Complete raw food (for lab)

[Nowthereistwo]

Hi, we're researching if we should switch to raw food for our 2yr old male lab.

But there are so many brands and choices, so I'm hoping people can recommend brands they use.

Picture for tax (taken during morning walk this week)

Lots of people are pro-anti raw feed depending on who responds on a thread. But IMO the best food for your dog the food they eat happily, the food that keeps them healthy (weight wise) and the food that gives them healthy bones, joints and a shiny coat. All dogs are different - what works well for one of mine doesn’t work for another.

I’ve used farmers dog and Bella and duke. One of mine is now on farmers dog, two are on butternut box and one just has biscuits and whatever meat I’m having for dinner that day.

Too many people switch to raw thinking it’ll help their dogs weight (not saying you are!!!) or help with allergies etc, and they’re very often wrong.

Hi!
Our dog was on kibble for most of his life.
He was mostly on Wagg.

Then when he was approx eleven, he unfortunately developed a cancerous tumour, and first vet could only offer amputation at best or to be put down.

Second vet sorted him out without amputation... yay!

We then decided to try him with raw food.

Unfortunately no brand name, as we bought it from a large warehouse in a rural area that supplied everything to animals small as a mouse to as large as a horse.

Point of me posting is that even an older dog such as ours was, he took to raw food with a passion.

It's not as convenient as serving kibble, but seeing the enthusiasm in our dog's behaviour when mealtime arrived, made it all worthwhile.

We gave him half a bowl of raw meat, along with grated raw carrots, swede, and any veg apart from the ones dogs aren't allowed, he loved raw red cabbage mixed in it too.

The amazing outcome of that, was when I collected his poo from the back lawn, it had a blue hue!

Bonus was, his poo was never as smelly as it was when he was on kibble, and he went on to live a further healthy three years post recovery.

So our experience of a raw diet for our dog was a positive one.

He was a mixed breed, but id say he was the size of a German Shepherd.

Hope you find a good supplier in your area.
Best wishes.

My spaniel is on Durham Animal Feeds and we find it goes down really well. She eats her food very reliably now, whereas she has always been a bit disinterested, and there are lots of varieties so you can find what they like best.

Round here at our local ag shop it's £1.30-1.50 per pack of 454g, depending on flavour, so reasonable value. Other brands we like, for comparison, are Nutriment, Naked Dog, and Naturaw, but they're all about double the price so it depends on your budget and what your dog likes. I buy a mix of meats from DAF but also from time to time will buy a few packs from those other aforementioned brands too but the price difference is huge. I think a double pack of 500g of Naked Dog, so 1kg, round here is about £6.99 so more than double the price of DAF.

We don’t use raw food but use Butternut box food, mixed with kibble. Everyone comments how healthy our lab looks, and what a lovely fur coat he has.

(if interested, I can send you a 70% discount for first box).

I use honey’s. Our dog is now 7, still gobbles down every meal like he’s never tasted it before! He’s a great weight, with no health problems.

We feed our labs raw food with wholemeal biscuits (Laughing Dog). There are a variety of brands of the raw meat - we usually buy Prime or Reggies. Used to buy direct from Nature's Menu but they got expensive and kept messing up the deliveries. We now use Raw Dog Food Company. We've fed both our generations of labs like this and it is also what our breeder feeds her dogs.

We use Nutriment, comes in frozen tubs, just defrost and serve, our current dog loves it, the biggest benefit for me personally is small non smelly poos, our last dog would only eat tinned pedigree chum and the farting and poops were something else!

When we got our KC registered Viszla our breeder fed her dogs raw food.

We tried it for a month (various brands) and our V didn’t like it, it literally went through her.

We now feed our girl 3 handfuls of grain free kibble + a Natura natural wet tray (twice a day).

As someone above said - the best food for your dog the food they eat happily, the food that keeps them healthy.

We use Bella & Duke and our spaniel loves it !

My beautiful and energetic lab is totally raw fed, as is her working dad.
I've used a few different brands but have settled on Henley Raw. Thru did is good and delivery reliable.

I keep vegetable peelings and mix it with the meat. She loves carrot especially.
In the morbid I add a whole raw egg, and the evening a raw chicken wing.
She had a soft shiny coat, boundless energy and had never needed to see the very.

Oh, abs she also loves a banana, apples and blueberries. She picks her own blackberries from the bushes in the summer 😁

https://henleyrawdogfood.com/raw-dog-food-subscriptions/?utm_source=Henley+Raw+Dog+Food&utm_campaign=055b8fd662-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_10_11_02_56&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-055b8fd662-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=055b8fd662&mc_eid=f48504c747

We use southcliffe raw food and source it from our local supplier. I used to use Luna & Me when I first started on my raw food journey but it got too expensive with two dogs.

Naturaw
The dog's butcher (not the butchers dog I can't vouch for that one!)
Durham

Have also heard good things about:
Prodog raw
Mersey raw
Paleo ridge

In terms of making it complete, I buy "Naturaw forage pure", which is a blend of specific raw veg, blue mussel, mackerel and egg. I chop it into cubes and freeze it. Then I grab a portion of 80/10/10 meat and a cube of forage pure mix it all together and hey presto complete meal. Saves me the faff of batch cooking veg and buying sprats and all that.

Check the feeding calculators on manufacturers websites.