Raw food diet (dogs)

[Glutton4...]

Grapes and raisins cause renal failure. However, like feeding them chocolate, the toxicity rates vary between individual Dogs.

I have a friend whose thieving Terrier has eaten more than double his body weight in chocolate in his three and a half years. Whereas another could die from eating one small square.

The general feeling is, don't.

My Sister's dog ate a whole bag of raisins, when her Husband's dog raided the cupboard where she had stored the Christmad cake ingredients. Not only did she make one hell of a mess, it was a horrible way to die.

[bearded bloke]

We're all learning!

Happy g**gling...

Had a gurgle & found .......

Strangely many dogs can ingest large amounts of grapes with impunity so it is not clear that the observed cases of renal failure following ingestion are due to grapes only.


Taken from ,, Grape and raisin toxicity in dogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[dim]

I have a 2 year old Jack Russel ...

she refuses to eat raw meat, so I cook her food ... I normally buy beef mince, chicken livers, chicken thighs (boneless), or lambs liver

I grate fresh carrot, add some fresh peas and add the meat and veg to some brown rice while the brown rice boils in water ... I also add 1/2 a teaspoon of goose fat .... she gobbles up the food and loves it

the brown rice is important for digestion, and the goose fat adds flavour to the rice and veg and is good for her coat and skin

once a week, I buy a small lamb shank and place it on a wire rack in the oven on 180 degrees C for 45 min .... she chews on that all week

[Jeanied]

Mikey how heavy is your springer? Rosie was between 16 and 17 kilos last time I weighed her at the vets which means 1.7 kilos of meat. Expensive. I also am a bit squeamish about meat anyway.

[Jeanied]

On a lighter note Rosie has always adored rosehips. Which is nice because they make her smell good while she is chewing them! I finally pruned one of my big rose bushes and froze the rosehips. She now has some fun lollipops to entertain her.

[Genoese]

I have a border collie 22kgs and a collie cross terrier 11kgs. I feed them Natures Menu frozen blocks assorted varieties at 85p a block. They have two a day 1/3 to the smaller dog 2/3 to the bigger one. I also add leftover veg, cooked rice and pasta when I have it. They have occasional lamb rib bones and are treated to hearts, liver and oxtail occasionally. Their weight is spot on and condition excellent. The vets always say they are the healthiest dogs they have seen followed by a sharp intake of breath when told of their diet followed by insistence that they should really be eating Science Plan!


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[Glutton4...]

My Vet praised me for feeding Raw! He actually said everyone should do it. All this ready-made processed stuff isn't natural for them, and is the cause of a lot of weight, skin and tooth problems. He does stock the expensive 'recommended' feed, as most people prefer to feed something cheap and convenient, and it's still cheaper than feeding Raw.

[gardening_gal]

I have one vet in the practice who is a raw food advocate and another who doesn't believe raw food is any better than commercial food and he is an advocate of Science Plan also.

Our lab gets fed Natural Instinct for now but will be going on to butcher's stuff in the future. As soon as he was taken off the commercial food (we had tried several over the years), his coat improved, his arthritis improved, he looked and smelt better (he doesn't fart these days at all), he never gets ear infections or sores on his paws. He is like a different dog. I wish I'd fed him raw since he was a pup but I was ignorant of the benefits in those days.

Vets are great but I do feel nutrition isn't given as much importance as it should be, during vet training.

[Two_Sheds]

The cost is higher, the time taken to 'do' their food twice a day is greater

hopefully you'll save money in vet bills over the dog's lifetime, with a healthier diet.

I prep the dog's food once a fortnight, weighing it all out in portion sizes and freezing it. Same as I do for Mr TS. I did a batch of chicken soup for himself last night, and the dogs got the skin & raw bones: no waste, whatsoever, every last scrap was used. The chicken was on Sell By, so I got 10 meals out of it for £3.50

Pork is OK in moderation. The risk of worm problems is low nowadays

I buy the dog's meat from the butcher, and have also been told that pork has worms.... but people are buying it to eat themselves ...?

Rosie was ... 17 kilos ... which means 1.7 kilos of meat.

No Jeanie, it means 400g of meat, per day (you feed about 2.5% of the dog's weight, in fresh meat).

Butcher's pet food is £2 per kg, so it's going to cost you 80p per day for Rosie.

I have one vet ... he is an advocate of Science Plan

I expect you have Science Plan posters all over the vet's walls? The food companies pay a lot of money to vets: "the pet food industry is valued at £2 billion and growing. "

"Hills sponsored the British Veterinary Association's 2009 Congress.
It also signed a partnership with the British Veterinary Dental Association to sponsor tooth care in animals.
Royal Canin Foods (owned by Mars/Masterfoods) boasts on its website of 'its partnerships with leading veterinary schools and universities'.
It runs Pet Health Counsellor Courses, training veterinary nurses in diet, and says stocking its food in veterinary practices can 'increase practice turnover'."



Read more: Is the food you're feeding your pet killing it? (and making your vet rich) | Mail Online
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[Mikey]

Mikey how heavy is your springer? Rosie was between 16 and 17 kilos last time I weighed her at the vets which means 1.7 kilos of meat. Expensive. I also am a bit squeamish about meat anyway.

He's currently 16.4kg which is still underweight in my eyes, he's very active so gets about 500g a day. I'm aiming to get him closer to 20kg but I'm monitoring his gain as we go. I can feel the ribs padding out slowly since I changed to raw, he was ridiculously skinny on biscuit because he really didn't enjoy it. His activity level is high and when off lead he runs constantly, and he's off lead for about 2 hours a day sometimes more.

My butcher gave me his tray trimmings for free, and it was a big bag, when I divided it up it worked out at just under 2 months of food. There was mainly chicken carcasses (minus breast leg & wing), chicken skin, a few pigs trotters, some fat and fat/meat trim, one side of a pigs head, a few bigger bones but I've discarded those. This was one days trim!!!!. I've chopped up and bagged portions in weights of roughly 200-220g. I've also added some liver, heart, green tripe, and budget frozen chicken breasts, though my butcher has offered me a deal if I buy in bulk from him.

I've bagged these up to roughly 500g portions, its quite hard to be exact. I'm lucky I have a chest freezer as I've frozen all but 3 days worth which I keep in the fridge. My boy eats after his morning walk, so I leave a bag out overnight to bring it up to room temperature for him, and its gone in seconds.

I think its working out at just under 80p a day, which I think is pretty good value for money, to have a happy little tyke.

[Two_Sheds]

budget frozen chicken breasts

they're tempting, really tempting, but I will only buy free range (unless they're going to be thrown away on their sell by date)

Chicken is the most expensive meat, and breast is the most expensive cut, of course, so I buy a whole FR chicken instead and portion it up. There's nothing left, the dogs eat the skin, bones, sinew and meat.

(although one is sick on too much fat, so she gets the better cuts )

[Mikey]

Mikey how heavy is your springer? Rosie was between 16 and 17 kilos last time I weighed her at the vets which means 1.7 kilos of meat. Expensive. I also am a bit squeamish about meat anyway.

Isn't a whole chicken a 1/3 bone though, so if you use the breast meat yourselves don't you end up giving the dogs a lot of bones and not a lot of meat?

[Two_Sheds]

Yes, that's true, but the bone to meat ratio is averaged out over the week. They have bony chicken for 2 days a week, and no bone the other 5
(roughly: I'm not terrifically anal about weighing & measuring, I tend to go on the state of their poops: if they're loose or constipated, I adjust the meals)

[Mikey]

What do others use for flea and worm treatments?

I've been buying advantage from the vet, didn't think twice about it, but have discovered that I'm paying over the odds. A pack of 6 with my vet is £52.22, but I can buy a pack of 6 for £26.09 online so even with the £14.45 prescription charge its cheaper not to use the vet. Now I understand retail I've worked in it long enough, and some have better buying terms than others, but I would expect a vet to be able to offer a better price comparison than that. Is it me?

What do you use, and do you use it because the vet recommended it?

[Alison]

We buys ours online as well but you do need to check out your supplier as some of the ones out there are selling bootleg versions which may (or may not) be the same..........