Changed to Raw :-)

DogsFirst

Funny stuff!! Pigs heads rolling around the garden. You've a tougher gut than I have, and that's saying something. How does your dog find the bones in the trotters? They're damn hard pig bones, full of iron and zinc to support the weight, my girl tends to leave them about the place. Heads must be even harder. Have seen lots of dogs doing away with sheeps heads mind, can't be that much difference.

LisaO

DogsFirst wrote: »

Funny stuff!! Pigs heads rolling around the garden. You've a tougher gut than I have, and that's saying something. How does your dog find the bones in the trotters? They're damn hard pig bones, full of iron and zinc to support the weight, my girl tends to leave them about the place. Heads must be even harder. Have seen lots of dogs doing away with sheeps heads mind, can't be that much difference.

The trotters are very bony alright! Takes them a good while to get through them. They chew off all the skin, meat & soft bits & then just take their time at the bones. They seem to kind of grind them with their teeth as there are sometimes a few tiny bits left but they always finish them off completely.

DogsFirst

Yeah, mines the same. It's that grinding action though that I try to avoid with some of the bigger breeders. They have this fear of cracking teeth which is fair enough. It's probably more likely on cow leg bones and pig bones as the teeth clash a bit more. Still though when a dogs been getting a nice raw meaty bone diet all its life you have to assume they're going to have a more robust set of gnashers, its the "4/5 dogs with gum disease by three years" group that you need to worry about.......you know the ones I'm talking about!!!!

vibe666

i might have missed it in the thread, but is there anywhere that has a good guide to feeding raw?

i've been giving ours a mix of various veg to try with spuds or rice and chicken legs/thighs, mackerel and salmon (whatever is cheap) as well as table scraps, but she doesn't seem interested in the veg, even if it's got gravy on it.

veg wise i tried a bag of cooked frozem mixed veg from lid, then fresh carrot, broc, cauli & peas, but she's just not fussed.

i tried hiding the meat under the veg, but she just moves it out of the way to get to the good stuff. i even tried feeding her the veg first when i knew she was hungry, but it didn't make any difference.

she really loves the fresh meat and fish though, she goes mad for it.

DBB

I'm sure it was mentioned here, but it might have been another thread.
Have you tried pureeing the veg and mixing it in through minced up meat? I'd only go for a wee bit of veg, and from experience with my dogs anyway, the brassicae (cabbage, kale, cauliflower, sprouts) seem to put dogs off, though they like carrots, green beans, peas... The sweeter veg, maybe?
Have a goosey at www.dogsfirst.ie for more info though!

LisaO

I would'nt be giving mine a huge amount of veg - maybe 20% max of their total food intake. Now bear in mind I'm pretty new to this myself, so may be totally wrong on quantities etc.

I mix the veg in with the rice/spuds - again around 20% of their food. I cook up carrots, celery, broccoli, sweet potato, don't peel anything. Then mix into just cooked (hot) rice/spuds with frozen green beans (already cooked pre-freezing, so no need to cook again). I added some spinach to the last batch, again mixed in raw and some shredded mint & rosemary - just cos it was growing in garden & DogsFirst posted here that rosemary is good. I usually add some salmon oil to this mixture as well & then divide it into portions for freezing.

I feed raw meat fo breakfast & then the veg mixture & more meat/fish at dinner. Mine usually scoff the veg mix first, then eat the meat - but they are both greedy pigs!!

DogsFirst

Yeah veg can ge good though it's certainly the least important in the mix for a dog. However a little bit, included in the right way (cooked / mashed) allows the dog to get some great nutrition (trace elements and vitamins) that they wouldn't of been able to get out of a whole lump of raw veg. It might cover some stuff that might be missing from your mix depending on how organised you are for the week/ month. I feel that they might help cover up some of the bases you miss by cutting out key bits like eyes (vitamin A), rectum (vitamin E and K) etc!!!!

But the veg these days is as expensive as the meat inclusions so more often than not I just feed meat and bone with some herbs now and again, bit of veg that I'm making myself. Rosemary is excellent immune soother, great for coats and possibly a decent anti-bug, like garlic. Rosemary is the best anti-microbial so a tiny amount in your mix helps preserve it in the fridge.

Kelp is far and away the best, packed full of everything, B vitamins (brilliant for hyper dogs and vitality), trace elements as well as a few polysaccharides that are found only in seaweeds which are proven to do a whole range of things, anti-cancer, aid digestion etc. Miracle stuff. Buy in bulk as it's expensive.

Also like calendula (anti-inflammatory, if you suspect digestive upset say), slippery elm for dickie tums, little bit of fresh garlic, parsley is great. Wormwood for worms (among a number of other things). Anyone got any more?!

DBB

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but after the above post, I'll never look at rectums in quite the same way again :-D

juniord

cleavers herb can be useful for a range of conditions in pets

DogsFirst

DBB wrote: »

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but after the above post, I'll never look at rectums in quite the same way again :-D

Were you looking at many rectums before this?!

DogsFirst

that gets more likes than anything else I've said!

tk123

DogsFirst wrote: »

that gets more likes than anything else I've said!

You said what we were all thinking lol!! :pac::pac:

DBB

DogsFirst wrote: »

Were you looking at many rectums before this?!

Lol!
I have met many rectums in my life. I just use an alternative to the word "rectum" for them

DogsFirst

Rectum?

God damn nearly killed 'em!

fatmammycat

Oh cripes, the Stag bar arrived, er....loud aren't they (I have wood floors)?

DBB

fatmammycat wrote: »

Oh cripes, the Stag bar arrived, er....loud aren't they (I have wood floors)?

Lol, yep! My shep thinks it's HILARIOUS to throw hers around the kitchen, especially on lie-on days. Ah yes. Hilarious.

fatmammycat

DBB wrote: »

Lol, yep! My shep thinks it's HILARIOUS to throw hers around the kitchen, especially on lie-on days. Ah yes. Hilarious.

On the plus side, he's been gnawing on it for most of the day and has barely made a scratch in it; take THAT pig and calf ears, pressed bone, and rawhide chews!

LisaO

fatmammycat wrote: »

Oh cripes, the Stag bar arrived, er....loud aren't they (I have wood floors)?

Oh yes !

Leon likes to drop his from the top of the (timber) stairs so that it crashes all the way down to the hall. I'm worried it's going to smash the tiles :eek:

DogsFirst

Raw hide chews suuucckk! Almost pure fat. Like a marsbar, only much much older and more Salmonella (no worry to pookums, more worry for you). Bones for outside, stag bars for inside!

Raw hide chews are particularly not advised for little pups, and PARTICULARLY not dry fed pups. With so little vitamin E in dry food (helps with fat, breaks down over time), and huge amounts of carbs (dogs have no amylase in their saliva which breaks down carbs, it's all left to the carnivores pancreas, which is completely unprepared to produce such a huge quantity of amylase, twice as much as we're supposed to eat), bouts of high fat should be avoided in all dry fed dogs. Hence "don't give your dogs table scraps" which is completely untrue, it's just that scraps are usually lumps of fat from steak, pushing the pancreas over the edge and bang, pancreatitis. One of the main reasons dogs suffer pancreatitis up to 25 times more than humans!!! All without alcholol. 65% of healthy cats display pancreatitis by senior years. Just another casually accepted epidemic.........I've gone off on one again.......

DBB

Another thing that gives me the heebie-jeebies about rawhide is that unless it specifically states on the labelling that it's beef rawhide (or other species), then you have no idea what species it's from.
The horrific, stomach-churning reality is that a lot of this stuff comes from certain Asian countries in which dogs and cats are routinely skinned alive for their fur. A by-product of this utterly appalling practise is cheap fur lining for coats, gloves, boots etc, and rawhide for pets.
I would never, ever buy rawhide unless the labelling made it clear where it's from, and what species it is. Then again, because of the fattiness of it, I don't buy it anyway!

tk123

I'm going to try these easy chews next- bratface is only interested in the stag bars that have the big round marrow bit on the end - once thats gnawed away we're left with the straight bit that he's not interested in! btw chemistdirect.co.uk have stagbars cheaper than puredog.co.uk

LisaO

2 more very valid reasons to steer clear of rawhide chews in above posts.

Must admit I hadn't considered either of those points. My main worry about them (as the owner of greedy piggy dogs ) has always been the risk of choking. Years ago our first dog, a labrador, tried to swalllow one of those rawhide shoes whole & I had to pull it out of his throat Have never given any dog a rawhide chew since!

bluecherry74

tk123 wrote: »

I'm going to try these easy chews next- bratface is only interested in the stag bars that have the big round marrow bit on the end - once thats gnawed away we're left with the straight bit that he's not interested in! btw chemistdirect.co.uk have stagbars cheaper than puredog.co.uk

Oh my. These will be on my dogs' Christmas list!

nala2012

Are the antlers dried out? I'm just wondering because there's a venison butcher near me and i was thinking of calling them and seeing what they do with the antlers

fatmammycat

The one I got is bone dry, looks rather like like the sawn off short branch of a tree, but dense. And LOUD when dropped on floors. But he loves it! And like I said, hasn't made a dent in it, even with his bloody huge jaws. Highly recommended.

fatmammycat

LisaO wrote: »

2 more very valid reasons to steer clear of rawhide chews in above posts.

Must admit I hadn't considered either of those points. My main worry about them (as the owner of greedy piggy dogs ) has always been the risk of choking. Years ago our first dog, a labrador, tried to swalllow one of those rawhide shoes whole & I had to pull it out of his throat Have never given any dog a rawhide chew since!

You must have got such a fright! I never give my guy them either, but he has had one before and devored it in less than half an hour- THEN got sick everywhere. But pigs ears and calf ears he rather likes as the occasional treat, but the stag bar is the new chosen nom.

nala2012

Does anyone who feeds raw do the fast day? My dog seems to decide herself not to eat every 2nd or 3rd friday. She still takes treats but not interested in big meals doesn't matter what it is!

DBB

nala2012 wrote: »

Does anyone who feeds raw do the fast day? My dog seems to decide herself not to eat every 2nd or 3rd friday. She still takes treats but not interested in big meals doesn't matter what it is!

I can only imagine the utter carnage in this house if I didn't feed the mob one day a week!
To be honest, this is to my mind a rather old fashioned idea, I really would need to be convinced of any benefits of doing it. And even if someone tried to convince me, I'd very much like to see them convince my dogs *snort*

nala2012

DBB wrote: »

I can only imagine the utter carnage in this house if I didn't feed the mob one day a week!
To be honest, this is to my mind a rather old fashioned idea, I really would need to be convinced of any benefits of doing it. And even if someone tried to convince me, I'd very much like to see them convince my dogs *snort*

I thought nala would never skip a meal, she used to be such a savage, but its happened a few times now. Apparently you're supposed to "Let the dogs decide if they wanna fast" so i guess thats what nala's doing! I was so worried the first time it happened...

TooManyDogs

I don't actively fast mine but every once in a while I forget to take food out of the freezer so decide they can have a fast day