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

green tripe does and SHOULD smell but i don't think it's that bad. White tripe which is no good for dogs doesn't smell

Washed tripe doesn't smell either which is a dark grey in colour, this is not bleached however which makes it white in colour which has no nutrient advantages at all..

Not all tripe smells uncooked

if it's grey it's crap quality fresh tripe is a yellowy green colour, and smells like sh*te.

I've fed tripe for years from umpteen different animals and every single time it smells

It's green minced lamb tripe! Will soon see about the smell when it has defrosted tomorrow...I hope he likes it and it goes down well so he doesn't have a super stink bum from it! haha
The week after we will be moving onto fish I think and then that will be all the different meats from our DAF order done so will look into getting some pork beef etc from somewhere else :)Thanks Ella! Will see what weird and wonderful concoctions we can make up for him each day

Hmmm the tripe I feed is more grey than green! It does smell though!! Maybe I'll try the other shop this weekend and see if theirs is more green!

I've just got a pack out the freezer and it doesn't even have to be defrosted to stink Bane has just gone nuts so looks like he likes the smell!

They love it!

I got a pack of the nature menu stuff and thought is was a good idea to portion some up   Took a small bit out for today and ended up locking it in the bathroom to defrost as Ledger was just sat in the kitchen transfixed on it defrosting on the counter top

Hahaha! Aw bet hes gonna love having that tomorrow I'm sure your bathroom will smell good too

Bane eating his egg this morning! He makes such a mess pushing it around the floor

Aww he eats the shell too, great video   I have to really mash it all up in Daisy's meat or she won't eat the shell if she can pick it out!

aww bless him

Ye he has finally got the hang of eating it! I can't imagine it's a nice texture so I don't blame Daisy for leaving it out Bane is just a guts and will eat anything!

So today is day 1 of tripe week Stinks like sh*t but he loved it!
He had just under 200g of tripe mince topped up with a little chicken for Breakfast. Lunch and dinner will be Turkey and Chicken mince

(excuse the eye bogies...)

He's having a lazy day so didn't want to get out of bed to eat it!   

bless him!

thankfully the bathroom didn't smell too bad I've only given small portions of the tripe (about 1/3) in his evening meal for the last two nights mixed in with his chicken mince

Tomorrow we might try an egg

Awwww Bane   

Ah Jules, you'll have to let us know how Ledger gets on with the egg

So yesterday he had 200g tripe mince, 150g piece of bone in chicken and a bit of mince to top up to about 200g and 200g turkey mince...all seems fine! Stools are still solid and he really seems to be loving the tripe!

Today he has had about 200g turkey mince for breakfast, will be having tripe for lunch and chicken for dinner

Roughly how long would it take to notice a different in his scratching?

I always say to see a difference in a dog you need to give it at LEAST 3 months, for toxins to leave the body, it's not an overnight thing unfortunately

Just given him an egg in his bowl (got back from the food shop and one was a bit cracked) he pushed it round the bowl until he must have made a small crack and the gooey goodness came out and he just kept pushing it round for ages before eventually opening up the shell, he did leave that but will leave it in there and mix in with his mince for tea

On the poop score definitely see the difference with just a little bit of tripe added so going to go back to just chicken for a while, treat time tomorrow as 2x chicken quarters (500+g) were just over £1 in Aldi also bought myself a whole chicken was going to roast it but might see what I can butcher so it leaves the carcass good for freezing down

I think I'm becoming a bit obsessed lol maybe as I ordered a new chest freezer today so i can get bulk deliveries from DAF from the 4th March

yep you soon catch the raw bug

Ooooh I am so impatient, that is so long! >.> We have noticed a bit of difference in him but he does still itch. Not as obsessively as before but just this morning he's grazed his chin. Fingers crossed he will get there

Jules that's what Bane does just nudges it around until gooeyness comes out! The first time Bane had one he didn't really like the shell but now scoffs it down at the end so I'm sure Ledger will get the hang of it And those quarter chickens sound goodl! O: Will have to take a look next time we are near Aldi!
Haha it catches on fast doesn't it

I have just mixed up some turkey and chicken mince with some garlic and apple cider and filled those two cow hooves...hopefully they will be frozen ready for his dinner tonight

he will get there hun

I hope so Ella

So yesterday as Bane turned 6 months, we reduced his meals down to twice a day. He is having about 600g a day give or take and treats and kongs on top of that. He is looking healthy and we are hoping to weigh him in a few days to see how much he has put on since a couple of weeks ago.

So yesterday he had a boney chicken piece for breakfast (about 150g) and the other 150g made up of tripe and turkey mince. Dinner he then had a mixture of tripe, turkey and chicken mince.
All poops have been as perfect as a poop can be! So we gave him the same again today. He seems to be processing the bone much better

Great   

300g of combined tripe, turkey and chicken mince again this morning and then 300g of tripe and turkey mince and some chicken meat for dinner! He also got an egg which he made such a mess of!

His ears are really bad today. He's trying to sleep now and has to keep turning over as he tries to scratch them! Poor guy I can see him trying to be gentle They are really red too I don't think he has had anything different today in terms of treats or anything...

Bless him   

probably asked before but has he been tested for ear mites?

He had 5 skin scrapes for mites and they all came back clear. The vet gave us some Advocate spot on as well just in case, but a few days after we put it on him, he got baldy patches on his ears? They still haven't cleared up.

Yesterday on our walk, I think our neighbor might have given him a small piece of a Bonio type biscuit...that would have been about 5pm, could that have caused it to flare up?

He is being really clingy today he's driving me crazy! Also not sure if he has scratched his ears a little but it looks like some of the little scabs are back again. I will try and get a photo and post later.   

yes something as daft as a tiny treat could cause a flare up especially if it's full of grains like the bonio

Urgh I will have to watch them like a hawk then when we are with them to make sure they don't sneak a treat to him, they know why we changed his food! Hopefully this is all it was then and it will clear up again in a day or two! >.>

So today was the first day of FISH!! I got him a couple of fresh sardines to go with his Chicken and Oily Fish mince that he has. For breakfast he had just under 200g of tripe and turkey mince, a chicken drumstick on the bone and a sardine!!


This was Bane giving Fred a kiss before scoffing his head off!


I forgot to get some more food out to defrost for dinner   So he had left over bits of turkey and tripe mince, topped up to 340g with chicken meat pieces.

nom nom, he's doing really well, Daisy won't eat the fish unless I chop it up in tiny pieces and hide it in the other food!!

Sorry I haven't updated, it's been a super busy week! >.>

Aw Saz I guess we have gotten pretty lucky with Bane then! He has eaten everything we've given him so far.

So for the last 5 days (and today) he has been having about 700g a day split into two meals. Each meal has been roughly: 150g Chicken and Fish mince, 100g tripe mince and 100g turkey mince or, 50g turkey mince and a whole sardine. The OH has been home most of the week so he keeps sneaking extra food in his bowl!
We have also bought some full fat natural yogurt to add in. He loves that too!

His scratching has returned to normal again now and he didn't have any cuts or grazes anywhere until yesterday when he went outside for a bit and scratched the hell out of his ears :(It doesn't look anything worse than a few scrapes here and there but they were mighty red and sore yesterday!

His poos seem to be going almost back to how they were while he was on kibble. They aren't runny but look pretty soft again so maybe we need to up the bone content seeing as he has only really been having fish bones this week. I'll give him a boney chicken bit for dinner later and reduce the amount of chicken and oily fish mince.

Starting on pork this week!  

Sounds like it's going great Hun xx

It is Hayley Just gotta be patient with his ears! He didn't get much sleep last night from scratching so much, he is still asleep on his bed now!

Your both doing great   

Where's Ella gone? o.o

Took a trip to a few new butchers today for some meaty offcuts or bits...no luck :(They all just kinda looked at me weirdly and said "Oh no we don't sell things like that"...what do they do with all the off cuts?!  

So anyway I went back to the one we got the pigs trotters from before and got a random bag of bones, another trotter and a hunk of pork (looked like some kind of leg piece) all for £3:


I skinned the leg piece and cut the skin up into small squares and baked into pork scratching treats for Bane! He loooved them:


I managed to get about 500g of meat off of the leg which I have bagged up into 3 portions to add to his meals over the next couple of days. The bone that was left is quite big, so I think I will let him have a little chew to try and tear off any left over pieces of meat but will then be going in the bin or to the neighbours dog as the size would suit him better

So for his meals today he had 300g mixture of turkey, tripe and chicken and oily fish mince for breakfast and then for dinner a pigs trotter (about 420g I think) It took him an hour to polish that beast off and it did get pretty stinky! o.o

Brilliant   

So Tuesday Bane had his regular 350g ish of mixed minces for breakfast with a bit of Apply Cider Vinegar and a bone for dessert and then 150g of the pork meat I got off the bone mixed with 200g regular minces for dinner.

Yesterday he had 300g minces in the morning with some natural yogurt and an egg...pretty gross concoction but he seemed to love it! And another pigs trotter for dinner! Took him about 40 minutes that time so he is getting quicker

Today he will be having 200g minces for breakfast mixed with 150g pork meat, and then dinner I think he will be getting a chicken drumstick mixed in with his minces.

Poos are still all good so fingers crossed Must have missed a couple in my poo picking missions as there were some bright white ones at the end of the garden so strange to see!

Best hang back a bit on the bone if there's white ones Hun, but the could have been a while ago I watch Darcy in the garden so always pick it up straight away, but still find sneaky hidden ones

Glad banes doing well i am waiting for eddie to finish his james welbeloved then am moving him over to raw i have done that much reading and research my head hurts

Eddie wrote:Glad banes doing well i am waiting for eddie to finish his james welbeloved then am moving him over to raw i have done that much reading and research my head hurts

I was like that too, but once you get into the swing of this you be fine.

Have you noticed a difference Hayley suppose it gives me a excuse to use my knife set more often haha

Defiantly Hun, Darcy's more alert and definitely more enthusiastic with her food, which we struggled to get in her before raw. Fur is shiny and not dry like it was, and her allergies seem to have settled down She's bright eyed and bushy tailed

Sounds like your doing great his kibble seems to be taking for ever to finish soon as his low enough think i will put an order in with DAF hopefully he will take to it

Hayley I think those ones had been there a while They were well hidden and a bit trampled >.>
The ones from last night were white this morning though so I will be leaving the chicken bone tonight and just feed him the minces and pork meat

_Hayley_ wrote:

Eddie wrote:Glad banes doing well i am waiting for eddie to finish his james welbeloved then am moving him over to raw i have done that much reading and research my head hurts

I was like that too, but once you get into the swing of this you be fine.

Agree with Hayley everything is quite daunting to start with and it's all a bit mind boggling, but once you get into it, it seems to all make sense If you ever need any help with it, there are plenty of people here that can help out!
We've only been feeding Bane raw for a month now and we got so much support from this forum! Glad that we found it or we would have never known that it was an option

Yeah i get shat you mean emma well i have just baught 5 days worth off chicken mince and chicken wings and necks if he likes it i will place a order he dint have his kibble this morning show he should be ready for this i got him weighed at vets yday his 18kg will keep you informed yea this forum has given me info and help when needed thumbs up ey

Ment what not shat stupid iphones lol

Haha shat! Good luck with the chicken! I'm sure he won't say no to fresh meat!   
Bane is about 18kg...maybe more we will see tomorrow, and he is having 600-700g a day but then he is just over 6 months old so still a growing puppy.

Well thanks to you lot he has just had his bush tucker trial and licked the bowl clean he had chicken mince and a chicken wing for afters cheers for them help and advice