Who has moved to raw, fresh food for their dog?
Discussion
I'm trying to research the best (i.e. most healthy) dog foods available for a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Puppy arriving in a couple of weeks. She will be having Purina Pro-plan puppy food (from the breeder) for a few weeks, then I wanted to transition to fresh.
Good idea? All advice and input appreciated.
Good idea? All advice and input appreciated.
We only feed raw to ours, a working (as in regularly used to flush and retrieve shot game) springer spaniel and a miniature daschund. We've never had an issue with runny tummies, skin conditions, smelly/ greasy coats or bad teeth which others tend to have fairly regularly with wet/ dry food. Poops are a doddle to pick up as they tend to form small solid pebble sized poos which don't smell. Costs us around £1 per day to feed two dogs.
Keep in mind that it's a bit more calorific than standard wet/dry food so you have to feed less to maintain a healthy weight. There are a few different calculators that are provided by the retailers based on the breed, age and weight of the dog. Our dogs have their daily allowance in one sitting every morning and are generally fine until the next morning. We may feed some dry biscuits in the evening if they've been on a longer than usual walk or following a day's beating for the spaniel.
It's also quite a PITA to store and prepare as it will need to be bought in bulk, frozen and then a small amount thawed each day to feed. Its generally sold in 500g packed sausages or takeaway style plastic tubs which is handy. We have a dedicated freezer in an outbuilding to keep the food in as you wouldn't really want to take up half of your indoor freezer with dog food.
You could also to down the route of buying bulk chicken wings and legs and manually chopping them up to serving size chunks but that's an even bigger PITA. A lot of people I know with multiple kenneled working dogs go down this route as it can be quite cheap once you have found a good local source of not fit for human consumption chicken (or other butcher scraps).
I wouldn't recommend if you have small children as there is a salmonella risk and children won't really mind a dog licking their face after just having eaten a bowl of raw chicken and tripe mince.
Keep in mind that it's a bit more calorific than standard wet/dry food so you have to feed less to maintain a healthy weight. There are a few different calculators that are provided by the retailers based on the breed, age and weight of the dog. Our dogs have their daily allowance in one sitting every morning and are generally fine until the next morning. We may feed some dry biscuits in the evening if they've been on a longer than usual walk or following a day's beating for the spaniel.
It's also quite a PITA to store and prepare as it will need to be bought in bulk, frozen and then a small amount thawed each day to feed. Its generally sold in 500g packed sausages or takeaway style plastic tubs which is handy. We have a dedicated freezer in an outbuilding to keep the food in as you wouldn't really want to take up half of your indoor freezer with dog food.
You could also to down the route of buying bulk chicken wings and legs and manually chopping them up to serving size chunks but that's an even bigger PITA. A lot of people I know with multiple kenneled working dogs go down this route as it can be quite cheap once you have found a good local source of not fit for human consumption chicken (or other butcher scraps).
I wouldn't recommend if you have small children as there is a salmonella risk and children won't really mind a dog licking their face after just having eaten a bowl of raw chicken and tripe mince.
Both my schnauzer boys are are frozen raw, as above comes in 1kg tubs of various flavours , no issues to note and the lack of farts and bullet droppings are a bonus.
There will be dogs that simply don't get on with it, or owners who won't try it, and vets that deffo don't recommend it.
There will be dogs that simply don't get on with it, or owners who won't try it, and vets that deffo don't recommend it.
Both ours are on raw (Cockapoo and Springer) and love it. The springer is on 350grams a day, and the Cockapoo 300. Both healthy, no issues with skin, or their coats. We try and mix up the brands and flavours to keep it interesting, and also switch between meat only and completes. We also cook up veg and mix it in to increase the fibre.
We are lucky to have a good independent pet shop who stocks lots of different brands. You can go really expensive or cheap and cheerful, it really depends. They have a new supplier who sells 454g tubes for a £1 each which is so cheap. Its a little messy at times to thaw out the food previously but its not an issue.
Just be careful if your switching to raw from kibble as it can initially causes issues with their stomachs.
We are lucky to have a good independent pet shop who stocks lots of different brands. You can go really expensive or cheap and cheerful, it really depends. They have a new supplier who sells 454g tubes for a £1 each which is so cheap. Its a little messy at times to thaw out the food previously but its not an issue.
Just be careful if your switching to raw from kibble as it can initially causes issues with their stomachs.
The first couple of years our Vizsla was on BARF, she did really well on it, then decided one day she didn't want to know any more.
Having said that she could be fussy with everything, until the day that is we aquired a 6 month old cocker, from that very moment the vizsla scoffed everything in seconds and still does @ 13 years old.
Three dogs now (after the cocker had her litter) and they all had Millies Wolfheart dry for many years, last year we tried a few bags of 'Wolf of Wilderness' (German made brand) via Zooplus which sell loads of brands, they all love it, now buy multiple large bags at a time of the different menus so the dogs have a variety, its really renewed their interest in food, poos are good dogs never healthier.
The WoW brand in the large damproof 12kg ish bags have slide seals, simply slide the seal along and everything airtight again.
Zooplus have a few offers for repeat customers, which Millies didn't, so you can save a bit by taking advantage of offers and earn points for treats and goodies with each purchase, obviously having several dogs the offers work out better for us, Zooplus website user friendly and the dogs definately prefer the German made kibble.
Having fed both ways, the kibble route is much more pleasant from a cleanliness view too, nothing wrong with barf if your dog likes it and you sort out the storage and handling to suit.
On BARF the dogs seldom need to drink, which takes a bit of getting used to because you wonder if something is wrong at first, with kibble obviously much more drinking involved.
Having said that she could be fussy with everything, until the day that is we aquired a 6 month old cocker, from that very moment the vizsla scoffed everything in seconds and still does @ 13 years old.
Three dogs now (after the cocker had her litter) and they all had Millies Wolfheart dry for many years, last year we tried a few bags of 'Wolf of Wilderness' (German made brand) via Zooplus which sell loads of brands, they all love it, now buy multiple large bags at a time of the different menus so the dogs have a variety, its really renewed their interest in food, poos are good dogs never healthier.
The WoW brand in the large damproof 12kg ish bags have slide seals, simply slide the seal along and everything airtight again.
Zooplus have a few offers for repeat customers, which Millies didn't, so you can save a bit by taking advantage of offers and earn points for treats and goodies with each purchase, obviously having several dogs the offers work out better for us, Zooplus website user friendly and the dogs definately prefer the German made kibble.
Having fed both ways, the kibble route is much more pleasant from a cleanliness view too, nothing wrong with barf if your dog likes it and you sort out the storage and handling to suit.
On BARF the dogs seldom need to drink, which takes a bit of getting used to because you wonder if something is wrong at first, with kibble obviously much more drinking involved.
We have fed our Vizsla on raw since a pup. tried a few different brands but settled on Furry Feasts for the cost/quality ratio. He weighs 29kg and eats 600g per day (200g for breakfast, 400g for tea) to keep an even weight. As said above if you can get over the smell of tripe some days in the house when feeding, everything else seems to be a plus. He never has allergies to it, or any other problems, and always maintains a great coat, teeth, ears etc.
Challo said:
Both ours are on raw (Cockapoo and Springer) and love it. The springer is on 350grams a day, and the Cockapoo 300. Both healthy, no issues with skin, or their coats. We try and mix up the brands and flavours to keep it interesting, and also switch between meat only and completes. We also cook up veg and mix it in to increase the fibre.
Our Springer is nearly two and on 350g of raw twice a day and he's still skinny, plenty of snacks as well.We've fed ours raw for the last 11 or 12 years. GSDs tend have sensitive stomachs and be picky eaters.
They have 1.5lbs a day or raw chicken mince, think there's around 10% bone in the mix. He also gets a couple of teaspoons worth of salmon oil on top for his skin and fur.
It's quite funny because I've never met a vet that's in favour but if one ever meets him they always comment on his condition and because I keep his teeth clean they always assume he's younger than he is.
He's nearly 7.
They have 1.5lbs a day or raw chicken mince, think there's around 10% bone in the mix. He also gets a couple of teaspoons worth of salmon oil on top for his skin and fur.
It's quite funny because I've never met a vet that's in favour but if one ever meets him they always comment on his condition and because I keep his teeth clean they always assume he's younger than he is.
He's nearly 7.
Over the years I've fed 4 Great Danes and 6 GSD's on a raw food diet. I've bought the food in bulk.. boxes of frozen chicken carcass, dozens of bags of frozen tripe, beef and chicken. Fortunately space hasn't been a problem so I ended up getting a large chest freezer for the dogs food and buying around 5-6 weeks of food at a time. More recently I've bought more of the 500g "sausages" of minced beef / tripe / chicken.
I've found that the dogs seem to like it and there's never been any health issues related to their diet.
I've found that the dogs seem to like it and there's never been any health issues related to their diet.
ChevronB19 said:
All I can say is we tried it with our 2 frugs, and they didn’t like it!
My dog loved it at first, but then stopped eating it.Turned out he thought he was getting the same food as us, so wanted it, but once he realised it was just for him he wasn't interested.
We went back to a mix of dried and tinned food as he was happier and its a lot less faff
wax lyrical said:
I'm trying to research the best (i.e. most healthy) dog foods available for a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Puppy arriving in a couple of weeks. She will be having Purina Pro-plan puppy food (from the breeder) for a few weeks, then I wanted to transition to fresh.
Good idea? All advice and input appreciated.
We have two dogs of same breed, one got very ill with raw food, has a lot of bone content, which is believed to have culminated in 7k of bowel surgery.Good idea? All advice and input appreciated.
The younger dog stayed on premium canned and the older one moved to it, no issues.
Square Leg said:
Don’t suppose anyone knows where I can get dried chicken hearts?
My two love them but it seems everywhere is out of stock.
I suspect the current bird flue crisis has drastically cut supply , I know I'm struggling to get turkey based food ,which my two love.My two love them but it seems everywhere is out of stock.
Hopefully supply will increase over time.
rigga said:
Square Leg said:
Don’t suppose anyone knows where I can get dried chicken hearts?
My two love them but it seems everywhere is out of stock.
I suspect the current bird flue crisis has drastically cut supply , I know I'm struggling to get turkey based food ,which my two love.My two love them but it seems everywhere is out of stock.
Hopefully supply will increase over time.
We have an 18-month-old cavapoo.
He was on kibble to start with but so many drawbacks;
So many poo bags.
Flies round the bin
Messy, smelly poops
always seemed starving (although he was growing fast)
Smelly farts - it was so bad!
Then our local food stockist suggested raw food to us. We tried the Natural Instinct, chicken variety.
He loves it. Now we have;
Hardly any poo bags as he goes in the morning & at night. In fact, sometimes we don't seal the bag and use the same one to pick up several.
His poos are hard, nugget shaped with absolutely no smells = no flies
Seems more at ease with eating (though he is now grown up)
Absolutely no smelly wind.
He did fart last night actually, then we reminded ourselves he had some leftover cooked food from Sunday's roast dinners. We have to remind ourselves that he is either on raw, or we give him cooked and pay the price. He doesn't need it.
He has grown up with a cockapoo from a few doors down, they have also gone to raw. And a collie puppy we see in the park, I bumped into his owner in the stockists, deliberating over kibble etc. I advised her to go down the raw route as she was getting messy poos/upset stomachs with her dog.
She says he is transformed, best decision for him.
We pay £3.10 for a KG tub. Devote a drawer in the freezer to six tubs and just make sure one is defrosted at all times. Regarding mess, it's no different to just having mincemeat for humans, we spoon it straight into his bowl. He has 150g twice a day.
I like to think that dogs are wolves at the end of the day. They aren't supposed to eat processed food!
He was on kibble to start with but so many drawbacks;
So many poo bags.
Flies round the bin
Messy, smelly poops
always seemed starving (although he was growing fast)
Smelly farts - it was so bad!
Then our local food stockist suggested raw food to us. We tried the Natural Instinct, chicken variety.
He loves it. Now we have;
Hardly any poo bags as he goes in the morning & at night. In fact, sometimes we don't seal the bag and use the same one to pick up several.
His poos are hard, nugget shaped with absolutely no smells = no flies
Seems more at ease with eating (though he is now grown up)
Absolutely no smelly wind.
He did fart last night actually, then we reminded ourselves he had some leftover cooked food from Sunday's roast dinners. We have to remind ourselves that he is either on raw, or we give him cooked and pay the price. He doesn't need it.
He has grown up with a cockapoo from a few doors down, they have also gone to raw. And a collie puppy we see in the park, I bumped into his owner in the stockists, deliberating over kibble etc. I advised her to go down the raw route as she was getting messy poos/upset stomachs with her dog.
She says he is transformed, best decision for him.
We pay £3.10 for a KG tub. Devote a drawer in the freezer to six tubs and just make sure one is defrosted at all times. Regarding mess, it's no different to just having mincemeat for humans, we spoon it straight into his bowl. He has 150g twice a day.
I like to think that dogs are wolves at the end of the day. They aren't supposed to eat processed food!
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