Raw Diets

[Lissa]

I'm thinking about switching Layla to raw food for at least one meal a day. Does anyone have advice, info, positives and any negatives or good links about this that could help me on the way? Thanks!

[cali]

not for one meal a day. kibble digests VERY slowly, where as RAW digests fast as it should. the toxins in kibble will mix with the RAW and cause problems.

[CamCamPup33]

Some dogs dont react to it the way others may.. I tried a raw diet on cami, and it lead us to a 1500 bill, to get her out of the vet! It was the worse week of my life, but, some dogs definitly take to it, others may not..

Here is a link >> LINK << (http://www.thebasenji.com/health_diet.html)

Hope i could be of some help! :)

[cali]

just realized I did not answer your question lol. RAW works fabulously, there is the odd dog that reacts badly but for the most part it makes a huge difference, and all for the better, more energy, longer life, shiney coat(trust me you may think a dog on a kibble diet has a shiny coat, but in comparison to a raw fed dogs it looks very dull) bright eyes, disaperence of muscle problems, infections vannish, teeth become pearly white etc.. the list go's on :p also many kibbles advertise "a deiffernce in just 3 weeks!) oh wow, a difference in just one day with RAW. here is Ripleys before and after pictures.

Ripley right after he came home
http://users.accesscomm.ca/k9furkids/pets/feb13RipleyFront.jpg

Ripley 2 days later
http://users.accesscomm.ca/k9furkids/pets/ripley_trot_2002519.jpg

[binka_nugget]

The 'bible' of barf is Give Your Dog a Bone by Ian Billinghurst. There are also many other books out there about the barf diet but my mind's gone completely blank. :o

But I definately agree with Cali. Raw food is digested differently from kibble, it wouldn't be a great idea to feed one raw meal and one kibble meal everyday.

Read as much as you can about the pros and cons. When I started researching (and still am to this day), I was interested more in the cons than the pros. If you still think the diet may be for your dog, ask vets, raw feeders and any other knowledgable people about it.

[cali]

nad here is a pic of shadow teeth, she is 7 years old, she does have a little tarter build up still left because she did eat kibble for 4 years, but they have improoved greatly, here teeth have never been cleaned in her life.

[guster girl]

I've been asking a couple questions about the diet as well, and, I would post the direct links to the threads if I knew how to...but, instead, check out (in dog general), the thread on "eggs in homemade meals" and "organ meats"....some questions of yours may be answered.... :)

[heinz57_79]

For as long as I've worked with animals, I've never really thought about starting mine on a raw diet. But checking out everyone's ideas on here has given me something to mull over. Anyone know if raw or kibble is better for a dog with a bit of a sensitive tummy? Lissa, if you do decide to go ahead with it, you'll have to keep us updated. :)

[guster girl]

Dogs with sensitive stomachs, from what my vet has told me, really do well on raw diets, for the simple fact that there aren't any chemicals or preservatives.

[cali]

the biggest mistake people make is assuming that it a dog has a sensitive stomich they wont be able to handle raw. this could not be further from the truth. kibble is the most often the CAUSE of a sensitive stomich, because it contains so much preservitives, and toxins, and chemicles, RAW is all natural, no chemicals, no preservitives, no toxins. both happy and shadow had senstive tummy, every single kind of kibble made shadow throw up continuesly, we fed purina one because it made here throw up the least. however after the switch she has not thrown up since. happy any sprt of commercil food made her horrably ill, she could hardly tolerate anything at all, all changed after the switch :)

[heinz57_79]

Starting my aminals on a raw diet is starting to sound like a good idea. But I heard it can get expensive. Does it get much more expensive than feeding them kibble? (the good stuff, Nutro)

[binka_nugget]

The cost depends on how good of a shopper you are. ;)

When my boys were being fed raw, it'd cost 4 dollars a week for both dogs. The 4 dollars would go towards bones, meat, veggies, fruits, organ meat, eggs, and supplements. Not bad at all. And also, lots of people find that they end up going to the vets alot less frequently which will mean less money spent there.

If you look around, you could probably find a butcher that will give you free/very cheap bones. Our past neighbor also fed her dog raw and got free bones from work.

[heinz57_79]

$4 a week is pretty damn good.. that's less than a bag of Nutro from PetsMart. A good idea to find a butcher tho. Methinks I'm gonna have to definitely look into it more. Anyone know any really good websites that really break it down for you? :D

[cali]

binka got it, it all depends on how good of a shopper you are, we found 2 butchers, 1 that gives us as many bones as we want for free(many raw feeder go here, just bring your own bag, walk in the back and ask if they have any bones for ya lol) and another right in town that gives us chicken backs and necks for cheap. they even carry it out to the car for us. :D as for the veggies? we buy veggies for ourselves and the piggies anyway lol, and organ meats are only a small part of the diet, and they dont cost all that much. start the diet with plenty of supplements once you get the hang of it you wont need to add suppliments anymore. ;)

[binka_nugget]

Here's a great site I found through an LJ community:

http://www.rawfoodlife.com/barf_faq.html

And one with links:
http://www.rawfoodlife.com/barf_links.htm

If you have a livejournal, there's a great community for rawfeeders. I'm sure you could get lots of answers from there. It's http://livejournal.com/community/rawdogs