Some raw food questions (a tad long)

[cjluvsdogs]

Thanks to a few well informed people that I talk to daily and the members on this board, I'm switching Layla (boxer) and Simba (manx kitten) off the grocery store (IAMS) food that they currently eat, and moving them to a raw food diet immediately. I cannot believe how crappy of a food IAMS is and I feel extremely ignorant for feeding it to them in the first place. Even though these two are my first pets I've ever owned, I thought I was doing the right thing. They're both ten months so I hope that I haven't done any damage to them that can't be fixed. I'm also upset that my vet recommended that I go with IAMS, but that's another story. Anyway, on to my questions.

1. I see plenty members assembling their own raw foods. I'm going to be using Nature's Variety raw frozen diets for both Layla and Simba. I've heard nothing but great things about that company, and I guess I'm just looking for confirmation from the community here. I honestly don't have the time or patience to go to my grocery store and grind up all the raw food for them, so I'll pay a bit more for Nature's Variety since it's already done. Anyway, is this a good brand?

2. Simba will be on a complete raw diet since I only have to feed him about 3.5 ounces a day. Layla on the other hand will need to eat a lot more, and I wanted to supplement her raw food with a kibble so it's not going to be too expensive on me. I was going to go with the Nature's Variety Instinct, but I also heard Innova Evo is good as well. Any thoughts?

3. Are there any negatives to going to a raw diet? I've heard nothing but positives, I'm just wanting to know if there's anything I should look out for.

4. Another ignorant move on my part was that I would give Layla rawhide bones. Well now I've learned that rawhide is bad for dogs (I don't get why companies make rawhide if it's bad for them) and Layla loves to chew. I know they have raw frozen bones, but I'm not enthused about her dragging a raw bone all around the house. I haven't found any good digestable bones. Any suggestions?

Thanks everyone! I'm very happy that I've seen the light with both my kids at an early age. I'd appreciate any other feeding info you have. Thanks!!

 

[gmacleod]

1. If you want to feed raw food ground up then I think Nature's Variety is a reasonably good brand. I have heard from a few users (about 4) that their dogs developed very bad breath on it though - which seemed to be related to the vegetable content of the food, since in each case it disappeared after swapping to a ground product without vegetables included. I don't imagine bad breath can strike all dogs fed it though, or they wouldn't have been around as long as they have LOL.

Incidentally, unless you have a discomfort about feeding bones whole, there's actually no need to be grinding what you can get from the grocery store. Your dog has his own built-in set of grinders that will do the job

2. Both are very good dry foods, amongst the best currently on the market. So I'd tend to choose initially on price/availability/formula than trying to sort between them which is better.

Another possibility (again, if you don't have a discomfort about bones) you could instead feed half the diet in things like chicken portions that are fairly cheap and easy to obtain, reserving the ground raw for feeding of things like beef, lamb, venison and bunny which are more expensive in supermarkets and don't have small, easily consumed bones (or, in the case of bunny, isn't that easy to get).

3. The only negative I can think of is the price of pre-made raw foods in the US. And the lectures you might get from those who don't understand that dog food is anything other than dehydrated, extruded pellets

4. Fully consumable bones, that still give lots of chewing, would include things like the frames of chickens and the short ends of beef ribs. It *is* possible to train dogs to keep their raw bone on a towel or within some other area though.

Good luck

 

[cjluvsdogs]

I appreciate the reply. So what you're telling me is that I can for example give my dog a chicken quarter and be comfortable with the fact that she can eat the whole thing? I thought you couldn't give a dog bones like that because of the splintering? If that's the case and I don't have to do any crazy prep work before feeding her daily, it sounds like I can just buy the food in bulk on my own! I know this is a boxer board, but what about cats? Obviously with my kitten much smaller, I should get the meat off a bone first before giving him a chicken leg right?

 

[cjluvsdogs]

I did some further scouring of these forums, and a few members recommended http://www.rawlearning.com. This site has so much better info than anything I've seen, and now I'm thinking my decision to go with Nature's Variety pre-packed raw food isn't such a great one. It is amazing how many different ways and theories there are about feeding our little ones. I'm heading to Wal-Mart tonight rather than our fancy pet store up the street. Looks like the raw food diet is nothing but a win-win. Healthy animals and more money in my pocket. Thanks all!

 

[gmacleod]

Providing the bones are raw, they will not splinter A possible exception there is venison bones. But in general, they're perfectly fine as long as they're not cooked.

 

[gmacleod]

Oh - and about the cats. Cats won't consume as much bone as a dog, and don't have as high calcium needs anyway. With things like chicken necks, you might get them eating some of the bone.

Some alternatives with the cat: (1) buy premade raw; (2) invest in a grinder and grind your own (it's not a huge time commitment when it's a little animal like a cat); or (3) give the cat things like chicken necks, thighs, wings to chew on for a while just for teeth cleaning purposes. Let the dog clean up after if she doesn't consume the bone (happy dog), and use a calcium source such as crushed eggshell to meet the cat's calcium needs. A site you might find extremely useful in regards raw feeding the cat is this one (author is a vet): http://www.catinfo.org/ Raw cat food recipe here: http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm