Raw meat for dogs steps 1,2,3 where, how and what

[bigd1622]

There's one topic already about raw food, but in this topic i wanted to talk about which raw foods are considered best, maybe for someone who is considering feeding raw. Questions to be answered, Where to start? How much? What kind? What to expect?
This is from my knowledge and some research, you may give complaints, advises and tips, im sure i did something wrong lol.

Where to start? well most of you as i used to probably like to feed your dog quality Dry dog food, so moving from dry to raw isn't hard nor it should be taken lightly. lets use for example an adult 60kg Fila that consumes 750g of dry food a day. normally you would feed him 3 times a day making his last feeding (night time) a little smaller. One way of introducing the meat would be by adding it to its existing diet, now i mean add not replace... continue its 3 meals of dry and just add some meat (small amount). Do this for a few days so that its not a drastic change to his metabolism. try to stay with the same kind of meat in the beginning after a week, replace one of his meals with just meat. Also never give him too much meat at once especially without bones since it will eat too fast and could have bloating problems. try getting meaty bones that works great because it takes them longer time to eat, and the bone has calcium and also while they eat the meat and chew the bone it will clean their teeth.

How much? Now, many of us are asked the same questions how much is really enough? well lets remember that we are working with a 60kg dog and we previously said that he consumes about 750g of dry food. so to replace the one of the meals i would recommend about 200g of meat to start off. a chicken thigh has about 400g so it should be plenty of meat to replace one meal.

What kind of meat? Well, there's a good variation of meats to use when considering raw. I believe the cheapest meat may be of better quality than the one found on dry food. As with any dog you should never jump from one type of dog food to another so its the same with meat. If you are starting to feed it meat we need to start with an easy to digest meat. Chicken is low on fat and has great protein and its easy on the digestive system. so for the first weak start with just chicken and then slowly start introducing other meats. One big advice is to leave pork for last, since pork meat can be hard to digest. Also go easy on the organs such as kidneys since they can give your dog diarrhea if his system isn't well built.

What to expect? Once you begin to feeding your dog meat you will realize that his dumping may change color, and texture... it's perfectly normal for your dog to poop green in the beginning since the meat its going to do a clean up in his system and dump out all the bad stuff that comes in the dry food. His energy level shoul dincrease and teeth will get whiter again You may notice his weight decreasing since the dry good has more fats and fillings it makes dogs fat and not exactly lean. In the case of dogs losing too much weight, you may increase the feeding, instead of feeding 3 times of 400g... increase to 4x350g, you can always give him treats as well. kidney meat is really easy to handle since its dry and harder, so you can use kidney chopped up during training and that's extra food for him.

PS; I'm not a professional, i'm not an expert but that's the way i do it and it works great for me. Please feel free to add advises and critics.

Att, Dario

[Paul]

Do you feed bones or just the meat?

[girldogue]

I feed pretty much 100% raw now. We use mostly chicken quarters,backs, turkey necks and pork necks/rib off cuts and whatever other parts are on sale that week. I use mostly beef liver/chicken liver as the organ meats. I dont spend over $1 a pound .
My adult male (135#) gets about 2 pounds of meat twice daily.. female puppy ( approx 70#) gets about the same , lately a little less as she is a little chubby right now . My patterdales get usually 1/2 a chicken back once or twice a day ( I have one who gets 2X daily - and one who is fat gets once a day) .
I sometimes give the dogs a meal of canned mackrel and rice/ a raw egg and any other left overs that day LOL. All the dogs eat assorted amount of avocado when it is in season ( they eat them as they fall off the tree)
WHen I decided to go raw we went pretty much cold turkey on the dry food - havent really looked back since, the dogs love it !
Sully2YearsSmallPic.jpg

[bigd1622]

hey Paul, Almost all the meat i give him has bones in it lol. i only recommended giving little pieces of meat at the beginning without the bones.

[bigd1622]

Girldogue, Sully is gorgeous, very beautiful...You see in the states people don't usually eat much organs lol, but here in Brazil they eat everything, the price of kidneys here is nearly the same as the ground beef lol. You are lucky to find such good prices. Keep up the feeding habit, cause your dog looks like he's in great health

[Paul]

I am currently feeding chicken leg quarters and chicken backs. Other stuff when on sale. I recently got meat from a greyhound (racing) breeder. Beef from Wisconsin and packaged in IA. Comes in 30lbs blocks, frozen. I have fed one block so far. It lacks bone and fat but has some organ meat in with it. I am leaning towards using a chicken back with the beef to get the bone and fat needed. I never have a problem going from kibble to raw with new dogs. Changing meats has no effect on them either. I currently have 8 dogs and they are all on raw. Did you all hear about the kibble test done recently????? They emptied a bag of lamb and rice into a clean trash can and filled it with water. Guess what came out of the kibble?? HAIR, fricking hair. We are buying hair to feed to our dogs! Not my dogs.

[bigd1622]

Wow, never heard of that test. Paul, when you feed your dogs do you notice a difference in their poop from when they eat chicken and when they eat organs? yeah, im still trying to find a way to get cheap meat, i'm thinking of going down to the country side to where they kill the animals and see if i can get a better price there. My dogs Raw diet, is 50 percent chicken, the rest is mixed meats and organs. Also note that a dog can eat rotten meat and not become sick, but if you feed him whole veggies he will not digest it, they cant digest the cellular walls on some vegetables.

[girldogue]

"rottten" meat can and will hurt or kill the dogs.... botulism, and other toxins are nasty pathogens.... now " freezer burnt" or meat that is a little old and not so tasty to us is definitely okay for the dogs. I am sure that is what you meant - but wanted to clarify.

[bigd1622]

Well... i meant old meat, not full of maggots and green meat. for example, a dog buries a meaty bone, weeks later he takes it and eats it, he doesnt become sick. their stomach acisa are very strong

[Paul]

I get leg quarters and backs for .50 cents a pound. The recent greyhound meat was $12 for 30lbs. That is cheaper than a lot of kibbles. I agree, the meat can be a bit ripe but if it makes my stomach turn I trash it. I do avoid the bags of chicken with all that special salt solution they freeze into it. My local butcher keeps all of his scraps for his hunting dogs. What you can get from them on occasion is saw dust. The bone dust, it is wet, from sawing through bones. That can be had from the secondary butchers, the ones who get sides of beef without the guts. Use small amounts of the bone dust if you get it. Veggies are a different story. Some dogs love them some don't. I have found that frozen chunks of veggies entice my dogs to chew them up because they are crunchy. I squish them into my ground meats. Spirulina with digestive enzymes gives my raw a boost.