Raw Food Diet Experience
Hey guys I've heard a lot about the Raw food DIet for dogs (BARF)...I've never done it before but I'm thinking of trying it because i heard a lot of good things about it...does anybody hear have any experience with it?
Comments
I have 4 years experience feeding raw foods. I started shortly after getting my Shiba.
My Laika pup and my Mom's two mixbreeds do great on rawfoods, never had a problem. Excellent muscle tone, gorgeous coats, great stamina and energy, good clean teeth. I prefer to feed entirely raw/whole foods to my dogs but am tight on finances at the moment so they get a raw/kibble mix.
Conker did really good on it too, but was recently diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease so I switched him to a strict homecooked diet the time being.
I started her at 6months she got raw egg once week as a treat then 7 months got lamb ribs and gave her one with egg plus canned sardines a dinner then at 8monthes bought chicken thighs, drumsticks and breasts and made the switch.
This has a pdf guide that is helpful on raw diet.
http://www.chanceslittlewebsite.com/prey-model-raw.html
Here's spreadsheet to help on portioning
http://manteega.com/pack_lunch/calculator_spreadsheet/
I've looked into barf diet little bit, but don't know a ton to really give you much info on it..
I found this guide helpful
http://preymodelraw.com/page/articles.html/_/raw-chat/how-to-get-started-feeding-a-prey-model-raw-diet-r19
My best advise don't be afraid to ask questions or ask if something normal.
Don't rush it get dog used to one protein at a time and introduce organs later once the dog is used to raw and handles it. introduce organs slowly as they're rich and some dogs do better with small amounts at a time especially at first.
Be sure the meat you get has no brine, or added stuff that makes the sodium high. It usually says on front or in the nutritional box if there is anything added plus if sodium is very high like 150 or 300 or whatever..
There is pre made which is easier since it's portioned out and has everything added and there is barf, preymodel and all kinds of diets..
Honest kitchen makes base mix where all you add is the meat and the base mix has veggies, fruit and vitamin stuff.. there is one base mix that has grain in it.
I've given preference before and it worked out pretty good.. fed Bella on it for couple weeks and she did fine with it and loved it. I used ground beef, chicken gizzard, heart, and bit of beef liver for meat portioning. she got a egg twice week too..
She was used to those meats, but if she wasn't I'd probably just done ground beef then introduce other meats..
I think I liked the base mix stuff over their complete meal mix.. Probably since the meat is fresh and I can choose what she gets easier.
Bella is mainly on kibble, but gets raw for dinner.. She's my parent's dog.
What location are you in exactly I might or someone else might know of supplier close to you.
I mainly get stuff from grocery store, butcher and meat processor, but have gotten items from hare-today.com and my pet carnivore.
.i think i want to wait till he's a little older before i start
Once you switch over to a raw diet... The poops will be less frequent as well. My shiba went from twice-thrice a day to once a day.
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/9663/raw-thread/p1
Once you get comfortable with feeding raw, you'll notice you will look out for deals more often and buy in bulk. For example the chicken breast at my local market is usually $3-4 a lb. when it's on sale it's $2 a lb... And I buy enough to last me and my furbabies a couple weeks (til it goes on sale again). Same goes with other types of meat.
It's even cheaper if you can get it directly from the butcher. And of course additional discounts if you can buy in bulk. As the previous members have mentioned, you'd need a freezer JUST for raw foods for your dog. I'm currently doing half/half because I don't have freezer space
Premade raw is usually more expensive than the most expensive high-quality kibble. But I wouldn't feed it even if I could afford it...
I disagree on the "you need a separate freezer to do raw" thing I see mentioned in a lot of places. I lived in a 20 foot trailer for a year, and easily fed the dogs homemade/raw food for most of that time. Some of that food was livestock/wild game I processed myself. My fridge was less than 1/4 the size of your standard American refrigerator, with a freezer as big as a regular shoebox. (Who knew you could fit a whole deer into a fridge that small...) I had five dogs then, and went through more than 4lbs of meat a day. For sure a freezer helps cut costs since you can buy in bulk or stock up on sale items. But it is no no way a requirement for feeding raw. You just gotta buy fresh food more often if you don't have the freezer space.
Regarding whether you need a freezer or not, you do if you want to take advantage of sales and if you have a lot of (big) dogs. We tend to buy a lot of chicken when leg quarters are on sale. Since we feed 40 pounds a week....and I'm simply not willing to go the grocery store that often. Is it a requirement? Of course not. But it certainly makes life easier, and it is more cost effective (plus chest freezers are cheap).