Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi SHVar.

I would like to hear more about your feeding raw. I do not know what to feed them, and so on. All the raw food I see require recipes of some vegetables, fruits, wheats, and so on. That does not appear to be the case for you. What do I need to do to learn about raw food?

How much does it cost you on a monthly basis? Approximate is fine, per dog.

Do you add in any supplements? It is something I'd like to convert my dog to eventually.

Thanks.

Here is my dog.

Give your dog a bone by Dr Ian Billingshurst, simplifies alot, and boosts your confidence.
I use chicken backs for the majority of their breakfast, its hard to say exactly how much for each dog it varies by age. My mix breed puppy is still eating 2 at a time, my husky Duke is eating 1 a day except on rare occasions, I varyin them with turkey wings, or turkey necks (need extra veggies or green tripe with turkey ,especially necks), turkey tails. You can get chicken wings, and you can feed entire small chickens, or leg, leg thigh sections. Keep in mind that weight bearing bones are hard on the surface and require more jaw force, and cause more wear. Also once a week, or once every 2-3 weeks (depends) I give headless whiting fish.
For the evening meal, it agains varies, and they eat little as an adult. I use a simplified version, I use Nebraska brand canine diet sometimes, sometimes I use HPP beef complete, I mix these sometimes (more with turkey fed for breakfast) with green beef tripe, or a mixture (of collard greens, lettuces, apples, raw eggs, carrots, canned pumpkin (unsweetened), squash, dandelions, ran through a processor for a few minutes, into liquid). Keep in mind that veggies and fruits should never be more than 15 percent of the total meal, fruits the lowest of these at about 5 percent or less.
Sometimes you can give unflavored, unsweetened yogurt as a treat in the evening, but around 2 tablespoons.
To the evening meal I add over a week or 2 a few supplements, all easy to have in your kitchen. Apple cider vinegar, once a week about a tablespoon on the evening meal.
On another day when not feeding fish you add a teaspoon of salmon oil.
On another day during a week add a brewers yeast tablet.
On a few occasions I add a dusting of glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM.
Keep in mind many raw feeders do not use any supplements, some only use RMBs (chicken backs, legs, etc), organ meat, main muscle meats, and nothing else, why not dogs are carnivores.
I dont care what anyone says, even though they are scavengers, they are the same species as the gray wolf, with an identical digestive system minus the larger thicker, teeth. Wolves fed dogfood do not do so good, and why do you suppose dogs fed dogfood need so long to adjust to any changes in diet, or brands?
With raw they dont need to adjust, they just eat and digest it.
Tells me that they are not designed to eat dogfood, so why call it that?
The hardest part is keeping enough defrosted in time. I get 60-160 lbs of each main diet item at a time. RMBs are cheap.

Beautiful baby you have there, they are such stunning creatures arent they, I see dog owners with other breeds tripping over their tongues and their dogs when they see sibes walking by.
Post more pics of that pretty pup, he makes great pics.

I'll check that book out. It seems rather complicated but if I read more about it I'll probably understand some more. The site I went to was Kaos Siberians and they explained about how you can get all th same stuff as fruits and vegetables from organ meats. However she appears to try to simplify it too much. "Just get a bunch of it and ration it until it all disappears at the same time." I don't like that kind of method unless I knew why I was feeding what I was.

It sounds like something I'm going to need to sit down and do a ton of reading to get a basic understanding of it and then read some more over time so I can get some confidence in it. It may work to just jump in but raw feeding is not the kind of thing I would want to do without understanding.

I understand they could take it, but being they live with me, I took away the option for them to eat what their bodies need. So I have no way of knowing what he needs and when.

So I want to be absolutely sure I am doing the right thing and educate myself on it.

Thanks for the compliment on my dog. When I adopted him he was exhausted andslept the entire day after a 3 mile walk on flat paved road. Now, he is doing 10 to 14 miles of walking a day and up to 15 miles of hiking a day on weekends.

I'm planning on having him start to learn pulling soon.