anyone feed dogs raw diet of some sort

[reforger2002]

Maybe three weeks ago I had to put my 13 yo lab mutt mix down - essentially his intestine had died and it was going to be a bad end for him.

Was going to hold off on another dog until next summer - well friend of a friend had a half starved pup show up at his place. Sidebar, people who do this need to be throat punched and placed in general population at the prison with some dude as a cell mate doing life that hasn't seen the outside of prison since 2006, no lube. Well why the hell not, pup is probably 3 months old and a good part lab and an good part large hound. From the area she was found in black and tan coon hound or Plott hound are the likely choices. So we're looking and 50 ish lbs of grown up dog.

She's 20 lbs and looking a million x better than the pics they took when she wandered in. The commandant er wife and I have been eating better the last few months. A lot less processed foods , lots and lots of vegies. She's down 60 lbs and I'm down 40, anyway we're thinking maybe a raw diet might be something to try. We already have a meat grinder and a deep freeze so it would be a couple hours every few weeks to grind up a batch of food and freeze.

Anyone try this? Results?

[Paul Groth]

Maybe three weeks ago I had to put my 13 yo lab mutt mix down - essentially his intestine had died and it was going to be a bad end for him.

Was going to hold off on another dog until next summer - well friend of a friend had a half starved pup show up at his place. Sidebar, people who do this need to be throat punched and placed in general population at the prison with some dude as a cell mate doing life that hasn't seen the outside of prison since 2006, no lube. Well why the hell not, pup is probably 3 months old and a good part lab and an good part large hound. From the area she was found in black and tan coon hound or Plott hound are the likely choices. So we're looking and 50 ish lbs of grown up dog.

She's 20 lbs and looking a million x better than the pics they took when she wandered in. The commandant er wife and I have been eating better the last few months. A lot less processed foods , lots and lots of vegies. She's down 60 lbs and I'm down 40, anyway we're thinking maybe a raw diet might be something to try. We already have a meat grinder and a deep freeze so it would be a couple hours every few weeks to grind up a batch of food and freeze.

Anyone try this? Results?

I have a 3yr dog that is half Catahoula and half black mouth cur. He gets ALOT of raw rabbit, squirrel and deer meat. I freeze bags of scraps just for him. He is extremely healthy and in excellent shape. My last dog was a Springer Spaniel that made it to 15 and was hunting up until a month before he died and was in excellent shape till the very end. Raw wild game for dogs is excellent for their digestion and immune system as well. Both of these dogs never get sick or have/had health issues.

[Chainsaw76]

Our old BMC lasted 13 years, and he ate raw meat, jerky, and cooked chicken and vegetables. Science Diet was available to him but Bandit preferred game meat and jerky over everything else.

[reforger2002]

Thanks gents - always solid advice

[ShopMonkey]

same goes for my gsd. he was always very lean until he got chopped then started filling out very quickly. i supplement a few meals a week with beef or game scraps from whatever i'm cooking. he also loves bell peppers and any other kind of pepper/chili, so he gets what i don't end up using throughout the week, and he been noticeably trimming down since supplementing

[bigbluedodge03]

I have been feeding raw for 5-6 years. Locally, I am able to source livers, brains, hearts etc. Beef “stew meat” in the largest packs I can find are the primary muscle meat but they also get ground turkey and green tripe. Raw Feeding Miami is a great source for whole prey type things and it’s also super convenient. Shoot for 2-3% of the dog’s IDEAL body weight. I have weighed it out in the past but you get pretty good at eyeballing it. I’ll drop a link to RFM. Be sure to click the section that says “Why Raw?”. If you make the switch, just do it. Don’t “ween” them onto it by mixing kibble in. Introduce the bone stuff slow. May be easier to run it through the grinder if you feel spooked by feeding a whole bone. Don’t skip the bone or the organs especially liver. Liver is a like multivitamin to a dog. I am NOT an expert and I’m pretty much regurgitating what I have learned. One thing is for certain, my dogs are noticeably healthier and happier than on kibble. My Pit has not suffered any of the typical dry skin or rash. She is 10 now and still VERY strong and agile. Also, not having to pick up dog shit is a huge plus. I personally feel like commercial dog “food” is cause for many problems in dogs but with that said, I’m a mechanic and not a vet. Remember, humans could survive on Big Macs but it’s definitely not ideal!

https://www.rawfeedingmiami.com/

[reforger2002]

Followup we're going with a raw diet and so far so good

60% muscle meat ( we're doing half pork butt and half chicken/gizzard heart ) ground
20% meaty bone - chicken wings again ground
10% vegie/fruit - mixed frozen veggie and apples
5% organs - neighbors have save me some deer liver and kidney -
5% old-fashioned oatmeal

we also added 1 soup can size can of chubb mackerel , not raw but seems common practice
also added 6 raw eggs to a two week batch

Took us maybe an hour to grind mix and package

She seems to like it. Raw feeders seem to be 'into' checking the dog poop. We're half way through a course of meds to rid the poor girl of tape worms. Her first poop after the tape worm med earlier in the week looked like a cross between a scene from a sci-fi movie and a plate of spagetti. We hadn't seen any signs of worms until after we started the raw we found a few dead wigglies in the poo - maybe they're more obvious in the smaller log or I wonder if the bone grit going through cleans them out.

Oh a final thing she gets a few drops of liquid doggie multi vitamin on the food - sort of just in case. Seems like it'll work for us , especially once she gets full size and we can make up some larger batches of food - I can easily see doing 2 months worth in an afternoon