[Scout-dog]

Okay, I feel like I ask a TON of questions, but what can I say? I'm just excited to see all these people that are as in love with their dogs as I am with mine!

I noticed someone wrote something about a "raw diet" and I'm curious about this. We just spent a weekend with my hubby's grandpa, who has four large birds and goes to extreme measures to feed them a variety of fresh foods every day, and I started to wonder why I don't prepare more food for Scout (scooping a bowl of dry food out of a bag is hardly preparing). Is a raw diet something to do with actual food? Does anyone here feed their dog "human" food? I don't mean tossing scraps under the table, but rather, actually making them specific meats or veggies.

 

[PaulaEdwina]

Okay, I feel like I ask a TON of questions, but what can I say? I'm just excited to see all these people that are as in love with their dogs as I am with mine!

I noticed someone wrote something about a "raw diet" and I'm curious about this. We just spent a weekend with my hubby's grandpa, who has four large birds and goes to extreme measures to feed them a variety of fresh foods every day, and I started to wonder why I don't prepare more food for Scout (scooping a bowl of dry food out of a bag is hardly preparing). Is a raw diet something to do with actual food? Does anyone here feed their dog "human" food? I don't mean tossing scraps under the table, but rather, actually making them specific meats or veggies.

I part time BARF but haven't yet with the new dogs. Though this weekend I took some chicken necks out of the freezer and bouth a crate of thighs.

My raw/homecooked meal consists of some combination of

chicken necks raw
chicken thigh cooked
egg whole raw
ground raw veg
some kind of starch
fish body oil capsule contents.

Even when I'm BARFING (bones and raw food or biologically appropriate raw food) I feed kibble one meal a day.

Paula

 

[Scout-dog]

Wow... how often do you feed your dogs that?

 

[PaulaEdwina]

When I'm doing it regularly that is their evening meal instead of kibble. I'm just about to start again now that Amrika has settled in.

Paula

 

[Chico.Heidi]

I've been following a raw diet with my dogs for a couple of months now. I've seen great results. The main reason I switched is because one of my dogs, Chico, has hip dysplasia and bad allergies. Both of those can be made worse through a poor diet. I find it very satisfying to prepare healthy food for my dogs. Once you get into a groove, it really isn't all that much work. The only problem I have is trying to get enough freezer space! :lol: My dogs were very picky eaters with the kibble. Sometimes they would go on hunger strikes and not eat a meal or two. Now that I feed them "real" food, they sit in the kitchen and drool while I prepare their meals! There are lots of variations on the diet. SOme people feed veggies and grain, some only feed meat. SOme do supplements, some don't. I guess it's sort of a personal thing. The main idea is to feed a lot of variety over time. Not all in one meal like kibble tries to provide.

Here are some pages you may be interested in reading.
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html
http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html

this book is very helpful and makes feeding raw very easy!
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DN208

 

[Scout-dog]

GREAT websites! I can totally see doing a half kibble/half raw diet... although, not so sure how my girl will like it... I'm sure she'd love the meat, but she is funny about some veggies... typical 2 year old

Just out of curosity though, do you have to worry about salmonella when feeding them raw chicken & eggs?

 

[PaulaEdwina]

GREAT websites! I can totally see doing a half kibble/half raw diet... although, not so sure how my girl will like it... I'm sure she'd love the meat, but she is funny about some veggies... typical 2 year old

Just out of curosity though, do you have to worry about salmonella when feeding them raw chicken & eggs?

BTW I do kibble separately from the raw meal.

Regarding salmonella and raw -

My dogs are some mountain living shit eating ******* dogs so I'm not as concerned about it as I would be if they were kibble only apartment or city dogs. Secondly the necks I get fresh from a nearby turkey farm (I get chicken necks). The eggs I don't use the shells (commercial eggs are waxed and goodness knows how long they sit), and chicken I get at the warehouse club I scald for the same reason I don't use the shells on the eggs cuz I don't know how old that chicken is.

But like I said; my dogs eat shit recreationall.

Paula

 

[Scout-dog]

Scout might be too much of a pansy to eat much raw stuff. My dad's dog was notorious for finding food out of the dumpster and being just fine (this was YEARS ago) but Scout is not such a tough girl (certianly not a "mountain-living-almost-cursed-eating-*******-dog ) so I might have to cook her food for her. I am going to try some eggs tomorrow!

 

[Chico.Heidi]

Some dogs that have gotten used to eating the brown little pellets everyday will not realize that the peice of meat is supposed to be eaten. Chico and Heidi had been used to chewing on marrow bones for recreation but the first twenty times I tried to get them to eat a chicken quarter, they looked at me like I was insane. Chico thought it was his pet and snuggled with it and then licked it for an hour as if he were grooming it and Heidi thought it made a wonderful perfume. She took her peice out back and rolled all over it! I found the best way to get my dogs started was to add some soft boiled eggs and ground beef to their kibble. A lot of people do the "tough love" thing and just only offer a peice of chicken until the dog is starving enough to eat it but I'm a softie. I found that my dogs love beef so that is what worked for me.

Salmonella is not typically an issue with dogs because their digestive tracts are much shorter than that of humans and their stomache acids are much more potent. They are meant to eat meat that has been sitting out in the forest for days. Its not really an issue. I was really freaked out about that in the begining but you get over it. Salmonella is commonly found in kibble fed dog poop as well. It's more of an issue for the person who is handling the food.

 

[Scout-dog]

Salmonella is not typically an issue with dogs because their digestive tracts are much shorter than that of humans and their stomache acids are much more potent. They are meant to eat meat that has been sitting out in the forest for days. Its not really an issue. I was really freaked out about that in the begining but you get over it. Salmonella is commonly found in kibble fed dog poop as well. It's more of an issue for the person who is handling the food.

That makes sense... I just couldn't help but think about it though when I thought about raw food... I am such a worrying first time dog-mommy

 

[Chico.Heidi]

I'm more freaked out about choking! Heidi's a gulper.