New to this..couple of questions.

[Mum2Piper]

Hello! I just adopted Piper from Boxer Rescue. She is 1 yr old. She is on the thinner side (I can see her ribs) but the vet says she is completely healthy and just has a high metabolism. She was fed Iams dry food w/ 2 tblspns of canned food mixed in. She eats but she does not clean her bowl ever & rarely seems interested in food. I have switched to see if she'd prefer another brand.
I think I'd like to give this a try. I am intrigued by the perks. I have contacted our local Butcher who is wonderful & did NOT treat me like an idiot! He'd actually heard of this before. He used to have a stock of wholesale fryer chickens he'd keep for a woman to feed 1/2 of a chicken to her Jack Russel daily.

Questions: How much do I feed her per day? (she is 57 lbs)
Can the meat be fresh from the fridge (cold) or should I take it out & wait til it is room temp before I give it to Piper?
Do you have to vary their die? This guy told me he could get a slew of fryer chickens & sell them to me for near wholesale.
He also offered to sell me the remains/leftover of what he cannot sell as he is cutting but I'd be concerned about feeding Piper nasty fat & non-healthy possibly cancerous gunk. (yes, I am aware that this is what canned food is anyhow!)
Lastly, a dumb question. This type of diet doesn't make for an aggressive dog does it? I am just concerned that my cat will be suddenly seen as a meal to a hungry, blood thirsty pup!
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! -Juli

 

[Net45582]

LOL-feeding BARF/RAW will not turn your dog into a blood thirsty pup-nor will it make him any more aggressive. There are several books that take you step by step on starting the feeding program. It has also been discussed many times previously here. You may find the answers to your questions by using the search tool here. www.barfworld.com also is all about the diet. Good luck!

 

[daisykaye]

Well, you really don't need to worry about anything but chicken for the first 3 weeks. Before then ask him to show you what the trimmings will look like and if it is a lot of fat then don't get it. Unless it is free and then go through it and get out the good stuff.

You will probably need to feed your boxer about 2 to 2 1/2 lbs a day if she is on the skinny side. Layla is a year old and weighs 45 lbs and she eats a good 2 1/2 lbs a day.

Congrats on rescuing a boxer and good luck with the diet.

 

[Checkers]

Id love to have a butcher like that! You're lucky :D

You can give the food cold, you can even give it frozen if she can handle it. Lily sometimes throws up if her food is too cold (comes straight from the fridge), so I just dunk the bag into warm water for a few mins before feeding Room temp is always good though.

You do have to have a variety of meats, but theres no reason why chicken cant be the staple meat source. If your butcher can save you things like beef/pork ribs, necks, shanks etc then get them

Dogs do fine with slightly off meat. Lily has the occasional prime steak that mum has left in the fridge and forgot about and she does just fine with it (not to mention really enjoys it :D) And no she wont get aggressive. A cat walking around intact is very different to some meat in a bowl. Your pup will even release some of its energy on chewing its food and getting a good work out (especially with rib bones)

 

[tesster]

You can start her on the chicken as others have said and do some research in the meantime about the diet. It is important to vary the meats and make sure that they are getting appropriate percentages over time of raw meaty bones, muscle meat and offal.

I would not recommend going into it without doing a little bit of research to make sure you're feeding your dog a balanced diet.

The book, "Raw dog food, making it work for you and your dog" by Carina Beth Macdonald is an easy read and will help you get started. I think it's less than 100 pages.

 

[StellaBee]

As someone who switched cold turkey to raw feeding, I can tell you that it's not as stressful/complicated/difficult as you might think. Stella's been eating raw for a month and I am now just starting to vary her diet from chicken. I would recommend just starting with chicken and do research along the way. Stella is 59 pounds, almost a year and eats half a chicken a day. I'm still learning and have read Tom Lonsdale's book - Raw Meaty Bones. Good luck!