Raw Pet Food

Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.
Raw Pet Food

A forum for raw-feeding families to chat, discuss, and learn!


4 posters

    *waves*

    Muse
    Muse


    Posts : 17
    Join date : 2009-03-30
    Location : Sault Ste Marie, Ontario

    *waves* Empty *waves*

    Post  Muse Mon Mar 30, 2009 5:22 pm

    Hello my name is Bonnie and I'm here because Kelly drug me here just about kicking and screaming (haha!), and while I've poked around the forum here and there, this is my first time posting.

    I'm not new to raw, and I'm also not *exactly* feeding raw for many reasons, one of them being financial troubles we're just crawling out of, my bff owns a pet store and lets me pick up dog food on credit and run a tab. Another being my dog has completely ridiculous food allergies and sensitivities and when I found a food that didn't make him ill and started clearing up his skin/eyes/coat and all the little problems (like hot spots) I didn't want to feed anything else. When I got this dog (5ish years ago) he was a nervous, aggressive, terrified, neurotic mess, so we had enough problems already. hehe!

    My bulldog (who recently passed away) got raw food here and there, and raw bones, but was never fully converted either because Duke wasn't.

    Duke has only just been started on regular raw foods. He has a growing mass on his leg that the vets don't think can be removed because it has a blood supply, he's 7 or 8 years old, and since Jester (my bulldog) died he lost a significant amount of weight (like, he was at least 5lbs overweight this winter, and now you can see his hipbones. which is gross.). So I'm introducing raw foods slowly on top of his regular diet to help him get some weight on

    He's started on raw bones. No meat left on them, but lots of marrow and cartilage and blood and that other good stuff. I just called the butcher and said I needed raw bones for my dog and they sold me a couple big bags of them (like 10lbs of them) for like $0.30/lbs. Cow and pig. Once he gets over runny stools I'll probably introduce chicken backs. He's been eating tripe for years (but I buy it canned, because that smell just won't do), and I'll probably introduce ground organs (sold frozen from this same butcher for about the same price as the bones).

    So far he's diggin it. Whenever the freezer opens he pops his head up now. But he's not so nutty about it that he's gorging, which is good. And he'll eat them right from frozen (discovered that when he stole it out of my hand and ran to his crate rather than let me let it defrost a bit), so it'll be a nice treat when it's freaking hotter than hell out over the summer. mmmm. meatsicle. And my father is an avid hunter, so he's promised I get all the gross waste product like hooves and legs and ears from the moose & deer he tags and bags.

    If he starts to refuse his dry food I'll switch him to a 100% raw diet, but if he'll still eat it I'd rather do a 70/30 or 80/20 split of raw/dry once I get all the foods introduced.

    I'll be getting a puppy anytime between May and Christmas (depends when they're born!) and it's still up in the air if I'll do 100% raw with that one, but we'll see. The breeder has them on homemade cooked diets, so it wouldn't be a big switch or anything. And raw food will cost me an average of less than $0.50/lbs (considering the majority of the raw diet would be what we consider "waste" and I can puree veggies I grow in my garden), where decent dry food is running about $5/lbs and up.

    And just so you don't actually have to read anything I wrote but want to pretend you did (hehe! jk), he's a picture of Duke! No photos of him eating anything gross, though. He won't eat if I'm looking at him!

    *waves* 9e7d

    Very Happy
    Timothea
    Timothea


    Posts : 140
    Join date : 2009-02-21
    Location : Kitchener Ontario

    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Timothea Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:54 pm

    Aww, Duke's a cutie pie. My dog eats her food frozen too, makes me feel less guilty about forgetting to defrost it sometimes. So lucky to have a pet store contact.
    Heather
    Heather


    Posts : 237
    Join date : 2009-02-17
    Age : 37
    Location : O'Fallon, MO

    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Heather Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:27 pm

    Hi and welcome!

    I hope you don't mind me giving you a few pointers. Wink

    I wouldn't pay for or use the raw bones from the butcher- likely they are femurs, large ribs and/or knuckles which are notorious for breaking/cracking/chipping teeth. Chicken backs are ok to start on but I wouldn't feed them long term. They are essentially all bone.

    You can feed kibble and raw, that's certainly your choice but you talk of money issues and that kibble is several times more expensive. Why not just go all raw? It's cheaper and much, much healthier. Duke doesn't need vegetables either. Dogs are carnivores.Scientific explanation here Veggies will be better consumed by you. I hope you stick around and learn all you can. The world of raw feeding is very fun and exciting (this coming from a vegetarian) and nothing is better than the sight and sound of a carnivore eating what mother nature designed and intended them to eat!
    Muse
    Muse


    Posts : 17
    Join date : 2009-03-30
    Location : Sault Ste Marie, Ontario

    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Muse Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:20 am

    I doubt there's any way to say any of this over a forum without sounding defensive, but try to bare with me, I'm really not! I just want to try to explain some things.

    While I did get a big giant knuckle bone in the lot, no, the bones I got from the butcher weren't just garbage, I know the difference. I'm not new to feeding raw, but haven't with my dog for reasons not all of which are stated above, nor do I intend on switching Duke completely over unless he decides to go off his dry food. Right now, I'm allergy testing... better he have a reaction to a bit of meat on a bone than a big slab of roast-a-licious. This will just be extra food to help him start to put weight back on and possibly work his diet a little. More on that in a minute...

    I've read every article/paper/veterinary journal I could get my hands on over the course of 4 years (I was a vet tech at the time and had easy access to the journals!) because of Duke's various health concerns, and still read up on new information over the net. There are a LOT of different models people subscribe to and impressive data to back each one up! Each group is always set on their model being best, and I prefer not to comment on it in that light, it never ends well!

    Duke has been supplemented with certain pureed veggies for years. He gets them in lieu of taking medications. This year I'll be growing said veggies for that purpose. We've had a lot of success with it.

    Now, I try to remain positive about Duke so I rarely mention all this, but... I've been fighting with that dog the whole 5ish years I've had him. He's always sick, incredibly neurotic, displays very severe OCD (obsessive, not the wobblers-like disorder) and although he's very VERY slowly getting better the more time passes, and he's most definitely my baby and wonderful and has come a long long LONG way and we love him, he's now about 8 years old and has cancer. As an example, if I don't provide him with his kibble (and he knows what HIS kibble looks like, I swear, when he was on Canidae and they changed the formula he went off his food for a while) twice a day in his dish, I literally have to deal with a 100lbs of doggy panic attack. And same goes for the rest of his routine (walk time, what time we leave in the morning, it's always eggshells). If he has doggy panic attacks, he gets stressed, he gets stressed he breaks out in hot spots, but we can never be sure if it's stress or if he ate something he shouldn't have. I love my dog, but the whole thing is very exhausting (and was murder on the pocket book for the first little while!).

    I appreciate your concern for my dog, it's wonderful that there are still people in the world who care, I've been especially jaded lately, so it really does mean a lot.

    I'm in no hurry to make such a big change in his life now, though, the backlash just isn't worth it for the time he has left with us. I just want to be able to keep him at a healthy weight without stuffing him full of kibble. He already eats about what he should for his size, and that stuff is nutty expensive!

    I hope I wasn't too long-winded!
    Kelly
    Kelly
    Admin


    Posts : 400
    Join date : 2009-02-15
    Location : London, Ontario

    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Kelly Wed Apr 01, 2009 12:10 pm

    Yay! You're here!

    Glad to see Duke's picture, such a handsome man. Can't wait to see the new baby!!

    As for the choices you make with your dog, they are your own to make. I always say some raw is better than none. A lot of people choose to feed veggies and stuff that is not necessary for a carnivores health, but if you find he does well on it, well, it's better than most people do. And atleast it's fresh, not stuck in a kibble and cooked for god knows how long. Wink

    So, welcome! And although we may all have different views, I hope we can all stick around and help each other learn and grow. Smile
    Heather
    Heather


    Posts : 237
    Join date : 2009-02-17
    Age : 37
    Location : O'Fallon, MO

    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Heather Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:49 pm

    Wow, Duke sure is a special boy! Good thing he has you to care for him. I hope I didn't sound like I was trying to tell you what to do- that is never my intention. Glad to have you here!
    Muse
    Muse


    Posts : 17
    Join date : 2009-03-30
    Location : Sault Ste Marie, Ontario

    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Muse Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:04 pm

    No no, I totally understand where you were coming from and I appreciate that your first thought was his wellbeing. It's just such a long story and I tend to assume that everybody around me will just assume that I know what I'm doing without knowing any background information. And knowing things like why I feed my dog a mash of pureed veggies every day makes me seem less crazy! I'm doing everything I can to keep from having to medicate him.

    Special is definitely a good word for Duke, and this last half decade with him has certainly been special! <3

    Sponsored content


    *waves* Empty Re: *waves*

    Post  Sponsored content


      Current date/time is Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:34 pm