Need help with raw food

[Hellow]

I am thinking about switching Reggie over to raw food. Does anyone have any information on how to. Like, witll it be cheaper that buying Bentaful? Will it improve health? And can anyone tell me what i should feed? Thanks.

[rutylr]

This lady has been feeding raw forever,They even have a news letter.
http://www.b-naturals.com/

[joycenalex]

i've been feeding alex a home prepped diet since dec 2000. it is not cheaper for him, but the health improvemnets have been worth it. it is a time commiment. i started raw, but switched to canned jack mackrel as his(and peanuts) main protein source. they do get occasional subsitutions of cottage cheese, eggs , yogurt and raw chicken necks (chopped into small pieces). the book bones and raw foods, and natural health for dogs and cats are a good starting point as well as a web search. there are many groups on yahoo of raw feeders who can give advice. hope this helps

[anna_66]

Like, will it be cheaper that buying Bentaful? Will it improve health? And can anyone tell me what i should feed? Thanks.

As for being cheaper than Beneful no, I don't think it would be cheaper. Will it improve health? It all depends, it did for my Roxey.

What should you feed? The best place I found for information was here...
Rawfeeding
I joined and read posts for quite a while and did much researching before I started. I would suggest you do the same.

We also have a thread here in Dog Health that will give you some good advice on what to feed...What did your dog(s) eat today?

Good luck

[buttercup132]

There are TONS of raw feeding threads in dog general and dog health just do a search and you'll find alot.

Benaful(sp?) is terrible food. The way I see it to compare is feeding your dog Mc Donalds everyday compared to eating a healthy home cooked meal every day. It would probly also help her loose weight.

[Hellow]

Yes, i know now. What i found out is that Bentaful contains all of the ingridients thats ist not supposed to have like corn and by - products. My dad agrees. All that i need to know now is WHAT should i feed her to keep it balenced and not kill her. Also, should i lightly cook the meat to kill the bacteria? Do i get the meat at Walmart?

[bckrazy]

A well-balanced Raw diet WILL improve the health of most any dog, for sure. Both of my dogs are in amazing health because of it! I really couldn't be happier. But, I did research the diet heavily, for months, before feeding it. You really need to do your research to do it right. Here are some helpful links!

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/ (you can download 2 of his books for FREE! very good introductions to raw.)

http://rawfeddogs.net/

http://www.rawdogranch.com/

http://community.livejournal.com/rawdogs/profile

http://community.livejournal.com/rawdogs/120730.html (awesome post!)


Yes, it will probably be more expensive than feeding Beneful. However, Reggie is a little girl, and will require a very small amount of food! (think 2% of her body weight! which, I'm guessing, will be less than 1/2 pound per day.)

You do not lightly cook it, at all. That's why it is called Raw! Raw feeding includes feeding raw bones, within the meat, and even light cooking makes bones dangerous and depletes many of the valuable nutrients in raw meat. However, I do freeze meats, which makes basically any meat safe for my dogs.

You can get the meat at Wal-mart. Buy the highest quality meat you can afford. A lot of butchers/farmers/hunters/suppliers will sell very high quality meat for low prices in bulk. Since Reggie requires so little food, you could even consider feeding pre-made Raw (check out Primal, Bravo, & Farmore).

Definitely do lots of research before hand! Until you make a final decision about feeding Raw, I highly recommend you switch her kibble to a better quality. Innova Evo & Timberwolf are great kibbles that are the closest you can get to feeding raw, in a kibble. Feeding a premium kibble is much, much healthier than feeding an unbalanced Raw diet. =)

[Hellow]