How many BARF'ers or RAW feeders are there?

[Geeki]

I have two huskies and I am not sure who went crunchy first, dogs or us.


We try to do organic at home, lots of fruits and veggies and lean meats. Not a lot of sugar, refined carbs, etc....but we feed both girls raw meat.

Yesterday they got chicken breasts (whole bone in, with skin). Today it was pork brisket. We even joined a local food co-op to make it more financially affordable.

I dont really do much supplimenting (occasionally salmon oil every other month or so I order a bottle). other than that we feed prey model Vet think's they are amazing and has even told me that my older girls (well.. she's 5 not THAT old) has never ONCE needed her teeth cleaned (yeah for turkey necks!)

-Talia

[thekimballs]

I've fed raw for seven years now, and raised a whole ton of Danes on it. I currently have a 4-year-old Dane girl and her litter of six five-week-old puppies all eating raw .

[Brown Lioness]

i WILL be feeding raw once I get my pup. I havent really decided on supplements and stuff yet, but yea, raw meats and uncooked bones all the way here.

[pygmywombat]

I've been feeding my GSD raw since he was about a year old. Smart boy- even as a puppy he would refuse to eat dog food for days on end. He get's mainly chicken quarters and turkey- with the occasional beef and venison. We are picking up 20-30 lbs of organ meats from a local butcher tomorrow for him.

[runes]

our pug eats raw, we get the frozen little patties from the pet store.

he came to us with some pretty wicked skin irritations (we adopted him when he was 1 1/2), recurrent ear infections and he was way pudgy. our vet told us that he needed to lose weight. now he gets plenty of exercise, raw food and drinks only spring water. he's svelte, his coat is gorgeous, he has the shiniest black eyes and no ear infections to speak of.

lucky dog!

[runes]

our pug eats raw, we get the frozen little patties from the very expensive, upscale pet store. he's worth it, though.

he came to us with some pretty wicked skin irritations (we adopted him when he was 1 1/2), recurrent ear infections and he was way pudgy. our vet told us that he needed to lose weight. now he gets plenty of exercise, raw food and drinks only spring water. he's svelte, his coat is gorgeous, he has the shiniest black eyes and no ear infections to speak of.

lucky dog!

[greenmagick]

My three dogs have been eating raw for about 5 years now. I never got my cats to switch. I started out doing all kinds of supplements, measuring, etc and realized it was not needed Our "mainstream" vet even mentions how healthy they are

[Sailor]

My family fed all our dogs raw. I thought ALL dogs loved it and there was no comparison. Then I got Roark. He's a GSD ... and since I got him, I've been trying to get him to enjoy raw meat, raw bones, etc. He refuses to touch it. I've done everything ... and he just turns his nose up at it. If I mix it with kibble (which I know isn't optimum) he will eat the kibble, leave the raw stuff. If I don't feed him for a day, and then give him raw, he will lick it a few times and then give me a look that says "what the heck is this?" If I hand feed him, he will lick it, sniff it, and ultimately walk away. I've given him the best parts of the meat, the best bones, things I would eat myself (cooked of course), and he still refuses. On the other hand, when he sees his kibble bag he gets SO excited.

Having officially given up on getting Roark to like raw, I feed Timberwolf Organics. Expensive, but it's the only kibble out there that I would even think of feeding.

I still wish I could feed raw, as it's truly the best. Growing up, it's the only thing we fed, and for a long time I didn't even know things like kibble existed.

[ComaWhite]

Our kitties are on a raw diet, although I have a stash of canned tuna for those days when Ive forgotten to thaw food.

The best part is the very very clean and unsmelly litterbox .... although I do appreciate the very little shedding and natural cat behavior that come with raw feeding too.

[Plummeting]

We supplement with alfalfa powder, kelp powder and fish oil.

[TheDivineMissE]

Ok, that's it! Between this thread and the one I started I am SOLD on raw! I just need to know what to feed and how much. Anyone have a good, easy to understand website or book recommendation? I'm gonna do this!

I'm looking at adopting a new cat, too, what do you feed cats raw? Frozen mice?

[thekimballs]

I have a link on my Web site (it's for Danes, but it all applies) that has an explanation and sample menu. You basically feed 2-3% of the adult body weight of the dog (so for a puppy the proportion is higher) every day, and then look at your dog. Pudgy? Slow it down. Thin? Up it. It becomes a lot more like feeding a kid in terms of not sticking rigidly to portions or sizes.

Cost depends entirely on how cheaply you can get the components. We found a restaurant supply house that sells us chicken backs for $.17/lb, so feeding raw for us is very cheap. I've paid up to $.50/lb and still felt that I was undercutting premium kibble. A dog will eat about twice the weight of raw as he does kibble (because of the moisture in the food), so you can figure it out that way.

[TheDivineMissE]

Great link, thank you! I will start looking around for sources and make a doggie grocery run today. No more kibble for us!

Just one question - tell me again why raw bones won't puncture intestines and cooked bones will? I've got bone paranoia and I'm terrified of giving my dogs bones. I know logically that it's silly - wild dogs and wolves eat bones every day and so do all of your dogs - but I just can't get it through my head that this will not kill them!!

[TheDivineMissE]

A couple more questions: Can I skip the lamb and use tripe on those days instead? Lamb is expensive!! Best price I found at a wholesaler was 2.37/lb. Also, the legs seem to weigh in at 7 lbs or so?? So how would I split that up?

[pygmywombat]

We fed whatever we can find and afford. Mainly our dog get's ground turkey, chicken drumsticks, and chicken quarters from K-Mart or Aldi's. We also just brought home 70+ lbs of beef from our local butchers. It was $20 for a bunch of hearts and kidneys and he threw in a huge box of meaty, marrow bones for free. We are purists- the dog gets leftovers from the table, too. He especially loves anything with noodles and sauce. And if we get a deer during hunting season he get's venison (which he is crazy about) and if I help with field dressing I'll save the organs for him. Once one of my barn cats killed a huge wild rabbit and I tossed it to the dog, who ate the entire thing and spent the night heaving up select pieces to rechew.

We we feed somethings really big that isn't easily chopped I just let the dog eat at if for a while in the yard, then take it away and put it in the fridge so he can work on it the next day. I did this with a beef heart once- lasted him 3 meals!

We supplement with Cod Liver Oil, Brewer's yeast, animal feed grade kelp (I get it for the cow), and lard (when we are feeding a lot of poultry and little red meat).

Good places to start:
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

http://www.rawdogranch.com/

We converted friends with a horde of cats to raw. It took a while for the cats to even be willing to eat it. They do a lot of poultry and fish for them, with some beef.

[thekimballs]

You really don't HAVE to feed a particular species, especially if it's expensive. I get lamb necks for a buck a pound, and that's the absolute most I'll pay.

Tripe is fabulous any time, any portion. I've seen dogs eat 6-7 lb of tripe at a sitting and just fast the next day; they don't even get the runs. I would feed tripe almost exclusively, but I'm having a hard time finding a supplier around here (I won't pay the huge price for ground; I want cow stomachs). So I feed what I can get--any type or species of raw meaty bones, organ meat a couple times a week and then one veggie meal a week or so.

And no, raw bones won't hurt your dog. I've got five-week-old puppies eating chicken backs now; they gnaw at the bones and eat the ribs very efficiently. I would never do this if I wasn't sure they'd be safe.

[pygmywombat]

Where can you even get tripe anymore? We tried requesting it when we got our last steer butchered and were told that because of the new USDA laws to help prevent BSE we can't get any stomach or spinal tissue at all, even with our home raised, exclusively grassfed steer! We did get the tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, tail, and neck bones.

[TheDivineMissE]

There's a couple of meat wholesalers here that sell tripe. They said it's uncut - but I don't know what that specifically means except that it's cheaper then having it cut up for you. The one wholesaler sells everything in 40-60 pound cases.

Edited to add: We're in New Mexico

[thekimballs]

Lots of animal-only suppliers can give you tripe--greentripe.com, Oma's, Bravo, etc. If you want it yourself you have to get it specifically not for human consumption. I've gotten around it by having the tripe denatured (liquid denaturant is poison, but they can use powdered charcoal and that's harmless) or by buying it for another purpose ("Hi! I'm a gardener, and I use tripe in my compost! May I buy two a month?"). Also, deer processors and other non-USDA slaughterhouses will often give it to you for free. It's the USDA ones that have to follow the rules (and, again, if they just denature it it should be OK).

[thekimballs]

If the tripe is coming from a wholesaler it's almost certainly bleached. That's pretty useless for dogs. You want unwashed tripe full of digested grass on its way to being poop, full of blood and muscle.