Feeding your dog raw food

[breconbcs]

Thanks for starting this thread. Kim--I thought I had recognized you from another forum, (poultryswap?) regarding feeding raw diets to your dogs. This is something that I am looking into also. I breed meat rabbits, raise meat chickens, and soon will be getting into quail. We also hunt. I figured, esp with the rabbits, we would have enough for the the dogs to eat. I have started doing research, but I do find the info a bit vague and therefore daunting.

I will look for the book you guys suggested. Hopefully by fall my pooches will be eating raw. so, when you prepare and animal for feeding to the dogs--you gut it and just feed them fur feather and all? You DO gut it, right?

When I raised rabbits, I would kill and once on the cold side (no body heat) I would feed. When I sold to other raw feeders, I had to clean them as I have found "city" folks don't like to be reminded that their meat grocery store or farm bought came from an animal.
I also feed newborn lambs/kids - I do have to do some cutting up to get the meat smell for the dogs first, otherwise my oldest will lay with it instead and guard it from the others (she does this at the farm too -protect baby till momma is found). Chickens I get from the farms are usually their meat chickens that drop dead before processing and I feed them as is, feathers all over the yard.

There are some great books out there on feeding raw. Billinghurst is the simpliest to read and grasp. I also like Natural Nutrition for Dogs & Cats by Kymythy Schultz, Reining Cats & Dogs: Good Nutrition Happy Healthy Animals by Pat McKay (she's also got a great free book on natural immunity! If you want a copy let me know and I can email it.), Holistic Guide to a Healthy Dog by Wendy Volhard and Kerry Brown (warning Wendy makes the diet more work than it really has to be), my personal favourite is Tom Lonsdales' Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health. On the natural health side there are some good books to.

How far are you from Barrie? I don't mind lending out my books.

 

[sylvie]

Free-Thanks for starting this raw dog food thread!

I have a young Golden Retriever. The vet recommended Iams but my pup would throw up everytime she ate it. I switched her to other foods but there was always some issue of allergies. I have her on some dry, veggies and some raw. Our wild cat hunts and leaves presents at the door which my dog scarfs with absolutely no ill effects, bones, fur and all. This seems very reasonable.
I will look at the suggestions on here. I appreciate this education.

 

[breconbcs]

Great info, breconbcs! Yes, more info, please, on feeding "whole" animals. One night we had dinner guests, and the poodle was in the backyard, chewing on something. We were guessing that it was a glove. Then he turned his head in that classic posture of breaking bones and swallowing....and we all realized he was eating a baby rabbit! Must've found a nest, because we saw him go into the bushes three times and come out with another.

He didn't gut it, clean it, discard the entrails or fur.

But as I apologized to my guests, I was secretly pleased with him!

How many "pinkies" will a pair of rabbits produce a year, and is it worthwhile keeping them to feed one dog? How do you deal with having someone come in and care for your animals if you have to go away?

I often inspect the coyote poo on our walks to see what they are eating this week. Can't always tell, but it has been rabbit, squirrel, deer carcass (found the spines with saw-marks from the hunter), apples, and horse poo. Most often, it is impossible to tell, as it is so thoroughly digested.

LOL I LOVE to gross out the neighbours from $#%#. The dog run is on that side of our property and I love to bring home sheep heads from the processor in the summer and giving it to the dogs to eat outside. Well one day they were having alot of company over, they had just given us a visit from the by-law again earlier in the day so I pulled a head out of the freezer and sent the dogs out to eat while they were out eating with their company. Needless to say they were not happy and quickly finished eating and went in the house. Next day they put up tarps to block the back yard.

I don't go away and the rare time I did, my friend took care of the rabbits, it was more of checking on them as I gave them enough water and food for the time I was gone - the dogs are always with me cause if I go anywhere it's for them. But that has gotten me thinking about a "job" switch. There are alot of pet sitters around this area but no one looks after farm animals that I have found. I'm considering trying it but not sure how to start. I have the experience with horses, sheep, goats, poultry, rabbits, but not with cattle...and I have my four-legged "hands" to help.

As for pinkies, depends on the breed of rabbit raised. For one small dog a pair of Mini Rex or even Netherland dwarfs would be enough, the bigger the dog, the bigger the rabbit needs to be. I raised Mini Rex for show /meat (for the dogs before we moved here) cause at 4 months they were a perfect weight for the dogs if they weren't showable. Now with getting back into it I will be looking for Californians or New Zealands. They grow quick and by 6-12 weeks can be used as food (I'm not allowed to have more than 4 rabbits over 3 months of age). So depending on the dog's intake requirement (we base it by weight, not cups ) is when I will process. My dogs range from needing 1/2 lb to 1 lb of food a day when not working, when we are in lambing season or doing more work for the farmers they need more food and I can adjust accordingly.

 

[miss_thenorth]

How far are you from Barrie? I don't mind lending out my books.

'bout 5 hours. I'm near Chatham. I will search the library website to see if they have any. Thanks though.

 

[breconbcs]

Free-Thanks for starting this raw dog food thread!

I have a young Golden Retriever. The vet recommended Iams but my pup would throw up everytime she ate it. I switched her to other foods but there was always some issue of allergies. I have her on some dry, veggies and some raw. Our wild cat hunts and leaves presents at the door which my dog scarfs with absolutely no ill effects, bones, fur and all. This seems very reasonable.
I will look at the suggestions on here. I appreciate this education.

Alot of dogs have the same type of allergy issues you were seeing. The biggest allergy ingredient in commercial foods is grains. Many dogs are allergic to them and there is only one or two on the market today that have no grains at all - I am feeding one right now to my old boy who has colon cancer as even an animal raised on grain triggers a really bad upset. So I'm still in the process of sourcing meats for him (one reason I want rabbits again plus I miss them), and I supplement his daily food with wild venison, naturally raised buffalo, wild boar and as much organ as I can get from those sources to make him treats with.

 

[freemotion]

I've found the best way to keep people from handing snacks to my dog is to tell them he is allergic to many things, all grains especially.....depending on my mood and the person's attitude (it is amazing how some people think you are lying about food allergies!!) I will tell them he will get seizures (if they are nice people) or if I'm not happy with their attitude, it'll be crude and graphic, mainly for my amusement Bazooka barfing, puking, diarrhea, Hershey squirts, stinky-gloppy-uncontrollable-craap, and if you cause it, you clean it up!

 

[Soybean]

I don't feed my dog raw mainly because I can't afford it. I want to though. I fed him and my cats raw for a month last year and they did great!

My ferrets are raw though and have been for almost a year now. They get chicken legs/wings, turkey necks, boneless beef/pork/chicken, boneless fish on occasion, and whole prey items such as mice/rats/gerbils.

I'm trying to breed my own mice for the ferrets and cats. I really wish I could breed other whole prey items such as rabbits and button quail. We live with my mother in law and she won't allow us to breed anything other than the mice and even those have to be done on a small scale.

As soon as I am making enough money to do so, I will switch the dog and cats over to raw.

 

[freemotion]

I actually find that it is cheaper to feed raw, since they eat much less, and if you look at the per pound price of the food and buy somewhat in bulk, it is actually cheaper. Do the math and you will be pleased.

It is much more expensive to buy the pre-mixed raw formulas, yes, than big name brands of dog and cat food. But buying wings at Costco or the local butcher shops in 10 lb lots or so, dividing up into one-day sized packages and freezing it is indeed cheaper.

I also buy whole chickens for us to eat and always cut the wings off before cooking them, so there are a couple more meals for my dog. And when I cook up whole chickens to make the catfood, I cut off the wings first, so essentially I am getting wings for my dog for $0.79 per pound, sometimes as low as $0.59 per pound.

Factor in reduced health care costs over the life of the pet and you are in the black financially.

The petfood industry is a racket.

 

[Iceblink]

I am not a raw-food feeder, I have tried it, and my dog didn't like it and didn't do well on it. But if it works for your dog, more power to you.

I feel I should point out one thing though, if you are getting your raw pieces and parts, especially organs from a processer that handles CAFO (factory farmed) animals they are likely to be laden with all sorts of nasties, salmonella, e-coli and even MRSA. Since the kidneys and liver act as filters for the body, they retain the chemicals and hormones fed to the animal. Cooking should kill the bacteria and viruses, I don't know about the antibiotics and hormones.

When feeding raw it is even more important to source organic, pasture raised meat.

I have gotten venison from small-time butchers after hunting season, the hunters never came and picked it up. But be sure it was tested for wasting diseases. They are not killed by cooking either!

Another think I take into account for my dogs diet is seasonality. Ayurvedic cooking says that 'red' meats, goat and lamb (they don't mention beef, buffalo or venison but I assume it's the same) are 'hot' meats. They create heat in the body. Poultry and 'white' meats are 'cooling' and have calming effects.

If you think about it, 'red' meats come into season in the fall, just in time for winter when the body needs extra heat. The same is true for poultry in the summer, when the body needs to cool down. Feeding 'hot' meats in the summer is not only out of season, but adds heat to the body at a time when it least needs it, causing emotional and physical issues.

 

[freemotion]

You make some very good points....but I need to balance it a bit for those who tend to obsess (like me!)

Although well-raised meat is the ideal, for those for whom it is just not possible, factory-farmed raw meat is still better than commercial dog and cat foods, which are grain-based and any meat in them is often not fit for human consumption, and from factory farms!

My ideal would be to raise/hunt all my own meat. Not gonna happen anytime real soon. I couldn't pull the trigger.

I'd like to find a bartering situation eventually, though.