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Feeding a Raw Diet

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Birdasaurus

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I agree with what Kim said...I know we all would roll our eyes at the hospital where I worked too. One other thing to mention is the fact that your dogs can contract parasites from eating raw food.
Again, this is the reason I don't deal with traditional vets, doctors, or anything. I don't think feeding what is natural is something to roll your eyes at. I don't do it to people who buy organic, who feed their birds only fresh, etc...so why should you at feeding a dog what it was meant to eat?

The parasite thing is incredibly blown out of proportion to scare people away from raw feedings...he's eating the same food I would eat cooked. Yes, parasites can happen in raw human grade food, and I technically can't dispute your post, but he can get them from being outside too.
 

birdlady

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Interesting thread..
My lab coco was on a good dry food diet all her life and she was one month shy of seventeen when she passed.
Roxi is almost fourteen so I don't think I will be switching her diet now. Lol
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Birdasaurus

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lol no...I wouldn't suggest it Leslie!

Pepper has upset stomachs when he eats his dry food...one type even made him vomit. So we started feeding him cooked chicken at night and he responded well to that. Going from there, it led me into investigating the raw diet, and it makes sense. It's kinda like making the birds forage if you leave it on the bone. I know not everyone is comfortable with doing it, but I think it's going to be best for my little guy :)
 

birdlady

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Good to look into for sure..I'd I ever got a new dog it is something I would research. But no more dogs for me!

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itzmered

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No need to roll your eyes because someone is choosing to investigate feeding a raw diet. THe majority of vets used to feel that it was perfectly acceptable to feed an all seed diet to birds. A lot still feel that feeding them an all pellet diet is good but the ones that choose to be progressive in their thinking and actually look into and learn about nutrition have changed their thinking where birds are concerned. No reason they cant do the same in regards to dogs and cats.
 

lotus15

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I'm so glad you posted this thread... how informative!!! Like Cydney, I don't have a dog, but really really really want one in the future and have looked into diets. I also plan to feed the PMR diet :)
 

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I'm so glad you posted this thread... how informative!!! Like Cydney, I don't have a dog, but really really really want one in the future and have looked into diets. I also plan to feed the PMR diet :)
Glad I'm not the only one researching feeding something I don't currently own! :rolleyes:
 

Birdasaurus

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It's never to soon to start researching!

Day 1 went well! He took the chicken right away, but didn't know what to do with it..he sat there licking it. :lol: I had to show him how to tear and feed him pieces. Then I would only tear a little bit, and offer the piece to him and held it while he tore the rest off. After a while he got it, and when he moved onto the drumstick part he knew what he was doing.

I have to admit, though, that the first time I heard the bones crunch it gave me the willies...:o:
 

Cydney

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Meal one down!
 

lindsey88

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Very good thread. I am adopting a dachshund who will possibly be toothless or nearly toothless and was thinking of trying raw with him.
 

itzmered

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interested to hear how a raw diet goes with a toothless dog, I would assume you will have to grind everything including the bones so he has a well balanced diet
 

lindsey88

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Well he is still going to have his back molars just not the front teeth. When he goes to the vet ill know how many teeth need to be pulled.
 

Sharpie

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It's wonderful to see such a polite discussion on this subject! I have fed raw and kibble and don't think there is any one Right Way to feed a dog any more than there is to feed a bird or a human, but I do think the best thing we can all do is think and learn and research. I know some toothless dogs that have done fine on raw, and though you have to be a little more careful that they get the bone/calcium they need, it doesn't seem to pose them too many problems. Probably because a dog's version of 'chewing' just means 'small enough to swallow.' ;)
 

Ziggymon

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A thought - just because dogs at one point ate all raw doesn't mean that that was/is the best diet for them. After all, humans ate all raw at one point too, and there's good reason why we stopped doing that.

Predators do eat digestive system contents of their prey, so even obligate carnivores (which dogs are not) have a percentage of their diets made up of vegetable matter.

I am no fan of highly processed food for anyone, so I cook for my dogs daily. OTOH, dogs also thrive on premium dog foods (and I'm not talking Science Diet or Iams, which are crap, IMO).
 

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I've always assumed dogs are carnivores as opposed to omnivores with more carnivorous tendencies due to the structure of their teeth and digestive tract. Their digestive tracts are shorter as compared to say, a cow, with a long digestive tract. I was also under the impression that the digestive enzymes for carnivores vs. omnivores were different as well, but I'll have to look up specifics.

About eating the digestive systems, I didn't think they did eat the stomach contents? They will eat plant matter if they need to (veggies and such) but I've noticed even with my parent's Aussie, if she eats something like say, a carrot, it comes out exactly as it went in.
Myths About Raw: Do wolves eat stomach contents of prey?
 

unicornlady7

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Wow, very intersting. I was buying a good brand of chicken and rice dry food - no corn or bi-products for my dogs(had been on it for 2 years) then they were getting VERY ill - explosive poos.. It took a month of trial and error to figure out it was their food! No, I did not take them to the vet, per say. Ran stool samples and nothing conclusive.. Most of what I read suggested something that needed meds, but I didn't think so. I made up a mixture of boiled chicken breast, brown rice, and yogurt to try and get them back to normal. This worked! Then I switched brands (and a cheaper one at that) and haven't had a problem since. Their food was contaminated by improper storage at the store is my guess. There were no recalls on this brand. I've been curious about the raw food diets.. It's easier having a parrot on a natural diet than a dog, IMO... I mean, with a proper varied diet for a dog you are using so many different meats - where do you get them? My dogs are border coliie/black lab mix, brother and sister - one 40lbs, one 80lbs. How much a month would you say it costs on a raw diet?
Also, my aunt has a pomeranian and was told by her vet to give her healthy table foods. Her dog lived 16 yeasr with no health problems and with all her teeth.. Not a raw diet, I know but it worked great for them.
 

Birdasaurus

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Very good thread. I am adopting a dachshund who will possibly be toothless or nearly toothless and was thinking of trying raw with him.
Interesting! I have heard that people get their raw ground with bone and organ meats in it...but I wouldn't know where to get that. :confused:

Wow, very intersting. I was buying a good brand of chicken and rice dry food - no corn or bi-products for my dogs(had been on it for 2 years) then they were getting VERY ill - explosive poos.. It took a month of trial and error to figure out it was their food! No, I did not take them to the vet, per say. Ran stool samples and nothing conclusive.. Most of what I read suggested something that needed meds, but I didn't think so. I made up a mixture of boiled chicken breast, brown rice, and yogurt to try and get them back to normal. This worked! Then I switched brands (and a cheaper one at that) and haven't had a problem since. Their food was contaminated by improper storage at the store is my guess. There were no recalls on this brand. I've been curious about the raw food diets.. It's easier having a parrot on a natural diet than a dog, IMO... I mean, with a proper varied diet for a dog you are using so many different meats - where do you get them? My dogs are border coliie/black lab mix, brother and sister - one 40lbs, one 80lbs. How much a month would you say it costs on a raw diet?
Also, my aunt has a pomeranian and was told by her vet to give her healthy table foods. Her dog lived 16 yeasr with no health problems and with all her teeth.. Not a raw diet, I know but it worked great for them.
What you do to figure out how much they eat per day is take the weight, multiply by 16, and then multiply by .02. That will tell you the ounces needed...so the cost would really depend on your location. I got his first 2 weeks of chicken for about 5 bucks and I have an ethnic grocery store nearby that sells all different types of meat and the organs, so for me it's not very hard to find variety.

I, too, was having trouble with a premium dog food...he vomited EVERY time he ate it. Another kibble he had didn't cause that, but he would have upset stomachs if he finished the bowl. So we started giving him chicken and rice, like you mentioned, and he also went back to normal. That's what made me look into feeding him this way...and on day 2 he certainly had no complaints! Didn't have to do anything but give it to him today...he polished it off like an old pro! :)
 

rikkitikki

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Something to consider about kibble is how it is made. I think if people were able to see the process having no idea what is being made, and who it is for, they might think twice about feeding it when they found out.
Consider this: most people would agree that McDonald French fries aren't a good food to eat on a regular basis because of how they're processed... When you think about the amount of heat and pressure that goes into preparing the animal food grade meat into kibble, then realizing why so many vitamins are added into the food (after all of the vitamins originally in the whole foods have leached out due to processing), that should be enough for people to at least want to research it more, and that's just the tip of the iceburg... Going back to those McDonalds french fries: Do you know what happens to the grease they've been frying them in at the end of the day? Sure, they throw it away, but at least here in Papillion, NE, a rendering plant called Darling Industries picks it up to process the garbage grease and then turn around and use it for dog food, specifically dog food created especially for athletic dogs. Yummy. They're actually really proud of that fact, I don't remember exactly what they call it, but they refer to the grease like it's some sort of gold... :gag:
(let me know if you want references, I've mentioned it before, I can send you to Darling's website). Oh, and their plant is in the town where I work, and when they're processing, it makes you want to vomit, even worse when it's hot and humid, think warm, mushy strong smell of odorus dog kibble as you're walking through the heavy oppressive heat (not that I've been dealing with this a lot lately :rolleyes:)
 

itzmered

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Actually the mass majority of restaurant grease goes into cattle feed and is sold as fancy fats for the soap industry.
 
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