Help with raw meat diet

I posted a whole bunch of links somewhere here. Here I found it and I'll copy and paste it here:

A raw diet is very compilcated. Usually you would feed your dog raw meaty bones (rmb) with a 50% meat 50%bone ratio. Chicken backs, necks, and frames are very popular, as well as necks and ribs and other rmb from almost any animal. Generally people give large recreational bones and organ meats and tripe a couple times a week. Some people grind the bones and meat. Lots of people give raw veggies everyday with the rmb or ground meat/bone. Most people who feed raw don't add any grains to their pets diets, although some do. You can add things like ground flaxseed, kelp, alfalfa, dandelion, digestive enzymes, and yogurt. Also there are quite a few people who still feed kibble with rmb (just don't feed at the same time).

As you can see there is way too much to learn overnight. I wouldn't reccommend feeding raw until you've done lots of research and goined some groups to get help. I have been researching raw diets for over 3 years and I'm still learning. There are many great groups and sites for info on feeding raw.

www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

www.lepus.reach.net/

www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/sampleraw.htm

www.rawlearning.com

www.barfworld.com/main.shtml

Plus there are many yahoo and different email and message groups and some great books out there.


I belong to some good yahoo raw clubs, there is lots of help there.

kogeki said:

Bremner53 said:

DO NOT feed RAW and Kibble at the same time. They digest at different rates, the raw digests in about 6 hrs and kibble about 12 hrs. You can't have the kibble digesting and the raw stuck behind it. Feed them at different meals if you want to feed raw meat, just not together

Click to expand...

Bremner, do you have any articles you could point me to about this? I asked the people at the training club said that it doesnt matter if you feed them together. They said it did digest differently, 14 hours for kibble, 4 for raw, but it doesnt matter if you feed them together. Who knows.

Click to expand...

Bremner is right; you shouldn't feed them together because of the amout of time it takes to digest. I used to feed my puppies 1/2 and 1/2, but I stopped that when I learned that it takes about 12 hours to digest dog food. I started feeding the raw diet to my adult dogs several years ago, and I would never go back to kibble. For anyone interested in the raw or BARF diet, I would suggest you read any of Dr. Ian Billinghurst's books on the subject. They're small enough to read in a night, and the book titled "The BARF diet" has sample meals for a week in the back.

Here's what my dogs get twice a day:

1/2 a full size carrot a day with baby spinich crushed in a food processor. Then I add either ground beef, ground chicken, ground pork, veal, or chopped up lamb and mix that in the food processor, with an egg yolk for each dog. Don't feed them the egg whites, just the yolks. Sometimes I add fish oil to this mixture, other times I just give them non-smoked sardines in soybean oil. At least three times a week I mix in offal (liver, hearts, gizzards, etc.). At least three times a week I'll mix in some fruit with this too, usually apples or melons. All of this mixed together produces a nice rounded mixture that I use as the basis for the diet.

In addition to the mixture, my dogs get the raw meaty bones, which are probably the most important part of the meal. I mainly use chicken wings, which are easily crushed by the dogs jaws. You can also use chicken or turkey necks, backs, or just about any other part of the bird. I've heard of some people occasionally offering an entire game bird, such as a small chicken, or a quail. I use mainly chicken wings because the ratio of flesh to bone, and cartilage to fat is ideal in the wings. You can also use lamb shanks, lamb ribs, and lamb necks, but I've not had luck with Odie eating them. A lot of dogs will not eat lamb, although I have no problems with Tala eating it. I also give them each a chicken wing in between meals, and sometimes another after their second meal (so that's four per dog). Ox tails and beef ribs are also okay. You need to change it up sometimes; they shouldn't get just one type of raw meaty bone.

With their morning meal, at least three times a week I give them a little cottage cheese or plain yoghurt. This provides beneficial bacteria (live cultures). Also at least three times a week, they get either non-smoked sardines in soy oil.

Supplements: Both dogs get a multi-vitamin (pet pals), vitamin E tabs, and fish oil when they don't eat sardines. Kelp is often added to the diet because it comprises just about every mineral necessary. I don't use it because it upset every one of my dogs stomachs.

Other notes: It's important to crush up their veggies and fruits into pulp, because this aspect of their diet is meant to duplicate the the stomach contents of herbivores that they would eat in the wild. They don't really digest large chunks of veggies, and will pass them whole a lot of the times. Use green leafy veggies and whatever fruit is in season. Avoid nuts, onions, potatoes, and legumes (peas and beans). Also, too much of the cabbage family can cause thyroid problems.

Some say you can feed whole eggs, shell and all. I've tried this, as has my boyfriend with his dog, and they don't digest the shells. I don't recommend feeding the entire egg.

Raw meaty bones should make up about 50%-65% of the diet....lots and lots of raw meaty bones.

One of the key things to do with this diet is make it varied. You usually cannot provide a completely balanced diet in every meal, so you mix it up and make sure that, every week for example, they've gotten a full, rounded, and completely balanced diet. This means you feed different things everyday. Some days it's eggs and meat, other days its veggies and offal, etc. But, they need the raw meaty bones EVERYDAY.

Again, anyone interested in this diet should read the book(s). There's sooooo much more information in them than you'll find online.

That's awesome info Beetle. I haven't had much time lately to post, so I have to be quick. I Have a couple more links to add, Esmond's are Rotty breeders who feed barf and they list examples of their diet: www.esmondrott.com/BARF_diet
Also this is a online book, and if you want to print it you can make a donation: www.pet-grub.com Mind you I don't feed exactly like they do. They say not to give bones, which I do. But it is a good read anyway. Also like Beetle suggested, Dr. Ian Billinghurst's books are the best. I would probably start out with Give Your Dog A Bone.

As for eggs, I only use free range. I have always read and heard to give your dog the whole egg. If you put it in the food processor it should grind up the shell very fine. The shell is the best part of the egg. Jazmine can't have eggs, but on the occassion that I don't think she's getting enough bone, I have egg shells that I put in a coffee grinder and are like a fine dust. I add those to her meal if I think she's lacking bone.

I go out and buy my veggies when I see a good sale. Usually about twice a week I make a huge batch of veggie slop. I use mostly green leaffy veggies, with carrots, turrnips, squash, pretty much any veggies, but the dark green ones make up the majority. I add garlic and sometimes I add fruit, then I mix it all in the food processor. Then I freeze it into daily portions. I do the same with my meat. If Jazmine gets ground pork, I give her something like pork hocks later, or if she's eating ground lamb, she gets lamb breast bone later. If she for some reason doesn't get a rmb, that's when I supplement with the egg shells. I try to make sure she has a 50%/50% meat bone ratio. Jazmine cannot have poultry, so it makes it a bit harder. She used to though and she cannot eat the wings (and smaller necks) because they are too small. For big dogs who are gulpers I would use chicken backs and frames.

I give Jaz offal twice a week. She gets a mixture of grass fed green tripe, heart, lungs, and organ meat in place of lamb, pork, or venison. Then later on she gets to enjoy a rec bone.

I also add yogurt (I've started making my own), ground flaxseed, kelp, and alfalfa to each meal.

A lot of people add digestive enzymes to their pets food, but I do not.

If you get your meat/veggies from somewhere and you're not sure if they're free range or organic (or if you're worried about digestive problems, or contamination) you can soak them in about 6 oz of distilled or purified water to a few drops of grapefruit seed extract. Pour over meat and/or veggies. If ground meat mix it in and it wil be absorbed. If you're using it on whole meat/bone or veggies just spray it on.