to feed her twice a day (only used to put kibble down once a day).

it's not just the physical health that i want to do it for but the sense that she will really enjoy it and have a lot of fun eating you know? it takes some work presumably to work your way through raw meat and bones and she loves to eat things she has to work at so i feel like this will generally bring more pleasure into her life and channel that love of food into quality and physical work rather than just hoofing down dried synthetic stuff.

hmm maybe. i had the dubious pleasure of watching my young dog hunt a rabbit down once and it involved a lot of circling - she wore it down basically through chase and getting it a bit trapped in a copse of trees then would go in and mouth it a bit then back off and circle around and repeat until it was virtually dead. she then carried it and it died in her mouth without a mark on it.

i've made some liver treats today.

the cat had another half chicken wing this morning (will give other half tonight) and there is a bit of raw liver in his bowl for when he emerges from his coma. see how that goes down.

dog has had a chicken leg and a couple of wings this morning and about the same to come this evening.

right so the cat has eaten a little bit of raw liver (only about half of what i put in his bowl so obviously not that keen) and a chicken wing today. 100g total. he seemed a bit pissed off at one point in the day that his bowl was empty but i don't think it was hunger just disgruntlement at the 'all day buffet' of kibble not being there.

so that's both of them switched over totally now.

impressed with the liver treats - very popular and so cheap compared to buying quality treats. used about half a pack of a 58p pack of pig liver and that is enough treats for quite a few days.

i'm in town for an appointment on monday. seem to recall having seen big butcher vans on the market before - will see what they have to offer.

ok so it's only been 9 days but i swear my dogs coat feels and looks different already and her face is looking lovely and different (thinking maybe it's the muscle definition from the chewing). she smells lovely and is really happy.

the cat is a new man. instead of being the ravenous constantly screaming for more food little bugger he was he seems full and content. i give him a whole chicken wing once a day now and the odd little bit of liver and he doesn't scrounge for more whereas on complete dry food diet with the odd bit of wet he was always screaming for more so i guess meat is what he was after. tried him on whole fish and he wouldn't touch it bizarrely whereas the chicken he loves. will give him some tinned fish once a week i think.

only concern/thing i've noticed with the dog is that she's barely drinking any water - i appreciate she won't need as much on meat as dried food but am surprised by how little she is drinking. should i be concerned?

My dogs are on RAW and also barely drink any water. If I leave their bowl until it's empty it can be at least 4 days before they finish it all and that's between two of them.

I think the dry food needs so much water to digest as well as absorbing a lot of water too, whereas meat naturally contains a lot of water and doesn't need any extra to digest.

My two only really drink after a long walk.

Ralph barely drinks water. He is a wotsit anyway and refuses ro drink from his bowl and instead will see out a puddle or rainwater in a bucket to drink from.

i won't worry then if it's normal thanks.