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!
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!