how many raw fed dogs cats have we here ? :)

Stressica

Just curious, just starting out that way now with my 3.. 2 doggies and 1 cat

TooManyDogs

6 dogs

toadfly

3 dogs, one is fully raw fed and the two yorkies are half raw and half dry.

Any questions just shout!

Bannasidhe

4 dogs - 3 on fully raw for last three weeks and 1 on mix of raw soaked in boiling water for a few minutes plus carbs - as advised by Tom Farrington - as he had a liver shunt OP 10 weeks ago and his immune system needs minding for now.

Delighted with the results!

Lemlin

3 dogs, 3 cats.

bluecherry74

2 dogs fully on raw for over a year and a half. I tried the cats on raw but it didn't work out.

fatmammycat

One dog since he was 4 months old- 21 months now- one ancient tabby cat who eats raw about 40 percent of the time but still insists on sachets of rank smelling junk/cat food. He looks good for his age though, so maybe he knows something I don't and so far two out of our three cats lived into their twenties.

Zapperzy

Mine get the odd raw treat, dog gets chicken wings and legs, fish heads, liver and butcher scraps. Cat gets chicken breast and quail. Cat's too fussy to feed her a completely raw diet and don't have the time and freezer space to raw feed the dog. Have started buying natures menu and prize choice ready made raw nuggets and minces for the dog as the odd meal.

The Sweeper

Six cats on a mix of raw and dry for up to seven years. Three and a half year old dog on raw his whole life.

Stressica

Awesome, this is my 3rd day with them and tonight I added chicken gizzards into the mix.

Found a butcher in town who was really helpful and is going to put away chicken backs and freeze them for me to collect on Saturdays and also will do some kind of deal on beef hearts etc.

Im also going to try and source some venison/rabbit.

Anyone here from Kerry?

Im hoping to go about 60/70 raw to start and possibly 100% not so long into the future

Manach

Once a week I try the raw stuff with my lads. They seem to like it.

BetterThanThou

Hi, my dog isn't raw fed, but it's something I'd like to look into, as no matter what, he refuses to eat dry food, but does love raw meat, what kind of a diet would a raw fed dog have and how much would it cost on average per week? thank you.

Bannasidhe

BetterThanThou wrote: »

Hi, my dog isn't raw fed, but it's something I'd like to look into, as no matter what, he refuses to eat dry food, but does love raw meat, what kind of a diet would a raw fed dog have and how much would it cost on average per week? thank you.

Try and get a copy of Honey’s Natural Feeding Handbook for Dogs (http://honeysrealdogfood.com/book.php). I found it to be a simple, easy guide which answered most of my questions.

I lent my copy to my sister and she is now thinking of switching her 3 to raw much to the delight of her vet.

Raw for my four works out at around 4 euro a day but it is dependent on size of dogs. As a rough guide the two 5 kg JRTS get 1/4 lb meat while the two 10kg JRTS would get 1/2 lb. I was all worried about cost etc until it dawned on me that that is basically 6 quarter pounders which can be got cheaply enough in Aldi.

borderlinemeath

I have two raw fed dogs here for almost a year and I found this thread to be a great help:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80681796

The amount to feed depends on the weight/size of your dog and their metabolism. Both my dogs are the same weight but one gets 100g more than the other as she's older, spayed and more prone to weight gain.

Lots of info on http://dogsfirst.ie/ too, plenty of research articles, practical tips weights/measures, dos and don'ts.

lubie76

2 cats on partial raw, just 1 chicken wing or drumstick daily but omg do they love it. I saw packaged frozen raw food for dogs in my local pet store- would this be suitable for moggies too?

Rommie

lubie76 wrote: »

2 cats on partial raw, just 1 chicken wing or drumstick daily but omg do they love it. I saw packaged frozen raw food for dogs in my local pet store- would this be suitable for moggies too?

I doubt it due to the lower levels of taurine. Have been looking at raw feeding for cats, but haven't been brave enough to chance it yet. At the moment my guys get two chicken necks each a day and the dogs are back on the raw diet that my housemate puts together. All doing great so far

taytobreath

Is it ok to give cats chicken with bones in them

Zapperzy

lubie76 wrote: »

2 cats on partial raw, just 1 chicken wing or drumstick daily but omg do they love it. I saw packaged frozen raw food for dogs in my local pet store- would this be suitable for moggies too?

If it's this stuff http://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/ the blocks of plain minced meat could be given as an added extra to cats. The nuggets have veggies and stuff in them so doubt they'd be too gone on those. There's specific cat versions too on the website but I'v only seen shops stocking the dog versions yet.

nala2012

Tried the cat nuggets for our cat who's not fussy at all and has been known to eat veg and rice and she didn't like them! She did eat them eventually when there was nothing else to eat. I've 3 full time raw fed dogs 1 half and half kibble and one cat half raw half kibble fed gonna switch her when kibble is gone.

Stressica

The attached photo shows what they had for dinner the last 2/3 nights, they had a mix of chicken gizzards + Chicken Backs, lots of crunching and their teeth seem whiter already

last night was slightly different, they had drumsticks/legs.

The only thing is I am going to up their veggies I think, well to be fair they haven't had any for the last 72 hours but im going to include, I normally give veggies as treats/chews, they love apples (minus seeds) + Carrots and Bananas and the odd celery stick. and other veggies cooked and mixed in through their food cabbage/swede etc

Stressica

oops never uploaded last time

Bannasidhe

Consignment of raw green tripe arrived this morning - sweetest divine it stinks!!! :eek:

jantheman91

Hey just a question.

Does anyone have a rough idea of how much it would cost to feed a Springer Spaniel roughly 20kg on raw food for a week?

I'm talking butcher's scraps, fish heads, the works.

Many thanks!

DBB

Hmmm, it costs me about €15 per week to feed my 40kg GSD... that's 3 chickens' worth of grub :P (but she's not a huge eater).
So, you can about half that for your Springer, and drop it even a little more if you can get good value from a butcher.

Selfheal

Hi

We've fed our cat on 50% raw food since we got her at four months. She gets a scoop of Hills cat nuts in the morning, and then roughly chopped turkey breast or chicken breast from Tesco in the evening. (She prefers turkey but must try her on chicken wings!) I have to say, only last night she was on my lap and I was telling her how amazing she looks - her coat is literally glistening with health. Highly recommend it, and good for her to have to take her time chomping through it as well.

Good luck with it.

lubie76

Asked my vet who is really into feeding raw to both cats and dogs and she told me the only thing from a chicken you shouldn't give the cat is the breast as it not great nutritionally. A lot of the goodness is in the bone and marrow apparently. My two boys will eat the chicken and bones but girl refuses unless I pick off the meat off and serve it more or less like breast meat.

Vet really recommended whole skinned rabbit if you can source that from butcher. Personally I have guilt issues about feeding bunnies to cats but that's just me. She also advised me to remove kibble completely and fast all the cats for 24 hours on a regular basis. I know it sounds mad and extreme but she has done a lot of research into it and her own cats are about 20.

tk123

lubie76 wrote: »

. I know it sounds mad and extreme but she has done a lot of research into it and her own cats are about 20.

I skimmed thru that and read it as she had about 20 cats!
1 fully raw 4 year old and half and half 6 month puppy - both retrievers. The pup needed so much food early on I started to bulk it out with good quality wet food - Nature Diet/Rocco but I plan on increasing the meat and cutting down the wet food.

My vet is half and half about it I think - she says they can't advocate it because of the "risks" (I suppose of somebody doing it wrong)...but at the same time won't deny the positive affects!

Stressica

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Consignment of raw green tripe arrived this morning - sweetest divine it stinks!!! :eek:

Where did you order the tripe off?

DBB wrote: »

Hmmm, it costs me about €15 per week to feed my 40kg GSD... that's 3 chickens' worth of grub :P (but she's not a huge eater).
So, you can about half that for your Springer, and drop it even a little more if you can get good value from a butcher.

Wow thats less then I would have put for a GSD, but saying that feeding on burns it worked out around €8 to feed my springer + Jack Russell, with Raw so far it seems to be around €10.. thats including the cat too. for the €15 can U ask is it from butchers/shops etc or a mix?

Bannasidhe

Stressica wrote: »

Where did you order the tripe off?

PM sent as unsure if it is ok to link to a commercial enterprise.
If ok with Mods will post link here.

Edit to add: I have no connection with the business in question.

DBB

Stressica wrote: »

Wow thats less then I would have put for a GSD, but saying that feeding on burns it worked out around €8 to feed my springer + Jack Russell, with Raw so far it seems to be around €10.. thats including the cat too. for the €15 can U ask is it from butchers/shops etc or a mix?

In fairness, she's at the lower end of the scale for her weight in terms of the amount of food she needs... If I go over an average of 700-800g of meat per day, she puts on weight!
I buy chickens that are about to go out of date in Tesco, and I bulk it all out with a good quality wet food which I buy when on offer on zooplus, the likes of Naturediet, Rocco, Lukullus etc. I am very careful to feed muscle meat and mind the fat content... Some of the raw food suppliers do minced products in bulk which are off the scale in fat content, but don't reveal this on their website.

DBB

Bannasidhe wrote: »

PM sent as unsure if it is ok to link to a commercial enterprise.
If ok with Mods will post link here.

Edit to add: I have no connection with the business in question.

I don't see any problem with this :-)

Bannasidhe

DBB wrote: »

I don't see any problem with this :-)

I got minced green tripe here : http://www.slaneypetfoods.ie/

Being an ex-chef who worked in Michelin starred restaurants which specialised in French food I can confirm the quality is excellent (yes, the French do eat green tripe...*gag*). It comes in 1kg bags and I checked a few at random and they tended to err on the side of caution being a hint over weight.

OH paid and she says it came to about 52 euro incl delivery - we also got liver chunks and hearts and I reckon that will feed 4 terriers for at least a month.

Have to say my 4 love it but the smell has a life of it's own - we can even smell the frozen bags in the freezer :eek:

..I am asking Santa for a shed and a freezer to put in it... :cool:

running dogs

lubie76 wrote: »

Asked my vet who is really into feeding raw to both cats and dogs and she told me the only thing from a chicken you shouldn't give the cat is the breast as it not great nutritionally. A lot of the goodness is in the bone and marrow apparently. My two boys will eat the chicken and bones but girl refuses unless I pick off the meat off and serve it more or less like breast meat.

Vet really recommended whole skinned rabbit if you can source that from butcher. Personally I have guilt issues about feeding bunnies to cats but that's just me. She also advised me to remove kibble completely and fast all the cats for 24 hours on a regular basis. I know it sounds mad and extreme but she has done a lot of research into it and her own cats are about 20.

why did she say completely fast for 24 hours regular ? thanks

running dogs

6 dogs on half raw half kibble , looking to go 100% raw

BetterThanThou

Anyone fed their dogs and cats frozen/thawed rodents and whole chicks like the ones that are sold in pet shops for reptiles and birds? Just wondering if they'd take them and eat them or just play with them.

Zapperzy

BetterThanThou wrote: »

Anyone fed their dogs and cats frozen/thawed rodents and whole chicks like the ones that are sold in pet shops for reptiles and birds? Just wondering if they'd take them and eat them or just play with them.

I got frozen mice for bunty, first one or two was definitely eaten, but the last one went missing suspiciously quick, this was at least 2 years ago. The freezer was pulled out a few weeks ago to clean behind it, low and behold we found the mouse! :eek: She'd played with it and dropped it in behind the freezer, surprisingly there really was no smell

lubie76

running dogs wrote: »

why did she say completely fast for 24 hours regular ? thanks

I'm not sure but will ask her when I see her later this week. My cats were huge before I removed the kibble from their diet so maybe she thought they could do the 5:2 diet for cats :-)

juniord

i have heard of fasting for 24hrs regular , its to give the digestive system a complete rest every so often , this is another theory on it http://k9joy.com/dogarticles/dogfood01stomach.pdf, i find my dog prefers being fed 2 meals a day as opposed to 1 meal , same amount of food daily just split ,

Stressica

Tonights Dinner... chicken legs with small amount of lamb heart + rabbitt