Do you use raw food - or have you found it too much hassle?

[loveyouradvice]

Hmm... I've realised that his Lily's kitchen is NOT giving him the best diet and have been reading up on Allaboutdogfood. (Great website!)

Although I love the idea of having all the benefits of raw food, I am a bit concerned it might be quite a hassle

What's your experience?
How have you made your life easier doing it?
What's your least favourite thing about it?

And what do you do when travelling ... my wee fella is a brilliant traveller but would love to take easy food with us - can he switch to freeze dried or something else for a few days?

We had our dog on raw from a puppy up until around 6 months old (we only stopped due to myself falling pregnant and I couldn’t stomach dealing with his food as it stinks) so I went on all about dog food and came across raw kibble. He’s a large breed so there isn’t many options for raw kibble for large breeds but we’ve found one he likes.

Anyways raw itself we found took a lot of planning but once you get a routine it’s not too bad. E.g. making sure you’ve got enough in and making sure you’ve got it out in time to defrost.

Things to consider are:

Have you enough space in your freezer? We bought a separate chest freezer- this does depend on what size dog you have I guess but it’s good to get plenty in especially with lockdowns etc.

You need to be super careful when storing and defrosting to avoid bacteria.

You’ll need to weigh your dog regularly to know how much to give them and work out the percentages of the content you’re giving.

Whether or not to add veg. Ours loved veg.

It can be quite messy, our walls round his bowl were covered and blood on the kitchen floor. When introducing new raw foods he’d leave them about the kitchen if he didn’t like them. (Not very nice at all) so expect lots of cleaning.

What we did was visit our local raw food shop and talk to them about what’s best and what they have to offer and see what suited us and our dog so I’d definitely recommend that.

We started on Durhams complete , tried Bella and Duke (he wasn’t keen was too mushy) then we did DIY where you buy the chunks of meat, offal and bone and weighed everything out to get the correct percentages.

It take a lot of prep but it is very good for them. I felt guilty taking ours off raw but I’m happy with how he’s doing on raw kibble with no extra nasties in it like other dog foods.

There’s also some good raw food Facebook groups to join if you’re on there to help out with meal ideas.

I'm an 'on the fence' woman. I wanted to feed all raw, but in reality my girl rejected an awful lot of the best quality 'completes' (paleo Ridge and similar) so I was wasting a lot of food.
Now I do a varied diet.. she is more inclined to accept raw if she is REALLY hungry so I offer it in the evenings after a good few hours off lead run! She likes tripe so frozen tripe mince is ok, and I also order from Kiezebrink and get their small tubes of raw, that way I defrost a couple at a time and not much is wasted if madam turns her nose up.

Mornings I stick to GOOD kibble with a bit of cheese on top, or sliced chicken or ham. We camp every summer and for that reason I want her to be able to feed her easy to store food,.. we tried freeze dried but she refused point blank to eat it!

I've read and read the benefits and drawbacks and came to ,my own conclusions.. dogs.. scavengers... who can and will eat the most revolting shit given half a chance, can manage a mixed diet perfectly well, so I try and do a bit of both..
My girl eats kibble , she eats cooked meat, she eats raw. I give her raw chicken wing tips as treats.. good for her teeth, and pre prapared raw when I can remember to defrost some, but a lot of raw is GRIM, and it depends on your dog on how much effort it is worth. Mine is not a 'eat anything ' dog.. she is picky and only what she needs and when she needs it so being dogmatic (geddit?) about her food is pointless.

A bit like babies.. fed is best! I have friends who have fed their perfectly healthy dogs on kibble alone, and friends who feed 'whole prey' and toss a carcass into the garden for their dogs to tear apart (that's not for me..!)

For me there is an addition issue of hygiene, as my son is somewhat immunocompromised.. raw food needs excellent care and my dog is an affectionate licker!

That was long, sorry! But I guess the point of my post is... it;s ok to do whatever suits you best... just don't buy own brand kibble, and if you raw feed, either buy completes or be prepared to research to get the balance of nutrients right!

I've fed raw for nine years. When I had Big Dog and Small Dog together I bought from Yorkshire Raw, a local supplier, but I can't recommend them as their customer service stinks. I used to buy several kgs each of beef liver, beef chunks, beef heart, chicken wings, chicken necks, green tripe etc then spend an evening portioning it into bags containing a day's-worth of mixed chunks. It was easy then to feed Small Dog bits cut off the bigger chunks. I gave them whole rabbits including skin if I could get them, and sometimes lamb breast or pork ribs if they were on offer at Morrisons.

Now I only have Small Dog he gets complete mince mixes because it would be a pain to make up balanced meals for him. He loves Paleo Ridge and we're trying Durham Animal Feeds now. I think PR suits him better as DAF seems to have more bone in it and it makes his poos really hard and crumbly.

Both dogs have always loved their food and the vet says their teeth are good. I defrost in a plastic container in the fridge - no need to be more careful than you would be with raw meat or poultry, although you wouldn't want to keep green tripe in your fridge because it smells terrible. You don't need to be constantly weighing your dog, just start them on about 2.25% of their ideal body weight and cut down if they seem to be putting on weight, increase if they get skinny. Small Dog's on about 3.5% these days because he's really active. He maintains what the vet says is his idea weight on that.

3 dogs here. we tried raw but we couldnt stand the smell or the smell of their breath or poo after they ate it. They're on kibble now and all three doing fine on it so not inclined to try anything else.

I fed my previous dog raw. I did do it yourself raw food and once I got my head around how much and which organ meat to include I found it fairly simple. I would spend a few hours one afternoon a preparing and bagging food for the next few weeks then freeze. It didn't matter if I forgot to defrost it s he would eat it frozen. I also used to feed her whole fish heads etc when I could get them just at random not as part if her main meals. I did make her eat outside though, not that she minded she would be out there in the passing rain chomping on a salmon head

We tried raw , it didn’t suit our dog at all and the complete types ( frozen nuggets etc) he wouldn’t touch . We finally settled on a wet / dry mix which is Millie’s wolfheart kibble and the small Applaws tins as Applaws is the only brand which he reliably eats.

We tried raw but mine refused to eat it 🙄🤣

I fed raw for years and did it all DIY, despite being a vegetarian myself. We had a separate freezer and food prep area in the garage for them, and they ate outside. Once I was used to the quantities/ratios I found it really easy and cost effective, but we did have an excellent local butcher who gave us a massive amount of offcuts and bones free every month.

We took our dogs on holiday to Ireland with us every year and honestly, feeding raw was easier than having to cart bags of kibble with us or source it there, as not all the same brands are available. We could just head to the butchers and pick up whatever we needed. We only do self-catering though (either camping or our family’s holiday home), so I’m not sure how it would work if you stay in hotels or B&B’s on a regular basis.

When we moved here we had to switch to kibble, as we no longer have a garage or room for a separate freezer and the local butcher considers himself ‘artisan’ and doesn’t lower himself to supplying dog bones! I tried to introduce complete raw at one point, buy my daft Lurcher was apparently terrified of it! He literally ran away from it, then circled it with his tail between his legs for ages and carried on till our older girl, who had been raw fed previously, stole it and scoffed it herself!

I’ve been looking into doing complete raw next time around, as we now have a bigger freezer and the quantities will be small enough for us to store. (We will only have one small breed, rather than 2 large and one medium like before.) I’m actually a bit apprehensive about buying complete, far more than I was doing DIY, but without a separate food prep area, I feel like that would be the most manageable in terms of defrosting/prep, as we still don’t have a separate food prep area.

I have given mine raw in the past, I used the completes from Vince the vet and Nutriment.
Great diet but it takes up far too much freezer space for me as it has to be ordered online in bulk.
I don’t drive so I can’t just pop to the shop and pick up a pack or two a day.

Mine is on canned food now, i do sometimes add some mince or the odd raw chicken quarter or similar from the supermarket.

I have fed dry food in the past but would never feed it now.

Add water to it and most brands increase in size by at least 50%!
I worry that a lot of kibble fed dogs must be quite dehydrated.

Mine came from the breeder on a raw diet, but he wasn't enjoying it. Fussy about texture, mince size, protein type (he hates chicken). Hardly ate any of it, and was not putting on weight as he should. So for him the best diet was the one he would eat - and that turned out to be kibble with various (cooked) toppings. I suppose the moral of that story is don't buy in bulk at first!

DPup is on tripe from the raw food shop local to us. At the moment it is turkey and tripe mixed with kibble. She seems to enjoy it.

My dog's tummy didn't settle down after he came to us (rescue). I researched foods to see what was best. Raw seemed good because it would be easier to see what he reacted to, whereas there are so many things in processed food it would be harder to tell.

So we started him off and it's been great! After trying a lot of different things, he's basically down to raw beef mince straight out of the bag into his bowl, and chicken leg quarters. Dehydrated liver as treats.

Initially I weighed everything, worked out the bone/meat/organ ratio etc. As time has gone on we've settled into something a bit simpler.

When he goes into kennels or to people who aren't experienced with raw, he has one of the processed raw bricks. They are fine too, though more expensive and take up room in the freezer. It's easier to just give him people meat!

Pros: smaller, less stinky faeces. Healthy dog- doesn't smell, no fleas etc.
Cons: if you are lazy like me he'll escape with a chicken drumstick and try and bury it somewhere. In the summer, he might bury it in the garden and retrieve it a few months later, muddy and stinking. You do need good routines and to pay attention.

DPup is on tripe from the raw food shop local to us. At the moment it is turkey and tripe mixed with kibble. She seems to enjoy it

Is that safe for your pup..?
Giant breed puppies are meant to be given adult food and the levels of protein and two other nutrients I can’t remember l, think phosphorus is one, have to be carefully calculated to stop them growing too fast and protect their joints?

Raw all the way for us. We buy Nutriment in 500g tubs so no mess and no faff.

We also occasionally use Pure dehydrated raw if we are travelling or as back up, which works well.

Ddog came to us on kibble as a puppy and was unenthusiastic to say the least. We'd struggle to get her to eat even half the recommended daily amount. We'd always intended to move her over onto raw and ended up doing it earlier as she was eating so little. She clears her bowl now, completely different dog. We do raw completes as they are easier to manage for us and we have allocated a drawer in the garage freezer which holds around a two week supply, the 'active' tub is in the garage fridge in a tray to ensure it is separate from other items. Luckily we have a pet shop 10 mins drive away which stocks her preferred brands.

@blowinahoolie
therawvet.co.uk/product/raw-complete-for-large-breed-puppies/

I really wouldn’t be adding raw meat willy nilly to kibble for a Bernard puppy.
You won’t know if the percentages are correct and she may pay the price later on.

I've never fed my dogs raw they are dogs not wolves. You can get really good quality dog foods now and top up with other things like fish (cooked) etc. I think the raw feeding is a craze that came in a few years ago personally. My vets advice against it due to parasites and bacteria. Its up to you what you feed your dog on but to me there's no benefit from feeding raw.

I've read Vets don't get a lot of training on dog food. It's mainly a session run by pet food companies.

Pet food is a really modern invention.

@Sitdowncupoftea

I've never fed my dogs raw they are dogs not wolves. You can get really good quality dog foods now and top up with other things like fish (cooked) etc. I think the raw feeding is a craze that came in a few years ago personally. My vets advice against it due to parasites and bacteria. Its up to you what you feed your dog on but to me there's no benefit from feeding raw.

What do you think people fed their dogs before pet food was invented?

I've never fed my dogs raw they are dogs not wolves
They are close enough to wolves though to be able to breed with them and produce viable, fertile offspring.
So very, very similar genetically.

"Is that safe for your pup..?
Giant breed puppies are meant to be given adult food and the levels of protein and two other nutrients I can’t remember l, think phosphorus is one, have to be carefully calculated to stop them growing too fast and protect their joints?"

snaplittledragon Recommended by the breeder. Not something I would have chosen to do, but she was used to it before she was brought to us. They've been breeding healthy St Bernards for years and all fed on mixed diet as far as I know. We will likely look to change her diet as she approaches six months anyway.

She's on Happy Dog kibble (breeder uses for the pups and adults alike) appropriate for her age. Giant puppy kibble.

"I really wouldn’t be adding raw meat willy nilly to kibble for a Bernard puppy."

She gets a tablespoon with each meal. Not a bucketload.

Also sardines in oil with kibble on other days instead of the raw meat.

Wow! So interesting ... thank you, this really helps.

I think we'll order some frozen complete and not too much in case he decides he doesn't like it - but he's not been fussy so far

And really great that I can use dehydrated raw for travelling. That's key for us... or will be once we are allowed to move again!

That said, being locked down and working from home is quite a good time to start experimenting....