Raw diet.

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I never looked back since switching from commercial wet food to raw/cooked home food for my two little boys.
The stool is a lot firmer smaller and less frequent, they are less hyper and more calm, have fresher breath, they are more alert, as well as smooth shiny soft fur.
They always finish and lick their bowls clean.
They still have the odd meal of plain kibbles every now and then.
For me it has been a good thing switching over.
But I am just wondering if there are people who switched and it didn’t work out and what were the reasons?
Has anyone’s pet suffered gastro problems from raw diet? I know their digestive system is shorter than ours and is capable of handling bacteria which are harmful to humans. Any pets suffered from parasite/pathogen problems from raw meat?

No, it has been the exact opposite for me, gastro problems vanished overnight. He has never had any problems with parasites and no problems at all with raw bacteria.

No problems here either. Mine cannot get enough of the raw stuff.
I have been feeding them raw since they were about 3 months old.
I have recommended BARF diet to friends of mine, some converted and some not so keen.

Main reasons are
• Takes too much time and effort to prepare.
• Lack of freezer space.
• Fear of giving them an imbalanced diet.
• Fear of bacteria/pathogens in the food.
• Cost.

Nutritionists always tell us to eat fresh.
I am sure it’s the same for dogs too. I wonder how good quality some dry food are and how much nutrients are lost in the heat process.
Costs wise, lb for lb, it can work out cheaper than some of the top dry food brands.

I switched and then switched back.

He wouldn't eat it, basically, lol.

He'd eat chicken and turkey, tripe and some beef, reluctantly, no lamb, no pork, no fish and no organs.

I tried cooking the things he wouldn't eat hoping to gradually decrease the cooking time, but he still wouldn't touch any of them.

I tried just not feeding him anything else - he just didn't eat for 3 days...which meant that he couldn't have his Metacam for those days either.

So because he was still growing and wasn't at all having a balanced diet and because of his other health issues after about a month I switched him back.

How old is he now? Would you consider trying again?

He's 19 months now - he was I think about 8 or 9 months when I tried raw feeding.

No I probably wouldn't try again with him, he's still on Metacam - he's also on other medication as well, so he needs to eat.

He's still a fussy eater, the vet reckons he has food intolerances and while he's doing ok on what I have him on just now, we might need to try an exclusion diet with him at some point.

He still gets chicken as a treat because he really likes it and beef bones as chews though.

I'd do it with a different dog, but no, not with him.

I raw fed for years, but had to give up when we moved, no longer had a chest freezer and couldn't find a decent local butcher.

We took on a rescue Lurcher while mine were on kibble and then when I switched back (new butchers opened in the village) he was really funny about it. He was actually scared of the food and would run away from it, especially larger things like chicken racks and lamb ribs. I've since heard of a few other sighthounds being similarly wussy with real meat and bones. Daft dogs. He did take to it in the end, but never seemed to really enjoy it like my other dogs did and overall seems happier on kibble.

The new butcher only lasted a couple of years and we still don't have room for a chest freezer, so my dogs are now back on high-end kibble, but I would still prefer to raw feed if I could, as the health benefits were clear for all my dogs when they've been fed it in the past.

A very easy way to feed raw is Nutriment.
nutriment you would still need a freezer though.

I am feeding Nutriment at the moment NuttyMuttie It is slightly more expensive than DIY raw but incredibly easy! It is still only working out at under 90p a day inc delivery so no worse than feeding natures menu etc.

My dog has a tendancy to fussiness too and though I can starve for a day or two he was getting really lazy with bones so we are having a break from the battle for a while!

I don't have a chest freezer either but fit 10kg of food which will do us 40 days into less than 2 drawers.

I would like to give nutriment a go, but we have two large dogs and only a standard fridge freezer, which is always full of gluten free bread for ds1.

Also just checked and it wouldn't work out all that much more expensive than the £57.00 a bag we pay for their Canagan - although we are lucky enough to have a great little independent pet-shop that often knocks up to £10 a bag off for us for being regular customers.

I do usually do diy raw but nutriment is so convenient if we are away and no more money than a kibble diet.

It could be good for people starting out on raw feeding who are unsure of the food to give to their dogs.

Like the rest of you raw has been so much better for my dogs, healthy coats, digestion, teeth, less poo to pick up and I am sure that it helps with the dogs mood, no additives etc.

That's the benefit of one little BT Moosemama 1 and 1/2 freezer drawers does us over a month! He has only skipped one days food in over a week (the duck war....I won ) so he likes it too.

How does nutriment compare with natural instincts in terms of quality?

When you raw feed, do you have to give their food in a bowl?

We feed our dog a decent kibble - science plan - and have got into the habit of giving him his two meals a day in fun containers to make it more interesting for him so he rarely eats from his bowl. Things like finished bog rolls, old fruit shoot bottles, egg boxes, contact lenses boxes and kong toys. He often takes half an hour over each meal which as he's a large breed is good for reducing his risk of bloat.

Can you feed raw in such a way? I imagine not unless you're prepared to throw boxes away immediately afterwards and clean up carefully.

Yes, people to exactly those kind of things. I don't, I have a lazy git who is happy to go hungry rather than work for his food! But yes, people stuff kongs, hooves etc. Some also freeze these things and give frozen for added time consumption. Things like ribs and spine take time to eat in their own right too. I sometimes feed things like this outside but I am also fairly relaxed about it too. He is fed these things in kitchen if not outside, and I just give it a quick spray with disinfectant and wipe with kitchen roll. No-one has got ill yet! Some people put down a blanket for dogs to eat on.

Butterflylovers I haven't used NI personally so it is slightly unfair of me to comment. I choose nutriment over NI as I had seen more positive comments that Nutriment were better quality but as I say, I cannot comment personally. Nutriment were very friendly and helpful on the phone and told me not to hesitate to ring back if I needed any advice about anything raw related. They were even happy to chat about DIY raw too.

Delivery arrived perfectly packaged after 26 hrs and I saved £10 in their recommend a friend scheme so all in all I was pretty pleased! I do believe NI do operate in a similar way though, both seem to have a good reputation.

At NI, the cheapest is the chicken range and it works out roughly £3.50 per kg incl delivery. Of course it gets less if you bulk buy. I don't think I can make anything myself for less than that. The meat and the veg. Chicken wings are cheap but it has less meat than a filet and also I would not feed the dogs too many bones. The only other way I can think of is to cut up a whole chicken for the meat.

I think it is a good food if you wanted to give it a go.

I think they also do the same deal I got with Nutriment....you both get £10 off if you 'recommended' by an existing customer. I posted on a raw feeding page for a volunteer (just had to give a name). It is worth it to give it a go and see how you get on . You should find someone there who can tell you how the food is too.

Butterfly - you can get 2kg bags of chicken for £3.50 (1.75kg). Tesco value frozen chicken pieces. Mix of legs, drumsticks and thigh. Loads of meat on them and more interesting for dog to chew, esp if left frozen, than the NI and Nutriment minces.
Dogs don't need veg, I think its used as a cheap filler by the dog food companies.

I agree on the veg front, it comes out the other end undigested like poo decoration! But I fed veg when DIY'ing too, not for any other benefit than encouragement as I find my dog likes it.

I have DIY'd until last week and found it way more exciting but I am enjoying the rest from fussy mutts ways at the moment for a while.

If you've got a decent butcher you can get all sorts of stuff...chicken carcasses, hearts, lungs, the cheap cuts that people don't really want and off cuts. Mine charges £1 a kilo for things like chicken carcasses, of course you then have to top up the meat content but it's still cheaper than ready made stuff.

Morrisons also sells things like heart and cheap cuts of meat.

Morrisons is great for bones too.

I so wish my daft dog would chew on a carcass, the lazy mutt! Not everyones cup of tea admitted but some people on FB feed whole animal and I'd love too but my dog is wussier than me!

Mine'll eat a chicken carcass no bother...it's meat he wouldn't touch.

He loves lamb ribs, as soon as they've got meat on them he just looks at them all worried and won't touch them.

A couple of weeks ago DP saw some little whole fish reduced to 10p a packet and brought them home for the pets - one cat looked at us in disgust, one ate one but then promptly threw it all up...the dog took it, licked it a bit, looked a bit confused and then kept presenting it to us to throw for him, lol.

Liver and kidney he won't eat at all, not mixed with other things, not even cooked.

He'll quite happily eat paper mind, but not meat.

I'm afraid mine is bone idle if you'll excuse the pun!

Science Plan is an expensive kibble but not a good one.

Interestingly the idea of food balls and toys to make the dogs work for their food came from how dogs eat naturally. If you give your dog a chicken carcass for example it is as challenging for them to eat as using a treat ball.

I do sometimes use treat balls with homemade treats in them which are very easy to make.

Some dogs do need to learn what meat is and gently flash frying it can get them interested to start with - then usually there is no stopping them.

My 8 month rescue didn't have a clue what to do with raw food at first. i gave him a chicken breast and he sat guarding it for 2 hours giving an occasional lick, then he started nibbling and eventually ate it all but took all morning. The next day he was quicker and now he can eat a whole rabbit, including fur, in about 20 minutes

I was going to say the same as Nuttie about treat toys being developed to mimic how dogs naturally eat - scavenging and having to work to remove meat etc from carcasses.

Feeding raw meaty bones to pups in particular helps with good muscle development in the jaw, neck, shoulders, chest, front legs and back. Which is something that is often overlooked as a benefit. I think there's a youtube video demonstrating this somewhere.

Tabularhasa, my old girl loved raw food, would eat literally anything she was presented with, but freaked out if she smelled meat cooking. She literally used to throw herself at the back door trying to get out when I cooked liver cake and we had to stop taking her to VW and Country Shows because she would panic and try to escape as soon as she caught a whiff of the hot meat sandwich trailer and/or BBQ. She became really distressed. It took a while for us to put two and two together, as we initially thought it was the whine from the generators at food stores at shows. It was only when I was cooking liver-cake one day that the penny finally dropped. I always put it down to us being vegetarians ourselves, so she was simply never 'socialised' (for want of a better word) to the smell of cooked meat when she was a pup.

Lurcherboy learned from her and hates me cooking liver-cake - but loves the end result. He's not as bad, in that he doesn't panic and try to escape, but he hides in the bed under the table looking worried, and refuses to come out until the oven is off and it's all completely cooled down.