Hi! My basenji, Kiora, has been on a Non-commercial Prey Model Raw diet for about 7 months now and I am loving it! Basically it consists of approximately 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organ, 5% of which is liver and 5% other secreting organ (kidney, pancreas, thymus and spleen). I used to do some Nature's Variety commercial raw as well but stopped because I felt that it was too expensive in comparison with home prepared without any additional benefit.

I really love this diet and can't see switching off of it, ever. Kiora looks better than she ever has: her coat is like silk, she has great muscle tone, her teeth look great, her poo is tiny and turns into white dust within a few days…plus she gets to chew while she eats. Her two favorite things combined.

She gets:

Bone in chicken
Bone in turkey
Bone in duck
Bone in lamb (Ribs...no weight bearing bones)
Boneless beef
beef offal
Boneless pork
pork offal
Sardines
Egg

I also do a probiotic supplement because green tripe is difficult to get in my area.

I would recommend starting slowly with bland bone in meats like chicken and turkey and slowly work up to richer meats and offal. If you are going to do a commercial diet you might consider doing a few meals of raw meaty bones a week for dental benefits.

For books I recommend : Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health by Tom Lonsdale

Good luck! I think you will love raw!

Do you crate?

Yes it seems very fishy to me for them to single out raw when there have been so many issues with kibble and salmonella lately. When I was a kibble feeder no vet ever cautioned me about using proper sanitation techniques to prevent cross-contamination: washing my hands, dog bowls and any surfaces the kibble has come in contact with…but it seems to me that is exactly what they should be doing. If they would adopt a policy to educate about proper sanitation across the board: raw and kibble, that would be just fine with me.

While this vote would not really affect me personally as I am feeding PMR what it could affect down the road is commercially available raw pet food products like Primal etc. Such a policy by the AVMA could have a negative impact on the availability of such products, in the long run.

Edited to add I looked down at the threads on this board and the 5 threads below this one were all regarding some form of pet food recall. Maybe the kibble manufacturers in bed with the AVMA are trying to take a little action in preventing their unhappy customers from turning to raw?

I've had to re-train Kiora on leash walking now that she is an only dog. When I used to walk her with Ananda she would match her speed more or less…turns out walking by herself she pretty much thought anything goes. What I did was as soon as soon as she applied pressure to the leash I would stop until she let it go slack. Continuing the walk was her reward for having a loose leash. If she stopped and sat she got a treat as well. Now she is walking on a loose leash pretty consistently...she only tugs if she gets worked up about something and then she will stop, sigh and then sit....

Thanks for doing this! Very handy.

Congratulations on your puppy! Good job getting him out of that situation, 5 weeks is too young to leave the mother but I am glad you got him away from that bad breeder.

If I were you I would report that breeder…sounds like the animals she still has are in an abusive situation.

I am so sorry for your loss. I lost my Ananda in a similar way to bone marrow cancer, she passed away a week after overt symptoms showed. It is an unspeakably difficult way to lose your friend.

Wow, those are nice collars! Pretty dogs too!

Oh that's a good idea YodelMa; too bad I can't sew for beans. Kiora has a tag collar that she wears all the time, so I don't switch tags around…she just wears the martingale's with the tag collar (on walks that is).

You are right Chealsie! Kiora doesn't care how fancy her collar is so long as she gets walked!

I snapped a quick picture of her collars. The first one is a 1" slip collar from Northwind Whippets. I actually bought it for Ananda in 2005, but I accidentally bought the wrong size! I still had the collar a year later when I got Kiora. The second one is a 1.5" martingale from 2 Hounds Design, it was a little pricy but a very nice collar, and sturdy. The last one I got from a local collar maker I believe it is 1/2". It is a cute collar but I wish it was wider. The vendor told me she would never make a thicker collar of that size so I doubt I will buy from her again.

Anyone else have pictures of their collars?

Does anyone get the urge to buy lots of martingales for their B's? Kiora has 3 walking collars right now and while, in a practical sense, I know she really doesn't need more…I still have urges to buy them! I just found this site: http://www.rushtotug.com/index.html and I really want to get one of their martingale leads. I had a martingale lead when I first got her and she just chewed right through it (and she chewed through Ananda's martingale lead too), and I don't really like flat nylon leads. This lead looks really strong though, and probably very comfortable to hold.

I am fostering a stray dog right now, a female, and Kiora is very put out. The foster dog needs lots of attention and socialization, as she is very timid. Buying something nice for Kiora might make me feel better about my divided attention. On the other hand this foster is putting a strain on my dog food budget as she is 60 lbs and a puppy. Hmmm.

Anyone else have a fancy collar addiction?

Beautiful Basenji! She looks like a Saavic too! That's so appropriate for a basenji: half Vulcan, half Romulan!

Kiora will lie in the sun for 20-30 minutes on a moderately hot day.

This is most likely a stupid question but: we would never eat raw anything ourselves - why is it okay to feed raw meat to our B's when we keep reading how there is so much bacteria and other bad stuff in raw meat these days, and we are warned to cook it all well?

I don't think that is a stupid question, it is a very valid one. I have recently switched Kiora onto raw and that was a question I had asked myself. Basically what I learned about it was that dogs stomachs are very highly acidic and designed to deal with bad bacteria found in meat like salmonella and E.coli. While wild dogs and wolves do hunt, they also scavenge, and are able to easily digest and utilize meat that for a human would be toxic. Commercial kibble has been around for less than 100 years while hominids, on the other hand, have been cooking for themselves for over a million years.

A major exception to this would be any dog with a suppressed immune system.

I'm certainly no expert on basenji conformation: but what a gorgeous dog!

He's very Handsome!

Kiora does that! One one memorable occasion she decided to vomit on the couch and then proceeded to chew a hole into the spot where she threw up, presumably in an attempt to recycle nutrients. Fortunately the couch had been free.

I don't think paying that amount is unreasonable to talk to a vet. The vet practice I go to is one of the best in my town and all three vets are usually booked full a couple weeks in advance (though they will always make time for emergencies). If I were to go just to speak to the vet I would expect to be charged something for taking time that she would otherwise be using to treat animals.

That being said I would check out both vets. It doesn't hurt to shop around.

Ha! Too true! After about 40 minutes of that she was ready for a 90 minute walk followed by another hour running around the house!

And you are right too Shaye's Mom; even in the summer when it can get up to 120 she still wants to lie in the sun! If I bring her in for fear she'll overheat it is cruel and unusual punishment.

When I get off work Kiora loves to go outback and sunbathe for awhile. I got a couple pictures of her the other day.

she's soo cute! Congratulations!