[ara28]

This may or may not be a stupid question, but any insite would be greatly appreciated.

What exactly is a raw diet?
I know what a raw diet is for humans, but I just would like some clarification about what exactly you feed your dog on a raw diet and the benifits (or not), etc...

Thanks!

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

raw meat and bones. some use veggies and dairy. fresh foods.

[ara28]

how do you make sure the dog gets enough nutrients

[briteday]

It is important to feed a variety of meats, and some owners also feed fruits and veggies. If you are uncomfortable there are vitamin supplements for dogs.

[TeddieXRuxpin]

A raw diet is based on what they would eat in the wild. They eat meat, organs, bone etc. As others above have said some owners also feed fruits and veggies.

[ara28]

Well I don't eat meat so if I was considering feeding my dog raw (which I am considering doing), I wouldn't even know what to buy or what to do with it. (I was raised vegetarian so I've never had meat. My parents and siblings are also vegetarian)

[BoxMeIn21]

Originally Posted by ara28

how do you make sure the dog gets enough nutrients

Just like Brite said, you just need to feed a variety of protien sources including organ meat to get the right balance.
Here is a good site for you to start with...

www.rawmeatybones.com

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

google "raw diet for dogs" and you will come up with loads of imformation. you educate yourself on what a balanced diet would be for what size dog you've got.

my girl gets green tripe, chicken, beef, venison and other game meats. she also gets raw eggs and yogurt on occasion. she also gets some fish though you have to be careful of fish. I also make patties for her with ground beef, chicken, whole eggs and yogurt for when we travel but at home she gets whole raw meat, bones and all...we also use salmon oil as a supplement.

dr. billinghurst (sp?) I think is a name you could look up as a starting point.

[briteday]

You start out with a whole chicken, bones, guts and all (it is important to feed organ meat as it is high in vitamins A & D). Depending on the size of the dog you just feed the whole chicken over a period of days, and then start all over again.

Once the dog has acclimated to one species in the diet then you can start to add in other meat species...bones, muscle meat, organs.

It is the variety of the diet that provides all the necessary nutrients. If you are curious about all the different nutrients contained in a meat-based diet here is a good website to look at...

http://lowchensaustralia.com/health/chicken.htm

[ara28]

where would you get an entire chicken? and whats tripe? venison is deer right?

[BoxMeIn21]

I feed an entire chicken over a few days. Tripe is the stomach of cow, lamb, etc...

[briteday]

A whole chicken is sold as "roasters" or "fryers" in the grocery stores, meat section. The guts will be in the cavity of the chicken where the innards were before the bird was gutted. You will usually find a a heart, kidneys, and liver in there.

Tripe it the stomach lining of usually cattle or pigs. Most of us prefer the untreated kind, before they clean it and remove all the little bits of green stuff and other goodies from the villi. However, most grocery stores sell tripe "bleached" for human consumption as the untreated tripe smells pretty nasty as you can imagine. So most people who feed tripe to their dogs have a special source (like a butcher who does their own slaughtering) or you can buy it in cans as well, especially for dogs.

Venison is deer meat.

[ara28]

I'm sorry I'm asking a lot of questions. Do you just go the the grocery store and say excuse me I'd like to buy a stomach? I know that may sound stupid but I seriously have no idea.

Nevermind. Briteday pretty much covered the stomach part. Thanks!

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

my grandfather keeps cows and chickens and I get my meat from him. look around in your area. there are places where you can get this stuff cheap. before gramps offered to provide us with meat I got bolo's chickens at a local tienda (hispanic grocery store) my man also is an avid hunter and naturalist which is where I get things like deer..

feeding raw takes effort but in the long run, i've never regretted it.

[Patt]

Lots of good advice and suggestions given here. First I do not feed raw, but I know many people who do. Please do a lot of research before you even attempt to feed raw. There are a couple of ways to go, Prey model or BARF, Prey model being the easiest. Even easier is feeding Nature's Variety http://naturesvariety.com/

Another suggestion would be to visit the Yahoo raw feeding group. You can learn a lot from just reading the different posts devoted to raw feeding. The following are links from another board I'm on and I believe are worth a read before you start. Good luck!

http://rawlearning.com/

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding

http://www.rawfeddogs.net/

http://dogaware.com.hosting.domaindi...ng.html#co-ops

[briteday]

Also, at the top of the food forum section there is a sticky post devoted entirely to our favorite resources, websites and such, for feeding raw.

[ara28]

Thanks you guys! After reading what you feed your dogs when feeding raw, I might have to wait a little while until I get comfortable with the idea of handling all that meat . I'm just not used to that at all. In the mean time could I feed him meat occasionally or is this an all or nothing kind of thing?

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

Originally Posted by ara28

Thanks you guys! After reading what you feed your dogs when feeding raw, I might have to wait a little while until I get comfortable with the idea of handling all that meat . I'm just not used to that at all. In the mean time could I feed him meat occasionally or is this an all or nothing kind of thing?

when we started raw we tried to do a slow transition, but bolo wasn't having any of THAT! she summarily rejected all kibble in favor of the meat.

think about it. you eat dry cereal all your life and then someone hands you some lasagna...would you want to go back to the cereal?

if you have a problem with the ethics of meat, consider doing some research into buying your meat from free range farmers and certain agricultural co-ops.

if it is a gross out factor, try thinking of it this way...you eat vegetarian. that's probably one of the healthiest diets you can be on. this is likely the best thing you can do for your pet healthwise. this is his equivalent of a vegetarian diet. wear gloves if you want. on a prey model diet all you have to do is portion out the food and hand it to him. give it partially frozen and it might not be as gross to you.


beautiful dog you got there by the way!

[ara28]

its definitely a gross out factor since I've never handled meat, raw. I brought home a peice of cooked un seasoned turkey for him after thanksgiving. My aunt makes some for her dogs so I just took a piece home for him and he thought it was like the best thing in the world. Also, I give him Pet Botanics Lamb ground up insides or something rather as treats. It comes in a big tube so I refigerate it and then slice it into cubes and use it for training treats. So the only thing that bothers me is the raw, bloody?, meat. In my opinion I think seafood smells horrible, I'm not sure if raw meat has a strong odor as well or not. What's a prey model diet?

[Patt]

Originally Posted by ara28

What's a prey model diet?

"Prey model" is where you feed big cuts of meat on bone, organs, or even whole prey when possible such as whole chickens and fish.

http://rawfed.com/myths/preymodel.html