Who else feeds raw to their dog?

Just started feeding a raw diet to my husky pup four days ago and it's like a miracle.

Before on high quality kibble she had nothing but soft stools mixed with some diarrhea, one day of raw and her stools are small and firm, almost hardish. She also only poops once a day or so whereas before it was several times. I am also noticing much less itching going on.

I don't make my own or anything, the stuff I buy comes frozen in one lb cubes. They are a totally balanced meal.

 

Just make sure what you are feeding her is okay. I don't know myself, but we do have 2 vets here in the forum that are awesome. @Kerch71 and @jaredmillerdvm

https://www.tundras.com/threads/looking-for-pet-advice.54954/

 

Dog food debates can rival motor oil debates. Personally, I feed purina pro plan performance. Second the advice above.

 

I once fed my pup baby formula as a supplement. Seemed to make her a very fit and healthy beast for years.

 

Balanced raw is for all lifestages, puppies just eat more is all. Kibble has to add minerals and vitamins via a spray solution which I've read is quite often imported from China.

As far as vets go, I don't think dog nutrition is their main training. When they sell it they are going to push it.

Anyways, seeing is believing.

 

I... really don't know where to start with this. The world is flat. Vaccines cause autism. Chemtrails will sterilize us all and Lizard people live under the white house.

If you don't think that a Vet, who went to years of additional schooling dedicated to animals, will give you good advice... WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ASKING A TRUCK FORUM?!

 

i also feed raw to my 4 year old mini-goldendoodle. I switched over as he was barely eating his kibble diet with the bowl lasting for up to 3 days at times. Due to this i would supplement his food with an egg in the morning and the occasional skin from Salmon when we'd have it. Eventually i just moved him over and its been great. Not saying good results can't be found with kibble but imo dogs want to eat meat.
I haven't noticed any downsides to it but his teeth, coat and nails are better than ever and he eats his "burger" every day now.

 

I wasn't asking for advice. The question was "is anyone else feeding raw".

 

Yep! Ours love it, we’re still trying different things to make him stop eating his poop though

 

he's asking because a lot of vets don't have an opinion on raw diets... mine didn't. they advised me to keep an eye on his health and determine the effect based on that. aside from that, chill out... we talk about all kinds of things if you haven't noticed and the guy is just asking for the experiences of pet owners, not trying to cause a tin-foil hat debate.

 

I think most vets are silent on the issue because they know it works. When we told our vet, that we rarely see because they are healthy as horses, she just kinda said hmm and went on with the exam. The spotless teeth are a dead giveaway!

 

i wondered that myself and you're 100% right, the first thing people ask me about my dog is how often i brush his teeth to get them so perfect looking.... uhhhh i haven't ever lol

 

This should be fun

 

I’m not sure if she still does it, but my sister had even done raw with her cats, but it’s harder with cats because they don’t eat the bones as well or very fast, I think she ended up blending chicken wings so it wasn’t taken under the bed or whatever

 

I've wanted to go to a raw diet, but that sounds expensive and I don't know if I want raw meat laying around in their bowl all day.

 

We find meat for under 1$ a pound, that is pretty reasonable when compared to kibble. And ours finish they’re plate in 10 minutes or less. We also put lots of other stuff besides just chicken, carrots, squash, overnight oats, zukini, tomatoes

 

We don't limit our dogs for how much they eat, I figure if they're not hungry they'll stop eating. Seems like to maintain that methodology I always need a dead animal in my kitchen

 

I have raw fed my dogs for over 12 years now. Vets are definitely coming around on the idea more and more. Even our local Vet school (Cornell) has done studies on the benefits. The problem is that a lot people screw it up when they make it up themselves. There is a lot to getting the correct portions of bone, muscle meat, organ, and other. If you don't want to make it yourself, there are good commercial companies that make it. If you don't want to feed raw don't. Just get good quality food. Don't buy the cheapest food because that makes you an asshole. If you didn't want to feed a dog good food then don't get a dog.

 

With chewing and meal sizes you'd be surprise how full they get. My german shepherd eats over 2.5lbs of food a day. And he has to work to finish his food so it tires him out. My golden on the other hand is a lunatic and eats his food in a minute. Then just stares at the German Shepherd until he finishes so he can lick his bowl

 

My pup literally wolfs her raw burger down in a couple minutes. If they don't finish in 15 minutes you are supposed to put it back in the fridge.
It's definitely more expensive than even premium kibble and I've always fed my other dogs kibble. I tried 4 or 5 different brands and even with 7 day transitions this pup was not improving. One day on raw and she was a different dog.

I've read others say they save on vet bills feeding raw but who knows for sure, depends on the dog I suppose.

 

Ah that's a good idea!

 

To save money find a local butcher. I was able to get 6mnths worth of organs and bones for 2 30 packs of Genny Light beer haha. All I had to buy was muscle meat. I think that year and a half I paid a total of $200 in dog food.

 

I freaking loooooooooled at this...(sorry op)

 

I feed my pup nothing but Mobil 1 5-30 synthetic.

Oh wait, what? I got mixed up.

I stared my dog on Purina Pro Plan. After 6 months he lost interest in it. I started adding bits of cooked chicken or other un-seasoned meats. He ate the meat and left the kibble.

I switched to Hills Science diet and my wife started making a concoction of sweet potato, chicken, turkey, carrot and whatever safe fruit was on sale (usually blueberries or chopped apples). She cooks it in the instapot and we mix that with his kibble. He inhales it.

My vet says they've never seen a healthier pug, I concur. Look at him, he's freakin buff!



The thing is, no food alone will make them or get them healthy. My dog gets a lot of exercise. He walks 3 to 5 miles daily and he constantly is active playing fetch or wrestling with my other dog. Diet for sure can help with digestion but health overall is a bigger picture. Raw diet works for lots of dogs, to me its just more expensive than necessary and the risk of the raw meat going bad is something I don't want to worry about.

 

Don't be afraid to just throw the meat in there uncooked. Their risk of getting sick from bacteria is far less than humans. Their stomach acid kills everything. But that is one handsome fella. He looks so happy

 

These are my two knuckleheads

 

Tried to start my boy on raw, and he doesn't like it... He actually barks at it like it's an animal, smells too fresh I guess, and he sees live deer up close all the time, so he knows the smell... And this is Elk and Venison scrap cuts and trim, as fresh as it gets. He gets about 5-10 lbs. a month of cooked into a stew trim to supplement his kibble. He eats Diamond primarily. But he gobbles up the cooked trim, I just pour it over his food like a gravy. Finely chopped or he drags the pieces out and tries to bury them. He also gets fresh bones regularly, which the vet has said helps his teeth greatly, they are spotless and strong. I give bags of trim to a friend of mine who feeds them to his dogs, raw, and they love it. Dogs evolved to eat raw meat, only thing I would try to avoid is buying the clearance almost expired meat that has bacteria building up, no reason to make their immune system work overtime to fight e-coli. This was advice from my vet when I asked about raw food diets.

 

I always fed mine wet & dry at every meal. Until I started them on this raw 'complete' food that I get locally, after a couple months they'd eventually turn their nose up to whatever wet dog food I was feeding them. This raw stuff I've been giving them for years now - it's the only thing they'll eat every day. Sorta... After the first week or two on the raw, they even stopped eating this. Almost desperate, I cooked up the ground raw in a frying pan (like you'd brown ground beef) - and have been serving them cooked raw for years now. Only thing they'll eat regularly.

So yes, I buy my dogs raw and feed it to them cooked. At least they still eat their Blue Buffalo with it...which is good.

 

This is basically what we did with our pug, I miss him

Your little guy is a handsome.