Thoughts about feeding a raw diet?

[Tayda_Lenny]

Just wondering if any B-owners feed a raw or partially raw diet… I've been looking into it and am interested to know what everyones experiences/thoughts are.

I just picked up some of the Natures Variety raw meat and veggie patties... fed half a patty to each of my B's... they loved it! (obviously). Not sure if I'm ready for a complete switch, but I'm thinking about incorporating more raw foods... meats, cheeses, eggs, pureed veggies... into their diet, mixed with their kibble.

What do y'all think?

[red and white furever]

I've also begun to incorporate some raw into my dog's diet as well. I don't think I have the stomach to go raw completely and to be honest, the thought of perforated bowels from RMB's scares the bejesus out of me. Now frozen, pre-done raw I could handle. Right now I'm doing a rotational kibble diet of Canidae All Life Stages/Innova EVO/Natural Balance Venison and Rice mixed with high quality canned food (Or I make them cooked ground chicken/turkey/buffalo/steak in place of the canned food) for their evening meal. In the mornings I give them raw steak/beef or eggs with some cottage cheese or yogurt. If I'm running short on time I do kibble with yogurt. They seem to be thriving on the variety and love meal time since I've started doing "add-ins". I've heard nothing but good things about Nature's Variety pre-done raw food - A friend of mine feeds that to her b's and they're doing really great on it. I think experimenting is great - and my pups seem to be all for it, too!
Oh, and I've read that mixing raw and kibble in the same meal isn't advisable as dog's digest them at different rates and it can lead to stomach upset. Alternating meals or days of kibble/raw seems to be recommended. I don't want to risk the "splarts", so I do one or the other at meal time.

[JoeyQ]

Hmmm, I have been combining raw and kibble and Joey hasn't had any elimination changes. I will have to try some of these suggestions. Thanks.

[Tayda_Lenny]

So I'm doing some reading about mixing kibble and raw. So some websites are saying that the kibble takes longer to digest than the raw so there will be some backup if you feed them together. But if there is that much of a difference in digestion time, then there will still be a backup if I feed kibble for their morning meal, and raw for their evening meal, no?

I like the idea of incorporating some raw meat and some eggs and blended veggies to their diet.. but I can't see myself tossing a whole chickn their way.

[red and white furever]

My dogs seem to digest at a fairly rapid pace. After dinner it's usually about an hour until they're needing to go out potty - that may be coincidence, however. Plus they eat their meals about 10-11 hours apart. I think that gives them plenty of digestion time to transition from raw to kibble or vice versa.
I know what you mean about tossing them a whole chicken - or worse, giving them a hunk of liver (ick!). I've read of even worse things, too - I can't imagine being able to handle it let alone watch the dogs devour it - my stomach is on the weak side!

[JoeyQ]

One person told me…what do you think dogs did before we came along? No one was cooking for them so they ate their meals raw. That is really what their digestive tract was set up for, right?

[red and white furever]

One person told me…what do you think dogs did before we came along? No one was cooking for them so they ate their meals raw. That is really what their digestive tract was set up for, right?

That's true, JoeyQ - now if someone could get that message through to my kibble conditioned stomach, I'm sure the pups would appreciate it! :o

[JoeyQ]

okay, you must have realized very quickly that I am a novice at this!!

[nwdoug]

I've been feeding my boys raw since they were puppies. Mostly ground beef, mixed with two spoonfuls of regular canned dog food, freshly chopped broccoli and carrots and scoop of plain yougurt. I throw in a raw egg once a week and often mix in chicken stock if I'm boiling chicken for myself. Cottage cheese once in a while as well.

For snacks they both LOVE raw baby carrots!

In the summertime they get raw chicken necks and wings to eat outside.

[JoeyQ]

I was thinking of giving raw chix necks and wings to joey too, but was hesitant about the bones even tho I give him larger raw bones. I know cooking the bones makes them brittle and not suitable for dog snacks. I guess I will give it a whirl

[JazzysMom]

Does anyone else have any concerns about potential bacterial issues with feeding raw food?
I mean, I know that dogs in the wild eat raw, but I also know that dogs in the wild aren't generally as healthy nor do they live as long, {for a variety of reasons, one of which I suspect is unhealthy food}
I don't feed a raw diet partially for that reason. I'm really leary of ground beef and raw chicken.
Jazzy gets very little raw meat.

Not trying to start a raw-vs-cooked debate; I really am just curious if I'm the only one with that concern.

[Basenji_Boy]

@JazzysMom:

Does anyone else have any concerns about potential bacterial issues with feeding raw food?
I mean, I know that dogs in the wild eat raw, but I also know that dogs in the wild aren't generally as healthy nor do they live as long, {for a variety of reasons, one of which I suspect is unhealthy food}
I don't feed a raw diet partially for that reason. I'm really leary of ground beef and raw chicken.
Jazzy gets very little raw meat.

Not trying to start a raw-vs-cooked debate; I really am just curious if I'm the only one with that concern.

We tryed feeding the gang some raw venison last night and they didn't want it. They tryed it, but just spit it back out…....the wife ended up cooking it, then they loved it.

Up to last nights attempt, that has always been our concern, being careful about bacteria.

We know a few people that feed nothing but raw.

[Quercus]

No, the bacteria thing doesn't scare me about raw. I am leery of it because I am afraid I won't get the balance correct for best health. From what I can tell, it is much more complicated than feeding ground meat…there has to be the correct balance of calcium and phosphorus, which is apparently why the bone part of feeding raw is important.

And as someone else pointed out...I am a little scared of the bones. I know it is really rare for a dog to have a perforation from raw bone...but it does happen. And a dog never gets a perforation from kibble

I have fed raw chicken wings and necks occasionally. I fed raw ribs one time, and one of the dogs as a puppy swallowed a short rib whole! I nearly died, I though for sure she was a gonner...but she was fine. My dogs also swallow chicken necks whole, which scares me.

[oneWish]

Yeh, feeding a BARD diet is all about getting the balance right but not at every meal. Thats one of the things that lets the comercial stuff down; they make every meal balanced. But so long as it is balanced over the weeks, you've got no problem.

I think it is worth the extra time preparing the raw diet just to have a healthy dog.

With a BARF diet you know what he's eating!

[nobarkus]

I just don't know about the raw diet. The thing about raw is that yes dogs did eat raw in the wild but it was fresh kill and eaten fairly soon. Not killed, then processed and handled in a factory, packaged and shipped around in a truck.

[JazzysMom]

With a BARF diet you know what he's eating!

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just don't know about the raw diet. The thing about raw is that yes dogs >>did eat raw in the wild but it was fresh kill and eaten fairly soon. Not killed, >>then processed and handled in a factory, packaged and shipped around in >>a truck.

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Right. AND you really DON'T know what he's getting. I mean, look at the problems with the feed recently. The tainted product from China was in pig food, fish food…God knows what else. So, if you are buying meat or even growing your own but buying the feed, you still can't be sure of what you're feeding. If you are buying the meat,as you said, you're not buying fresh.

And feeding raw to Basenjis here is not going to be the same as their natural diet in Africa anyway.

I don't know. . . It's an idea I toyed with, but I think I'll stick with kibble.
{besides, I can store the kibble in a bin in my garage. I don't have room to keep raw meats fresh for three dogs and still have room in the fridge/freezer--and time to prepare -- foods for my family of eight! LOL}

[tanza]

I have fed my raw and still give them chicken wings and necks… and yes sometimes they swallow the entire thing... ggg... When Jamari was a 3 month old, I gave him a chicken wing and he darn near swallowed the entire thing whole...yikes... while he was fine... it was an adventure when he pooped the first time!!!! Part of wing came out as it went in!!!! But I do give mine veggies, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, egg, yogart, cottage cheese, so they get a lot of different stuff at different times....

[JazzysMom]

So you feed raw meats, but other foods are processed or cooked{yogurt, cottage cheese, etc} ?

Do you feed any kibble? Or just raw meats, veggies, and dairy?

[tanza]

No I feed kibble, I used to use Canidae senior but have recently change to EVO that has no grains. Because I am feeding at home all seniors, I am using the new EVO low fat that is meat and fruit…. The raw meat I will use once or twice a week instead of the kibble, and the other stuff I will add to the kibble, different stuff, different days... and yes the other stuff is processed like the yogurt and cottage cheese... the veggies I do both raw (cause they like them) and steamed also.... I do not do many carrots due to the high sugar content..

[lvoss]

I have also fed raw but it is the prep work that gets to me. If I could go and premake a month's worth of food so all I had to do was pull a bag out of the freezer every day I would do it. I am just not organized enough to get to that point. One big advantage feeding raw has over kibble, is variety. Since when you feed raw you vary your meats and vegetables you also decrease the bioaccumulation if one of those things is contaminated. When you feed kibble your pet will bioaccumulate more of the contaminant over a shorter period of time because it is all they are eating.