Raw Diet

Why We feed Raw:

Meghan is basically a trash can -  she can eat anything in the world that she wants and her stomach is just fine. Cuinn is also not a problem, so far. Connor, on the other hand, has had an issue with "dire rear".  Yes, folks, that is right - the dog can't eat a blasted thing without "dire rear".   When he was 12 weeks he developed an inability to eat the kibble he was weaned onto.  All that was coming out of the pooper was blood.  We did the hamburger and rice for about 6 weeks, yet every time we put him back on kibble we went right back to... well ya know.  Finally, we got him onto a kibble and a pre-made raw burger he could eat.  This was going fairly well - everything seemed to settle down but if he ate one wrong thing his little system went crazy.  The key is that not only did Connor have the trouble with "dire rear" but he also had chronic ear infections which are common in Golden Retrievers. As well, he had a tendency toward skin rashes and hot spots.  We didn't know at the time that this was all food-related.  We also found it difficult to have everyone on different food as my other girl was eating kibble while Connor was getting the good stuff.  

About 6 mos. after Connor came home, we finally decided that this was silly.  He was doing really well on the raw burger and we wondered how he would do on a totally raw diet.  Many of the people who we trained with fed raw, so we thought we would give it a shot.  It took some getting used to but after going to a raw diet we have had NO incidents of "dire rear." We have dogs who eat with gusto and, with shiny coats, are healthier looking than ever before.  Connor has no more ear infections or skin rashes either. Feeding a raw diet works best for us.  It is not for everyone, but in our house there is no other way. 

What is important is to understand that the following is what we do.  With seven dogs, it is very expensive to feed some of the pre-made raw diets that are commercially available; so this is our diet.  However, please don't rule out a raw diet because our routine seems to involved.  If you have one or two dogs there are many pre-made raw diets that come in frozen tubes, burgers, chunks, medallions etc.  and for those who have just a couple of dogs these pre-made diets are a good way to keep your pup on a raw diet and they won't break the bank.

Our daily diet:

My pups get roughly a pound and a half of food per day.  I increase or decrease that based on how they look and feel to me.  Cuinn, for example, gets more, Meghan less. We like to keep them on the thin side here - it's better for bones and joints.  For young puppies, the slower the growth the better. 

Mornings:  

    Meat: either ground chicken, lamb, or beef or a can of mackerel or sardines.  About once every couple of weeks, they get a breakfast of oatmeal with milk (usually when I forget to take meat out of the freezer).  Some dogs do have a problem with grain- I wouldn't necessarily recommend the oatmeal to everyone, but it works ok for our crew.  We do use a pre-mixed ground meat that includes veggies and organ meat so we don't have to add our own and this saves us a great deal of time. 

Evenings:  

    Meat: In the evenings pups can have one of the meats mentioned above or beef knuckle bones.  If it is not one of the pre-mixed tubes we will add a combination of veggies. 

We usually use two or more veggies. One of them is always a green leafy variety (we do limit their spinach).  We also sometimes give them vanilla yogurt (Connor won't eat the plain stuff) or cottage cheese about twice a week.  Our ratio for the entire day is about 80:20 meat to vegetables, but this is variable.  Sometimes we add fruit, but I have noticed that our dogs are not really fruit-eatin kinda dogs.

Supplements: We don't supplement alot, as I can't be bothered with a bazillion vitamins.  However, the dogs do get a scoop of Nupro, and five or six fish oil capsules every day.  We will increase that if a dog's coat is looking especially dry.  Twice a week they get a cod liver oil capsule.  If you have a puppy under a year, you shouldn't supplement.

Veggies:  The easiest way to think about veggies is above and below.  Generally we combine two above- ground veggies (spinach, romaine lettuce, beet greens, yellow squash, or zucchini) and two below-ground veggies (sweet potatos, carrots, beets, or turnips) We do not feed veggies from the nightshade family at all - that includes tomatoes, eggplant, etc.   

Organ Meats:  Into the vegetables we grind our organ meat such as beef, chicken or pork liver.  Chicken liver is what we normally use and it grinds very easily in our food processor.  By grinding organ meats into the veggies, we always know our pups are getting the organ meat that they need. I don't have to touch it and Meghan can't leave it lying around the house.  Let me tell you there is nothing grosser than stepping on a raw chicken liver that had been deposited in the middle of your living room floor.   

Other things:  There are additional things that we give our dogs.  These are the things that we feed when we forget to defrost meat or are on vacation.  We also feed these just for a change.  For example, we give Bush's baked beans since they really like them  (also because the commercials feature a golden retriever) We sometimes will add molasses or honey to their dinners and generally they eat most of our leftovers.  We try to fast our dogs for one meal once a week. On the nights when they are fasting, they will just get a marrow bone or knucklebone for dinner.  

In our  dogs' diets, we feed whole raw chicken necks, but we grind any other kinds of meat. I know a person who had one of her dogs choke on a turkey neck bone and almost died. Another ended up with a huge esophageal infection from a whole chicken wing that punctured the esophagus.  This having been said, we are comfortable with whole raw chicken necks.  Any other kind of meat we just feel safer grinding.  I must add that many people feed whole wings and backs and never had a problem. We are just too nervous to do that. 

It is also very important where you get your meat.  It is believed that dogs do not have problems with e-coli and salmonella in the same way that people do, due to a shorter intestinal tract. It is still important to feed a good quality meat from a source that you know is clean.  In our case, we have many suppliers in our area.  If you look in your phone book, you can find poultry distributors. We get our necks and ground turkey from a local distributor.  The best way to find meat is to just start talking to people.  The more people who know you feed raw, the more suppliers you will find.  We have now formed a buying group with a couple of friends and every six weeks we get a 1400 lb. meat order that we all divide up.  The more I talk to people, the more meat options I find.  In the summer, talk to your local farm stands. Here, they give us their giant zucchinis that they can't sell for free.  Join an e-mail list for your area - that is a great way to find out who the local suppliers are . In New England they have a New England BARF list on Yahoo groups. 

I would strongly suggest the book, Give Your Dog a Bone by Ian Billinghurst, or a book by Volhart that you can also get from Dogwise.com.  There are many theories about raw diets and many different ways to prepare them.  I don't follow any specific diet or model.  I do not believe that our dogs are wolves and I don't feed them pretending that they are. What I do believe is that variety is the spice of life and that if you feed a good variety of foods, it all works out in the end.  

When we first started feeding raw, it was overwhelming at times.  I was always forgetting to take meat out of freezer and was continuously thinking about what veggies I was going to feed. After a few weeks, however, we got into the swing of things. I can now say that feeding a raw diet is no more difficult than dishing out the kibble.  Instead of scooping kibble, we scoop meat packaged in ziplock bags. Now that I am in a routine, it takes five minutes to feed our pack of seven dogs.. 

We have weaned three litters onto raw food with great success and our own personal family dogs are the healthiest I have ever seen them - that is what it is all about.