Putting your pets on raw foods for a longer life...

Hmmm, chicken necks for brekky! She loved them. (has them quite a bit).

Not sure if I "cheated" or not but... (confession time)

I made up some risotto for Ocean last night. I bought some fresh mince, rice and carrots and cooked it all up. She loved it. I decided it was ok because even though it wasn't raw, it was all fresh. Is this ok or have I completely missed the point.

Ocean is a Coolie and VERY active. She really ought to be out rounding up sheep but she rounds up the birds in our garden instead. So, she has a good appetite and is fit and healthy.

What do you think girls? Have I missed the point completely?

Oh, one thing I read in the info I printed out from the website was that if you run out of fresh/raw food, it's ok to fast your dog for one or two days. I have to say, this won't be happening at our place. Other than that, it all sounds good to me. :)

Kate - what you have done is better then commercial food, but, raw is still better. Make sure Ocean gets some bones - chicken, lamb turkey, pork, rabbit whatever. Raw thou. Beef is apparently not recommended. What they should be eating is whatever they would eat if they where in the wild, and the average dog would not bring down a full grown cow.
Veges should be pulsed, as there stomachs can not process chopped foods.

My dogs get something along the lines of this
Breakfast - either egg or sardines, mixed with mince. ATM, they are having chicken pet mince from lennards. These, i alternate on a 4 day schedule. Day one - just mince. Day 2 sardines and mince day 3, egg and mince, day 4 sardine and mince. Then, back to day 1 again.
Dinner - meat scraps. Today, being day 1 of my schedle, they have liver as well as there normal food. Chelsea wil have liver, chicken necks and some pork and lamb bones. Abbey is having chicken wing, and pork and lamb bones. I generall also give them about 100grms of veges each a day as well. They have just finished a mix of sweet potatoe, apple, cucumber, cauliflower and a tin of 4 bean mix. Putting the apple thru the mix i find helps to not make it smell so bad.
Chelsea was not so good in eating alot of meaty bones when we started, but, now she is great. I picked up a bag of turkey necks from woolies the other day, and she loved them. Abbey has 700gms a day split over 2 meals, Chelsea about 750 to 800gms. The main reason i give them mince, is that its easier for Chelsea to have all her tablets and other bits that she has mixed with the mince.

We have gone to 1 full plastic shopping bag a week full of poo to about 1/3 a week of poo. Which is good.

Deborah - thanks for you advise as well. My vet told me that Vit C should only be given to sick dogs, and not the average healthy dog. But, i have done the increasing the amount Vit C in her food. She has 1 heaped teaspoon a day.

Has anyone fallen off the wagon already? How are we all going?

We started a day late coz I forgot, lol. But we're all stocked up now. Harry loves his chicken wings!!! Not so keen on fish.

Debbie, thanks for that. pmsl at the thought of her trying to bring down a cow! :clap: Yes, i should've just left it raw. Will do once she has finished this lot. I also didn't mush up the carrots but she has eaten them. I will get the potato masher onto them tonight.

I've given her 5 chicken necks for brekkie - I'm honestly not sure if that's too much or not but they are gone in 5 seconds flat! Then for dinner she's having that mix of rice, meat and vegies. She is loving it though. :) I'm so happy. Next week I'll make sure I give her raw stuff and get more organised and go to the butcher.

Kate, it would be good if Ocean could chew the necks a couple of times before she swallows them, but it wont do her any harm to swallow them hole. Thats why i only give them to Chelsea, as she chews them, where as Abbey will swallow them whole. She swallowed her breakfast whole this morning. 1 300gram lump of minced chicken bone. I must seperate it abit for her.

And, also good news. Today marks 2 weeks since Chelsea was given 1 - 2weeks max to live. She is still going strong. Just polished off a turkey neck for dinner.

A little on natural diets and energy levels ........

Energy levels are abnormal when a pet is fed processed food. High amounts of grain are completely unnatural for cats and dogs, but of course it bulk products out and keep profit margins in.

When is the last time you saw a dog grazing on a field of corn? Yes dogs/cats can eat grain and would in the wild when they catch a mouse or take down a herbivore but as a rule this would be ad hock, depending on the season and the available prey.

One of the biggest problems I see as a animal trainer is hyper active behavior, which funny enough settles down considerably when artificial foods and grain based diets are removed.

High carb diets provide high levels of energy, create unbalance digestive systems and is link to numerous health conditions.

Pets don't need grain but there is no harm in giving the occasional leftovers containing rice, pasta etc, just don't go to any extra trouble in preparing it.

On buying raw foods, look up chicken processing plants, these businesses usually sell chicken frames, necks etc in bulk very cheaply. I use to be able to feed 3 Rotti's, 1Heeler, a Jack Russell, a cat plus help the neighbour out on a $14 'bag' per fortnight.

Last thing, you might notice your pet's smell getting worse before it gets better when starting out a natural diet. Look on this as a 'pet detox'.
To help this provide plenty of water, lots of exercise and if really bad add a chamomile tea bag to their water dish. This time will soon pass and doggy breath will be a thing of the past, well at least the kind that comes from processed food, can't help with the 'just found an old rotten bone breath'.:lol:

Deborah

Debbie, that's great news. Ocean sends lots of puppy cuddles to Chelsea.

:)

YAY Debbie!! So glad Chelsea is doing so well.... x

How are our raw foods furbabies going!?

My girl's going great. She seems to be enjoying it all, although, we ran out of chicken necks this morning so she's going to have to wait until I finish work to have her "brunch". :)

Confession time - I was really tired last night so went to bed early telling DH to feed the cats before he came to bed - so they got crunchies. Oh well, junk food as an occasional treat I guess.

TMI alert - I've noticed that one of them is producing really pale poo. The litter box stinks less now.

Hi all,

Is everyone still going well with this? Ocean is loving it. Chicken necks, lamb offcuts, leftover vegies etc. I haven't cooked up any rice dishes this week. Just the raw meat and stuff. She's also been having raw chops etc.

I'm still a little unsure as to how much to give her. I don't want her to be hungry and I'm positive she's not overeating at all.

Thought I'd post this photo of her, seeing as it is all about our pets!

Hope everyone's going well.

Kate & Ocean

My gorgeous Ocean

Well, fish is a no go here. He does not like it at all. He absolutely loves chicken wings though!!
But, he still wants his biscuits!!!! We have this little ball that we used to put biscuits in and he rolls it around and they come out and he keeps going and getting it and then dropping it on our lap and crying. lol. And he's not hungry coz he will do it right after he's eaten!!
aww...cute photos of Ocean.
Here is my gorgeous boy!

SaraJane are you feeding the fish raw? My dog hates raw seafood, but he loves it when it's cooked.

Thanks Naru, I will try cooking some for him then!!

My girls are still going strong..
someone questioned how much to feed...
From what i have read - you feed them 2 -3% of their weight daily.
eg, if your dog weighs 30kg, 2% of that is 600grams, 3% is 900grams - so, this is what you feed them daily.
Chelsea needs to put on a bit of weight, so i feed her 3% of her weight, where as Abbey is abit of a lard ar$e, so gets 2% of her weight.

There is also an theory that dogs shouldnt be feed every day, and that it is actually good for them to have 1 or 2 days a week with no food, in order to help them clean out their systems (with the exception of puppies and lactating mummy dogs). I dont do it, my girls are used to having 2 meals a day, they would drive me mental if i suddenly didnt feed them. If you do choose to do this, then you just need to increase their daily feed amount to cover for the day that they miss... so that over the course of the week, they still get the same amount of food, regardless of how many feeds they actually have. Does that make sense.

Naru, does he eat the sardines? My two puss cats only eat the sardines in tomato sauce LOL!

How's everyone going, anyone noticed any more changes?

Sara Jane, how cute is your puppy!!! :)

There is NO WAY on this earth I'm letting her go without food for even one day. I think that's cruel. It might be how it is in the wild but she's never lived in the wild and that seems ridiculous to me.

I haven't noticed any changes in Ocean. Same energy levels, same poo etc. I'm happy to keep doing this though as she is enjoying it and I don't know what they put in the other foods.

Debbie, how is Chelsea going? Thank you also for the feeding guide info. :)

Kelly, we hardly ever eat sardines, so our doggy has never tried them. I imagine he would like them. There's not much he doesn't eat (raw vegies, fruit, raw seafood). He especially loves tinned tuna. It's one of the few foods he is naughty enough to pilfer from the table or kitchen counter.

This morning my Tabby cat turned his nose up at his liver - Mal ate his, but didn't eat the other serve, I threw it out. Tabby hasn't had anything all day. Mal threw up (on the dining chair, great) later so maybe it was bad or too rich or maybe a coincidence and it was a furball.

Haven't noticed too much of a change in them, but I think they were healthy to start - Tabby maybe could lose a few ounces so him not eating one meal doesn't worry me.

I picked up more sardines for them today, in case it was a furball.

I'm having to worm Ocean 4 weeks earlier due to finding a couple of tape worm remnants near her bum. She is up to date with all flea/worming things so I was a little surprised. I called our vet and they said that all it could be is the raw meat. She said there's no harm in worming her a little early. Poor little girl. She looked quite embarrassed about it all! Other than that, she's still going ok on this diet of raw, natural things. I really can't say I've noticed a difference in her energy levels, weight, coat etc though. As long as it's good for her, I'm happy.

How's everyone else going? Have you noticed any changes?

Hi Kate.
We're still going with it. I haven't noticed any changes either. Except that he's a little pig!! lol. He loves his chicken, but no nothing different here!

Yeah Ocean's loving the chicken necks too. I think she'd eat teh whole tray if I left them out! :)

Give it some time, you are doing your little furbabies such good! Its doing its work from the inside out... extending it's life span - and that you wont see for a while we hope!!!

I second what Kelly said - you are potentially preventing them from getting sick, and helping them to live a longer and happier life.
You might also find that, as the weather is getting warmer, dogs (and cats perhaps) tend to slow down abit anyway.

OK girls, Ocean has taken to eating the bones. Is this cool or not? I noticed she spewed the other day and one came out. Surely it can't be good to eat bones. I've been giving her chops. Maybe I wasn't meant to?

Sigh...

Hope you're all going well.

:)

Hey Kate.
I don't know but my dog eats the bones too. We buy bones from the butcher and he eats all the meat off then as much of the bone as he can!

SaraJane, thanks for that, I feel much better. It can't be nice coming out though hey? ;)

Oh well!

lol, no, one day he was out in the back yard trying to go to the loo and whining!!!! lol. Something was not right. But that hasn't happened again, phew. Poor little thing I felt so bad, lol.

You'd think they'd know better hey? *roll eyes*

No cooked bones I think - will double check. Defintely no cooked chook bones!!!

Yeah, no cooked bones here, he's eating the raw ones!

Same. Raw only.

SaraJane, a girl at work said her dog eats raw ones too. She said they're fine. I guess they know what they're doing, right? ;)

lol, yeah, he must think it's a good idea! It's not like I'm starving him and he has to eat the bones to get full, lol, so he must just like it!

I can understand your concern about Ocean bringing up food, especially when you can see bones.

It can be fairly common for pets to do this when changing to a natural diet.

Changing to bigger portions of raw meaty bones can help IE give a whole chicken frame/carcase instead of just a chicken neck or chop - this goes for cats too. This slows down eating, gets saliva going that aids in digestion and gives the pets neck and jaw muscles a good work out.

There are a number of reasons that pets throw up, firstly, the digestion of a commercially fed pets is usually weak and out of balance and it can take a little while for their tummies to come back to full health, so occassional throwing up can happen.

The most common reasons though is eating way too fast, the food hits the tummy and comes back up or they get excited, run about and up it comes.

Now for the extra yuk part, it is completely normal for a pet to then, lets say, recycle that food and eat it again.

When a pets throws up be calm, no response is best and walk away, wait for the pet to become distracted, moves inside or to another room etc before 'cleaning up' if required. Pets get distressed when owners show reaction, lead with the behaviour you want your pet to mirror.

In saying all this, if your pet throws up more then once, is acting in an unusual way and looks unwell then a trip to the vet is best. A note on vets, find a vet now, before you need one that supports natural diets, as a guide, vets that practice natural therapies usually support natural feeding.

Oh and NO COOKED BONES.

Hope this helps.

Deborah

Deborah, thank you very much. :)

Debbie, how is Chelsea?

Kelly, thanks for asking..
Chelsea is doing well. It has been nearly 6weeks i guess since her original diagonsis (sp??) and she is still going strong. She is not slowing down at all, people ask how she is going, and i proudly say "there is nothing wrong with her", or "she is doing well for a dead dog". On the 31st Oct, she was given a maxium life expetancy of 2weeks. The lumps have hardened and contracted, which apparently means that they have stopped growing or something.

Deborah - your little bit on the dogs 'recycling' their food was reassuring. I am sure last week i noticed a poop on the lawn, and the next day it was gone...... must be why my Abbey isnt looseing weight .....eeeeeeeww!

Hi Debbie,

I am so glad to hear your Chelsea is doing so well. I have been thinking about both of you and hoping all is going well. Keep up the good work!

Regarding the recycling issue that Abbey is getting up to, it is a sign of mineral deficiency if animals eat their own droppings. This issue gets treated as a behaviour problem by some but I can assure you it has nothing to do with being bad or learning the habit from someone else, but everything to do with an imbalanced digestive system.

I realize you have started a natural diet for your dogs but in special cases extra nutrients are needed. I would suggest items such as seaweed, cider, cod liver oil, brewers yeast etc be added to their diet for a period of about 12 weeks, just to give them a boost. Then you might continue adding 'the extras' once a week, depending on your situation.

Usually standard deficiencies and imbalances right themselves over a 12 week time frame by providing what nature intended your pets to eat but when you are dealing with special problems extra help is needed.

I have been able to help a range of animals with this problem, from pet ****atoos, right through to horses, dogs, sheep and poultry.

If you would like a custom made diet please contact me directly and I will write one up for you. norquesta@yahoo.com (Kelly from BellyBelly said this is OK).

Best Wishes
Deborah