Cooking Bella and Duke raw meat

[pumpkinspice2]

Has anybody ever done this?

My dog is refusing to eat the raw food as it is but yesterday I made some patty shapes with it and fried it (without oil or anything) and he got really excited about the meaty smell and ate it all.

It is just meat and veg so I can't see how this would be bad for him? Or am I wrong?

I have quite a few in the freezer and I just don't want them to go to waste.

we don't use this one but the one we do use has a proportion of bone included, which should not be cooked due to the risk of it splintering - i'm no expert, perhaps the bone is ground small enough for this not to be a problem but i would be cautious

Oh no @Handsnotwands you are right ☹️ I just looked this up! I feel terrible now! The composition is 80% meat and bone and 20% veg.

If the bone is ground it won't be a problem. The issue with cooked bones is that they can splinter into sharp shards which can pierce the dog's stomach/intestines.

But if the food was of a consistency that you could shape it into patties, there surely can't have been chunks of bone in it?

@rbe78 yes it contains really tiny bits of bone you can't even see them in these patties I think they are no bigger than 5p piece. I feel so silly for not even considering this

Without wishing to sound provocative, what's the point of raw food if you need to cook it?

We had Bella & Duke sales people go round our area knocking doors , I didn’t sign up but obviously quite a few did as a couple of weeks later there were lots of people on the area FB page giving the stuff away . Anyhow , it says online that you shouldn’t cook it but can flash fry it which is what you did @pumpkinspice2 so that should be ok .

Yes I completely agree with this. Unfortunately my dog won't touch it anymore so this was a last ditch attempt to get him to eat some so it doesn't all go to waste.

Im with you. It is a shame to waste it. It isn't cheap. I tried Bella and Duke but didn't get on with them. It arrived defrosted and with odd sized packaging. Best was Natural Instinct, although have now switched to Burns complete sensitive, which is a normal dry food. Much easier logistically than raw and the dog is more energetic.

@HappiestSleeping yes I have had some packages arrive all smashed up and the plastic is sharp so those ones have had to be binned incase sharp plastic got in the food.

I won't be buying it again, which is a shame as I know raw food is meant to be the best diet for dogs. I do have an especially fussy dog though. He was a very underweight rescue when we got him so you would think he would be grateful for all food, but we've spoilt him to the point he is fussy, which is our own fault.

Ours eat a mix of senior dry dog food Tesco and half a dog tin food mixed in...always done same combo for different dogs we've had over the years

My rescue was fed raw food previously so we continued with it. I switched for logistic reasons (easier to go camping), and to reduce the risk of cross contamination. I discovered that there is no scientific research to support raw being any better for a dog than a quality 'normal' dog food, which was a surprise. That doesnt mean it isn't, just that there hasnt been any scientific research undertakr to prove one way or the other. It seems that it is quite popular, however all evidence of it being better is anecdotal so don't feel bad about switching to something else.

Everyone I spoke to talks about small poos and no flatulence, however poo is only larger when more is undigested. I have noticed no real change in poo or flatulence since switching away from raw.

Try making some gravy plus sweet potato mash, mix the raw meat with mash then add the gravy - sometimes the warmth of the food plus the smell will encourage the dog to eat.