My dogs are raw fed. I used to be insecure with this decision, especially with Moonshine, my first love, my first dog - the very special Dobermann. I remember the first vet visit with Moonshine, and when the vet asked what I was feeding him, I hesitated, "Raw meaty bones."
He threw me a look like as if to say that I was a terrible dog owner who did not know what was best for dogs. "What type of raw meat?"
"Er, chicken, beef, lamb, fish.."
When he asked where I learned about this type of diet for dogs, I blanched. "The internet," I said.
OK. I know there are articles on the internet teaching you that drinking your own pee is beneficial to your health, but raw feeding your dogs (and cats), is NOT to be dismissed. Suffice to say, the (thoroughly ignorant and foolish) vet promptly dissed my raw feeding, and heralded the wonders of a dog kibble called "Science Diet", brought to you by Hill's. He explained that Science Diet is a 'balanced' food for dogs, with all the necessary carbohydrate, protein, and nutrients. I cannot know for sure whether the vet was commissioned by Hill's to recommend their dog food to clients, but I am quite certain he was.
Randomly select one of the many Science Diet dog kibble, say, Science Diet Canine Adult Active Formula. Look at the ingredients list. The ingredients are listed in descending 'order', i.e. the very first listed constitutes the bulk of the food. Almost all the Science Diet kibble lists corn meal as the very first ingredient. Do you know what corn meal is? Do you know what corn is? It is a grain. Only humans are ever known to cultivate and harvest grain. Dogs, like wolves, do NOT eat corn in the wild. They simply don't.
Sure, all animals survive by eating what they can, and if they are fed corn, so be it. But if you love your pet, you would surely want to give the best you can, with what you have. I do not buy grass-fed, free-range, Argentinian beef for my dogs, but I stock up on almost-expired chicken and duck from NTUC, freeze it, and hand it to them, or buy in bulk frozen lamb, beef, fish..
There are numerous articles on the internet on raw feeding your dogs. (Do a quick google search). Though I never had a dog when I was a child, I grew up thinking that dogs eat those small pellets of brown biscuit - kibble. When I first read about raw feeding, and saw pictures of dogs being fed raw meat, I thought it was a joke. No, seriously. I thought it was one of those internet hoaxes. But I did even more research.. and here I am. Here are my dogs.
Still, that is not to say that I am a raw feeding fanatic. I understand that there are circumstances that call for a dog to be fed kibble or home-cooked meals - in kennels and dog shelters, for example, where the sheer number of dogs make raw feeding impossible. Kiya, when she first came to live with us, was on steroid drugs and many other medication. She could not tolerate any raw meaty bones, as I found out the hard way (a lot of diarrhea..). So I fed her kibble mixed with rice (she was malnourished then and I needed her to gain weight). She loved it, of course, but Kiya loves to eat anything - even the skin of a banana (yes). But she soon developed an yeast infection that would not go away - and when she was done with her meds, I switched her to raw - not only did her yeast infection go away magically, she thrived. We never looked back.
I raw feed my dogs, and I no longer feel insecure about this decision. I know there are many dog owners out there who have reservations (to put it lightly) about raw feeding, and while I will not diss your choice for your dogs, I would like to encourage dog and cat owners out there to be more open-minded and resourceful. Don't just take what the corporations provide you - slick advertising, packaging, and 'this is what we have been feeding our dogs for decades!'. Instead, read up on raw feeding, and make an informed decision.
I feed my dogs fish, such as mackerel,
(here is Moonshine enjoying his!)
salmon,
(and I have been feeding Kiya a lot of salmon, watching her enjoy the fish, and sitting back admiring her gleaming, positively gleaming, shimmering, coat - but no photo, so I shall use one of Moonshine)
liver,
(which should only make up 10% of the food you are feeding. Liver is vital to a dog's diet, but too much can also be harmful)
pig's trotters,
(ignore the gaudy blue plastic sheet)
chicken, of course,
(this was early days with Louie when I was trying to teach him to eat on his dinner 'place-mat' cloth!)
(chickens are inexpensive, especially those marked down by the supermarkets when they are about to go bad. Perfect for dogs. I hack the chicken into halves, or quarters, bag them and freeze them. Hand a frozen one to Kiya, or a thawed one to Louie)
lamb,
(Louie handles raw bones very well, so I occasionally buy lamb flap for him)
beef, any cut, though I got a rib-eye for Moonshine,
duck, which Louie is particularly partial to.
The best Christmas gift you can give your dog or cat is to feed raw meaty bones. Your dog/cat will be very happy and healthy.
Happy Christmas!
hi dening!
ReplyDeleteyour dogs really love their food! they look so happy and healthy.
i have been contemplating raw for the longest time but there is this inertia in me and i need more encouragement to switch from kibble to raw. i have many questions, hope you don't laugh at them:
may i know roughly how much you spend on their raw food? is it much more expensive than kibbles?
how often do you feed them? is it daily? if we feed raw can we like feed once every 2 or 3 days? since they aren't out in the wild, we don't have to feed that much right? what's your view on the frequency of feedings?
how to estimate how much raw meat they need for a nutritious meal? and also do they need greens?
hello ron! I'll be so glad if I can even snag just one raw food convert.
ReplyDeleteok, to answer your questions, and especially about cost of raw feeding, you have to work out how much to feed your dogs first.
feed anywhere from 1 to 3% of your dog's *ideal* body weight. 1% for older, less active dogs, 3% for very active dogs. if your dog is at a healthy weight now, and is a rather active dog, feed about 2.5 - 3%.
e.g. Kiya is slightly heavier than I want her to be. she is also rather inactive, so I am feeding her anywhere from 1 to 2% of her current body weight, which is 31kg.
Louie is very active, and lean, and can definitely afford to put on weight. I feed him 3% and sometimes even more than that, of his current weight (21kg).
so, that said, I give 650g/food to louie, and about 400g to kiya.
cost of raw feeding can be as cheap as you want it to be, or as expensive. I mean, if I were a billionaire, I would buy grass-fed, organic meat for my dogs everyday, including more exotic meat like venison and wild hare. unfortunately I am not one, so I buy a mix of nearly-expired, marked-down sakura chicken from NTUC, or check out store promotions and specials at the frozen shop where I buy lamb and beef.
I can safely say I do not spend more than $250 for both my dogs for raw food. I have not fed kibble for a very, very long time, but I am quite sure kibble will be more expensive. my sis, who also raw feeds her dogs in HK, had to feed one of her dog kibble (long story), and found that it is more expensive. moreover, her dog did not want kibble after fed raw food, ha ha.
but I am using high-end kibble as a comparison - if I have to feed kibble, I only buy Orijen or Wellness Core. I do keep a bag of Orijen kibble, just in case I run out of raw food or something!
I know that feeding poor quality kibble means that MORE kibble has to be fed, i.e. a cheapo Science Diet kibble, to fill my Kiya, will take about 6 cups to fill her, but for Orijen kibbble, just 2+ cups are enough. net net, it works out to be about the same, without the huge piles of dog poop. raw feeding = very nice small firm poop.
as for frequency of feeding, I feed once a day, everyday. most dogs do best on once a day feeding, some smaller dogs would need twice a day. some dog owners emulate the wild and fast their dogs one day a week, but the rest of the days, they feed once a day.
heh, feeding them once every 2 or 3 days is way too infrequent!! your dog will not be happy and I think it's better to feed daily.
I prefer to feed once daily (not twice daily) cos I don't have time in the mornings (and louie eats very very slowly), and as louie eats very little, I find feeding him once a day gets him to eat more. when food is offered to him so often, he tends to reject it even more. I don't like my dogs rejecting food offered! feeding once a day also means I can offer food that is larger - e.g. half a chicken, instead of a quarter chicken or less. the larger the raw food offered, the more the dog has to 'work' at it, figure out a way to eat it, etc. also, I spend less time hacking the raw food into smaller pieces.
so, as mentioned above, feed 1 to 3%. vary it as you go along - if your dog looks skinny, feed more, if dog is getting fat, just cut back. no harm.
no, no need greens. but there are 'schools' out there that believe in a BARF diet. dog owners of this camp blend raw meat, raw bones, and greens into a pulp and feed their dogs. I find that 1. time consuming and 2. absolutely unnecessary!
ReplyDeletewolves in the wild will ignore fruits or vegge if they have rabbit or deer to eat. try offering your dog a piece of raw liver and a piece of kiwi. both my dogs will choose the liver in a heartbeat.
that said, while I don't give greens to louie at all, I do give bits of banana or kiwi to kiya as she loves these fruits. but I don't specially buy these fruits for her. it is only when I am eating a kiwi, e.g., and she is sitting there obediently, I will throw her a small piece.
remember to feed raw, and I mean it, RAW and not cooked, meaty bones. it has to be meaty. meat is still the most important thing a dog needs, not bones. BARF diet and other schools advocate for more bones, but too much bones is not necessary, and may not be easily digested by the dog, which they can throw up the next day (not too worrying).
also, your dog will need time to get used to raw diet. stomach juices become stronger, to digest the bones, so for first few weeks, dog may poop bones, or throw up bones, but nothing to worry about. just feed more meat if you see bones poop or vomit. general guideline is 80% meat, 10% bones, and 10% organs (things like liver, kidney, brains, etc).
don't feed organs when you are first starting out on raw. organs can be left out till the dog is used to raw diet. just feed ONE type of meat for first week or so, or until your dog's poop is very firm. some dogs take time to get used to raw, some dogs, like kiya, took to it like she was born to eat it. heh. just feed chicken, for example, for first week. if no problem, slowly introduce a new type of meat. don't feed an entire meal totally on a new meat, but more like 60% chickena nd 40% new meat. I find that, generally, beef is a good meat to introduce after chicken, as pork can be quite 'dirty' and can cause diarrhea, and fattier meats like lamb and duck can be too rich. some dogs do very well on certain meat, some not. so just trial and error. e.g. my sis dogs cannot eat salmon - they explode in diarrhea! but my dogs love salmon, and do very very well on it.
ReplyDeleteonce your dog has firm poop, you can start with some raw pig liver. give a very small slice in addition to their raw meaty bones and if their poop is ok, move on to larger slice. I don't feed liver everyday - about once every other day.
also, remember that some types of (raw) bones are too hard for your dogs. in the wild, if a wolf gets hold of a lamb, for instance, they will eat the meat, the organs, and the softer bones like ribs, but NOT the weight bearing bones, i.e. the legs (femur or whatever it is). those are way too hard. they can break a dog's teeth and is difficult to digest.
a chicken/duck's bones (all!) are soft enough for a dog to chew through and eat, no problem. as for other larger animals, I only feed my dogs bones like lamb flap, which is the breast meat of lamb (very fatty), and bits of the bones there (ribs etc). but even dogs differ in this. kiya is not very good with bones - I have to feed her a lot of meat to help digest those bones, so I tend to only feed her chicken, duck, or fish bones (and lots of meat of course!). louie's very good with digesting harder bones so it's not a problem giving him lamb bones.
http://rawfed.com
this is a good starting website to read on raw feeding.
I find that raw feeding is very rewarding and fun. it sure is not as convenient as opening a kibble package and pouring it out on dog bowl and feed, for it takes grocery/market shopping, hacking it, bagging and then freezing it, before feeding, but it is very fun selectinng and searching for meats to feed your dog. it also makes meal times more exciting for dogs.. as it isn't always the same food everyday.
benefits of raw feeding are tremendous. I know you have an older dog.. and I hear that sometimes when an older dog is switched to raw, it suddenly becomes a new dog - healthier and has a sparkle of sorts. you should try it. raw feeding is not a miracle, but it is close to one! it definitely helps kiya with her skin problems, for instance.. made her very healthy.
good luck ron!