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I'm so sorry but that part made me literally laugh out loud!
I am very interested in learning more about raw feeding. I have largely cut commercial kibble out of my dogs' diets, only using it to supplement when I am running low on ingredients for the home cooked meals. We also have multiple vets, and I know our main vet is hesitant about raw diets.
Pretty much everyone I've talked to that feeds raw reports these 2 improvements: 1) amazingly clean mouth with fresh breath and sparkling white teeth and 2) poop that turns into powder and blows away in the wind after a couple days. (Maybe that's an exaggeration about the poop, but seriously people do rave about how much "better" their dog's poop is after switching to raw.)
It's true about the poop. I have had times when the poop turned to white powder in one day. I have been feeding my 3 dogs a raw diet for a year now and I wish I had known about it long ago.
I'm lucky that I have a local butcher that makes a great raw meaty bone mixture. It's really a complete diet and I need to add nothing if I don't feel like it. I usually put in quite a bit of roasted beef heart because they like the food much better with that addition. I pay $1.50 a pound for both the mixture and the hearts.
It's true about the poop. I have had times when the poop turned to white powder in one day.
So what is poop pickup like when you feed raw? Do you still have cleanup duties around the yard or will the stuff just basically blow away in the wind?
I just thought it was funny that in the unusual event that they ate all kibble for four days, that is when I have a dog get sick. And then get lectured by a brainwashed vet trying to sell me SD or RC as a fix...as if! LOL.
The Vet us 100% correct. I believe you are confusing digestive issues based on your possible preconceived negative belief about Vet's nutritional understanding and raw food.
Think of it this way; let’s say you are a regular eater. You eat all the food groups during the daily meals. You have been doing this all your life. Nothing special or out of the ordinary (except at holidays, parties, and the binge midnight snacks). Essentially, your dietary habits are about as normal as they get. Suddenly, you stop eating your regular food in the regular manner and sit down and eat a plate full of Bacon-Cheddar Flavored Crackers. This becomes your meals for a few days. Don't you think that you’ll be looking for the Metamucil and Milk of Magnesia?
Feeding occasional dry kibbles straight or mixed to a dog use to raw is not going to be a problem because the digestive system is well lubricated and the kibble is diluted with high moisture content from the raw foods. But stop the high moisture content raw and suddenly shove a bunch of hard dry low moisture kibble into their stomach for several meals and you have a basic Anatomy 101 mistake. I bet if you were to introduce liquid to the dry kibble, it would have been a different outcome. This is not about the kibble content and ingredients, it has to do with the sudden compaction properties of dry kibble when the digestive system isn’t prepared for it.
So what is poop pickup like when you feed raw? Do you still have cleanup duties around the yard or will the stuff just basically blow away in the wind?
It literally blows away - no kidding. It just dries up and is gone - no odor, no stinky gloves, pooper scoopers, bags of....waste. It's not messy at all - it's scarfed up so quickly you hardly know you fed.
I feed chicken backs and necks primarily, and the bones are not a problem. The little guys (under 20 lbs) get wings - the little shih tzu gets the pitiful tip part of the wing. I do have a meat grinder and sometimes roughly grind the wings up since he's getting old and doesn't chomp as much. Then we skip up to the Rottweilers and Mastiff and anything goes.
As far as figuring it out - I did some research, googled BARF, talked to a few folks, then just sorta worked it out as I went along. Getting chunky? More meat, less dairy or carbs (because I do let them have potatoes). Underweight? Satin balls. I alternate beef, chicken, fish from friends who caught too much, and occasionally deer meat. There's a formula for how much protein to feed based on weight but I found it to be too much.
K9coach, I do huge batches at a time of ground veggies and put those in a Lock-n-Lock or in individual gallon bags. The chicken comes from our local market and is 59 cents/lbs for bulk backs, thighs, and legs. The wings are a little more (which is just a friggin' mystery to me, who eats wings except at ... Wings?). It is packed in 40 lbs. boxes but there are 4 10 lbs. packages in each box, so I just pull a package at a time and a big old Lock-n-Lock of veggies as needed and pull what I need. I also check the short date meat bin at the grocery store but too many people have discovered that for it to really be of benefit to me. One thing - if you have a butcher shop they may work with you on leftovers, but make sure you're getting decent cuts of meat and not just fatty pieces. Lots of organ meat is a good one too.
Sometimes I think raw is a big old pain if I'm in a hurry, but usually I just do it all once every 10-14 days and freeze. Sometimes I will spend an entire afternoon and do almost a month's worth, but I have a huge chest freezer and plenty of room for it. Works for me.
So you folks that feed raw - how did you go about educating yourself on the raw diet? Any resources you recommend? I want to learn more before I take the plunge. Can you briefly describe how you figured out what exactly to feed and how much to give each dog? Do you find it challenging to source appropriate animal parts? How do you store all of it - separate freezer? Is there any danger in the dogs eating the bones i.e. choking hazard or cracking teeth? Is it messy to feed this way? Thanks so much for your time.
I spent almost a year studying it before I decided to do it. I started with the "Orijen White Papers", (google it), then I studied the wolf anatomy through the Smithsonian Institute and how it compared to the dog anatomy. I also spoke with raw feeders for 8 months before I EVER started on raw for the dogs and cats.
Those who do not study will make mistakes that can cause problems for the animals, (including mixing up kibble with a raw diet). One cannot just throw hamburger down on the floor and think, "I'm feeding my dog raw!" There is more to it than that.
In the beginning, it is overwhelming but after your GRADUAL introduction, (and specific meats should be introduced first over other meats as some meats are extremely rich and will cause stomach upset, (as will switching back and forth between kibble and raw)), of each type of meat and then on to organs, it gets a lot easier.
If you are truly interested in feeding your dog raw, I can point you to a few great places to read. I've been feeding the dogs raw since they were four months old. (I got them at 3 1/2 months old...I actually started researching raw well before that because of a cat.) I've been doing it for almost three years now.
So what is poop pickup like when you feed raw? Do you still have cleanup duties around the yard or will the stuff just basically blow away in the wind?
Oh...I miss those days. Small poops that turned white and crumbled into the lawn. No odor, either. That's what a digestible diet does. I would consider feeding raw now if it weren't for Karma being aggressive at mealtime.
i eed occaisoal raw right now and wil be switching overa my own meat producton goes up (i raise my own, right now raw is a little too much more than the good brand dry im feeding...but soon lol)
anywho.
easiest way is to go "prey model" (essetially theidea is to feed 1 whole animal over the course of however many day (ie if your main prten is chicken one ay you might feed a thigh, a nother day wings, another day some organs and heart, another day the neck untill eventully the whole chicken is gone...
in the case o larger prey items (goat beef ect) obviously your ot going to ave a whole cow in your freeer i your "normal" so for those items you have to kinda figure out what the balance is...so youve got beef tail and some ground beef and mabe heart..so you obviosuy need ot source in some bone and organ orm omewhre else to balance out and mae the "whole animal"
the idea behind it is you dont have to feed a perfectly balnced mean EVERY day as long as the boe to meat to organ balances out over time to be aporximatly 1 "whole" animal.
feed something with alot o meat and no real bone one day...feed somehting heavyon the bone the next ect.
now obviously thats just one method, other methods include pre-made (very expensive) here eveyrthing is ground and made into meatballs or a "loaf", or barf, or "raw" some feed veggies others dont (those that dont feed raw GREEN tripe now and aain lol)
messy...feed in a crate or on a tiled floor and tada, a quick swipe with a cloth and your clean (the dogs wil take care of most of it lol) some train their dogs ot eat on a specific towel or mat that can eaisly be washed...personally i crate or otherwise seperate as we do have food agresion issues beteen my big male and my little male when it comes to something as high value as raw....so little guys go in their crates, big guy goes out onto the patio...
unless your buying in bulk no need for a seeperate doggy freezer.
personally i WIL be getting 2nd small chest freezer but only because my big chest freeer and my in the house freeer are both full to the poit of bursting and ill be hopefully raising extra rabbits and chickens in the fall and by next year im hoping to be rasing a couple of butcher pig and mabe even a beef steer each year...most people though dont keep that kind of bulk on hand lol.
in terms of oop...i dont se the beeifts right now as were only about 50% raw right now...
but my raw feeding 100% frineds never pick up poop, within 3 days its gone...
in terms of amount. 2-3% of the ideal body weight is generally the given...with ALOT more for growing puppies...higher end of the 3% for actvie/working or high metabolism dogs, ower end for more sedate dogs. seniors will often eat a little less than that though.
in terms of bones being a danger.
theres 2 types of bones...
edible bones, these are the soft crunchy smaller bones...generally none weight bearing (ribs, wings, backs (though in smaller prey like chicken legs are edible)) these wil be eaten completly and fully digestable...
recreational bones, these are hard weight bearing bones like the femur from a cow, generally these bones are given with a little bit of meat on to simply knaw at...these bones do pose a chipped tooth risk if youve got a dog roe to being realy rough with bones, and a choking risk if you feed them much too small make sure rec bones are too marge for a og to fit fully in the mouth, that if cut the marrow hole in the centeris either large enough that shoudl the dog try to get the mouth in there it can freely and easily remove it, OR much too small or them to even try...
this goes for eeding raw in general too...always feed a peice too big to swallow whole if youve got a gulper (ie a chihuhaua would do great with a chicken wing...but for a mastif youd probably want to leave that chicken wing attatched to the chicken half and feed the half a 1 big peice rather than multiple small peices.
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