homemade raw?

[Leypt1]

Hi,

We're hoping to switch our dog to a raw diet. Our behaviourist has recommended it and it's also mentioned in various books. It's pretty expensive though! For a 30kg dog maybe £90 per month. His bougie, grain-free kibble is £60/month at the moment, plus he gets through maybe 6 tins of butchers per month, let's say a total of £70.

To make our own with chicken, sardines and veggies would be maybe £65/month. Assuming about 1kg of food per day, but this could be very generous based on the feeding guidelines on the nutriment website.

Is it worth it? Has anyone tried it? Any useful tips? Or does anyone know of a raw supplier which is maybe a bit cheaper?

Thank you!

I have. Years ago, when we put our first dog on raw there weren't very many commercial manufacturers, so not much choice.

What kind of dog do you have?

In all honesty, it's kind of a faff, but if you're very organised, you can do it. I used to make a big bowl of liquidised veg that would last about 4 days and then mix it with meat. I always added a little quinoa or porridge oats (so not an absolutely pure diet) and some olive oil, a fish oil capsule and a Yumove.

You have to make sure you're getting the correct percentage of offal etc., so it's a good idea to get some professional advice when you're first setting out. Most of the commercial foods contain bone, so unless you're planning to grind raw bones down, you should give him non-weight bearing bones to eat.

It was a great diet, and was fabulous for keeping his weight down (just up the veg, reduce the meat), and he was a breed not known for having a long life span and lived past his 13th birthday (and was extremely healthy his entire life), but it was quite a lot of work.

Switched to commercial once there were decent options!

Honey's have a DIY option & will give you advice.

They are not cheap but take great care in sourcing their meats. Very keen on being ethical.

Had excellent service from them over many years & dogs have done well. But I must admit we buy their made up packs.

We use Honey's, but also use the made up packs. Haven't tried the DIY.

Landywoods and DAF used to be the cheapest way to do DIY.

They have boned and non boned minces and offal that you can add veg to if you want . Many people dont add veg. Used to work out way cheaper than completes.

It is best to start with the 80/10/10 approach – 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% offal / organ meat (5% liver with 5% other offal).

If you dog has white poo too much bone if runny poo too much offal. Many dogs find 10% offal too much on a daily basis

I’d be getting a second opinion from a different behaviourist, to be honest.

I doubt you will have to feed a 1kg of raw a day - that is a lot. More likely between 600-900kg may make the sums work a bit better

What was the behaviourists reason for recommending raw?

Thanks everyone for your replies! We don't have a freezer currently so based on comments about the faff this might have to wait until we can produce in big batches.

Thank you for the info on content and ratios, really helpful! Will also check out the various DIY websites mentioned

Our dog has pretty high arousal levels. Our behaviourist said - "The aim through diet is to promote serotonin in the gut and therefore in the brain.

These are great foods, nutritionally balanced complete foods.
You are looking for 80%:20% protein to veg mix." And then lists butternut box etc.

Our dog is a lurcher, probably greyhound/staffy mix but not very greyhound-like apart from hating the rain and wanting to murder small animals

You need to get the balance of bone, secreting organ and muscle meat correct. If you feed whole prey (or sections of) this is easy to do and can often be picked up free if you get to know your local hunters/pest controllers.

A minimum of 5 animal proteins are needed (over a couple of months or so) to ensure all nutrients are provided. Also, fish and egg as well as some feather and fur are good for gut health.

I feed my dogs raw for the cost of running the freezer and fuel for collection, as I source all my animals free locally.

if you go commercial, the cheaper the food, the poorer the quality/high fat etc. however, it’s soooooo much better than kibble, which is basically pot noodle for dogs.