Switching to raw

Hi all!

I've been researching raw feeding for a few weeks now and would like to make the switch with our 6 month English Staffy.

We have fed her Advance dog biscuits since we got her at 8 weeks but she went off them about 2 months ago. Since then I have been mixing something else in sp she will eat them - only a very small amount, just a spoonful, but we have fed her tinned tuna, sardines, tinned Advance pet food, raw egg, grated carrot (she didn't like that!!) mixed in.

Her favourite treat is chicken necks or wings.

After researching all the raw models I think BARF might be the first one to try, but I would prefer to make my own mixtures rather than shop bought. I thought this veg recipe sounds good http://teamunruly.com/?author=3 so was thinking of trying something like this along with meats.

For week one I was going to try raw chicken - wings, necks, legs, breast etc, mixed with a little veg (sweet potato, spinach etc) and raw egg. Then from there add in things like kangaroo mince, liver, kidney, heart etc.

Does this sound like a good diet?

It can be quite confusing with all the different options and I don't want to deprive her any important diet elements, but also don't want to make it too difficult

Thanks heaps   

Sounds like you have it spot on. It can be confusing at first but once you get the hang of it it becomes second nature. Lots of luck - let us know how you get on and remember that bones are important for clean teeth and gum health

Thanks for your reply!

After even more research today I'm thinking that including veg is probably not the way to go and just sticking to meats and maybe eggs. I also managed to find a local supplier of things like green tripe which makes it easier.

The prey model 'How to get started' suggests
Week 1 & 2 - Chicken
Week 3 - Tripe
Week 4 - Pork
Week 5 - Fish
Week 6 - Beef
Week 7 & 8 - Organs

A couple of questions

1. After reading loads of posts here today, some people didn't start tripe till later - does it make a difference?
2. What kind of pork bits do you feed? Loads of research also means loads of conflicting info and something I read says not to feed raw pork?
3. We have 8 weeks till we go on a 3 week holiday and will leave Indi with a family member. Is it easy enough to package up all her feeds for three weeks for easy feeding, or should we hold off on starting the new diet until we return?
4. 10% bone, 10% organ, 80% muscle - this is per feed, or did I read right that you can average it over a week?

It is very daunting with so much info out there!

Thanks!

I Started like you with the weeks you've stated and it worked fine for us, it's pretty easy to pack up for holiday so I think you'll be fine doing it for your family to member, I average the ratios out over a week or so, and yes it can get confusing so try not to get bogged down with it and just go with the flow

Thanks for your replies

I actually started Indi on chicken a couple of days ago as she had surgery on Thursday and went off biscuits altogether. She has had necks before so I was happy to start on chicken straight away whilst still working out the rest. I got her some minced chicken frames today so looking forward to dinner tonight!

I just need to work out how much to feed her (I wouldn't mind knowing approx how many grams per day). She weighed 11.1kg today, so if I went with 10% for a puppy it would be 1.1kg per day (550g per meal!)

That seems a little high to me? I was thinking maybe 350-400g per meal might be better

I'd go with what you think, you can adjust accordingly by how she looks. That's what I do, If she's looking a little slim I give a bit more and vice versa if she's looking a little pudgy she is growing though hence the higher % than an adult dog

Thanks for the advice, might just go with 500g to start, she could do with a little fattening at the moment - I'm really looking forward to getting started on this!

Once you get going you won't look back, I get more excited at Darcy's feeding times than I do my own

Welcome to the raw side
Before we started Bane he was 300g of kibble per day. We started him on about 450g but it has been increasing since, so 500g seems like a good starting point!
We did our meats in a different order but I'm sure it doesn't really matter, we just thought poultry and fish were lighter for his tummy so did them first and then moved onto red meats. We are starting Offal this week
You don't need to feed veg but Bane likes to have carrots, bananas, apples and sweet potatoes as treats!

It really is easier than it sounds! And you can feed frozen so when you go away you can just pack her meals into the weights and assortments and then whoever is feeding can just grab a pack from the freezer

Thanks, I'm quite excited about it! Indi went off her Kong too so I thought I might try the mashed sweet potato aswell as Banana & Peanut Butter for treats. Staffies are definitely funny eaters!

They can be fussy! I think we are quite lucky that Bane so far will eat almost anything
He also likes frozen chicken stock, cream cheese and frozen natural yogurt in his Kongs! Just a few more ideas!

If you need a good resource to get raw meats locally, there are two great local FB pages that would be really helpful to you. Not sure if I can link them here though so maybe if one of the admins can let me know if I can mention the names of the groups?

Thanks djstratton that would be good.

I read about the yoghurt and might try that too. She seems to have a sensitive tummy to lots of things and just throws them up.

Tonight's dinner was the first official raw dinner, although she has been having chicken breast and necks the last couple of days, tonight she got minced chicken frame. We weighed up 500g and it wouldn't fit in her normal bowl! Ended up going with 350g and she demolished it, so I will probably go up to 400g tomorrow and see how she goes from there.

It was frozen mince and she took big chunks from her bowl to the back lawn - cute!

She's also supposed to be resting for 10 days after surgery last week, so no running and playing (impossible for a staffy). We have to put the cone on her head to quieter her down (works instantly!) but she's not impressed....usually stands facing the wall and won't look at us

We started tripe in week 2 as well, you don't need to worry about adding the offal until your a few weeks in, I also waited until then to add egg. In regards to fruit and veg, I don't include it in her meals but give her a bit of what I've got sometimes or as treats   

Thanks Sazzle

Preparing for her first official breakfast with some more chicken frame, she went crazy for it last night...although we could hear some funny sounds coming from her belly when we went to bed last night

Ah great Glad she enjoyed it! Fingers crossed her tummy will be ok with the full meal

Newliz wrote:Thanks djstratton that would be good.

I read about the yoghurt and might try that too. She seems to have a sensitive tummy to lots of things and just throws them up.

Tonight's dinner was the first official raw dinner, although she has been having chicken breast and necks the last couple of days, tonight she got minced chicken frame. We weighed up 500g and it wouldn't fit in her normal bowl! Ended up going with 350g and she demolished it, so I will probably go up to 400g tomorrow and see how she goes from there.

It was frozen mince and she took big chunks from her bowl to the back lawn - cute!

If your search for the FB search bar "Crispy's Crew" A guide to raw diet for cats and dogs and "raw feeding dogs, perth area, W.Australia" you can find the groups which are closed. If you read the "ABOUT" section of the raw feeding group, you'll have to send the admin that is listed there a quick message and friends request for him to make sure you are a real person and not a scammer (think they've had problems in the past with trouble makers). Just let him know that you're new to raw and that a member from the group recommended you join. He will delete you as a friend once he know's you're legit

The groups are great even though I no longer live in perth because you'll get lots of info with out any idiots causing trouble. Will be so useful for you to know where get all your meat products including organs. I'm heading back to Perth on Sunday for just under a week and will be talking to the butcher in my fathers supermarket to see if he can also help supply some things for the raw feeders which I'll be posting on the groups there.

Good luck - it does seem daunting at first but once you see how your dog thrives eating this way, you will want to know why you didn't do this sooner. I'm pretty lucky here in Jakarta that I can get a good variety of everything so I go to the markets for the organs and bits I can't get from my raw meat supplier who has NZ beef cuts. I prep batches in the correct ratios once a week and freeze them. I take out what I need the night before to thaw and feed our boy the next day

Excellent thanks, I have joined the group

Newliz wrote:Excellent thanks, I have joined the group

LOL, I just read your post and knew it was you

WOW, are you really feeding her 800g a day? How much does Indi weigh? Marquez weighs 21kg at 14months so I feed him 525g/day. Doesn't seem much but he's been putting on weight feeding him at the 2.5% rate. If he was overweight I'd feed at 2% and underweight at the 3%.

Haha not anymore! We've only been doing raw feeding for 4 days - for the first day I was just cutting up half a chicken breast and throwing in a neck and then somehow we ended up with the 800g calculation (based on 10% of her puppy weight). I thought it was too much so have been doing about 350g but now I'll definitely drop it down to 3% of her adult weight.

Although she didn't eat for about 3 days and wasn't a big eater on the biscuits so could do with a little fatten up at the moment.

She must think she's in heaven getting that much meat!

So far on week 1 with chicken we have just been feeding necks, breast & minced frames. Are chicken hearts ok to add in? Going to get some drumsticks and wings too

Of course the hearts are ok to go in. Get some liver and what ever else you can find. They recommend 5% liver from their daily allowance (i.e. 500g daily amount = 25g liver which isn't much at all). I throw in kidney or spleen to balance out the organ quota.

Items which can be classed as muscle meats are stomach/tripe, tongue, heart, gizzard etc.

Organs can be identified as they secrete and include liver, kidney, spleen, testicles and brain.

http://dogsdinner2.webs.com/offalororgan.htm

But keep an eye out on her poo as it does sound like she's getting a lot of bone. If she starts having trouble pooing or they are dry and crumbly, I'd cut the bone amount back Also with the minced frames, maybe give them to her whole as they really do love crunching on things and it's great for their teeth.

When I started Marquez on raw, he wasn't interested in the meat chunks when I first gave it to him but had no problem eating it when I minced it up the food processor. Over the weeks I've been chopping up the meat less finely and mixing it into half mince that I chop up in the processor and I'm just about stop mincing the beef as he wolfs it all down now without any problem. He wasn't too fond of the organ and offal so I would just mix them up in the processor too and mixing it in with his food and he has no problem with that.

I got some chicken hearts & giblets today - I've read to hold off on things like liver & kidney until later on, but what about a little bit of chicken liver, is this not as strong as beef or lamb, or pretty much the same thing?

Just the same, yes personally I would hold off liver and other offal for the first month  

I just made my first batch of raw dog food using this awesome guide http://dogsfirst.ie/preparing-a-dogs-dinner/
My staffy is 16kg, 4.5 years old, so I feed her around 410g (2.5% of her body weight)) . I'm not sure about a puppy, but there's heaps of research articles and info on feeding dogs using the link I gave I used chicken mince, beef mince, chicken necks, lambs liver, lambs heart, sweet potato, carrot peas and corn, parsley, a little garlic, raw eggs, apple, and cod liver oil in quantities the link recommends.

I thought I'd update as its been about 6 weeks since we switched to raw

So far we are feeding
Chicken all types - mainly drumsticks, wings, necks, thighs, giblets & hearts
Roo mince
Beef - usually mince but also some old steaks from the freezer
Pork - mainly cubed meat or mince
Lamb mince
Turkey mince
Raw eggs
Tinned or frozen raw sardines
Green tripe - can only get frozen pellet types here in Aus
Chicken liver - just started this and she spits it out - am going to try frozen pieces

She goes crazy for tripe & chicken hearts and watching her eat raw egg is hilarious!

To date the only bone we have fed is chicken, although tonight she got half a lamb forequarter chop with her chicken drumstick - I'm still in shock at how fast she demolished it, bone and all - literally 2 mins and it was gone. I've been worried about feeding beef or lamb bone as it seems so hard but she had no issue with it

She's currently eating 270-300g per meal (twice a day) - possibly considered too much for a 13kg puppy, but she just doesn't put on weight.

I'm really pleased at how shiny her at is, how white her teeth are & how excited she gets for meal time now

I have to admit though, it is more work, but with it. We are going on holiday for 4 weeks and have just finished packaging and freezing almost 80 little bags of food for our sitter!

Glad it's going well   lamb bones are fine but don't feed weight bearing beef bones are they are denser than the dogs teeth so could break them x