New to RAW

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your dog's diet, please contact your vet!

Member Since
01/28/2013

Barked: Mon Jan 28, '13 3:35pm PST


	Hello, We have a small hobby farm where we produce our own meat/eggs/dairy/veggies/fruit (the whole shebang) I'm getting very frustrated with the commercial diet for our dogs. I am interested in the Prey Model diet. I have 4 dogs and a fifth staying with us temporarily 4 mo old Texas Heeler (adult weight between 35, 45lbs) 1 7 year old Doberman/Bernese cross (45lbs should be 50lbs) 7 mo old Black Russian Terrier (adult weight approx 90lbs) 3 yr old walker hound 40lbs 4 yr old spanielX 20lbs By my calculations these dogs would need to consume just shy of 3000lbs of food in a year. I am curious what they break down should be. I am able to give them home made organic yogurt as well. Should I? I can give them eggs. Should I? How many? I can give them chickens of varying ages, rabbits, quail, duck (cheapest thing to raise), and cut offs of beef/veal/goat/lamb. We raise all of these things ourselves. Would I do well to give them a light breakfast in the mornings... say, a touch of yogurt with an egg. And feed them a bird proportionate to their requirements, fasting one day a week? If I am fasting, do I calculate the 2-3% daily as the total week (say a 100lbs dog gets 21 Lbs in a week, would I just divide it by six?) I'm lost, and concerned for their health. I would like to raise food for my WHOLE family, not just the people family. They already get plenty of scraps.

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UCH Onyx TT

Do you even- lift?

Barked: Mon Jan 28, '13 7:47pm PST


	I would highly recommending reading the through the PDF provided in the Beginner's Guide to Prey Model Raw thread. Tons of good information that should answer most of your questions. As far as fasting, since I'm not sure that's addressed in the guide, you need to feed the same amount per week regardless of how many meals/days you feed. So you'd feed the same total amount whether you feed 6 or 7 days a week.

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UCH Onyx TT

Do you even- lift?

Barked: Mon Jan 28, '13 10:55pm PST


	Okay, now that I'm not posting from my phone, I wanted to expound a bit on the fasting. In my opinion, if you're going to fast, it's ideal to gorge the meal before, or at least feed a larger than normal meal. So while you're still feeding the same amount over the course of the week, it's not broken into six equal meals. A true gorge does need to be worked up to gradually though. This article is a good read for more information on gorge/fast feeding: Why your dog needs to fill its stomach on a regular basis. But when first switching to raw, I'd just feed once a day, seven days a week until the dogs are adjusted to the diet before messing with gorging or fasting. As to your other questions, some people do give small amounts of yogurt for the digestive enzymes. It's not a requirement, but some dogs seem to benefit from it. Eggs are a good source of protein and fine to feed in moderation. Do read through the Prey Model Raw Guide for all the details on switching. Here's a direct link to the PDF Edited by author Mon Jan 28, '13 10:57pm PST

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Tue Jan 29, '13 9:39am PST


	Do go through Chance's primer over and over again and make up lists and calculate bone and all that. Meanwhile continue feeding the bits you are giving. Max did transition very slowly to raw. First I gave him chicken wings, you would give larger bits. Once he was eating chicken fine I dropped the grain he was getting and started with other proteins then organs in tiny slivers. Last I dropped the veggies as he stopped digesting them! Logistics baffled me for ages and I was feeding one medium sized dog! Things dropped into place at about the 1,000th go through. You have amazing resources and won't have trouble that way. The main thing to remember is the diet is mostly meat. Most of that meat should be red meat as it is richer in vitamins and minerals than poultry and birds. Bone is fed to control stool consistency for most dogs and there is a tiny amount of liver and other organ to feed as you like. BUT, since you have access to whole animals remember whole prey, blood and all, is a complete feed. If you offer whole chicken or duck or rabbit you don't have to be concerned with any kind of balance at all. Max is a once a meal pooper. Feeding him a breakfast of eggs and yogurt would be a disaster as that poop would be very soft. You have a couple fuzzy butts, might try it and decide if that works for you. I don't fast Max partly because he is a senior dog. I did gorge him but just fed less food the following days rather than nothing and now stick to 150% of normal then 75% for a couple days rather than true gorges of 300-400% and nothing. He came to raw a life long early morning bile producer and I was just thrilled he could do one meal a day without problem!

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the chi-weenie

Barked: Tue Jan 29, '13 5:45pm PST


	Wow! amazing all the things you have! yogurt and eggs are fine and good, you can give a breakfast, however it's not necessary. Most raw fed dogs eat 1 meal a day. By feeding whole prey, you definitely can just hand over a proportionate bird or rabbit or piglet to the dog, that is the ideal meal when feeding 'whole prey raw'. meat, bones, and organs all in one. but it's good to feed red meat over poultry because it packs more nutrients. You can do a good balance of both. I've even see videos of dogs sharing a whole prey item. My dog is a little too possessive for that I think. If I were you, I'd feed a whole bird to the dogs for no more than half the diet, and whole rabbits for the majority, and save some tubs of liver to feed with any big red meaty scraps when I have them.