brenda bettendorf, IA 1/28/2012 8:00:52 AM I have a 7 year old german shepherd. I have been feeding raw for quite awhile. I also give all my dogs kibble in the morning to balance out their diet. I recently increased the raw meat. My old boy has been on this for about a week. He has calouses on his elbows from laying down. The calouses are gone! and nice soft skin with new hair growth is coming in. RAW food is phenomenal. My dogs have a lot more energy and their coats are soft and shiny.
declan sunnyside, NY 1/21/2012 9:57:19 AM i would like to no what u think i have a pit mix and a german shepherd between both 2 quaters of chicken half a sweet potato spinache 2 eggs with shell and some tuna from a can the bones are beat pretty much with a hammer and all of it is raw
Jay Miami, FL 1/6/2012 8:21:18 PM Also, you can't leave the raw food out past 30 min. That's what the food manufactures recommend and common sense tells suggest around that time. If you were preparing a steak would you leave it sit on the counter room temperature for more than 30 minutes? Of course not.Even though dogs have a different digestive system, one that is short, so food goes through them quickly,there are some tricks you learn to get them to eat the raw fast. Like feeding once a day, so they are really hungry and leaving the food out for a short period of time so they learn to eat when it's given, cause if they don't they have to go hungry till the next day. Really, no treats.... I mean it sounds lovely, but dogs should eat and get enough to last till the next meal. If you give your dog treats all the time, they learn to hold out for the treats and won't eat the raw. Dogs in the wild would sometimes go days before a kill. Once you start raw and do your own research you'll find so many "common sense answers" That just make sense.It also makes me feel good to know I'm not loading down my Chihuahua with Toxins.
Jay Miami, FL 1/6/2012 8:02:18 PM I'd recommend visiting a holistic vet who can perform some allergy tests and can recommend the best raw diet for your pet. All dogs are different and are allergic to different things. When I took my dog to the vet, I found he was allergic to beef.So that fillet I was going to feed my buddy was actually going to harm him. My guy eats lamb, chicken,venison, turkey, duck rabbit or salmon grinds. Working with raw food is a little tricky so you have to be prepared to prepare your dog's food. It really does require an adult or a responsible person to store and serve the food properly. The food has to be kept frozen, so you have to buy it and head home immediately and get it in your freezer.I found a store close by my house. I buy mine in a 2lb "Chub" then cut and wrap it in daily servings, all while as frozen as possible. When switching your dog to the raw, some of the raw comes in small free samples. Find 1 your dog likes starting out and stick to that 1 for a while. You can experiment later.( the salmon grind really stinks your house up)! There are several kinds of raw,but the free samples allow you find the right one without filling your freezer up with raw food you'll never use( or the baby sitter will thaw and cook and feed it to your kids accidentally...........)!! My dog is doing great, it has been 8 months on the diet, he has slimmed down, he is muscle toned, he seems more alert and generally has that dog smile (that content, happy smile)a lot more now!
Jay Miami, FL 1/6/2012 6:13:32 PM Keep in mind when feeding a raw diet, you have to give your dog the proper enzymes to help digestion. Today's dogs just don't have the enzymes to handle the raw. Zypan, multizyme, are a few you can give.
cl Wasilla, AK 1/5/2012 4:29:45 PM Turkey necks are affordable and my dog really enjoys them. I buy chicken quarters in 10lb bags at Walmart when they are on sale for a really good price and that is the staple for my dog. I found a packing plant that will sell beef bones and scrap meat for really cheap and get that often as well but it is not very convenient all of the time. Pork necks are great as well and my dog really enjoys the change. I also give raw eggs and yogurt on occasion when I find good deals.
Kari Idyllwild, CA 12/28/2011 2:12:50 PM Have been feeding my 1yr. old and 13 yr. old raw chicken and turkey for just over a month and love it! Haven't noticed a change in my pup...nothing was noticeably wrong w/ him...my 13 yr. old has stopped itching and has more energy. She's still 13 and sleeps a lot...but I would say her quality of life is much better. I used to feed very high quality kibble. Any suggestions on how to switch it up and stay economical? I buy chicken parts for the most part...whole turkeys when they are on sale...but my young one doesn't like the turkey on the bone..only the breast. Was told not to feed beef..it was a "weak" meat?
Kent Leung Cambridge, MA 12/21/2011 4:16:05 PM I am the owner of the Boston Dog Company, I a new dog daycare and retailer of holistic dog food in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am interested in adding a line of raw foods to our existing dog food lines. I wanted to find out any recommendations on which brands of raw food dog owners would recommend. There is so much information on the internet regarding raw food diets and their are numerous raw food brands. I just want to ensure I carry only the best types of dog food. I also welcome any dog owners to stop into our store to help us with this decision. I was considering having a focus group if any dog owners were interested in joining regarding raw food and biologically appropriate dog food in general. If anyone wants to contact us they are welcome to visit our website at http://www.BostonDogCompany.com or http://www.BostonDog.Co Thank you for any help anyone can offer.
Christian Peachtree City, GA 12/7/2011 9:58:07 PM All of these comments on don't leave out your raw food for more than 4 hours. I don't know what you are feeding. But my dog crates up, eats his meal in less than 20 min. them goes and empty. He has no issues. When I give him backs with bones, he will take no more than an hour to eat. I have never had a dog to eat raw and it sit for 4 hours.
sal new rochelle, NY 11/25/2011 8:07:50 AM This is for Nicole in Michigan....I don't want to be harsh but why do you think it is safe to leave raw meat out for up to 2 hrs? Cooked food should not be left out for more than 4 hrs...obviously raw meat needs to either be consumed immediately or be refrigerated at over 40 degrees and or frozen till used. The USDA website states this clearly under safe food handling/ How temperature affects food. Please do not use sources like answers yahoo or answers ask or wiki answers for info on important things. The "expert" answers, given at these forums, are unfiltered and unverifiable. The danger zone is 40 degrees to 140 degrees. That means your room temperature home will start to grow bacteria in about 20 minutes on that raw meat. The raw meat either needs to be consumed immediately or refrigerated not before to long. If your pet is not in the habit of eating at once and nibbles through out the day then a dry food would be safer. Although animals can tolerate e coli in raw meat that humans can't you unknowingly gave the raw meat lots of time to become a bacterial time bomb.
Margaret Boston, MA 11/23/2011 8:48:54 AM Nicole, are you sure it is e-coli poisoning? Was there testing/culture to confirm that? The reason I say this is because I took my dog into the emergency vet for a severe bacterial infection and they swore up and down it was due to e-coli. They tore into me for feeding a raw diet, and blamed me for causing my dog to go through this. I paid extra money to have the culture tested, to give myself the confirmation I needed. Needless to say, they never called me back with results. I had to call them 3 times before I could get the test results. Needless to say, it was not e-coli or anything having to do with raw feeding. It was a simple skin bacteria that somehow made its way in, and caused a problem. If it was in fact e-coli from Bravo, many animals would have been affected by that batch and it would have been recalled. I don't remember there being a recall on any Bravo items for e-coli, but I could be wrong. Please also check whatever other food you are feeding for inconsistency, bad smell, recalls, etc. Raw food is not dangerous, bagged over-processed garbage with cheap ingredients is, as we've all seen in 2007. Good luck with your cat. I hope he gets better soon.
Nicole St. Clair, MI 11/22/2011 12:44:42 PM Hi. I was feeding my cat raw food for 6 months. Not exclusively, but as a diet supplement. But today I just took him home from the animal emergency hospital, for e coli poisoning. I never let the food sit out for more than two hours and it takes 4 hours for bacteria to form on food sitting out. Raw food is dangerous. My cat almost died, and even though I think we are okay, we are not out of the woods entirely. The brand I used was Bravo.
Larry Bend, OR 11/21/2011 9:14:29 PM We have been raw feeding for 8 years and have been supplying central Oregon with ground muscle meat, whole ground chicken and organ meat for the last year. We also use green tripe as a base for our diet which contains many live enzymes to promote digestion and clean teeth.
alex vieira monroe, NY 11/10/2011 11:53:20 AM I have at home 2 GSD, shes 6 and hes 5, every time i come home from the supermarket with meat in the bags our the turke necks, they go nuts.
Yacapo Seattle, WA 10/25/2011 2:11:23 PM Horrific writing. Not having a proper calcium source? Look up the top 10 ten food sources for calcium, leafy greens, seeds, etc... NO REASON you couldn't throw some of that into your dogs RAW food diet. Commercial dog food is a hoax
Robert woodhaven, NY 9/20/2011 8:27:07 AM im a Raw feeder / supplier for all of Queens New York anyone interested in the proper way to natural feed your dog, message me.** RSGnaturalrearing@gmail.com ***
Lexi Vancouver, BC 8/22/2011 8:18:05 AM Great article! A friend of mine switched her dogs (one of which had an arthritic hip) to raw, and saw immediate improvement - I was sold! I've just written an article about the benefits of raw diets for pets on my blog, and included a link to this page - thanks for the useful information! http://www.raw-food-guide.com/raw-food-for-dogs/
robert woodhaven, NY 8/12/2011 9:17:12 PM Dogs have been around for thousands and thousands of years eating Raw meat in the wild, as healthy as can be, "dry food" has only been around for 100 years, "dry food" is artificial food it is not natural it is man made and in my opinion has contributed to many dog diseases such periodontal disease and foul mouth AIDS. The people who tell you not to feed your dog RAW FOOD, are uneducated people by far, Raw food is a dogs natural diet and they thrive on that diet and have the best results, where as if you feed artificial food they just survive on that diet, and thats a sad way to live, a lot of owners think that 2 scoops of dry food and water and there done for the day!. Back in the day before dry food was invented and marketed to the common man, the only people who had dogs were the farmers and the hunters who feed a RAW based diet, It was only when the "dry food" came out that the common man was able to get "dog food" for the supermarket, these are the people who do not do there home work and think there experts on the dogs carnivorous nature. YOU DONT FEED A COW STEAK, So where are you feeding your dog STRAW??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3wLTlqnMMg educate yourself before responding that feeding Raw meat is bad for dogs, when in fact it is there preferred food, and it is the dry food that brained washed the majority of householders and it is dry food that is unnatural and should not be feed your dog. Im a Raw feeder / supplier for all of queens new york anyone interested in the properly natural rearing your dog for best results message me. Source(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3wLTlqnMMg http://www.rawmeatybones.com/PrevDent. html#periodontal
Geraldine Kenmare, MA 7/12/2011 1:47:40 AM The raw food diet has had amazing results for our dog who is diabetic. Her blood sugar count has gone from 29 to 5.5 in 4 weeks. She is like a different dog. Our homeopathic vet says he will get her to stabilize so that she will no longer need insulin.