One of the reasons I have always fed either totally raw or mainly raw (one of my cats thinks he's not been fed unless theres a bit of biscuit in it, he's an oriental cross and so he yowls until he's got a few biscuits ontop) is when I was younger our JR had a really bad allergy to a lot of tinned dog foods, so the only option was to feed raw food, our cats and dogs were fed it from the first day they entered the house. No slowly changing over the diet etc; we had at the most 5 dogs and 5 cats and you just cannot feed them all seperately, so it was an all or nothing approach. It didn't upset their digestion at all.

Fast forward to my cats and dogs - my oriental cross has allergies - he rips his fur out when given some commercial foods so 4 cats all have to have raw food, enter my dog, she wants the good stuff that the cats have so she gets fed raw food as well.

Not only are my animals in good health (my almost 20 year old cat would testify but he's still sleeping his dinner off) but my purse is in better health, I have costed out several commercial foods including the value supermarket ranges for feeding my animals and feeding raw and can say that the raw food (including a small box of cat biscuits each month to keep my ginger cat happy and quiet) actually saves me a few pounds each month.

So my reasons for feeding raw are ecconomical, ease of feeding, and health of my animals.

Hello could we all say exactly what the diet is? I'm critisicing nobody. Its just i know nothing!
I could easily be converted i think having read the arguements but would need to know a lot more about amounts, fruit and veg, what sorts, etc etc. I had until now thought raw meant beef mince, beef steak, raw bones and frankly a diet that is pure protein doesn't thrill me but you have all proved there is a lot more to it! Also having just cleared up a pile of diarrhoea(smelly!) its time to act!!
I thought raw meat contained a higher amount of worms - which is why some humans like it cooked more. please excuse my ignorance but i really don't know anything about this diet!!

Krisannrio's Raw feeding site |
Practical Answers to Practical Questions About Raw

I think the general principal is you feed 2-3% of the desired body weight of the animal daily.

From whati have learnt, if ur a lil nervous about switching. Dont ween, ie half biscuits half raw, just do it but start on white meats. Then move onto reds and organs. Kidneys feed in SMALL portions untill your animals system can hack it.

Although i have done alot of research on the matter Diasy (my dog) has still to eat her first RAW meal so i am informed but by no means experienced so take my advice how you will.

We really struggle for butchers where I live so we tend to go for the slightly easier option of buying ready made stuff from here Natural Frozen Pet Food Products - Prize Choice - The Natural Food for Healthy Animals (we order offline because it works out cheaper, but pet shops also stock this too) Obviously get fruit and veg etc from supermarkets etc

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Is it a good thing to feed a dog raw meat from a tescos??? like raw mince?
I hear it can poison them !?

Something terrible has happened The large box of Wag that lives in my Kitchen SOMEHOW was sabotaged in the night rendering all the 'food' in it useless. Someone left the lid off underneath a dripping pipe and....oh....the tragedy.

So, Daisy is starting her RAW diet tonight...well id like it that way but i still have a few last reservations before i take the plunge.

1. After much protest, Daisy had a bath on the weekend. Strange as she loves water so much but clearly not from a hissing shower head. Point being is that on the next walk she decided to teach us once and for all the consequences of bathing her and jumped into a stream of very nasty looking smelly, brown / yellow / green water. Then decided to bolt up and down it flicking water all over her. Surprise surprise, she has an eye infection. Is the sudden and drastic change in diet likely to stunt her ability to fight the infection. The vets gave her eye drops but i dont know if they are an anti-biotic or not. If they are then is it really wise to be feeding her raw meat when she has little --> no immune system ?

2. Just to be on the safe side, im going to freeze all the meat i give her for atleast 24 hrs. Its advised you do such things with rabbits, rats, mice ect to kill of parasites but i am going to do it with all...cos i am a grade-A worrier. I also read that an important aspect of the RAW diet is the bone content. So when i give her a meaty bone, do i allow her to actually ingest the bone aswell and just let her learn how to eat bones without choking, or do i remove the bone from her once shes had a good chew ?

3. Are there any tell tail sings that something has gone wrong with her during the RAW meaty bones switch-over ? Like certain stool types mean shes being poisoned? I have noticed she has alot of dry skin recently and i put this down to the shocking diet of death-biscuits she has been on. How long untill i should be seeing improvements roughly? Days, weeks, months ?

4. What does the ideal stool from a well-fed RAW meaty bones dog look like ?

Finally. I would really appreciate just a small amount of information about what you RAW feeders first began to feed your dogs right at the begining and in what form. I feel i am well educated enough in the ways of RAW feeding now to make it well on my own. I just lack the confidence to start with something.

As to the specific quality of Tesco's meat....i dont know. From what i have read, freezing the meat for 24 is likely to kill off any nasties. Be sure to inspect the package to ensure no additives or colouring has been added to the meat. I have read from several sources that it is the economy quality meat that you really want to be aiming for as the cheaper minced stuff has bone minced into it also which is an important part of the RAW diet. THe more expencive 'quality' stuff i imagine has had alot of that taken out for a more 'pure' and thus expensive product.

To be honest, watch this and once you can get past the cheesy american sales person presentation and actually listen to his words and visit his research sources i think you will agree, low quality meat from Tesco is the least of your worries from a biscuit-fed dogs perspective.

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P.S - How do you 'quote' people so that the quote box specifically states who said it rather than just saying that it is a quote ?

Many Thanks for sending this to me. I am currently working my way through it all. Can i just ask :
Why the whole egg? Are the shells nutritious?
Raw chicken bones - not cooked?
Tripe - how about cooked tripe? I know you meant raw in the blurb.
Could i mix the complete with the chicken mince?
Do you make the chicken mince or can you buy it?
Will most butchers have a stock of waste meats they sell off dor peanuts and is it anygood? Anything to avoid?
Would a chicken quarter be too much for a JRT?
What hooves are you referring to that you stuff with mince and where do they come from?

Sorry for all the questions but I need to know the nitty-gritty b4 embarking!!

Hi I live in Taunton and had a hard time finding a butcher that sold anything other than dog mince. But there is a butcher in Station Road that will sell the mince mix. he can get me anything i want and it turns out he can get me a whole fresh tripe but i have to pick it up from the abbertoire myself on a tues as that is slaughter day plus hooves too!!!!!

So i am shortly off to go get some stuff. But i must freeze it all first? If any of you want the details of the chap just pm me!

One more question - what happens when they go into kennels? Will it upset their tums to go back to the packet stuff?

Yes

Um, i dont really know but we had chickens back in our old house and before Daisy learnt the beloved "leave" command, she certainly thought 100% of the egg was good news. I cant imagine dogs eating eggs in the wild, but if they were to, i doubt they'd peel the shell off so yea, i imagine it is good for em. I have read about removing the whites from some eggs if you feed on a regular basis.

If your meaning raw chicken, on the bone then no, not cooked. Id personally choose to freeze it cos im paranoid but aparently dogs are quite a bit more immune to salmonela than we are, passes right through em so i have read. However, cooking bones makes them brittle, brittle will mean a greater chance of them (fragments/splinters) hassling your dog while he's chewing on it and also, wont give him as much of a jaw workout. I too am nervous about Daisy's first raw chicken meal. Im going to start off small and work my way up when i see that she does keel over and die !

Im still having issues finding out what the hell tripe is ! Not done alot of looking into this as i am focusing more on getting the meat content both balanced and non-leathel before i get fancy with tripe and organs. As a general rule however, cooking stuff will reduce the amount of nutrients held by the product. Kind of counter productive. My rule is the closer i can get it to how it occurs in the wild, without loosing sleep, the better.

Complete as in dog food ? Well yea you could but that kinda defeats the object of a totally health RAW meaty diet doesnt it ?

I havent done anything yet but i intend to make my own. For several reasons.

1. I can control and observe the exact meat : bone ratio of each serving

2. Daisy is a fussy eater when it comes to new things and needs some encouragement to try new things. This food diary site details how someone weened a semi-fussy dog from dog food onto RAW stuff and i am going to assume that Daisy will need some encouragment also. He achieved this my mincing the foods first and then working his way back up to solid form. So i am going to have to get a meat grinder anyway for beef, lamb, rabbits ect ect so i may aswell put the chicken in there aswell if i need to.

3. Thinking about it, i dont think i have ever seen chicken mince. Diced chunks yea, mince.....dont think so.

Waste meats ? um, yea probably. Ill probably not aim for the waste meats. They might not stock it as such being waste meats they might just chuck it. Letting a local butcher know your interested in it might give him a reason to save it. I have not read anything about waste meats and so dont know about it in a nutritional context.

I not long visited my local butcher and was surprised at how cheap the meat was anyway. Considering you have a jack russel. 2-3% of his desired body weight a day is not going to be that much atall and thus wont cost as much. Im poor and my dog is 25Kg now and although its more expensive than dog food, its still alot cheaper than i budgetted for.

Not so much avoid but ration, liver and kidney. They are so nutrient rich that they give way to runny stools ect. I wouldnt like to take my chances with rats....just cos they are nasty and dirty. I read something about Salmon, or Salmonoids. It wasnt that you couldnt feed dogs salmon, you had to do something first, freeze it, remove something, take it out for a movie first..i dont remember exactly.

If your gonna fish for food. Make sure there are no hooks the fish has swalloed.

Depends how big the chicken is. All i have been told is aim for 2-3% of the desired body weight in food a day. If your dog is still hungry after that.....your gonna need some more, if he is leaving bits behind, its a bit too much maybe. Or maybe he just isnt used to the effort needed to eat it all....thats where your mince will be useful...easier to eat.

I personally have not reffered to any hooves as i have not yet tried any RAW feeding stuff myself, i have merely pointed you at research i have read. I think most hooves are cow hooves or horse hooves. A local pet shop will sell them id imagine. Or again, a butcher. For a JRT maybe even pig and sheep hooves will be ok. I have a lab so she might eat the whole thing which will no doubt make her choke but with your guys smaller mouth, might work out ok.

No problem, i too am nervous about it really but i think only because we are straying from what society is telling us to think. Sad time we live in where independant thinking feels wrong.

I spend no end of time asking question after question on this forum, its nice to finally be able to answer some questions for a change.