Bane's Raw Food Diary

First topic message reminder :

So we have switched Bane to raw, and just wanted to make a little diary to help us keep track of things and to also hopefully help others who are thinking of changing

So a little information about Bane:
He was on Hills Science Plan Vet Essentials dry food, having 300g a day split into 3x100g meals. He has been on hay fever tablets for the last few months and has been having some real itching problems which we are hoping is down to some kind of food allergy, hence why we want to swap to raw.
He is 5 and a half months old and weighs about 16kg.

Our Plan:
We ordered our first lot of raw meat from DAF (Durham Animal Feeds) as this was a recommended place on the forum. In our first order we got:
- Chicken Mince,
- Turkey Mince,
- Tripe Mince,
- Chicken and Oily Fish Mince.
- Chicken Portions (Wings and Thighs)
- Chicken Chunks (Pure Meat)
(We are really happy with the order! Got 6 boxes full of meat which we just managed to fit into our undercounter freezer )

We plan to feed Chicken first, once his stools become normal, gradually mix in a bit of turkey, then tripe and then the chicken and oily fish. We got the Chicken Wings and Thighs to give him something to chew on and to help clean his teeth, and the Chicken Chunks in case the mince was too high in bone content. (DAF said they try to keep the minces at no more than 15% bone)
We will then move on to pork, lamb, beef and then start to add in some offal and other more exciting things (Each after his stools return to normal)

In terms of how much we are going to feed, we have started with 1 pack of mince per day, which we will gradually increase/decrease depending on how his weight is affected.

I'll try to keep this updated with photos and posts for anyone who is interested

Sorry I haven't posted lately I have been visiting my parents for a long weekend away with Banedog and the OH!

So we introduced some liver into Bane's diet last week and he is doing fine on it No runny bums as of yet! He refused the kidney so I turned it into Kidney cake, using the liver cake quantities!

While at home I found a rabbit at a butchers! I cut it into 8 pieces and have been adding it to his meals every few days. Tummy seems fine so that's something else to be adding from now on Also got a 3 pack of pigs trotters for 99p! :O I think I need to move closer to home, they cost 80p each here! And got a giant fish head from the fish market which I think was salmon, so it is in the freezer for a few weeks before I give it to him

While at my parents he has been playing non stop with my parents Staff so he has been having about 800g of food a day. Now we are home and he is exercising less, it will probably go down a little again to about 700g to see how he gets on. He also got a chance to have a nibble on a whole rabbit (with fur) that my parent's cat brought in...he tried bless him! but wasn't impressed with the fur! So gave it back to the cat to eat!

He was also a very naughty pup and we are now aware of his prey drive  Parents have chickens that like to escape their pen...the first occasion Bane wanted to play until it stopped moving and he managed to get a bite of it's butt! He got a telling off and luckily the hen was alright and healed in a day or two...and then another escaped and sadly we didn't get there in time! Bane managed to kill it and have a bit of a nibble which he seemed to like!  The state of him when we found him!  

We have also had our Venison chunks delivered today Yay! So I will introduce a little into his dinner tonight to see how he gets on with it.

So we've pretty much got over the introductory phases of the Raw diet now so I don't want to bore you all with the same meal plans every day
I will update the thread every now and again with his progress or any new exciting things we find but otherwise will stick to what we have been doing for the last couple of weeks, trying to get as much variety into each of his meals!

Oh dear poor chicken! It's only their natural instinct though at least you know now! Glad it's all going well, sounds like your all set now   xx

Aww no poor chicken, but hey it's all natural Hun, glad things are going well xx

Yeah he didn't seem interested in them the last few times we went but obviously he has grown up and now realises they are food If he hadn't made such a mess of it, my mum was going to pluck it and give it to him for dinner!

 

Had some great news from my mum! She managed to finally bump into her butcher friend who has kindly said that he will keep a load of bits for us!

His first batch is mainly bones, I think there was a whole beef rib cage o.o Not sure if the bones are too big until I go home next, but this week he has pigs coming in so that means trotters, heads, tails and any offal he doesn't use all for free!!    I am soooo excited to go home! The first lot was so big my mum set up her spare chest freezer for Bane so he now has a freezer full here and at my parents Greedy bugger!

Oh I also found these from when we went home! Our cat provided Bane and Domino with a bunny buffet I think she brought in 4 in one night!





Bane didn't eat his but Domino went and buried his in the garden I would hate to think what it was like when he decided to eat it!

Eeek poor bunnies!

I know >.> Their cat is a stone cold killer!

Went to Allaboutdogs on Sunday at Newark and Natures Menu had a stall with some discount food! Got Bane a 2 pack of Beef Trachea and 7 pack of duck necks! He had a duck neck last night and it was gone in seconds We are going to try and stuff the Beef Trachea as they are so big and see how he likes one of those for dinner!
He got so many compliments about his coat! Everyone saying how soft and shiny he was and how healthy he looked!

Aww brilliant   we have duck necks at the moment and Daisy loves stuffed tracheas   

Saz the stuffed Trachea was awesome! They work out quite expensive if we continue to get the packs of Natures Menu but heading back to parents tomorrow so fingers crossed we can pop into the butchers!

Had an almost perfect long weekend at the parents!
Day 1: Bane killed another escaped chicken!  Luckily my parents didn't seem to mind and we pulled a few bits off her to feed to Bane: 2 legs including feet, some breast and other bits and pieces...poor lil lady!

My parents also know a butcher and holy crap he is the nicest man in the world! My mum has got some stuff off him before which included a small chest freezer full of meaty bones, mainly beef so some bones are too big, but also a couple of duck carcasses and ribs.
This time when we visited he gave us over 5kg of beef scrap meat, a load of bones and then as we went to leave, I mentioned about chicken carcasses to which he gave me a bag full of what I thought was frozen chicken carcass...I got home and they are all chicken wings!  There is over 30 wings!! He also has a pig coming in this week and said he would save me the trotters and head etc! All for free!  

That's fantastic hun   Apart from the chicken of course! RIP chicken! xx

That's really great Emma xx

re Basilsdogfood - they have a butchers shop at the abattoir in Tockenham where we buy a lot of meat as it is of such good quality so I have no doubt the dog food is of similar quality and it seems to be a fair price.  I always bought my raw food from Honeys (which was more expensive but good) until Maisey developed hepatitis and Roxie just went off raw.  I do still have a freezer load of raw meat which I am slowly going to introduce back to Roxie.  I have been making liver and heart cakes as treats for the dogs to use some of it up. If and when I get back to Raw feeding and have used up the meat from Honeys I will pop to Tockenham and enquire about their dog meat.

If only I lived near Tockenham, sounds like a great little butchers!

My mum has bagged us a pig head and 2 trotters! Not sure why there are only 2 Who knows but it's better than nothing! I think there is another one she is picking up tomorrow! Anyone else fed pig heads? Any tips? o.o

So another successful (and slightly disastrous) trip to the parents! Firstly the bad news...you probably already guessed it! Bane got another chicken that had escaped it's pen

And the good news, we came back with about 1.5kg pork meat, 2 trotters, 2 ears and a snout and over 500g of pig skin that will soon be turned into crackling treats! Getting bits off the head was actually pretty easy and Bane and Domino both got to have a nibble on the left over skull/meaty bits. I did managed to cut my finger pretty bad though   Mega ouch!
Got some nice photos (if that is possible with raw meat) of the two of them so will try and post them

Been having a couple of people asking why I am feeding pork to Bane though? Saying that it isn't good for dogs? I can't seem to find much online, any one else know anything?

Some dogs are intolerant but as long as he's not just don't feed too much as it's very fatty, that's it as far I as I know xx

Oh right ok Makes sense! As far as I am aware he doesn't have an intolerance! Thanks Saz

No worries   imagine it would be quite obvious if he did xx

Thanks for sharing all this, we have just started Bailey on Raw food and I have never seen him SO excited about meal times.

We are just on week one, so just chicken mince and chicken chunks, chicken bones but he is LOVING meal time.

I have noticed that he is scratching his ears a lot since this diet started so I will keep an eye on this. Interesting to read about the apple cider vinegar, that stuff seems to be a cure for a lot of things, maybe we should get some and put it in his dinner too? Would this be ok in the first week do you think?

We are buying a new freezer, we are lucky enough to have the room for it in our utility room, so yes Bailey will have his own freezer full of his delights haha!

Thanks so much again for sharing your diary, its SO daunting to begin with starting the Raw diet, and my OH keeps telling me I am over complicating it, but I just want to do what is right for my boy, so its nice to read what other people are doing

Glad to hear you are finding the diaries useful, there is loads of useful information here.

Do you mind me asking what you might feed your pups as treats.

I'm a bit scared to give Bailey any dried food type treats now he is on the raw food diet, but with his training etc I would like to use treats, but cant exactly carry a chicken wing to the park hehe (although Im sure Bailey would wonder why the hell not haha)!  Ive been recommended to get a food dehydrator, what do you think?

I'm also thinking of getting a dehydrator as a lot as daisy's treats are dried meat (liver, heart, lung, tongue) She also has bigger things like pizzles, pig/cow ears.

I also make quite a few things myself, sweet potato chews ,tuna or mackeral cake, banana cake.

I also still give things like ham or cheese as a high value treat for training.

And in her kong she loves mashed up banana and peanut butter.

Daisy loves fruit so I'm also able to use that as treats!

wow, Sweet potatoe chews and tuna cake? (You know whats coming next don't you)......... How do you make them? lol......

Oh he LOVES cheese and banana so at least I can carry on with those, that's great thanks Sazzle. x

Have a read of these  


https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t56979-doggy-banana-cake

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t51459-tuna-loaf

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t52570-today-s-batch-of-treats

Really glad that it was of some use It is very daunting! But as we found you don't have to be spot on with everything, and things are easily fixed!
Glad to hear that he is loving meal times! Bane gets so excited even now I will have to post a video one day

As for treats we use liver cake mostly! I have copied the recipe I use below! It is so easy and I can cut one cake into hundreds of pieces! You can freeze what you won't use within a day or two and then just use straight from the freezer!
Plain boiled chicken chunks are also another option for training treats

Liver Cake:
- 450g liver
- 450g plain flour
- 3 eggs topped up with water
- 2 cloves of garlic

In a blender mix the liver and garlic. Crack eggs into a jug and add an equal amount of water. Add eggs to liver in a bowl and mix with the flour. Put into a paper lined 9x13 inch (roughly) baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes at 200c. Easy

I bet Daisy would love liver cake but cooked liver gives her bum gravy!

Oh yeah I forgot about that Saz! Shame I'm sure she would!

Have just finished reading through this whole thread and would like to say thank you for taking the time to keep a diary.

I now feel much more confident about starting my Scooby on raw next week

Everyone can ignore my long post I wrote a couple of days ago asking how to start on raw.

Going to pretty much follow this thread for the first month and see how it goes.

Cheers

Oh wow, you must be very patient for reading it all I'm glad that it helped and good luck with your raw feeding!
If you need any help, there are a few of us on here that can help! I am no expert but have learnt a lot as I have gone along
Just keep an eye on how Scooby is doing and you will see what works best for him

I have just read through the whole thread and found it very helpful and interesting to see how Bane went on with the raw feeding.
One thing I have definitely picked up on is that I might be over feeding Cooper. He's only been on the raw diet for just over a week now (we have only had him just over a week) and loves it but I am so worried about giving him to much so I'm going to follow what you have done and see how that goes.
The last thing I want is for Cooper to become overweight
Paul

great thread

ditchy76 wrote:I have just read through the whole thread and found it very helpful and interesting to see how Bane went on with the raw feeding.
One thing I have definitely picked up on is that I might be over feeding Cooper. He's only been on the raw diet for just over a week now (we have only had him just over a week) and loves it but I am so worried about giving him to much so I'm going to follow what you have done and see how that goes.
The last thing I want is for Cooper to become overweight
Paul

I wouldn't worry too much about over feeding. Just start out at around 3% of his body weight and monitor him visually and by touch (should be able to feel his ribs without seeing them, with a nice slim waist).

But every dog is different based on their genetics and daily lifestyle - for example, Scooby is now having 6% of his body weight due to the amount of exercise he gets because even on 4% he was losing weight.

It's very easy to quickly cut back or add on their food so don't worry too much - you wont do any harm anyway if you pay attention to his physique

Thanks Dan

Thank you very much Paul It will take a week or two to get into it and to get your measures correct so don't worry too much about it, just keep an eye on Coopers body condition and adjust accordingly.

How much are you feeding and how heavy is he do you know?

Hi Emma, he's just been neutered today so was weighed this morning. He weighs 18kgs. The vet seemed to be happy with him apart from having to have some medication for discharge from his nose.

Thats good to hear! it may/may not take a bit longer to find what suits him if he's been neutered. Many people say once neutered they tend to put on weight easier hope he has a speedy recovery!

Hi Emma
Yeah he's recovered fine, back to his bouncing best, the stitches aren't bothering him at all so we haven't had to keep the cone of shame on for very long

That's good to hear!

What a great thread Emma, just read the lot! I have been doing a shed load of research into raw feeding, and am becoming very enthusiastic about it, though Peter is a bit more hesitant! It did seem very overwhelming, but having read Banes diary, it seems so easy!
May have to wait til after our holiday before we start, not sure the dog sitter would appreciate a lpad of random frozen meat dumped at her door!!

Thanks Lynn! Must have taken you an age to read all that but glad it helped!

It is really daunting when you first start and we were put off for a long time as we just read so much conflicting information! But once you get into it it is so easy!

Haha we were panicking about our sitter for when we go on holiday but she has experience with it thank goodness! We were desperately looking at switching him back while away but couldn't find a dry food that even came close to the cost while still maintaining a decent quality. I just hope the sitter isn't too squeamish! I think she's fed natures menus nuggets before whereas Bane's is more slabs of stinky tripe and pigs trotters ha

Haha, that may be a shock to the system for her!!
I am looking g forward to the switch, it's really satisfying listening to Theia crunch through a chicken wing!!

This is a great thread very informative certainly learned a lot.

Should I be mean and give him all tripe for the week

Tell me about it! The OH and I were fascinated by him eating for the first week or two! We'd just sit and watch to see how he'd get through it...just a bit weird hey?!

And thanks Crystal

Haha, you have a wicked streak!! I like your style!!
And weird is good!
Do you give any extra supplements? Or do you vary his diet enough to get a bit of everything?

We try to vary the meats as much as possible. I think in total he eats about 9 different meats on a regular basis.
The only supplement we give is evening primrose oil which was prescribed by the vet when we first found out about his dust mite allergy as we were told it may help improve his skin. I don't think it makes much of a difference though to be fair and we're just finishing the bottle.

He does have fish every day or so and a raw egg maybe a couple of times a week. We sometimes put a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar in as that is supposed to be good for them. And sometimes add a few herbs which we've read are good for their immune system etc. too

We put cider apple vinegar in Theias water as it's supposed to be good for her cheesy smelling feet!!
Also, do you still go for chemical flea and worm prevention/treatment, or do you use natural products ie garlic, pumpkin seeds etc?

The dog eats better than us! Or will be soon!!

Haha tell me about it!

We still use a chemical flea and wormer all in one. But it's every 3 months or so. From what I have read though, garlic in their food is supposed to help repel fleas and reduce the chance of getting worms. We occasionally add a bit to his food or I will put a few cloves in his Liver Cake treats.

I was reading into using Diatomaceous Earth as a natural wormer. But didn't feel confident enough that I knew what I was doing to stop with the other one. Maybe one day once I've looked into it a little more!

Brilliant thread, just read the whole thing (took 20 mins or so).
Pick our pup up in Novemeber and would like to start her straight on raw. In my basket just now I have chicken mince, wings and necks to start off with for the first little while as she is only going to be 8 weeks. Is there anything else I could try her with?