Whose dogs are on a raw diet?

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Hi again,

Little by little I`ve come to the conclusion that raw food is the best I can do for my dog...

I am wondering if many of you guys practise it the same way we do... and what are your experiences?

 

I have to admit there`s still 10 kg of Acana left and I will feed this... then.... I think... I will turn into a crazy barfer ;-)

How about you??

[Eunice Marott]

correct and Molly loves her raw bones from the butcher especially shanks... keeps them for weeks

[Ilona & Gina]

As Gina has allergies, we swapped from commercial food to raw meat and bones when our "kids" were about six months old. I've never looked back. Gina is fine, her coat is wonderful and shiny, and both dogs are in good health.

We feed raw lamb, kangaroo (gibts nicht auf der Alb :)), only occasionally beef, also raw chicken and then a raw bone now and again. Great are raw lamb necks (the whole thing, not just the slices) and lamb shanks. We don't give beef marrow bones (the big ones) as they are weight bearing bones with too much density, which can be bad for the dogs' teeth.

As a little concession to this "BARF" business, we give treats made of dry meat strips or otameal biscuits (Gina is allergic to wheat). I'm sure you can get a dehydrator for say 50 Euros in Germany, that saves you a lot of money for treats!

 

But we don't mind when our two dogs swap Schmackos (these commercial soft treat strips) with their mates in the park. We also give cooked meat occasionally (Anton hates raw kangaroo).

 

In general, raw meat diet is a lot cheaper than commercial diet. You can actually go to a pet meat butcher and get it by the ten kilos rather cheap (we pay about $2.50 per kilo of absolutely fresh meat), and our two dogs eat about 500 grams of meat a day (treats not counted). Vito may weigh 30 kilos (right) - he would need about 2% food of his body weight daily - including 10 or 20 % vegies - work it out how expensive it would be for you.

 

Christine, if you need more info about this sort of diet (how much to feed etc) I am happy to give you some tips, also about what else to add (kelp power, fish oil, raw egg yolk, yoghurt, kefir, can of sardines.....) as I've done soooo much research I should have a university degree by now :))

Also there are some good websites out there, also written in German.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into a lecture - as you can see, I am one of the enthusiasts!

[emma bell]

Hi Christine,

 

I feed Darcey on the BARF diet. It was completely new to me until we got her this time last year and her breeder insisted we keep her on it. For ease, we also changed our springer to the same diet - with no arguements from him! :)

 

Once I got into the hang of it, I found it quite straight forward. The biggest thing is remembering to get the meat out of the freezer, there's still sometimes now that I have to dash to Sainsbury's to get some mince!

 

I remember being absolutely gobsmacked when we brought Darcey home at 8 weeks and she was lying there munching a chicken wing, my heart was in my mouth!

 

I'm really lucky that I've got one of the main raw meat proividers on my doorstep.

 

I think the only downside to it is the smell of it first thing in the morning, especially when it's a tripe day!

 

 

[Kate]

Cant agree more on tripe days!! the smell lingers everybody evacuates the house when its out!

If the raw meat hasnt defrosted prop you can lightly boil it, i also put frozen veg in too!