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RAW dog food, anyone else do it?

TTUcamper

Elite
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
925
I wrote this for a friend looking into feeding raw and figured I'd pass it to the board, we all love our pets so just makes sense to be open minded.



not sure where to start. Raw food for dogs is typically polarized on either front, which in my opinion doesn't make a ton of sense. I feed my dog raw and dog food, I just prefer raw because he does so much better on it. I am not a vet, a vet tech or anyone who should actually know anything about dogs or dog food. my only experience is many years dealing with my personal dog and watching a bunch of youtube videos.

The biggest thing about raw food is the learning curve, not just for you but also for your dog, especially if you are learning together. My biggest wide eyes moment was realizing my dog didn't do well with certain foods. Unfortunately your dog is going to do really great with certain foods and shit all over the place/throw up with others, it's the reality of switching your dog to this diet. you may feed your dog chicken or beef and he may act terribly to it, it's just a fact of life. they stuff kibble with fillers that fortify poop, hence why your dog poops very solid, very huge shits. my dog currently poops very small shits that blow away with the wind. People tend to look at their dogs shits and judge the health of that dog from that, this is nonsensical and if you've seen any wild animal scat you are aware of this. Dogs can live their entire lives with very soft stools and be very healthy, stool size or consistency literally has nothing to do with dog health. Consistent diarrhea is very bad but soft stool is just gross, nothing more and dog food companies have capitalized on this by making their dog food give dogs very hard, massive craps.

I will attach pictures and videos, but feeding your dog isn't an exact science. You can find raw dog recipes online and they will include a billion ingredients, they do this because they don't factor in that you can do this same recipe over a week or two. Do you feed yourself a complete diet every day? or do you eat different things over a month's time that even everything out? Dogs can and do the same thing. A lot of days my dog eats nothing but chicken thighs but then some days he eats a ton of variety.

What do I feed my dog?

Chicken, tons of it, he does really well off raw thighs.
Chicken livers, hearts and gizzards
sardines from amazon NO SALT ADDED, dogs cannot sweat meaning they can't get rid of salt.
oatmeal, honestly i feed him very little of this, he does better with no grains
pumpkin- canned pumpkin might be the best vegetable any dog can eat and they love it. (you find it in the baking aisle.)
Beef - he does great on beef, including just raw chuck
Bones- dogs need a super high calcium content, so they need raw bones or egg shells
Eggs- basis for any raw diet, very neutral and with shells providing high calcium content.
Kelp- provides a lot of the random diet needs, including iodine and other stuff
Berries/fruits- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, apples... Winston eats most of it and he likes some and others he hates
Olive Oil - he eats this daily, also you are best off finding something single sourced and recently harvested (olive oil is actually a fruit juice). most of the olive oils in the grocery store and either not olive oil or rancid blends of multiple olive oils and treated with hexane. Dogs need tons of fats. winston and us eat a ton us this, we also have some cheaper stuff we give him a lot of.
greens - every now and then i throw in some greens, but rarely
cooked sweet potatoes - he does great on this
quinoa - super high in protein


Heads up, dog and cat food are brand new to the market, historically. the dog/cat food industry was invented in the 1950's. Before that pets got along normally eating human scraps and other human foods without the need of a dietitian. I'm going to attach some videos from a Vet that's been doing this for a while. Also if you look on youtube or anywhere you will find more information than you actually want, it's just up to you how far you


If you are really interested I would heavily suggest watching all four of those videos. You can wing it but it can be dangerous if you don't at least have a foundation of knowledge, the biggest thing is not understanding and knowing what to expect.
Some things I had to learn, sometimes the hard way
1. winston can't process rice, whole rice kernels were showing up in his crap
2. If he eats coconut oil and olive oil together he throws up every time.
3. transitioning him from dog food to raw food was not pleasant for his GI tract, but once he got used to it he was much, much better off in that sense.
4. Raw feeding seemed really, really hard before but once I got in a rhythm it was no different than kibble. you pull some stuff out of the fridge, drop it in the bowl, take him outside and feed him.
5. Dogs who have only eaten kibble do not know how to eat whole chicken parts, like Breast, thighs (my staple), wings, drums... In Winstons case he just tried to swallow everything whole, which would have killed him if I wasn't watching (learning curve from you and the dog). I used to use shears and just snip the bones in multiple pieces until he figured it out, which took about 2 to three days. Then I just had to watch the dumbass eat for a month to make sure he didn't eat himself to death, he's ungodly food driven. But now he can take down an entire chicken quarter without even getting close to choking, it's literally no worry at this point. They have to build jaw strength typically because it's all been lost from eating kibble and never having to digest calcium from bones. People who heavily disagree with raw feeding always cite this reason, I can only speak anecdotally and from personal experience but I would wager a decent amount that most times a dog came into the vet for choking on a raw bone. The dog was very new to it and the owner was inexperienced with raw feeding. you have to watch your dog eat at first for a while and if he starts choking you have to jerk the damn thing out. It sucks and I think it only happened once, maybe twice, but only very early on and very rarely, but it did happen.
6. You can avoid 5 by by feeding your without any raw meaty bones as you can use egg shells or a calcium supplement to provide the needed calcium content. frankly, I'm cheap and buying chicken in ten pound bags for ten dollars is very enticing so I just had him figure it out, he's still a dog.
7. It is either as cheap or cheaper than dog food. Everything you want for your dog they give away at the grocery store. Weird chicken pieces? cheap. Livers? cheap. Gizzards. super cheap? chicken thighs or quarters. Everybody wants a pack of breasts and or wings and you can even go to mexican markets and get some real weird shit.
 

GarnetPild

Legendary
Founder
Joined
Dec 2, 2020
Messages
3,914
Makes me feel like shit for feeding my dog dog food. I have considered raw food, but still going with the lazy method currently. She does always get leftovers of whatever I eat, on top of her dog food. I bet 50% of her calories are from my leftovers.

20190320_074548.jpg
 

TTUcamper

Elite
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
925
Makes me feel like shit for feeding my dog dog food. I have considered raw food, but still going with the lazy method currently. She does always get leftovers of whatever I eat, on top of her dog food. I bet 50% of her calories are from my leftovers.

View attachment 45635


Once you get a rythm raw food is super easy. It's mainly just pulling thighs, livers and eggs out, throwing it in a bowl and washing your hands a couple times.
 

tiderollsonu

A man from Nantucket
Founder
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
5,889
I do agree food makes a difference, started my dog on purina and noticed brown buildup on her eyes. Switched her to wellness brand and now it is gone. Vet said it was probably from the dyes in the the food. Wet twice a day and dry when she wants it.

1174126-center-1


images
 

tiderollsonu

A man from Nantucket
Founder
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
5,889
I raw dog food as well. Mainly fuck cantaloupes and other smaller melons. Put them in the microwave for about 20 sends and then cut a hole in them. You’ll be finished in less than five minutes. Sometimes you can get two uses out of it
took me a minute.... well played sir
 

TTUcamper

Elite
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
925
I got this idea because my good buddy from Sweden had a three year old golden retriever with bad hips to the point they wanted to put it down.

Vet prescribed a raw food diet and it it didn't undo any previous damage but it cleared all the inflammation. It was miracle results for the swede. Dog was completely mobile again.

I gave it to my dog and he was supposed to be dead at 2 and now he's 7. His allergies went to 5 percent of normal. His ear problems went from monthly to yearly.
 

ShaolinNole

Legendary
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
1,512
Haven't fed our dog raw food, but do a lot of fresh cooked food. You might already know, but canned small fish can have a lot of arsenic.
 

AgEngDawg

Legendary
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
8,501
Makes me feel like shit for feeding my dog dog food. I have considered raw food, but still going with the lazy method currently. She does always get leftovers of whatever I eat, on top of her dog food. I bet 50% of her calories are from my leftovers.

View attachment 45635

She looks a little tubby just like my lab.

We had to put fatboy on a no human food restriction.

Dude is pissed.
 

GarnetPild

Legendary
Founder
Joined
Dec 2, 2020
Messages
3,914
She looks a little tubby just like my lab.

We had to put fatboy on a no human food restriction.

Dude is pissed.

Haha, she is not fat, she's big boned! (In my best Eric Cartman voice) She has been 58-60lbs her entire adult life. Mostly looks fat because of her fur, and her neck skin which a dna test says is shar pei.(amongst chow, lab & other things),

OK, maybe she could lose a pound or two. When we got our golden doodle last winter, he made her eat her entire bowl of food instantly, because if she didn't, he would eat it for her. Before him, she just picked at it when she wanted something to eat.

This was a fun day, we had just walked about 3 miles when 4 month old Cooper found a stick and suddenly discovered he was faster than old Jane.😅

 

Cletusnow

Made the run from Texarkana to Atlanta
Founder
Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
3,282
I wrote this for a friend looking into feeding raw and figured I'd pass it to the board, we all love our pets so just makes sense to be open minded.



not sure where to start. Raw food for dogs is typically polarized on either front, which in my opinion doesn't make a ton of sense. I feed my dog raw and dog food, I just prefer raw because he does so much better on it. I am not a vet, a vet tech or anyone who should actually know anything about dogs or dog food. my only experience is many years dealing with my personal dog and watching a bunch of youtube videos.

The biggest thing about raw food is the learning curve, not just for you but also for your dog, especially if you are learning together. My biggest wide eyes moment was realizing my dog didn't do well with certain foods. Unfortunately your dog is going to do really great with certain foods and shit all over the place/throw up with others, it's the reality of switching your dog to this diet. you may feed your dog chicken or beef and he may act terribly to it, it's just a fact of life. they stuff kibble with fillers that fortify poop, hence why your dog poops very solid, very huge shits. my dog currently poops very small shits that blow away with the wind. People tend to look at their dogs shits and judge the health of that dog from that, this is nonsensical and if you've seen any wild animal scat you are aware of this. Dogs can live their entire lives with very soft stools and be very healthy, stool size or consistency literally has nothing to do with dog health. Consistent diarrhea is very bad but soft stool is just gross, nothing more and dog food companies have capitalized on this by making their dog food give dogs very hard, massive craps.

I will attach pictures and videos, but feeding your dog isn't an exact science. You can find raw dog recipes online and they will include a billion ingredients, they do this because they don't factor in that you can do this same recipe over a week or two. Do you feed yourself a complete diet every day? or do you eat different things over a month's time that even everything out? Dogs can and do the same thing. A lot of days my dog eats nothing but chicken thighs but then some days he eats a ton of variety.

What do I feed my dog?

Chicken, tons of it, he does really well off raw thighs.
Chicken livers, hearts and gizzards
sardines from amazon NO SALT ADDED, dogs cannot sweat meaning they can't get rid of salt.
oatmeal, honestly i feed him very little of this, he does better with no grains
pumpkin- canned pumpkin might be the best vegetable any dog can eat and they love it. (you find it in the baking aisle.)
Beef - he does great on beef, including just raw chuck
Bones- dogs need a super high calcium content, so they need raw bones or egg shells
Eggs- basis for any raw diet, very neutral and with shells providing high calcium content.
Kelp- provides a lot of the random diet needs, including iodine and other stuff
Berries/fruits- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, apples... Winston eats most of it and he likes some and others he hates
Olive Oil - he eats this daily, also you are best off finding something single sourced and recently harvested (olive oil is actually a fruit juice). most of the olive oils in the grocery store and either not olive oil or rancid blends of multiple olive oils and treated with hexane. Dogs need tons of fats. winston and us eat a ton us this, we also have some cheaper stuff we give him a lot of.
greens - every now and then i throw in some greens, but rarely
cooked sweet potatoes - he does great on this
quinoa - super high in protein


Heads up, dog and cat food are brand new to the market, historically. the dog/cat food industry was invented in the 1950's. Before that pets got along normally eating human scraps and other human foods without the need of a dietitian. I'm going to attach some videos from a Vet that's been doing this for a while. Also if you look on youtube or anywhere you will find more information than you actually want, it's just up to you how far you


If you are really interested I would heavily suggest watching all four of those videos. You can wing it but it can be dangerous if you don't at least have a foundation of knowledge, the biggest thing is not understanding and knowing what to expect.
Some things I had to learn, sometimes the hard way
1. winston can't process rice, whole rice kernels were showing up in his crap
2. If he eats coconut oil and olive oil together he throws up every time.
3. transitioning him from dog food to raw food was not pleasant for his GI tract, but once he got used to it he was much, much better off in that sense.
4. Raw feeding seemed really, really hard before but once I got in a rhythm it was no different than kibble. you pull some stuff out of the fridge, drop it in the bowl, take him outside and feed him.
5. Dogs who have only eaten kibble do not know how to eat whole chicken parts, like Breast, thighs (my staple), wings, drums... In Winstons case he just tried to swallow everything whole, which would have killed him if I wasn't watching (learning curve from you and the dog). I used to use shears and just snip the bones in multiple pieces until he figured it out, which took about 2 to three days. Then I just had to watch the dumbass eat for a month to make sure he didn't eat himself to death, he's ungodly food driven. But now he can take down an entire chicken quarter without even getting close to choking, it's literally no worry at this point. They have to build jaw strength typically because it's all been lost from eating kibble and never having to digest calcium from bones. People who heavily disagree with raw feeding always cite this reason, I can only speak anecdotally and from personal experience but I would wager a decent amount that most times a dog came into the vet for choking on a raw bone. The dog was very new to it and the owner was inexperienced with raw feeding. you have to watch your dog eat at first for a while and if he starts choking you have to jerk the damn thing out. It sucks and I think it only happened once, maybe twice, but only very early on and very rarely, but it did happen.
6. You can avoid 5 by by feeding your without any raw meaty bones as you can use egg shells or a calcium supplement to provide the needed calcium content. frankly, I'm cheap and buying chicken in ten pound bags for ten dollars is very enticing so I just had him figure it out, he's still a dog.
7. It is either as cheap or cheaper than dog food. Everything you want for your dog they give away at the grocery store. Weird chicken pieces? cheap. Livers? cheap. Gizzards. super cheap? chicken thighs or quarters. Everybody wants a pack of breasts and or wings and you can even go to mexican markets and get some real weird shit.
College anatomy professor said humans should shit soon after each meal and it should be soft and kind of fall right out of you. This assumes you’re eating properly. I assume dogs and all pets for that matter are the same way.
 

yankmenoodle

Elite
Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2021
Messages
715
I read deer guts were great. They have everything nutritionally needed, but you must use gloves handling it. It will stain. AND no one wants a house pet licking them in the face just after eating guts.
 
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