Just started on RAW and need some advice please

Hi all,

I have a 2 year old male staffy called Samson. He is lean and well exercised. Body weight is around 20-22kg.

I have been having trouble getting his dry food of late and he seems a bit bored of it so I decided to try him on a wet food, butchers tripe. Now he seemed to wolf it down no problem which got me thinking that he must be bored with eating the same dry food day in day out. So I started to read about the raw diet. I started to pick up meals or treats for him to try him on. First off was a turkey neck and wow did he like that! All the mentioned benefits were there. He took longer to eat it and seemed really into trying to work out how to best pick bits off. He also crunched up the bones and ate bit by bit which obviously I watched him close as Im sorry to say he hasn't bones before. I then checked his stools and all seemed fine and infact smaller lighter coloured stools that didn't really smell much. Great! I did some more reading and got more ingredients for the meals. I then tried him on some beef mince around 350g with some grate carrot and a raw egg with crushed shell mixed in. Again he loved it! and licked his bowl clean. Thats it I thought got to keep him on this. So on my break at work i have been having a look online for diets and meal plans etc.

Tonight I got some diced Ox heart, sliced pig liver and ox kidney too. I also picked up some broccoli and sprats. I also know a pet shop that sells chicken carcasses, turkey and duck necks and lambs spines. I also need to get flax oil? or cod liver oil or both and how often?

I have a bought a spare fridge to keep the beers cold and currenty have put most of the meat in there to keep as not much room in the freezer to make a bulk of meals. I will try and mostly buy fresh although I believe pork has to be frozen ideally for a month to kill and lurking parasites?

I really need advice on what to feed and when really? I have been reading really conflicting documents on how often to feed certain things etc. One website said to feed small amounts of liver every day apart from lamb liver? Another website said once a week would be fine and same for kidney, spleen etc. One website said said 2 meals a day (400g split) another said once a day is better on their digestion.

Oh I also gave him a chopped apple with some blueberries which went down well too!

Please can someone give me advice on what they would feed meal plan wise with the foods i have got for Samson. Also the quicker to prepare the better. I work full time and have two kids so haven't go time to over prepare foods or make kidney cookies etc!

Sorry for my extensive question really want to have a good go of this and try and get it right for Sam.

Cheers

Welcome to the raw side I am glad that he is enjoying it! (sorry for my essay)

I have been feeding Raw for about a year now and learnt from others on here. From my understanding/what I have gone by:

- Firstly the diet should be made up of 10% Offal (liver, kidney etc) 10% Bone and 80% meat.

- You can feed the rough 10% of offal each day or if his tummy can handle it, all in one meal, once a week or every fortnight, whatever is convenient for you. As long as you try to get the above ratios correct over a month or so he will be fine. I've never read anything bad about lambs liver and we will get that if the supermarket is out of pigs.

- The number of meals you feed per day is again up to you and how much time you have. Smaller, more frequent meals are easier to digest and reduce the risk of bloat, but if you only want to feed once a day that is fine and often easier with raw if feeding larger bits of meat on the bone.

- As for the flax oil or cod liver oil, you don't have to add supplements to his diet. You can simply feed him a raw fish each week or every few days to give him the extra omegas that he would get from the oil tablets. If tablets are easier for you, then get Body of Fish Oil, once a day or every few days.

- If feeding apples, make sure to remove all the seeds as they can make them seriously ill.

- Veg and fruit isn't a necessary part of their diet, but if he enjoys them it doesn't do any harm.

- I've heard about all the reasons why not to feed pork to dogs but we have never had a problem. We usually freeze his food before feeding as we make up meal packs once a week or so. But he has had fresh pork straight from the butcher with no problems. It is human grade meat so I wouldn't expect there to be any parasites in there!

In case you were interested: How we do it with Bane, is we order our main meat and minces online for delivery every two months or so. I then buy liver, kidney and other tid bits from the supermarket if they are a decent price, and also get free bits like pig heads and carcasses from the butcher.
Maybe once a week we defrost a batch of meat and minces and I make him up daily packs that include a mix of different meats and his daily percentage of offal and chuck back in the freezer. All we have to do on the day then is get a pack out to defrost for dinner. Add an egg to it, maybe some tumeric or apple cider vinegar and feed. He also has a breakfast snack which usually consists of a duck/chicken wing, a pigs ear and a piece of fish easy peasy!

Ledger is raw fed and we do about 200g twice a day as a rule but every now and then when it fits better he will have just one big meal 

To make my life easier I bought a small chest freezer (I went new but you can pick them up cheap/free from the usual online trade/swap sites) and I order about 3 months food at a time from DAF. I tend to buy the mince packs as each one is a day's food and can be defrosted as I need it and we mix it up with the stuffed hooves (great given frozen as last ages) and chicken or duck wings wings. The kidneys and heart chunks are a great size but found the liver portions are too big as its too rich for Ledger 

I also pick up the odd batch of free bones from the butcher when I stock up on maple bacon for me 

You can be strict with percentages of offal to bone etc but that would be too awkward for me I just mix up the mince normally get a variety box and a couple of others currently the venison and rabbit are going well. Basically it's the poop test, a bit runny = add some bone content, too dry add a bit more offal/tripe

I don't add oil etc to his food just on odd occasions have tinned sardines and the same with fruit and veg, they don't need it, tho I recycle the hooves and stuff them with sweet potato mash to freeze down as treats

Belting guys! Great advice! I feel better that I'm on the right lines now then.

I think i will get a small chest freezer actually. ill have a look on fleabay later for a cheap one for the shed.

Good to know about the veggies and fruit too and especially the oils. Again just through reading various sources saying give eggs and fish another saying supplement with oils but thats great Ill definitely take your advice and dish out sprats or sardines once or twice a week.

Also thank you for you points regarding the offal. I think going forward it would be best for me to do as you do and buy online and defrost, mix and refreeze.

If it is allowed can you name where you buy your meats please? Is it a butchers website? if so i think I may know it!

Thanks again thats a great help!

I get mine from DAF (Durham animal feeds) if you order over £50 you get free delivery but they are only in my area once a month but you can pay for courier delivery at any time

Cheers mate! good to know! Thanks again

We also use DAF and find it really good The minced meats with bone in all come at roughly the correct bone:meat ratios so you don't have to worry too much about that. As Jules said just watch what comes out the other end and adjust accordingly

Cheap and cheerful freezer is good if you are going to be ordering in bulk from somewhere like DAF. Our freezer absolutely stinks of a meaty farm smell, and so does any of our food we have to put in there :/

I buy from Landywoods. There is a delivery charge but when you think of the distance they deliver to it's no surprise.

Cheers Liz I will check them out too. Still Looking for a cheap freezer but at the moment got the food either in our freezer in the shed or in the spare fridge in the shed defrosting.

Here's an update of how we are doing.

Firstly liver is disgusting! Honestly I can't stand the smell and can't touch it! The wife is going to have to feed this! Kidney is fine and heart too. Also gave him some raw chopped sprays the other day and he licked the bowl clean again. He had a duck neck for breakfast yesterday and demolished it! Pretty much in a few seconds. He crunched it all up and then just swallowed it. He seemed ok though and has been fine. Also I haven't given him any veggies as suggested they don't need them. He does get some in some food I got last week. Nature's instinct I think it's called? Hes been having the chicken but also has squash and pumpkin etc in it. Alls going well and even got a bloke at work on to it. I printed a few articles for him to read and over the weekend he has started his staffy on it too! I'm now a big time advocate of raw!

*chopped sprats.

Bloody phone!

ha ha... I was wondering what chopped sprays were!

It's all disgusting. Liver is vile, tripe is even worse. I'm a veggie and wouldn't touch the stuff myself or even feed it to another human, but dogs are dogs.

Have you looked at Landywoods yet - you could reconstruct an animal from their website. Puppy Milly adores the trachea and I've just ordered her some whole lambs tripe ( ).

A measure of how much we love our dogs.

Haha I won't point you in the direction of the Liver Cake recipe for him then

Glad it's all gong well and he is enjoying it I hope your colleague's dog does well on it too! It's not for everyone but we really noticed a difference in Bane and he has grown up so well on Raw

LizP wrote:ha ha... I was wondering what chopped sprays were!

It's all disgusting. Liver is vile, tripe is even worse. I'm a veggie and wouldn't touch the stuff myself or even feed it to another human, but dogs are dogs.

Have you looked at Landywoods yet - you could reconstruct an animal from their website. Puppy Milly adores the trachea and I've just ordered her some whole lambs tripe ( ).

A measure of how much we love our dogs.

Hey Liz, Just wondering how good Landywoods are? I was just looking through their site and some of the prices match DAF and even cheaper at times! You mentioned about delivery prices. I can't see any on there. Is it a flat rate of delivery or do they offer free delivery?

Very interested in the tracheas and whole tripes! Has your tripe arrived? If so how was it?!

Ha Liz well highly commendable about you feeding your dog the food you don't eat yourself. Well done you! I haven't looked yet as still got a load of grub for him in plus the lad at work has been going the butchers and bringing stuff in work for Samson. His dog is loving it and in fact John is posting a diary on Facebook of how Tia is doing on raw. We have recruited some new interest via Facebook for the raw diet. Can't believe I fed Samson for two years on essensially pellets! Also I have him a trachea the other day and its a tough old thing but a great chew for him. I know a Manchester pet shop that stocks tons of foods from a raw pet food brand. Really good but will check out both sites you guys recommended. Thanks to you both for all your help!

No problem Have you tried stuffing the trachea with meat and freezing? Takes them a little longer to eat

I have the stuffed beef throttle from DAF intact a new delivery arriving today, steering away from the stuffed shanks as Ledger has taken to trying to bury them under mats and has pulled up a corner of the carpet trying to hide them!

Bane wrote:
Hey Liz, Just wondering how good Landywoods are? I was just looking through their site and some of the prices match DAF and even cheaper at times! You mentioned about delivery prices. I can't see any on there. Is it a flat rate of delivery or do they offer free delivery?

Very interested in the tracheas and whole tripes! Has your tripe arrived? If so how was it?!

Delivery is a flat rate of about £7, I think. I've just had a look at DAF - it does look comparable in price. Landywoods probably has a greater range of raw stuff but DAF has other things that Landywoods doesn't. I might give them a go one time.

Yes, the tripe has arrived and been tested. Good god the things we do for our dogs, it really stinks. But they loved it. Chaos had a whole one and Nola and Millie shared (I cut it in two!). Yuck, yuck, yuck.

They look disgusting in the pics Liz! Just thought maybe you get more if you bought them as whole rather than pre minced! Glad they enjoyed it even if you didn't

That's cool I might stalk their website for a while! DAF seem to be a bit low on stock at the mo. They usually have 70+ different items and only have 58 I think so might be trying Landywoods! Will have a tot up for our next order!

i dont think i could feed my dog on raw food and im not even vegetarian great advice from everyone .

I thought it would be hard work Crystal and my parents were massively against it mum even said "I'll only say I told you so when he dies from salmonella poisoning" but a year on its all going well, massive bonus is the lack of farting and it takes no effort to split the mince packs in half once defrosted ready to serve and it's actually a lot more pleasant than serving many tinned dog foods (tripe is the exception to the rule)

I pick my raw up from Landywoods as they are only 3 miles away from me and their range and prices are very good.

Scooby is on around 650g of mince a day (varies from day to fay what mince it is), along with either some bone like lambs ribs, chicken wings, chicken feet, carcus, tracheas etc, a small chuck of liver or kidney and then sometimes I'll chuck in a while egg too.

Along with this lot, I'll add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and some Yumove omega 3 supplements.

He eats a lot, but when we was feeding him on the suggested 2-3% body weight, he lost weight fast and his ribs were showing a little too much for my liking.

He is exercised everyday though for a couple of hours so it's just a case of keeping an eye on their build I reckon.

It makes feeding time fun for both us and Scoob