# Easy Raw Diets



## Patrick Murray (Mar 27, 2006)

I currently feed Solid Gold and supplement with cooked chicken and beef. I am considering switching to a raw diet. I've read some seemingly complex raw diet "menus" for dogs. Is there an "easy" to do raw diet out there? Thanks.


----------



## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

When I fed raw, I went to the meat market in Casselberry (Deloach's) and ordered up 100lbs of chicken necks and backs ($0.17/lb), a bunch of ground turkey (I forget how much that was, but alot more expensive), a couple of the $0.50/lb 10lb bags of chicken quarters, and a bunch of chicken livers and gizzards. If I ordered before 2pm they would have it all the next day for me by around noon, all in a shopping cart ready to take to the checkout. Checkout takes a bunch of time though, maybe you can prepay over the phone to speed things up.

I would do something like this, and package up about 4-6 weeks worth in (very small) gladware containers that I would stick in a freezer chest.

Total weight: roughly 2.5% of dogs body weight
75% chicken backs & necks (mostly backs)
20-25% ground turkey
every 2 or 3 days I would do 5% chicken livers/gizzards

Then also add Vit E gels and salmon oil.

Getting ahold of raw ingredients in Belgium is a pain in the ass, if not next to impossible short of cutting up your own chickens, so I jut feed Orijen kibble, which is IMO the best out there.

An alternative "easy" raw diet would be the Nature's Variety raw diets. Pookie's Bow Wow Bakery in Ocoee (just where Windermere ends) sells it. All you have to do is thaw it out and throw some hamburger like patties in the bowl with Vit E gels and salmon oil. But it isn't cheap, at about $22 for a 6lb bag (12x 8oz patties).


----------



## Michele McAtee (Apr 10, 2006)

Patrick Murray said:


> I currently feed Solid Gold and supplement with cooked chicken and beef. I am considering switching to a raw diet. I've read some seemingly complex raw diet "menus" for dogs. Is there an "easy" to do raw diet out there? Thanks.


I started much similiar to Mike, sticking mainly to chicken and turkey, an egg 4-5 times a week, Vit E, Omega 3-6-9 tabs. 

It seemed simple enough and also great in price. I will say, after awhile doing it that way, branching out seemed the only right thing to do! It's fun to feed a raw diet...watching those sales, keeping your dog happy...

It's just the "habit", much like any habit, you start doing it with your eyes closed. Those complex diets are really not complex once you get going with a raw diet.

Oh, and back to habit...at first, with raw, it seemed ALOT more work than scooping up kibble and feeding. But really, for the benefits, the extra time is SO worth it...after awhile, it's not even really *that* much extra time. Couple minutes once you have your system down. Heck, some people even do the big monthly divy thing so it is literally LIKE scooping out of a bag, instead, you just dump from a baggie into dogbowl and voila!


----------



## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

I don't think a raw diet has to be complex. Acclimate your dog to various forms of raw food and then interchange them over the course of a month. I wouldn't feed only one source of boney food and one source of muscle meat, though that's how you want to start.

I feed my 3 dogs (GSD, Dane, Pug) a combo of the following:

Raw Meaty Bones:
Chicken leg quarters
whole chickens
turkey legs, wings, backs
pork ribs
pork shoulder ( I carve off the meat to leave the bone part to make a 3-4lb meal)
deer ribs, shoulders, legs
beef ribs/short ribs

Muscle Meat:
ground beef/turkey
boneless pork
beef sirloin (I get a good price on this at Sam's club by the case)
beef chuck roast
fish (canned mackerel or frozen whiting fillets)
deer meat

Extras:
liver, kidney, tripe, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, leftover whiterice or baked potato

Look for "buy it today or we throw it away" stuff in the grocery store, and buy in bulk as much as you can. I try to keep my cost somewhere around $1 per lb. Getting something like chicken for a good price lets me spend a little more on something like sirloin, etc.


----------



## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Michele McAtee said:


> It's just the "habit", much like any habit, you start doing it with your eyes closed. Those complex diets are really not complex once you get going with a raw diet.


It is a habit that I have actually come to enjoy. It may take a bit more time, but the benefits make it all worth while. 

It is really not that much more difficult to throw a half chicken in a bowl with a scoop of yogurt and some supplements than it is to dig out a cup of dried nuggets. 

Also, someone mentioned potatoes, make sure the skins are removed (Connie may correct me) but I am pretty sure they are bad (if not toxic) to dogs, as well as onions, raisins, chocolate and avocado. 
Spinach is not all that great either. 

My dogs absolutely love boiled sweet potatoes. So that is a treat once in awhile. 

I feed a veggie glop to my dogs, mainly as a filler. This helps stretch my meat out since I am feeding 6.


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

While variety is important, start out with chicken as so many have suggested. You will be amazed at how easy RAW is once you start, it's just the initial leap that's hard. It's very much psychological, we have all been so brainwashed by corporations and vets to think canine nutrition is complex and far too difficult for any mere mortal to understand (bull).
I think it is Connie who has said on several occasions feeding dogs kibble is equal to humans eating cereal 24/7 - not very healthy at all!


----------



## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

I started out with Urban Wolf http://www.urbanwolf.cc/ a pre-done veggy vitamin mineral mix that you would add meat to. I still feed it but have branched out to deer, poultry parts and organ meat (beef). 

The mix is easy to prepare but then I found tossing the dog frozen smelt, chicken quarter, deer head or leg was just as easy! 

The proof is in the healthy teeth and coat of my dog.


----------



## Andy Larrimore (Jan 8, 2008)

I like to use the following:
Deer meat mixed with cottage cheese, diced carrots, broccoli, apples, vitamin E gel cap, egg with shell about 2 times per week and vitamin B12 for my male about 2 times per week. I will also rotate the deer with fish, tripe or chicken.


----------



## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

I would love to switch my dogs to a raw diet, but have a dog that is allergic to chicken and probably pork as well. Is there an easy raw diet that does not include chicken or pork?

Two of my dogs will eat any raw treats I give them (usually tripe, sometimes liver), my 'usually eats anything' labX will only eat raw if it's frozen.


----------



## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

leslie cassian said:


> I would love to switch my dogs to a raw diet, but have a dog that is allergic to chicken and probably pork as well. Is there an easy raw diet that does not include chicken or pork?


buffalo, rabbit, deer, elk, fish (I use canned or the frozen whole mackarel's)
beef

Do you know for sure the dog is allergic to chicken and not something else (like the grains) in whatever kibble your feeding? Just wondering, since what some may think is an allergy to a meat is actually something else in the kibble.....

And, have you tried pork?


----------



## Patrick Murray (Mar 27, 2006)

Thank you all!


----------



## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Patrick, I've found the whole prey model where you vary your ingredients a bit more to kind of put the prey animal together a bit easier in some ways than the Billinghurst/Pitcairn style BARF diet (no veggie slop, unless you want to) but more difficult in others (it's not the same old thing every day and you kind of have to remember what you have given earlier in the week, plus green tripe and certain kinds of organ meat can be difficult to get).

Leslie, I've heard (don't quote me on this) that a protein source cooked (like in dog food) is somehow different than a protein source fed raw and may not be allergenic. I haven't taken immunology yet, so I don't know how to wrap my brain around that one. Having said that, Fawkes is sometimes sensitive to pork (will often give him diarrhea, but not always), so you just kind of learn what works and go with it. It's actually a lot easier to muddle through what makes them sick or allergic because if they consistently have loose stools after you feed a different protein source every day, but only after one particular type, it's easier to narrow down. Versus in kibble where it could be any number of things.


----------



## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

Carol Boche said:


> buffalo, rabbit, deer, elk, fish (I use canned or the frozen whole mackarel's)
> beef
> 
> Do you know for sure the dog is allergic to chicken and not something else (like the grains) in whatever kibble your feeding? Just wondering, since what some may think is an allergy to a meat is actually something else in the kibble.....
> ...


And don't forget Turkey .. We have a dog in my French Ring club that doesn't do well with Chicken but thrives on Turkey. It seems to even easier to digest for her than Chicken would be.


----------



## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

Carol Boche said:


> buffalo, rabbit, deer, elk, fish (I use canned or the frozen whole mackarel's)
> beef
> 
> Any of those fresh or frozen (other than fish) are very expensive. I live in the city and don't know anyone who hunts. And, if I _could _get some nice Bambi meat it would be going into a stew pot for me. The dogs can eat kibble
> ...


----------



## Greg Leavitt (Aug 31, 2006)

Really so avocaados are bad. I always see a food at petsmart called avoderm that is according the a girl who works there one of the best they carry?


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Pork is great for dogs. Pork necks are one of my dogs staples, along with chicken necks/backs, venison necks and lamb necks.


----------



## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Greg Leavitt said:


> Really so avocaados are bad. I always see a food at petsmart called avoderm that is according the a girl who works there one of the best they carry?


That food has bothered me since I first saw it. Yes, avocados are toxic to dogs; even if the amount they include is minute (which I don't know), why on earth include it.... AND imply on the bag that it's a great addition, which I imagine would lead at least some people to conclude that giving fresh ones at home would be a good thing too.

Either irresponsible and negligent or uneducated about canine nutrition..... neither good for a dog food manufacturer, IMHO.


----------



## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Andy Larrimore said:


> I like to use the following:
> Deer meat mixed with cottage cheese, diced carrots, broccoli, apples, vitamin E gel cap, egg with shell about 2 times per week and vitamin B12 for my male about 2 times per week. I will also rotate the deer with fish, tripe or chicken.


Do you mean deer meat with bones?


----------



## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Geoff Empey said:


> And don't forget Turkey .. We have a dog in my French Ring club that doesn't do well with Chicken but thrives on Turkey. It seems to even easier to digest for her than Chicken would be.


And rabbit.


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Here is Avoderms response to the question of why they use fruits that are poisonous to dogs:
http://www.breeders-choice.com/dog_products/avoderm-natural-and-avocado-safety.htm

To me, they are basically saying, "well no ones dropped dead from it yet, and look how good the avocado farmers dogs look".  If I were a kibble feeder, this would not be a kibble I would feed.


----------



## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

susan tuck said:


> Here is Avoderms response to the question of why they use fruits that are poisonous to dogs:
> http://www.breeders-choice.com/dog_products/avoderm-natural-and-avocado-safety.htm
> 
> To me, they are basically saying, "well no ones dropped dead from it yet, and look how good the avocado farmers dogs look".  If I were a kibble feeder, this would not be a kibble I would feed.


Something that bothered me a lot was that this was not addressed in the original product "intro." Someone had to express concern to them before they came up with this. To me, that screamed "Huh? Avocado is toxic? How do we cover our butts on THIS now?"

And none of their dancing around addresses what I think is probably a bigger danger, mentioned earlier: They are strongly implying on the package with words and pictures that avocado is a good thing to give your dogs.

I agree with you, Sue: If I fed kibble, this product would not be on my short list.


----------



## Greg Leavitt (Aug 31, 2006)

Glad I remembered that I asked this question and came back to look. Was at Petsmart this afternoon and saw 3 different people buying the food. I personally dont use it just had it reccomended to me by the minium wage petsmart employee.


----------

