Can you all stop by and tell to me about dog feeding, but nicely?

[HoneyDragonWearingLederhosen]

I have searched loads and some threads are bunfighty some are not. I have over the years used Skinners, James Welbeloved, Nature Diet and so on.

I am interested in raw feeding, is this suitable for a Puppy? Is it ok/better just to feed dried food as the vets seem keen to recommend?

Which are definitely food brands to avoid? I was told today Beta is full of sugar today for example.

I know this is an area many people are passionate about, and I'd like to get into good habits now

I am genuinely not being lazy, I realised when I had over 13 tabs open on feeding dogs it was better to ask direct

[TheCunnyFunt]

God yeah, it'll end up escalating to cutting my whole hand off or something :o

[Housewifefromheaven]

cunny your incident will become a Chinese whisper!! Whenever raw feeding comes up, people will say "ooh, bad idea that mate. I knew a woman once who cut her finger off picking poo up with a bone in...then she DIED of blood poisoning! Yeah, she was a friend of your mums next door neighbours!

:o honey

[TheCunnyFunt]

Housewife that was me, it was a very sharp shard of bone and it bloody hurt! I worried about what that could've done to his guts so stopped giving them to him.

[Rikalaily]

Here's some companies that supply raw dog food, includes minces, meaty bones, chicken carcasses etc, everything there is fine for dogs. The only bones not recommended are the weight bearing bones of large animals like cows. I've heard lambs ribs and green tripe (green tripe is much better for them than the tripe sold as human food) are a fave of most dogs and I know some raw feeders who pick up any fresh roadkill they find too. We are planning to raw feed in the future but will need to buy a chest freezer first. Atm he's on Wainwrites wet food (alot of raw feeders recommend this food as it's as close to a raw diet as you can get without actually feeding raw as it's got a huge meat content and no cereals), he only needs 1 tray a day but he's a puppy so I add a little Wainwrites dry kibble to it too and split it into two meals a day, it's settled his tum which was awful when he first arrived (rescue pup). He gets the odd raw egg and Kongs stuffed with veggies/apple/pears/banana/cheese/peanut butter too.

www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/
rawtogo.co.uk/

There are more but these two deliver countrywide and buying it in bulk is alot cheaper than feeding a commercial diet.

If switching to raw you should start off slow, chicken only for a few weeks, then you can add a different meat every few weeks until you have included everything you plan to. Most raw feeders I know feed a muscle meat based meal in the morning and then a boney meal in the evening, you can adjust to what they need by checking thier poo, too dry and crumbly lower the amount of bone, too soft and increase the bone. You can feed fresh fish/tinned sardines etc once a week, a raw egg inc shell a few times a week, natural yogurt and can even add some raw veg to add even more variety although veg isn't really needed.

To start with you could bash chicken wings etc up with a hammer to shatter the bones a bit and hold onto it while the puppy chews until they get better at chewing and eating slowly. Honestly, dogs are fine with bones, thier digestive tract is alot tougher than ours, they are designed to deal with sharp bones and the bacteria in raw meat.

[Flatbread]

I posted this link on another thread, dogaware.com/articles/wdjhomemade3.html

I found this really helpful

[Flatbread]

I feed precooked tripe. It is very expensive here, some kind of regional delicacy. But the dogs love it so much, that we buy it once a week as a treat.

If you don't feed bones to a puppy, it could get calcium deficiency. There is a ratio of calcium and phosphorus 2:1, perhaps?Anyway, it seems that cooked meat has more phosphorus and if you don't have enough calcium, e.g, bones in the diet, it can lead to a deficiency.

Vet told me feed either crushed egg shells as a supplement ( a tsp a day) or tablets.

Went on the net and it seems the calcium thing is under debate. But I am sticking with my vets advice

[HoneyDragonWearingLederhosen]

oh and housewife, do you and your family eat a lot of raw meat then?

[HoneyDragonWearingLederhosen]

I have always like Nature diet if I am honest, but I think raw might be more cost effective

This thread is definitely giving me (arf) food for thought. I just don't think I could give a dog chicken wings, the bones scare me.

What about tripe, do you guys feed that raw too?

[Housewifefromheaven]

I feed nature diet for the nice firm poo!! Although she always has raw meat too whenever we are. I wouldn't feed the bones though as i read somewhere (think it was on here) about a woman who cut herself picking up poo that had a sharp piece of bone in!!!

[BetterChoicesChair]

Thanks! Think I can handle that .

[Scuttlebutter]

Better, one of the easiest ways of doing it is to get some of the freeflow minced raw stuff (brand is Prize Choice, either from PAH or order direct from them) and just tip into the bowl and watch woofs tuck in. They also do frozen packs of chunks of tripe and beef which can be placed directly into bowl. Sadly, no getting around that tripe smells absolutely vile in every form!

If you want to go upmarket a bit, Basil's link here do a very user friendly version of raw - a sort of giant sausage. We tried them and the food was great, but cost was prohibitive with three large greyhounds. With one smaller dog, would be much more affordable.

With raw chicken wings, yes, you just unwrap and give the whole thing to dog. It is cooked chicken bones that should never be fed, as they are sharp and splintery.

[MrsSpoonFromButtonMoon]

Sorry on my phone and hit post. I find that very little ends up on the floor anyway but some dogs are messier than others. I haven't had a lot if success with raw whole fish but know others that feed them, I tend to give my three tinned sardines or mackeral in oil or tomato sauce.

[MrsSpoonFromButtonMoon]

I always feed bones in the garden . Chicken wings raw, bone and all, you can bash it up a bit for a puppy or small dog. You could feed other stuff in the garden but I tend to feed my three in the kitchen where the floor can be easily cleaned, I f

[BetterChoicesChair]

Bit of a silly question, possibly, but when you give your dogs chicken wings do you just take them out of the wrapper, bones and all and give them to the dogs? Can they just eat all those little tiny bones? What about, say, whole fresh sardines with little bones. Would those be okay? I've never purchased tripe ever...do you have to do anything with it before giving it to a dog? I give my dogs Orijen and sometimes cooked chicken, fish or sweet potatoes but am interested in giving them some other types of "real" food once again if the consensus is that there are inherent benefits, particularly if it's supposed to be good for growing pups? I'm also a bit apprehensive about the thought of slimy, messy meat being dragged around all over my floors. I have no problem with mud and dog hair but raw meat has me a little bit queasy. Could you just chuck stuff into the garden for them to feast on?
Any other suggestions for raw newbies who'd like to ease in slowly?

[MrsSpoonFromButtonMoon]

Sounds about right to me, they might need a little more or less depending on activity levels. I order my dog's meat from Durham Animal Feeds but Landywoods is another company that I believe deliver. I prefer to order pet minces as some meats will be ground with the bone for extra nutrients. Also as I understand it the freezing process kills off most nasties so the fact that the pet minces are ready frozen is good too.

[HarlotOTara]

MrsSpoon - mine are about 32kgs in weight so 640g a day? Is it any raw meat? What about fish? ALso is there somewhere that supplies raw meat for dogs or is it just butchers and supermarkets?

[MrsSpoonFromButtonMoon]

I've got three dogs, the older two were switched to raw but the pup has been fed raw since 8 weeks. She is 18 months now, she has grown slowly and steady, she's chunky, with a clean bill of health, never been to the vet for anything other than vaccinations. As a pup I more or less fed her as my older dogs for breakfast and dinner but at lunchtime I would give her chicken wings etc for extra calcium.

HarlotOtara, my dogs are small Lab sized and eat around a pound of meat a day. As a rough guide, for an adult dog, you should feed 2% of your dog's body weight a day.

[WoodRose]

Daisy you mentioned that a number of the pre-prepared raw diets are high in fat. Would you mind naming "names" - am a bit worried now! Thanks.

[HarlotOTara]

Interesting read but if you feed a dog a raw foos diet how much would you give per meal? Would a golden retriever need a whole chicken or what? It would be really helpful for me to know thanks!

[HoneyDragonWearingLederhosen]

Daisy - I was vvvvv scared, some website advocate straight away, saying its no good changing later.

I like the idea of a mixture I think. Dried and the introducing mince, meaty bones etc when she's older.

But you kind of get the feeling it's one way or the other. It's nice to hear what others do. And you can mix and match, once weights are settled.

[PersonalClown]

I can't feed Fish4Dogs. It has Brewer's yeast in it which sets Staffy boy's skin flare ups off.

[daisydotandgertie]

Oh and I really, really wouldn't dare raw feed with a lab pup!

Maybe once they've got to a year or so and done the bulk of their growing, but not until then.

[daisydotandgertie]

I think JWB has changed a little over recent years and a number of people have said it goes straight through dogs.

I have 4 working labs, aged between 11 and 1, and have tried a number of dried foods. Burns is good, but I don't feel it's as good as it was 6 or 7 years ago. JWB is also well received, but not by everyone. Pets at Home do their own food called Wainwrights which is also good.

I keep coming back to Fish4Dogs and haven't been able to better it.

It is easy to digest - made of just fish and potato - and isn't crammed full of nasties.

Common allergens are chicken, lamb, maize, wheat - grains really. Give your puppy a try on something which is either fish and potato (Fish4Dogs) or pork and potato (Wainwrights) and see what happens. A bit of live yoghurt will help at this stage too.

[PersonalClown]

I don't feed raw. Just don't have the space to bulk buy and haven't the time to go out every couple of days to keep stock.

I've noticed you said you've tried JWellBeloved, have you thought of the Cereal free ones?
I ask because I have a grain allergic Staffy that is thriving on it and the pig with fur Doodle wolfs it down too.

Our vet says our dogs are some of the healthiest she's seen!

[Flatbread]

Honey, we fed our girl sheepdog a mix of homecooked food and some dry dog food. She did rally well on it, even as a puppy, and she is in great health (vet comments on it as well)

With her pup, a mix of sheepdog, lab and golden retriever, it is a bit of a different story. He loves the diet, but is short in calcium according to the vet, and is taking a calcium supplement. I think it might be because he, ahem, loves his food more, so eats a lot more meat and is throwing the calcium/phosphorous ratio off kilter.

We give a variety of cooked meats over the week, along with vegetables like carrots and sweet potato and pumpkin (he loves sweet food). And a nice soup bone cooked with the broth once a week. Also eggs thrice a week and sardines twice a week.

The base is dry dog food, rice or pasta. I prefer this to only dry dog food because I find he (and the girl dog when she was a pup) bulk up too quickly with commercial dog food, while with a home cooked diet he grows more slowly and his bones are stronger as a result.

It is a bit harder to do portion control this time around. With the girl dog, she was not that interested in food, when she was done, she would walk away, even if something was left on her plate. With this pup, no way! He will gompsy everything on his plate and hers, if he could. So we really need to watch how much he eats. But he sooo loves his food. He had tripe yesterday and the look of joy in his face was heart melting. He has to sit for his food, and even after the meal was over, he kept sitting for a looong time hoping that the tripe would magically reappear.