Changed to Raw :-)

tk123

muddypaws wrote: »

I've not been on here much, and have only just found out about Carnivore Kellys from a friend on FB - always behind the times, me. Do many API boardsies use them? Am thinking of ordering some stuff from them, wondered what the general consensus is.

Carnivore Kellys is just the new name for the dogs first depot. He's taken a step back from that side of things and they've set up a new website and fb page etc I've had the odd problem with them but nothing that wasn't sorted asap.

muddypaws

tk123 wrote: »

Carnivore Kellys is just the new name for the dogs first depot. He's taken a step back from that side of things and they've set up a new website and fb page etc I've had the odd problem with them but nothing that wasn't sorted asap.

I thought it was actually a different company, a family of butchers that he used to source his meat from, and who now produce and sell their own stuff?

tk123

muddypaws wrote: »

I thought it was actually a different company, a family of butchers that he used to source his meat from, and who now produce and sell their own stuff?

Yeah they've started doing their own chubbs recently but everything else is pretty much the same. They do the mincing and packing there. It moved to their when his old factory got wrecked in a storm

tk123

Does anyone know if CK/DF deliver on Fridays? I thought if I ordered before 12 today I'd have it tomorrow but when I checked out it said delivery is mon-thurs...which I think is a mistake? No answer from either of their phone nums.

Never mind - they got back to me there to confirm they do.. I've also put an order in with Slaney for their run tomorrow so my freezers will be packed lol!

jomalone14

Calling all raw food dog owners......

Today, I took delivery of a small box of chicken chubs (28 x 500g) from Carnivore Kellys. It's my first time feeding raw food to my two dogs.

This evening, both of them got a half portion of their usual Royal Canin dry food with 250g chicken chub mixed through......both devoured the lot in super quick time! So, I used one full 500g chicken chub this evening between the two of them.

The chubs are really handy for me....no preparation, just defrost the day before. I will vary the flavours once I get them established.

My plan is to wean them off Royal Canin dry food completely and just feed them raw food. If I were to stick with the chubs longterm, how much do I feed each of them per day? I have a 3 year old tibetan terrier cross 17kgs (prone to weight gain) and a 9 month old border collie cross, 15kgs.

I don't buy a lot of meat myself so I'm rarely in a butchers. A small box of chubs is 40 euro for 28 chubs currently, if I were to give them a chub each per day, it would cost me 20 euro a week to feed them......

Am I approaching this the right way? All advise gratefully received.


,

Hooked

Hey joemalone

Personally speaking - I don't mix raw and kibble in the same meal. We feed kibble in the morning. Raw in the other meal.

We now feed Markus Mühle Naturnah kibble. Half the cost of royal canin. We buy 2 from zooplus at a time.

Dogsfirst have a great guide for feeding by weight. I think it's a percentage of the dogs weight. Like 2%... (Not sure). So 2% of your 17kg dog would be 340g. do check it out to be sure.

And I'd be reluctant to feed just chubs. We feed a whole host of stuff!!! And most of it is bought in Aldi.

Chicken wings, legs, drumsticks

A mix of...
Brown rice
Apple
Carrot
Broccoli
Herbs
Egg
Tinned sardines and mackerel
Mince

All mixed in a big bowl and frozen in weighted portions.

Fish heads (freeze for 2 weeks minimum) and free

Supplement meals with
Salmon oil
Natural yoghurt
(spoonful in a meal)

And big raw meaty brisket bones once a week/fortnight - to keep teeth, gums and (ahem) the backdoor clean!!! Also free

Variety for the win

And it's costing us less than 15 euro per week to feed 2 large Siberian huskies.

tk123

jomalone14 wrote: »

The chubs are really handy for me....no preparation, just defrost the day before. I will vary the flavours once I get them established.

I got chubs the last few orders for convenience but went back to minces this order and it only took me 10 mins to separate 15kgs of turkey minces into plastic takeaway boxes from Dealz - I saved almost €20 too.

I order mainly from CK and Slaney - Slaney have a better variety of meats and they come in 1lb (or 5lb if you but in bulk) bags so handy enough. It can smell funny though so be warned :pac: You'll see certain suppliers/FB pages slate Slaney - yes some of the meat is from the UK but CK are importing turkey and sometimes duck as well. I eat imported chicken for example - if it's good enough for me it's good enough for the dogs! :P Also check out Nutriment in Ireland on FB - I think their large chubs work out slightly cheaper than CK?

Anyways you're right to stick with one variety for the time being - maybe 2 weeks or so before you try a different one just to make sure you're giving them time to adapt. It'll take a while for them to build up the enzymes needed to break down proper bones say compared to chicken legs.

As for mixing kibble and mince - if it suits your dogs you want to do that it's fine - there's an urban legend that you're not supposed to because they have different digestion times but there's nothing to back it up.

jomalone14

Hooked and tk123,

Many thanks for your replies, exactly the kind of tips I need starting out on raw food.

So far, almost 3 days in and the excitement at meal times is unreal! I'm going to keep my 2 on chicken chubs, chicken necks and kibble for a couple of weeks to see how things fare out, then slowly introduce other meats and flavours and reduce the amount of kibble accordingly.

I must say, there's a great satisfaction in seeing exactly what's going into your dog!

toadfly

I swear the dogs are better fed than I am :P

Dubl07

toadfly wrote: »

I swear the dogs are better fed than I am :P

That looks like a lot of food. Is your surname Baskerville? :eek:

tk123

Dubl07 wrote: »

That looks like a lot of food. Is your surname Baskerville? :eek:

I thought it looked like a smallish meal lol? Some chicken necks and pieces of fish(?) with veg - 200-250g or so for the meat?

Hooked

Here's my mix OP



Weighed, measured and frozen



Big meaty brisket bones for spotless teeth.

toadfly

Dubl07 wrote: »

That looks like a lot of food. Is your surname Baskerville? :eek:

Do you think? She weighs 15kg but has to get around 500g a day and that keeps her very lean. Any less and shes a walking skeleton. How much do you feed a day to your huskies?

Dubl07

toadfly wrote: »

Do you think? She weighs 15kg but has to get around 500g a day and that keeps her very lean. Any less and shes a walking skeleton. How much do you feed a day to your huskies?

I thought it was about 2lb of assorted food - a trick of perspective but I was thinking ducks' neck size rather than chicken. My non-husky gets about half as much as yours. One Nature's Menu duck's neck does madam as a full meal - she's 6/7kg. The necks are great for their teeth, aren't they?

tk123

I'm beside myself with excitement the shop at the top of of our road is for sale and Gahan's Butchers (who have a factory here in Dublin and a few shops) are in looking at it!! Bones on my doorstep!!

muddypaws

tk123 wrote: »

I'm beside myself with excitement the shop at the top of of our road is for sale and Gahan's Butchers (who have a factory here in Dublin and a few shops) are in looking at it!! Bones on my doorstep!!

You're easily pleased aren't you :P

tk123

muddypaws wrote: »

You're easily pleased aren't you :P

PrincipessaBox

Hello, I am looking for best supplier of green tripe from grass fed beef? Any suggestions? We tried Slaney petfoods, since they are only one that I have found online that have Tripe in their range. It seemed fine, stinking but thats exactly what we want from tripe:) I would like to know is there any other supplier except Slaney and Nutriment which I didn't try yet.
We tried venison also from Slaney, to big pieces of bone and very sharp! Be careful with that! My dog had constipation and blood in stool after eating only venison mince..
My dog currently eats Carnivor Kelly chubs which are great but I need to add tripe which is amazing for health issues. We are dealing with gastritis and pancreatitis , so I am looking for best green tripe supplier:)

tk123

You could maybe try Prize Choice from Pet Stop but it's more expensive than Slaney - especially if you go for the bulk 50lb box. I think I read it has a high water content as well? I tend to go for the tripe and oily fish from Slaney - it's slightly less smelly than plain tripe lol :pac: I used to buy everything from Kellys but tend to get more from Slaney these days as he has more variety.

PrincipessaBox

I have just checked this Tripe from Natures menu but from what I have seen it seems like more processed tripe than it should be (or I want it to be:) It would be perfect to find a local butcher who would want to sell it, otherwise I will get it from Slaney again or something. Its very convinient in packs of 500g, and its unprocessed.
I have to say I am so jealous on all of you who have extra freezer.. I don't have space enough for everything I want; especially for those chicken feet and necks, marrow bones and joint bones which are huge.. I can order only food for app.3 weeks because my dog gets around 500-800g of chub-package daily plus some extras like chicken legs, oxtail, or anything I find in stores.

tk123

PrincipessaBox wrote: »

I have just checked this Tripe from Natures menu but from what I have seen it seems like more processed tripe than it should be (or I want it to be:) It would be perfect to find a local butcher who would want to sell it, otherwise I will get it from Slaney again or something. Its very convinient in packs of 500g, and its unprocessed.
I have to say I am so jealous on all of you who have extra freezer.. I don't have space enough for everything I want; especially for those chicken feet and necks, marrow bones and joint bones which are huge.. I can order only food for app.3 weeks because my dog gets around 500-800g of chub-package daily plus some extras like chicken legs, oxtail, or anything I find in stores.

I started with one drawer, then a under counter freezer, then the upright freezer lol! :P

nowayout1

Hey I have a 6 month old GSD and sort of looking into a raw feed diet, any useful tips in doing it? Found a place in Clondalkin that sells minced meat with veg and organs already in the Chubb. For him how long would 12kg of raw feed last? Would we need to get a chest freezer to freeze it? What's the best way of sorting it out for feeds? Does it smell bad?

tk123

nowayout1 wrote: »

Hey I have a 6 month old GSD and sort of looking into a raw feed diet, any useful tips in doing it? Found a place in Clondalkin that sells minced meat with veg and organs already in the Chubb. For him how long would 12kg of raw feed last? Would we need to get a chest freezer to freeze it? What's the best way of sorting it out for feeds? Does it smell bad?

How much to feed depends on the pup - the general guide is 10% of their weight but you may need to increase/decrease as he grows and going by his condition. When my retriever girl was a puppy she was getting 1kg maybe more a day at one stage so 12Kg wouldn't have lasted us that long. I actually mixed good quality wet food (Rocco junior) from zooplus to bulk out her meals and save money because she needed that much at one stage! Kellys do a plus chub that has more calories so might be better for your pup and more cost effective? The chubbs are a good starter but you're paying a premium to have them made up for you. You'd save a lot of money buying plain minces and dividing it up yourself - I use takeaway boxes from Dealz and it doesn't take that long - a few mins per bag of mince so worth the saving for me.
As for needing a separate freezer - it depends how much you want to buy at once. When I started out my boy was fully grown and I used one drawer in the house freezer, then started buying a bit more at a time so progressed to an under counter freezer and when the pup came along I got an upright freezer as well so I could buy even more at a time lol.
It smells like fresh raw meat - we're meat eaters in our house so nobody has a problem with it. Tripe stinks but you don't have to buy it if you don't want. For tripe I definitely wouldn't buy it if you don't gave a separate freezer because it can taint everything else(!)
I buy from http://www.slaneypetfoods.ie (keep an eye on his FB page - he usually does runs every few weeks with free shipping) and Kellys

Some of the stuff is cheaper from Slaney e.g.
15gs of duck wings in 1.5kg bags @ €20.50 vs 15kg in 1kg bags from Kellys @ €37.50 (Yes you can get a 15kg box for €15 from both but handy to already have it divided up for you)

DBB

Just to clarify something tk says above... The amount of raw food an adult dog generally needs is a lot less than a puppy... 10% of body weight would be too much for your dog now, I think.
Adult dogs generally need 2-3% of their body weight per day... My 40kg GSD would therefore need 800-1200g per day. As it happens, and you will find that you need to go with the flow, she needs no more than 800g per day, any more and she'll put on weight, but she is a supremely chilled-out dog, not a busy bee which would need more food. Just to give you an idea using my dog as illustration.
Have a good, thorough read of this thread and the links on it, so that you get a feel for how much meat vs offal vs meaty bones vs veg (if you feed it) you need to be aiming for.

tk123

Sorry I remembered a FB group I'm on has a chart for puppies - they say 6% weight for a 5-9 month old pup.

SillyMangoX

Don't know if anyone here raw feeds cats, but maybe someone might have advise?
I like to supplement my guys food with a bit of raw every now and again, at the moment they're on high quality wet and dry food. But I just feel adding in some raw may give a little oomph? They get raw wings every now and again, but this is time consuming as they wont crunch the bone unless I'm holding the other end, otherwise they just lick it.
When I'm cooking, I drop little scraps and off cuts for them, and if I go to the butchers I'll usually ask for any hearts they have going (which are usually beef/lamb, absolutely massive!) I hate cutting up the hearts, I'd enough of that in college! Do butchers usually have chicken or duck hearts? They might be a bit easier for bite size portions! (The dog loves when I get the big hearts, most of it goes to her ) I wouldn't have the space to bulk order a big bag of hearts for the sake of one or two each a week!

Nody

SillyMangoX wrote: »

Don't know if anyone here raw feeds cats, but maybe someone might have advise?
I like to supplement my guys food with a bit of raw every now and again, at the moment they're on high quality wet and dry food. But I just feel adding in some raw may give a little oomph? They get raw wings every now and again, but this is time consuming as they wont crunch the bone unless I'm holding the other end, otherwise they just lick it.
When I'm cooking, I drop little scraps and off cuts for them, and if I go to the butchers I'll usually ask for any hearts they have going (which are usually beef/lamb, absolutely massive!) I hate cutting up the hearts, I'd enough of that in college! Do butchers usually have chicken or duck hearts? They might be a bit easier for bite size portions! (The dog loves when I get the big hearts, most of it goes to her ) I wouldn't have the space to bulk order a big bag of hearts for the sake of one or two each a week!

We feed raw to a few of our cats (one of our cats refuse to eat wet, one will only nibble both due to being kibble fed for years). What you're after is chicken hearts; they are about 1.5cm long and easily eatable directly; turkey hearts would be doable (about 4cm long, 1.5m wide) but they risk spreading blood all around from them.

The thing with hearts as well while heavy in Taurine is that they are also heavy in sodium which means you should limit the number of hearts per day (3 chicken hearts daily if fed every day). The risk of giving to much sodium is that they may get a seizure from it if unlucky or predisposed to it (our cat with epilepsy will get one if she gets to eat to much of it and the size depends on the amount of hearts she got). You can also look at chicken necks (they will chew those bones off easier than on a wing) and duck hearts (more solid and easier to cut without blood everywhere) as well. A great site for raw feeding cats is Feline Nutrition which also has information on what to feed, supplements, various ways of feeding raw, how to transition cats etc.

3dogs

SillyMangoX wrote: »

! Do butchers usually have chicken or duck hearts? They might be a bit easier for bite size portions! (The dog loves when I get the big hearts, most of it goes to her ) I wouldn't have the space to bulk order a big bag of hearts for the sake of one or two each a week!

I've found 1kg bags of chicken hearts in my local eastern European shop in the freezer

Dubs1990

So guys need some help !

My german shepherd pup is 7 months old , I have him on markus muhle junior , I am having problems with him pooing alot even tough they are formed . I'm not surprised if he goes 4 times a day and these are big amounts also he loves eating them ! Another thing is in the morning the gunk around his eyes ! I have been reading up on raw so I can get away from chemicals etc but I'm nearly afraid to give him raw bones etc do you have to give these ?With him been ruffle 20kgs it's saying I should feed him 1.5kg a day on slaneys food guide is this just meat or is this taking in the weight of veg , rice etc if it's just meat it will be very expensive ! I'm spending 50 euro a month at the moment on the kibble , sorry for the long post but really don't know where to start on this adventure ☺. Thanks

tk123

Dubs1990 wrote: »

So guys need some help !

My german shepherd pup is 7 months old , I have him on markus muhle junior , I am having problems with him pooing alot even tough they are formed . I'm not surprised if he goes 4 times a day and these are big amounts also he loves eating them ! Another thing is in the morning the gunk around his eyes ! I have been reading up on raw so I can get away from chemicals etc but I'm nearly afraid to give him raw bones etc do you have to give these ?With him been ruffle 20kgs it's saying I should feed him 1.5kg a day on slaneys food guide is this just meat or is this taking in the weight of veg , rice etc if it's just meat it will be very expensive ! I'm spending 50 euro a month at the moment on the kibble , sorry for the long post but really don't know where to start on this adventure ☺. Thanks

You don't have to feed bones yet or at all if you're not comfortable with them. The guide weights are meat/bone as mentioned a few posts backs I used to bulk my girls meals out with wet food - usually Rocco Junior from zooplus when she was that age to save money because I have 2 mouths to feed! You could even go one raw meal and one dry or mix wet and dry - it's a myth that you can't. Every dog is different too - he may need more than the guide weight or he may need less - it'll be trial and error while he's still a pup.