Raw Dog Food

[robinb]

I would like to suppliment my Standard Poodle puppy's kibble with some raw food but I have no clue where to begin.

My pup, Darci, seems to be the runt of the litter even though she was not the smallest pup when we picked her up. All her siblings are at least 4 lbs heavier at 4 months than she is. My vet is worried about her weight, but I would like her to be a to be a bigger dog when she is grown up. I am currently feeding her Wysong Growth which is a human-grade pet food. The owners of the littlest in the litter when she was picked up feeds their dog a combination of Wysong Growth and raw food, so I thought I would give it a try.

Does anyone here feed raw food? What brands to you recommend? I saw some food that comes in pre-formed pucks. Is that what you use? Any help or insight would be appreciated!

 

[MushyMushy]

Check this out: http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

 

[robinb]

Thanks Marseeya! That was very informative, but a bit frightening! I really just want to suppliment my pup's kibble now. The "Satin Balls" recipe sounds like it would work for me. Have you done that or are you more of a purist?

 

[MushyMushy]

I'm not ambitious enough to put my dog on the BARF diet, but I used to frequent the dogs forum at About.com and read a lot about it. You might want to check that forum out to ask your questions because they used to have quite a few members who were very familiar with the diet.

 

[janey99]

Hi!

Right now I feed my dogs a high-quality commercial food, but I used to feed my current dogs (a PB and a boxer) and a previous dog (a boxer) BARF.

It takes a pretty big commitment. My dogs were/are all about 65-70 pounds. Per day, each would eat -

2 cups brown rice (or sometimes cooked potato)
.5 - .75 cup of raw grated carrots or zucchini
handful of chopped fresh herbs from the garden (parsley, oregano, tarragon)

and their meat, which would be chicken (5 full wings with bones or 3 thighs with bones), OR lamb or goat shanks (meat from 3, bone from 1), OR fresh tuna or mackerel (about two cups (no bones)).

They were extrememly healthy and loved this type of food, but it just became too much of a time commitment and a financial commitment (we used to live abroad, where the chicken was a good price, the lamb or goat dirt cheap, and the tuna or mackerel free). I live in northen NJ now, and tuna is 18$ a pound!!!

I'm about to leave the office now, but I'm happy to answer more questions tomorrow if you post them overnight.

Funny story - once my boxer had to go for an X-ray, and the radiologist thought he had discovered a new breed of dog with extra bones - my regular vet had to tell him her stomach was full of chicken wing bones!

Good luck -

Jane

 

[Hercules10]

Extra lean gorund turkey. Packed with protein and highly digestable for dogs.