Raw Food Diet

Discussion dedicated to promoting the well-being of your dog through diet, exercise and general health tips.

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Nettle
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Nettle »

Can you look in his mouth? Does he have tartar or swollen gums? Otherwise I suspect the blood came from the drumstick. I wouldn't be overly concerned - I've been feeding raw meaty bones for decades and never had a bleeding issue from it except when helping someone whose dog has gingivitis. Then the gums bleed a little each meal until the mouth is clean. A little blood goes a looooong way!

Obviously keep an eye on how he is, but don't be scared. This is step 1 of a long journey.
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Shalista
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Shalista »

I hadn't thought of blood coming from the bone :shock:..... although i guess blood in a bone should be obvious :oops:

and yes bax's teeth used to be pretty bad. I tried to keep up on the brushing but I fed him a lot of gooey things like liverwurst and peanut butter soooo. His teeth have been looking amazing though since i switched to raw, i actually showed them to my mom and she couldnt believe it. The vet used to tell me I'd have to take them in to get them professionally cleaned soon and now I cant see any plaque at all.
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
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Nettle
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Nettle »

I've seen dogs whose teeth had so much plaque only the tips showed. Raw meaty bones cleaned them right up. Luckily my vet keeps dpgs and is all for the raw diet too.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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Shalista
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Shalista »

I made bax is own liverwurst to stuff his kongs with! pureed chicken and boiled carrot and then filled a plastic bag with the tip cut off so i can just squirt it into his kongs.
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
Fundog
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Fundog »

On the ratios thing: At the end of the day, you have to feed the dog in front of you. All dogs are just a little different in what works for them and what doesn't. Dottie had to have bone with one meal every day to give her stools a shape. Annie needed less. Personally, I would wait until you're ready for red meat before introducing liver. And when I gave liver and other secreting organs, my girls couldn't handle a whole meal's worth in one go. Instead, I cut it up into small treat-size bites and froze them in ice cube trays, so they didn't get all stuck together. Then each day I gave them one frozen "liver treat." It worked well for us.

On the pork: Here in the US, it seems more and more pork being sold is enhanced with a sodium brine, intended to tenderize the meat and give it more flavor (since all the flavor is being bred out of the pigs). Watch out for this, read packaging labels carefully. This brine solution is not good for dogs, and is likely to give them pudding poo. It got so bad in my area that I couldn't find any pork that WASN'T "enhanced." :shock:

Some raw feeders on another forum suggested soaking the enhanced pork in warm water for a couple of hours, to help draw out the salt, and then rinsing thoroughly, but nobody knew if it really worked or not... :?

T-bone is fine, as long as you cut the bone out first. :wink: I avoided all sharp, pointy bones, including pork necks (the butchers here in the US like to cut them into sharp, pointy, weird shapes) Most of my girls' bones came from chicken legs and thighs after I ran out of goats and sheep that I had bought and self-butchered. (A rack of goat ribs is just the best!)

Homemade treats are always the best way to go-- then you know there is no artificial garbage and additives in it. Good for you! :D
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delladooo
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by delladooo »

Bone wise, Laufey gets chicken bits, duck bits, pork ribs. I bought some lamb neck but yet to use it (and I guess pork would be bigger) as it seems a little big for him.

The other forum advice of soaking the pork would draw the salt out. The water being warm will help speed it up but isn't necessary but frequent water change would be advisable and removing 100% of the salt could never be achieved. We're lucky in the UK that we don't have this issue but as it's MiMi's favourite protein I can't imagine not having access to good pork
Erica
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Erica »

That's one of the reasons I source from Raw Feeding Miami and other online pet food retailers - it's actually possible to find non-enhanced meats. :)
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
Shalista
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Shalista »

question about poo.... When bax was on his kibble he'd poo three times a day at the exact same time... on raw bax doesn't seem to have that schedule and hes going much less frequently. He goes maybe once a day, sometimes skipping the day entirely. He's not on any bone right now so i doubt he's plugged.
How frequently should he be pooing on raw?
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
Erica
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Erica »

I've never switched from kibble to raw, but while Delta was on kibble for his "hurts to chew" injury, he definitely pooped a lot more and a lot more often. Normally he poops once on our walks and once before bed, but on kibble there were a couple mid-day poops as well. As long as Bax is still pooping and doesn't show signs of discomfort, it sounds fine to me...

Delta also pooped once a day as a puppy but that changed over time.
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
delladooo
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by delladooo »

MiMi doesn't always poo every day. On average Laufey goes once a day so I wouldn't be worried unless it was a longer period of time sans pooping
JudyN
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by JudyN »

Less pooing is normal, but all dogs are different. Jasper still does around 3 poos a day, but when he was on kibble he did at least 6 a day :shock:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Shalista
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Shalista »

So the whole behavior improvement thing might not have worked out with the switch to raw (jurys still out) but its def doing odd things to his fur. I noticed he was shedding alot so i just gave him a nice brushing and it took out like a ton of his fluffy under hair and wow does he GLOW now. usually i have to bathe him every couple weeks cause his fur gets greasy and stringy and very coarse. haven't done it in awhile he's all silky and shiny now, i don't think I'll have to.
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
Erica
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by Erica »

Delta's a poodle so I can't really compare his coat to other dogs' in terms of softness and greasiness, but I can say that it's easy to judge the quality of food a dog gets by how greasy their fur feels. The lab I sit for who is fed Beneful has such greasy fur that I can see the grease on my hand after stroking her, neck to tail, one or two times. It's disgusting. The lab mixes on Science Diet are mildly better but still gross. Opal is on TotW and is nearly greaseless - it takes really extended petting to feel anything on your hands.

So yeah, the better quality the food, the nicer the coat :) Which is why I really doubt prize-winning show dogs really eat Purina and such...
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
master2

Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by master2 »

Both my dogs are fed raw. My first dog Watson was a rescue and before I swapped his food he was on applaws dry food and his fur was always greasy so much that I had to bath him ever week. I now don't bath him unless he's muddy etc.
JudyN
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Re: Raw Food Diet

Post by JudyN »

Jasper's coat became softer when he changed to raw :D
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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