Raw Feeding (again, i know i know!)

[TooOldForGlitter]

Only a short one because I know there have been gazillions of threads.

Have made the decision to switch Bob (almost 5 yo greyhound) to a raw diet. Have requested to join the FB group and am reading through the information they have on their landing page. My question is just, do you jump straight into raw feeding or do it gradually? The way you do if you are changing kibble etc. Is one day normal kibble/cans and the next a great dead chook?

We jumped right in! Our dogs get tripe, minced heart, sardines or eggs for breakfast and meat on the bone (mainly chicken or turkey) for dinner. If you are worried about bone to begin with start with minced raw such as tripe or mixed meat then add wings, backs etc :)

Yes jump straight in - it is not good to mix raw and kibble due to different digestion times. We started with complete minces and have gradually introduced more challenging delicacies!

Is your grey from the track? How are his teeth? Something to bear in mind when selecting bones etc.

Thanks for replies. Baffled as to where to start with buying the stuff tbh!

Yes he's an ex racer but luckily he has excellent teeth.

That's great - he'll be fine with everything then (well, unless he's a lazy eater or frightened of it!).

There are so many suppliers now it can be confusing. It depends on budget, freezer space, time you have etc so definitely get stuck in to the information on FB.

Oh he's not a lazy eater! Utterly food obsessed! We are getting a second hand chest freezer to keep his nosh in so space won't be an issue. Budget not big but enough. Can I ask where you buy yours from?

I use Honeys. They are fab but they are very much at the expensive end. To me it is worth it because they have very high ethical and farm welfare standards.

Will have a look, thanks. Am sure I put less effort into feeding kids than this!

Nutriment are often recommended DAF have mixed reviews from comments I've seen on raw feeding FB group. I would start with chicken first, either minced or chicken wings, and see how it goes. Tripe is good, I used to buy the frozen "pellets" from Pets@home. If you've got space, worthwhile buying in bulk as cheaper. Millie's Wolfhearts are another once that's often recommended, but I don't know the prices.

Sardines are good every now and again, eggs about once a week. Loads of people seem to get good bargains from their local butchers or Morrisons!

I use TPMS, you'll need to email them for a price list but you'll be able to feed a greyhound for around 50p per day.

Raw2paw are also v good

We jumped straight into raw. You can always try it and if he doesn't react well you could try again introducing it more slowly

I have a lurcher and switched him from kibble (which we couldn't stabilise his weight on, even on 3 meals a day) to Natural Instinct. It's easy as it's all pulverised and frozen in tubs and therefore you can measure it out easily. To begin with it looks like such a small amount of food but his weight is fine now, plus he's (nearly) stopped weeing at night because he no longer needs to drink lots (kibble makes them thirsty). This form of raw feeding suits me better as I really don't want lumps of dead things in my freezer.

Appreciate all the replies and tips. Honeys and Natural Instinct look great and i'd love to go down that route but it's just out of our budget. I think i'm going to go with Raw2Paw until our finances improve.

Can I just ask a question? For those who feed mince, do you defrost it first? I assume you have to or it'd be a big chunk of frozen er, mince! Probably stupid question but I can't see how dog would eat what would essentially be a mincey ice cube?!

Yes you do need to defrost it, although tbh my dog would eat it anyway. Make sure you know how much to feed too as they really don't need as much bulk as with kibble: my greyhound size lurcher eats half a tub of Natural Instinct a day, split into two meals, so that's £1.27 a day which I don't think is a lot. It looks like such a small amount but his weight is right now.

Thank you. According to what I am reading it is roughly 2.5\3% of dogs body weight for feeding? Does that seem right to you? He is around 37kgs so I'm getting between 800g and 1.08 kgs of food on the calculators.

It depends on the dog. I would start at 2.5% and adjust depending on how they respond. One of my dogs needs 3% to maintain a good weight and the other 2%. Bizarrely the less active dog requires the greater percentage. Wish I had her metabolism