Post by CampGreyhound on Sept 28, 2010 22:15:08 GMT -5
Much of my time is spent teaching our clients and customers about how to feed raw, so this topic is well over due. I will be using our customer's questions as a guide. If you have a question about raw feeding, or would like to share your experience, feel free to post about it.
The most common mistakes made by new raw feeders are:
-feeding too much variety too quickly
-feeding too much bone in a single meal or over time
-feeding too much organ meat too soon
These errors lead to either stools that are too hard, or cannon butt (explosive diarrhea). I've read on forums about people posting to say their dogs could not eat raw because they got diarrhea, and it's usually one of these errors that's responsible.
Make sure you have a good scale, and weigh everything until you are good at judging amounts. After 15 years feeding raw, I still weigh every meal, because if I don't, I tend to feed too much. Weighing everything will help to assure you that you are not feeding too much bone or organ.
Your formula is:
75-80% muscle meat, 10-15% bone, and 10% organ meat, with half of that (5%) being liver.
You want to try to stick to this formula over time, but in the beginning you won't be feeding much organ meat, so you will have to make this up by splitting it between muscle meat and bone until you start adding organs. The reason you won't be feeding many organs initially is that organs soften the stool quite a bit, and leave you with no way to judge how your pet is doing with a particular protein source. So easy on the liver, kidney, heart and such until you've got a stable diet of at least 2 protein sources.
Your best beginner protein sources are: pork, chicken or turkey. Depending on the size of your dog, the best parts to start with will be flanks, backs, necks and leg quarters. If you have a toy sized dog or a cat, you might want to consider whole items like quail, or cornish hens, which can be found in many asian grocery stores for a good price. For medium sized dogs you'll want to work with average sized leg quarters, from hens rather than toms; same goes for the necks. Chicken necks are only good for toy and small dogs, not larger dogs as they are just too small to be chewed, they will get gulped. For giant breeds you should be looking for tom sized necks, drums and wings, and large chicken legs. You can also feed whole flank.
Initially you may find yourself nervous about feeding bones, chicken bones in particular. We've all been warned all our lives to never feed chicken bones to our dogs in particular. This is true of cooked bones, but not raw bones. If you think about how our dogs have evolved, and how a wolf eats in the wild, then you'll realize that there would be no dogs at all if eating bones were dangerous. The key in the beginning is to supervise; especially if you have a gulper or your dog is really excited about her food (very common when you switch to real food). If you're afraid your dog will gulp, hang on to one end of the food item and don't let go until they start chewing. They learn pretty quickly when you use the food as a reward!
Initially, it's possible you may see a small amount of bones brought up at some point after they eat, usually in a yellow liquid (bile). This is normal, and will not continue for very long, just while their enzymes are building up. You can supplement with digestive enzymes to give them a boost if you like.
I remember the first time I gave raw food to my dogs. I fed them chicken wings, and I stayed up all night watching them for signs of obstruction, I was that nervous!
In the years since we started, the only problem I ever had with a bone was when one of my greyhounds (a gulper) got a pork riblet bone stuck across the roof of his mouth. He was clearly perturbed, and I could not budge it, so I got some needle-nosed pliers and grabbed the bone with those, and it came right out. Bailey immediately went back to his meal, so I guess he wasn't too upset by the whole thing!
Another issue many of our customers ask about is how to feed without having a big mess. I always suggest using one of the following methods:
-train your dog to eat on a towel over his bed. Do this by staying with him at first, and taking the food away if he tries to drag it around (very common thing).
-feed your dog in her kennel, again using a towel.
-feed your dog outside.
When your pet is finished, you can either throw the towel in the wash, or throw it in the freezer if it's not dirty, and use it again the next night. Do not expect your dog to eat out of his bowl, it's pretty unusual although not unheard of. Usually they will take their food item out of the bowl and walk around with it looking for a safe spot to eat, especially if there's more than one pet in the house. You may need to separate pets who insist on surfing for food. Raw food and bones are considered very high resource, and you may see some growling and snapping if you don't control who eats where.
There's something else that's important to remember. When you ask for help from someone with your dog's raw diet, make sure that someone has enough experience to know what they're talking about. I read and see people who have only been feeding raw for a year or two, or even less time than that, handing out advice. You really want to be getting your advice from someone who has been successfully feeding raw for a decade or more, so that they have a thorough grounding in raw feeding.
Feel free to post questions.
The most common mistakes made by new raw feeders are:
-feeding too much variety too quickly
-feeding too much bone in a single meal or over time
-feeding too much organ meat too soon
These errors lead to either stools that are too hard, or cannon butt (explosive diarrhea). I've read on forums about people posting to say their dogs could not eat raw because they got diarrhea, and it's usually one of these errors that's responsible.
Make sure you have a good scale, and weigh everything until you are good at judging amounts. After 15 years feeding raw, I still weigh every meal, because if I don't, I tend to feed too much. Weighing everything will help to assure you that you are not feeding too much bone or organ.
Your formula is:
75-80% muscle meat, 10-15% bone, and 10% organ meat, with half of that (5%) being liver.
You want to try to stick to this formula over time, but in the beginning you won't be feeding much organ meat, so you will have to make this up by splitting it between muscle meat and bone until you start adding organs. The reason you won't be feeding many organs initially is that organs soften the stool quite a bit, and leave you with no way to judge how your pet is doing with a particular protein source. So easy on the liver, kidney, heart and such until you've got a stable diet of at least 2 protein sources.
Your best beginner protein sources are: pork, chicken or turkey. Depending on the size of your dog, the best parts to start with will be flanks, backs, necks and leg quarters. If you have a toy sized dog or a cat, you might want to consider whole items like quail, or cornish hens, which can be found in many asian grocery stores for a good price. For medium sized dogs you'll want to work with average sized leg quarters, from hens rather than toms; same goes for the necks. Chicken necks are only good for toy and small dogs, not larger dogs as they are just too small to be chewed, they will get gulped. For giant breeds you should be looking for tom sized necks, drums and wings, and large chicken legs. You can also feed whole flank.
Initially you may find yourself nervous about feeding bones, chicken bones in particular. We've all been warned all our lives to never feed chicken bones to our dogs in particular. This is true of cooked bones, but not raw bones. If you think about how our dogs have evolved, and how a wolf eats in the wild, then you'll realize that there would be no dogs at all if eating bones were dangerous. The key in the beginning is to supervise; especially if you have a gulper or your dog is really excited about her food (very common when you switch to real food). If you're afraid your dog will gulp, hang on to one end of the food item and don't let go until they start chewing. They learn pretty quickly when you use the food as a reward!
Initially, it's possible you may see a small amount of bones brought up at some point after they eat, usually in a yellow liquid (bile). This is normal, and will not continue for very long, just while their enzymes are building up. You can supplement with digestive enzymes to give them a boost if you like.
I remember the first time I gave raw food to my dogs. I fed them chicken wings, and I stayed up all night watching them for signs of obstruction, I was that nervous!
In the years since we started, the only problem I ever had with a bone was when one of my greyhounds (a gulper) got a pork riblet bone stuck across the roof of his mouth. He was clearly perturbed, and I could not budge it, so I got some needle-nosed pliers and grabbed the bone with those, and it came right out. Bailey immediately went back to his meal, so I guess he wasn't too upset by the whole thing!
Another issue many of our customers ask about is how to feed without having a big mess. I always suggest using one of the following methods:
-train your dog to eat on a towel over his bed. Do this by staying with him at first, and taking the food away if he tries to drag it around (very common thing).
-feed your dog in her kennel, again using a towel.
-feed your dog outside.
When your pet is finished, you can either throw the towel in the wash, or throw it in the freezer if it's not dirty, and use it again the next night. Do not expect your dog to eat out of his bowl, it's pretty unusual although not unheard of. Usually they will take their food item out of the bowl and walk around with it looking for a safe spot to eat, especially if there's more than one pet in the house. You may need to separate pets who insist on surfing for food. Raw food and bones are considered very high resource, and you may see some growling and snapping if you don't control who eats where.
There's something else that's important to remember. When you ask for help from someone with your dog's raw diet, make sure that someone has enough experience to know what they're talking about. I read and see people who have only been feeding raw for a year or two, or even less time than that, handing out advice. You really want to be getting your advice from someone who has been successfully feeding raw for a decade or more, so that they have a thorough grounding in raw feeding.
Feel free to post questions.
