Pets........Raw Food Diet

[roadfamily6now]

I am looking at converting my dog to a Raw Diet. I was wondering if anyone here did / does that and could offer up some wisdom.

THanks!

[Raene]

I converted my cats. It depends on the age of your pet...are they older? It's harder for the older ones, as it is for older people.

With my cat she was already having bad reactions to food (we'd adopted her and started with really good foods). We switched her overnight to raw and she never had a problem with it...in fact, her poop started smelling better (not something to worry about with a dog, I know), her coat was shiny, and she wasn't scratching all over as she had been before.

Our other cat is 10. We tried doing a gradual switch for her but even still she was just puking it up, blood all over. It was too much to deal with, especially because we're vegetarian...blood all over really was awful. We deemed her too old and gave up.

To each pet their own.

We have a friend whose dog had cancer and they gave him raw food and he did so great! He lived 2 yrs longer than the vet thought.

Raw food really is a great miracle. I eat that way myself when I'm not pregnant, and you really feel at your best health that way.

Good luck to your dog!

[roadfamily6now]

He is 6 months old. A german shorthaired pointer.

We have an older cat too, bless their hearts!

[tallanvor]

We haven't, though we did talk about it doing it with our dog at one point. I'm not really sure why we never did, though. It is so hard to find dog/cat food that isn't primarily corn or corn products.

[AkRotts]

We feed ours raw. When we started our rotties were 6 months old at the time (they are now 6 1/2) and our poodle was 13. Our poodle was not doing well, so I had some reservations about making the switch with him. I am soooooooo glad we did because he became a totally different dog and was around for 2 more years!!

I personally hate dealing with the raw meat, but it has been so good for our dogs that I can't ever see feeding kibble again.

There are so many advantages to feeding raw. They don't shed as much, don't have a strong doggie odor, not to mention the fact that their poo dries up and blows away Plus they don't go as often. Their teeth are still at 6 1/2 nice and white and have never had to be cleaned.

We feed ours Columbia River Natural Pet Food, that I get from a local Rottweiler breeder. It is already prepackaged and comes in all kinds of different meats and veggies. Working full time and having a housefull of kids and dogs, buying prepackaged has worked best for me

Here is a link to the main site for Columbia River, http://www.columbiarivernaturalpetfoods.com/index.html

Even if your not interested in feeding Columbia River and want to do it on your own, you should check out their website, they have a lot of great info about feeding raw.

I seriously couldn't imagine ever going back to kibble again.

[Pinoikoi]

My mother has always fed her outdoor (sled dogs really, but not trained to pull)dogs frozen fish.. but our cats have never been able to eat raw.. they would rather starve, apparently.