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I'm thinking about switching my lab to raw feed as the more I've come to consider what I eat affecting my long term health it has made me think that it's pretty rubbish to feed my best friend on 95% processed food. She gets a high quality kibble and some tinned but if I lived off dried/canned food my whole life I don't think I'd be too healthy.
I joined a Facebook group about raw feeding but they are all rather scary and puritanical on there so maybe my trusted Stw could tell me your experiences? What company you use? All meat or veg too? Do you ever use dried kibble as a fall back eg on holiday as on this fb group they say it's dangerous to give to raw fed dog. Thanks.
The first thing you need to know is if your dog will actually eat it. Neither of ours are interested in it.
They eat a lot of wild meat (wild rabbit, pheasant etc,. ) and as high quality other meats as possible but they are all cooked. My thinking is that cooked meat is better than processed food even if not potentially as good as raw.
Our rough collie was raw fed from pup until he was about 11 y/o.
Do lots of reading and as said above you need to find out if your dog will actually eat the raw food
IME chicken carcasses are a good start as they are small and the bones are thin and soft so easy for the dog to eat. Mine wouldn’t eat pork or beef so had mainly chicken and fish with the odd bit of turkey. Important thing is the dinner scraps you dog will get a lot of it’s nutrients from that.
We only switched in the end as his jaw and teeth were no longer strong enough to chew the carcass properly so he was just chewing a bit and then trying to swallow the carcass.
Yes, we do. Our old lab/collie loved it and our GSD/Ridgeback is doing very well on it. I started getting all the right bits from the butchers (you have to have a certain %of bone, offal, meat etc) but then found a local supplier that sold it already mixed and frozen which was cheaper and easier. We also use natures menu from pets at home. If I need to top up I give her chicken portions, like thighs with the bone in. You can't give kibble and raw in the same meal as they digest at a different rate and can give them tummy ache, but I think you can give raw for one meal and then kibble another if you need to. When we go away I have either taken the frozen food or just bought a load of chicken portions and given them that. I think they are really healthy on it, look good and are far less hyper. The current rescue needs to calm down and i'm finding that food is making a big difference. (Mrs bubs)
For a while the whippets were getting raw tripe, thawed from frozen, they loved it and they had the healthiest and most minimal jobbies ever. But the smell was rank...
Yup, we have 2 on raw. We swapped just over 3 years ago and it's probably the best thing we've ever done for them.
We started with Natural Instinct complete food. It's minced with all the stuff they need in it and we preferred the idea of something ready to feed than having to mess about with ensuring they had the right percentage of meat, bones and offal. We add duck necks, ribs or chicken wings to each meal to give them some variation and bones to crunch through for their teeth.
It was a success from early on. Our Boxer x Spaniel has a very sensitive stomach and those issues went straight away and our Boxer x Staffy was a weedy 8 month old rescue puppy who had come from an abusive situation and had bad skin, was underweight and issues with food and he thrived!
They have soft shiny coats, clear skin, clean teeth and, most importantly, do very few small, solid, easy to clean up poos a day.
I do believe it's the best thing you can feed we're very happy with our decision to change.
The Facebook pages and Internet forums on raw feeding do seem to be full of crazies! I avoided and instead contacted a couple of companies for their advice on what to feed, looked at what was easy to source and close to me and went from there. Natural Instinct were just up the road so we went with them but 3 years in the selection of companies out there has grown as it's gained popularity and there are loads of options. We're currently trying a new supplier called Paleo Ridge as they use biodegradable packaging instead of the plastic tubs Natural Instinct use and that fill our recycling! Plus Paleo Ridge have an interesting selection of meats to try.
I'd definitely give it a go. Good luck!
What you have to be aware of is that raw feeding is mostly a fad rather than based on any evidence. It goes without saying that the quality of what you feed can affect health, but there is no properly peer controlled evidence that raw feeding offers any health benefits. I do have a very small number of clients whose dogs seemed to respond to raw feeding following recurrent diarrhoea, but many many more who have responded to the appropriate complete diet that is relevant to their problem.
For an otherwise healthy dog there is no evidence that raw feeding improves health. You need to be aware that you are immediately introducing risks that require meticulous storage and handling of your food, and having seen some of the raw commercial diets out there I would be in no way confident that they are all using good quality ingredients.
This does not necessarily apply to all but a lot of people who raw feed seem to view it almost like a religion - fiercely in support of it but without any logical reason, and determined to convert everyone around them!
Final point of a long post: whilst I am quite happy feeding my dog treats for fun and to help with training and obedience the idea of variety and constant enjoyment of food is very much a human thing. No need to apply it to your dog!
We feed natural instinct to our rescue pooch. She seems to do well on it, people often comment in her coat.
However, her poops are perhaps too firm and small. We're currently trying to add more fibre to her diet to increase the size just so we can get some natural clearance of her anal glands.
Do dogs posess an innate resistance to the bacteria that would cause food poisoning in humans?
If I ate raw chicken I'd probably become quite unwell. How can a dog do it?
As I understand it, due to the way chickens are slaughtered, their carcasses are contaminated with faeces and the flesh is permeable to this. That's why we need to cook it (fully) for ourselves. Beef and lamb do not suffer from this so can be rare.
Raw feeding does seem logical given dogs evolution though
Our two (+ foster dog) are on it. Chewie had terrible allergy and bowel issues on many of the cheap/expensive conventional foods. Cleared up within a week of going “raw”. Foster dog also developed a much improved bowel habit after she joined us.
The vet put us onto it. Her take is that dog siliva does very little digesting, it’s more a lube to get the lumps to the stomach where some incredibly strong acids attack the bones and lumps of meat. Dogs are not really designed for tinned food or biscuits (they’re just for human convienience).
Chewie did balk a bit when we started him on it but “starvation” (half an hour of huffing that it wasn’t biscuits) got the better of him. Ahsoka on the other hand cheerfully demolishes chicken carcasses without any qualms.
Mine gets fed on raw food. She gets mostly meat including bone and offal as well as a raw bone (rib, chicken wing, piece of oxtail) every other day. She also gets raw and cooked veg, a little raw fruit, a raw egg once a week. The only other cooked food she has is fish. I usually give her tinned sardines (in water) but sometimes she gets fresh fish if it's going cheap in the supermarket. I have given her a whole raw sardine before (make sure it's frozen for at least a week beforehand) but I usually stick to cooking fish. Raw salmon (especially wild salmon) can be poisonous for dogs.
I give her mostly Natural Instincts but also buy stuff from the butchers and supermarket for her too. My local pet shop stocks Natural Instincts which is great because I used to order raw food online but I found it was half defrosted by the time it got to me. If you do get it delivered, make sure it's not coming from too far away and it's packed and transported properly so it doesn't defrost.
For holidays you could try feeding cold pressed food - http://www.gentledogfood.co.uk/ - it's kibble but designed to be fed alongside a raw diet, along with a few tins of fish and raw eggs.
Thanks for the replies! Idiotdog I was looking to try paleoridge actually as the quality looks great and I really like the idea of the packaging.
My GSP is fed on Natural Instinct and some locally sourced raw mince not fit for human consumption.
He has irritable bowel syndrome so couldn’t eat any processed food, we tried hypoallergenic and other expensive kibbles but nothing worked. Raw food has now sorted him out and he is healthier than ever and is as fit as a butchers dog!
The only downside is the cost, feeding guide says he should eat 800g but he eats 1500g and that sustains his weight so it’s costs us roughly £100 a month to feed him, he does weight 35kg though.
We were very skeptical to start it and tried many different foods before it, my wife is a veterinary nurse and we tried everything. We both wish we started raw sooner now.
I raw feed my lab. Be wary that a lot of companies are cashing in on this fad, and what they promote as essential and healthy ingredients is simply a way to pander to some owners' anthropomorphic nonsense. I get my feed from a raw feed company in 3lb blocks, costng around £1.20 to £1.50 a block. Two 3lb blocks will provide five days worth of food, at a cost therefore of 50p-60p per day.
Mine eats a mix of raw green tripe and whole minced beef or chicken. When I say whole, I mean it includes bones, internal organs, offal. She has whole chicken wings, necks, lamb flat ribs, lamb hocks/shanks to munch on to keep her teeth sparkly.
The green matter in the tripe gives her the part-digested vegetable matter she needs and the benefit is of course that it also includes enzymes to help her digest it. This is boosted once or twice a week with leftover cooked veg. She gets the occasional egg mixed in, and also some oily fish like sardines or mackerel.
Dogs have a cast iron stomach.... in the wild they would eat the entire prey animal, or carrion, or roadkill, or many other things that we would consider unpalatable. I've caught mine scoffing rabbits that look like they've been dead a few weeks with no later ill-effects. So fretting about a bit of raw chicken is, frankly, nonsense.
She carries very little weight, which will benefit any dog these days, but breeds susceptible to joint issues get a double benefit. Her stools are small and firm, and the last closure of the "nipper-off"always includes a good anal gland emptying, so all good there.
Only downside is storage. I have a freezer out in the garage which holds several weeks feed. We thaw a few days' food at a time and bag it up into portions (she eats 2% of her bodyweight a day, in two meals)
Do dogs posess an innate resistance to the bacteria that would cause food poisoning in humans?
If I ate raw chicken I’d probably become quite unwell. How can a dog do it?
As I understand it, due to the way chickens are slaughtered, their carcasses are contaminated with faeces and the flesh is permeable to this.
I don’t know whether it’s innately better or just better exercised, but our pup takes great delight in eating any chicken or horse poo that he finds, so what you call a chicken poo contaminated carcass would to my boy just be nicely seasoned...
maybe if we all ate a bit of chicken poo now and again we’d all be better at fighting off the bugs 💩👍
Dogs have a cast iron stomach…. in the wild they would eat the entire prey animal, or carrion, or roadkill, or many other things that we would consider unpalatable. I’ve caught mine scoffing rabbits that look like they’ve been dead a few weeks with no later ill-effects. So fretting about a bit of raw chicken is, frankly, nonsense.
I disagree on the last point. Raw wild meat and raw slaughtered farmed meat are completely different. The mass slaughtering process can concentrate contaminates and bacteria. While dogs might handle them better they won't be fully immune.
Our Wire haired Vizsla and cocker are doing great on raw food. Mix of beef or lamb from local butcher and chicken carcasses from an organic processor, we mix the beef and lamb with some veg including small amounts of raw garlic (natures little helper). They also get eggs and fish to give variety plus veg when we make various stocks. Also hey have Lily's organic just to make sure, especially during the working season from August through to Feb. They work hard and I think deserve the best from me. I'd not eat that shit that goes into most dog food (with its sugars to get them addicted, yes it happens) so why should they. I know I'm soft but they are my mates, if you came round my house you'd get well fed and so would your dog.
I feed my rescue dog Suede on Natural Instinct (Chicken or Chicken & Tripe flavours) and have done for 2 years. He also gets high quality kibble and natural yoghurt.
He has a very sensitive stomach - diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease - and raw helped settle his stomach after the course of medication following his IBD 2 years ago. I have also fed him occasional raw chicken pieces with no ill effect. His poo can range from soft to hard and if it's soft for few days I will give him raw only and his poo hardens up in no time, I think this helps with his anal glands too.
IMO dogs are scavengers and will eat anything given the chance so I'm very happy with the product I use (Natural Instinct are based not too far from me and I have visited them). Using both raw and kibble has proved successful in managing Suedes IBD but as he is now 7-8 years old I am considering going raw only. We humans are all different and we work slightly differently to each other and I believe that dogs are the same, so what might work for my Suede might not work for you but it's worth a try.
P.S - very disappointed by lack of photo's of the OP's hound...!!!!!
Westie and Scottie raw for last 8 years. Chicken carcasses from Riverford. All good.
+1 for the riverford chicken carcasses. Our cocker goes crazy as soon as she knows its chicken for tea.
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I've been raw feeding Cairn Terriers for three years (after doing lots of reading on the subject) and would definitely recommend it. My two are fit & healthy and love their food.
My two tend to be fed completes during the week (Paleo Ridge or Bella & Duke) for ease and i go DIY at the weekend, sourced from a friendly local butcher.
and having seen some of the raw commercial diets out there I would be in no way confident that they are all using good quality ingredients.
98% human grade meat in most of the Naural Instinct cat foods, verses 4% in Whiskas...
Had two cats who were on 'special diets' and had dietary problems, although they miraculously cleared up when they went to raw meat.
I changed my cat's over to raw as one was very sensitive to wet food and the raw sorted out his skin. Now feeding the new puppy on it. Don't think it costs more as I generally have to feed less.
I use Vince the vet from a local supplier.
Only downside is that you need extra freezer space.