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

Deborah, thanks for that. I have been keeping a closer eye on her to see if that is what she is actually doing. I thought she was doing it cause she was a scab and would eat anything! :)
Apart from her raw meat, veges, fish and eggs (oh, and milk now, cause Chelsea has to have milk), she does have wheat germ, fish oil & kelp. I am meant to get some cod liver oil as well, but, keep forgetting. I have been told that liver is ok to give instead of cod liver oil.
If i catch her actually eating it, i will certainly contact you and get some advise,
Thanks again for your help and advise thru out this thread

Debbie

Better late than never :D

I finally have time to start this and have run out of canned food :)

I am going to try this and hopefully form some good eating habits for my cats.

Can you tell me if the pets mince from the butcher is ok (not the pre packed stuff with mostly roo meat)?

Thanx
Tanya

Tanya - that pet mince is fine. Some people prefer not to use it, as it can contain alot of scraps, inc fat. I use minced chicken bones from lennards for the dogs breakfast. I figure that it contains no added stuff, and they are still getting the calcium from the bones. For dinner, they get lamb off cuts, which includes bones.

I have offered my cats a chicken wings and they WILL NOT touch them :( I have followed the tips and they just turn their noses up at it!

What do I do.... it's been days since they have eaten.

Hey I meant to jump on the bandwagon but got a late start, I have been feeding Cherry Pie chicken necks and wings for the last 2 weeks but I am not sure how much I should be giving her. The article says 2-3% of the body weight and Cherry is 6kg so does that mean 120gms? My maths are shocking... I have been giving her 2 wings or 4 necks a day.

Hi all - hoping your furbabies are doing well.
All is not so good here on the cancer front with Chelsea. Took her back to her natropath vet yesterday for her check up. Chelsea's breathing is getting worse, sorta like she is having difficulties. The vet believes that the cancer has spread to her lungs. Chelsea is not eating properly, and is very timid. We feel she has connected food to tablets, and that Cheslea has had enough, and has possibly given up the fight. I have some tablets to give her to put more oxygen into her blood, to see if that helps her breathing, which, in turn, may help her feel better, and want to keep going. I would say she has about 25% of her spirit left. And the heat is certainly not helping. If the tablets havent made a improvement by Saturday, then, we have to make "the decision". If they have worked, and she is alot better, then we can keep going with the natural treatmeant, but, perhaps even with that, we are still only looking at 2 to 3weeks left.
So, my instructions are to feed her whatever she wants, as long as she eats. Not to much pasta/carbs, as it will send her liver into shock. But, just food. And, if she she starts eating better, then, she will start taking her normal tablets again. But basically now, we are giving her tablets to make her days comfortable, where as last month, we where looking at tablets to keep the cancer at bay i guess.
So, today i think is 3months since we had the confirmation of her diagoniss. We where given a 2 week life expetancy if we choose not to go down the chemo path, and with the change in her diet, and the natropathic treatment, we have been able to extend her life, and she has not suffered at all yet.
Fingers crossed we see some improvement.

Hi,

I like the sound of the Raw Food Diet, however I am worried about giving my (2) dogs bones, even raw ones as I have heard from a number of people, including vets, now say that dogs shouldn't have them as they can crack their teeth. My mum's dog is a small mini foxie x jack rus and she has done considerable damage to her back teeth that are now infected and will need to be removed.. supposedly from cracking them on a bone.

What's your thoughts?

Kessiebear - partly correct i guess, as alot of people feed their dogs marrow bones from cows. You should feed you dog bones from animals that would be their natural prey in the wild. Eg, your mums dogs should be eating chicken wings and necks etc. Even fish is ok.
All dogs, regardless of being on a natural food diet or not, should have hard stuff to chew on. Natures toothbrush.

Ahhh.. right.. that makes sense..

Well I shall have a deeper look into the raw meat then..

What are your thoughts also on 70 - 80% meats and some high quality dry.

I also have seen an animal nutritionist on Oprah who had his dog food pyramid and he said a small amount of grains are good too..

Thanks for the advice

Sarah

Debbie - how's Chelsea going hon? I often think of you... *hugs*

Kelly
Thanks for asking. I thought that i had posted in here what happended, but, must of forgotton.

The night that i wrote my last post regarding Chelseas progress, we decided that we had to do what was best for Chelsea. She really wasnt coping very well with the heat, and we where terrified of her having a heart attack or something as her body tried to cope. It was difficult to see her in so much discomfort.

So, i took her to the vets, and we had her put to sleep.

To anyone else that may get to this situation. I highly recommended staying with your little furbabies while this is done. It was difficult, but, at the same time, very peacefull thing to do. It was comforting for me to know that her last moment where peaceful, and calm, and that she went to sleep being cuddled by someone that loved her.

Oh Debbie I am so sorry, but also pleased that Chelsea had a peaceful passing. Love to you and your family x

We are looking at buying a dog on Thursday. I think we will start him on the raw foods from day 1 at home. The cat I am considering putting on raw foods, but she knows how to open my linen cupboard and sleeps in there on my clean linen. Would she be likely to make everything in there filthy if she is eating raw food?

Cats will still shed and get dirty but they have less dry skin and things like that. Simby is black and has the silkiest coat. It can take some time (simba was on it no probs from day 1) but be patient, it pays off. They look healthy and are healthy - he's never sick except when he gets himself hit by cars!!! Start slowly if you like, simby loves his raw egg, has one a week. The others arent keen but they are into everything else.

ps. Did anyone see that show on ABC a couple of weeks ago, it was a current affairs show, they found 100-200 Australian pets that had developed distressing neurological problems which they traced back to a Canadian dry food which was supposed to be high quality. They approached the company, the company blamed Australian quarantine or whatever for having to radiate all foodstuff that come into Australia which in turn poisoned the pets (i.e. couldn't stand, fall over etc). Look at it any way you want, it is poisoning our pets... and who cares about our furbabies???? Liver treats are a much better alternative, you can get them from pet stores, I even give smaller broken up pieces to my cats and they love it. Liver is good for them :)

Kell do you think she would be likely to drag it into the linen cupboard?

The food? Can you not close it? If the cat isnt touching the food after 5 mins put it away in the fridge with glad wrap or whatever, so you can keep an eye on it too. Chicken necks sometimes get dragged out the bowl in this house but not much further.

I might have to feed her in the kitchen once the girls have gone to bed. It is a sliding door and she can open it. I can pull her litter tray out and close the laundry door when I feed her.

I know how it is, these cats are too clever for their own good sometimes, its frustrating!

One of my cats used to take the chicken necks under the bed, so it is possible she'd take it to the closet. My puss has grown out of that habit thankfully.

I am impressed at how cheap it is to get the offcuts and bones for Alf!! I spent $10 at the butcher and there is enough for a fortnight!! He is about 10kg so he should have about 200g per day and 1 fasting day according to the website. I accidentally gave him too much yesterday, and half of it is still sitting there so 200g should be plenty!! So he is about $5 per week to feed.

if you have a lennards available, you can get minced chicken frames for quite cheap as well. I get them for about $1.50 a kg.. I have a 7month old puppy, that eats a kilo a day, and my older dog is on 400 -500grams a day, so, i go thru abit at the moment.

:

---

ps. Did anyone see that show on ABC a couple of weeks ago, it was a current affairs show, they found 100-200 Australian pets that had developed distressing neurological problems which they traced back to a Canadian dry food which was supposed to be high quality. They approached the company, the company blamed Australian quarantine or whatever for having to radiate all foodstuff that come into Australia which in turn poisoned the pets (i.e. couldn't stand, fall over etc). Look at it any way you want, it is poisoning our pets... and who cares about our furbabies???? Liver treats are a much better alternative, you can get them from pet stores, I even give smaller broken up pieces to my cats and they love it. Liver is good for them :)

---

The Origen pet food issue had nothing to do with Australian quanantine unfortunately. It was incorrectly balanced. So for the dog food, there were too many of a particular amino acid which caused life threatening illness. For cats, there was NO taurine which is vital for their existance and would cause neurological illness. Its unfortunate that it even got though to the shelves in Australia, because once it was found out, sadly pets were lost. It was sold in the supermarkets where alot gets passed off as "pet food" where it obviously doesn't have to meet any standards.

Alioops - what about feeding her on the floor of the cupboard and line it with newspapers?

Christy, She likes the second shelf too. I have a few boxes of cat junk food here so I will let her finish that first and then switch her over. She is a fusspot though :rolleyes:

Alf is doing really well on the raw foods. I weighed him yesterday (probably shouldn't have but needed to) and he is 16kg!! Oops, big underestimation on my part!! So I am topping him up with the girls left overs each night. Based on the 2% of his body weight he should be having 350g per day!! He has heaps of energy though and is not doing many poos that I have found so he seems to be doing really well with it!! He really is a ball of muscle though so one could be forgiven for the underestimation :redface:

i know this thread is quite old, but I just wanted to add that if you have a dog that seems to suffer from itchy or dry skin, constant stomach upsets or dirty ears, it could well be an intolerance to wheat. I have a dog with an intolerance,and she has been on raw food since she was 11 weeks old. She is so much happier on raw, and it's so easy to feed. I also feed two of my other dogs raw food and they have much better health since being on raw. Shinier coats and overall health.
and, just in case it hasn't been mentioned, the book "Real Food for Dogs and Cats" is also a very good book to get your hands on if you are interested in raw feeding.