lucher food

[skycat 6,173]

skycat is it bad to mix the two diets, i mean barf and dry?

I know this wasn't aimed at me but I do have the answer for you

 

It is fine to feed raw and 'complete' kibbled foods but it is not advised to do so in the same meal since they are processed at different speeds and are alleged to cause problems (I have no first hand knowledge of this since I never feed them both at the same time).

 

 

Agree there But I will say that since I've had to buy a couple of bags of complete due to a cock up with our butcher and delivery of tripe and mince I noticed their sh*t stinks something horrible. I just have a problem feeding any animal with stuff where I don't really know what goes into it. I know it says on the bag what the ingredients are, but when (there've been some vids on here a while back of the type of rubbish that goes into dog food) you aren't feeding fresh raw food you just never know the exact contents.

 

I won't eat processed food myself: the thought of pot noodles or anything that has so much preservative, colouring, E numbers, makes me uneasy. Call me old fashioned but I like to see what I and my animals eat in its natural state: meat, veg etc.

 

Yes, for a few years I fed Purina Pro Plan as I could get just out of date very cheaply, supposedly one of the best complete foods, and yes the dogs looked and performed well on it and none died early from tumours or other weird diseases, BUT, since they've been solely on raw their stamina has increased, their wounds heal more quickly, they generally have more energy and never leave a scrap of food in their bowls, and their sh*t doesn't stink and they crap about 1/4 of the amount they would on dry food. Their bodies can use virtually everything from a meat based diet, and you're not loading the dog's system with cereals it can't process like a herbivore would. A dog's gut is much shorter than a cow's and can't extract the nutrients from cereals in the same way.

 

Yes, if you feed raw you need to know what your'e doing nutritionally: red muscle meat alone will leave a dog very lacking: they need fat, bone, some veg and fruit, offal.

 

I have pups of 14 weeks here at the moment. Their breakfast is live yoghurt: couple of spoonfuls each in the morning. Then scrambled eggs and toast OR cooked rice and pilchards or some other oily fish OR minced raw rabbit with lamb fat added and a handful of rolled oats for roughage.

 

they generally get a big meaty bone or a bit of breast of lamb for lunch. Something they can sit and chew for ages tearing off bits of meat and fat etc, but at this age nothing they could grind up and swallow: they've only got baby teeth!

 

Supper is meat: either minced beef and rabbit if I've got rabbit, a little tripe (not a lot of goodness in tripe but they love it), minced raw veg and fruit (about 15% of the total), a handful of cooked rice or pasta. Or minced chicken carcases and whole wings to chew on. If they swallow a chicken wing whole it won't hurt them at all and their stomach juices will dissolve it before it gets to the gut.

 

I feed as much as they can eat at one sitting. And I do add SA37 as a supplement, as well as Dorwest Herb's Keepers Mix.

 

I know this all sounds like a lot of hard work, and it would be much easier just to chuck some dry food in a bowl, but I'm happy with how they do on this and I've reared pups like this for many years.

 

It all depends on what I have available: they don't get exactly the same thing every day, but the basis is meat. Hope this helps.

 

PS I can't see the point of feeding 2 weeks of the month on raw and 2 weeks on dry: stick to the raw IMO. Human babies don't get complete foods: there is this scare mongering tactics going on from the dog food companies that we need to feed their complete products or our dogs won't be getting everything they need nutritionally. Bollocks! Give any animal (including humans) a good balanced diet of fresh ingredients and it will do just fine: better than eating dry, preservative filled, sometimes dubiously sourced innappropriate ingredients.

Dogs don't need filling with soya, beet pulp or potatoes: cheap fillers is all they are. Just do a bit of research on what dogs need nutritionally and away you go. Yes a dog will survive on fish and chips just as we would, but it will be a lot healthier if you feed it what nature intended.

[kvnmcwebn 0]

ok,cheers for the details.I will try and keep the diet consistent. I have a beddy thats very picky eater and a beddy whippet that eats like a horse.

ive been giving them the barf diet about two weeks a month because thats usually all the breast of lamb my butcher has. I also give them chicken and the od bit of fish and eggs. I will introduce some rice to them now.

[terrierman taunton vale 82]

hi i have all my dogs on beta grayhond and they look very well on it and at £12 a bag not to pricie

but i but them on some tripe (greener the better) for a few months in the winter.

 

 

 

cheers.

[ABDog 0]

Good post skycat. . always good to read what others are feeding, kind of backs up what we already learned over the last few years of raw feeding

 

It is important to remember that the raw diet doesn't suit every dog, even though it should. So, if your dog doesn't do well on it, you shouldn't feel you've failed. Just means you need to adapt a little and work it out - which you will, it isn't rocket science (even though it seems uber complicated to start with, it really doesn't have to be).

 

The solid waste issue alone is good enough reason for me not to want to go back to kibble

 

One thing I am struggling with at the mo is puppies and raw. I think what I need is a supply of minced chicken (or lamb, or rabbit) with bone and some tripe. I've not really done the puppy/raw thing before and I don't want to inhibit her future potential through something lacking in her diet now.

[Guest MY LAW]

skycat is it bad to mix the two diets, i mean barf and dry?

I know this wasn't aimed at me but I do have the answer for you

 

It is fine to feed raw and 'complete' kibbled foods but it is not advised to do so in the same meal since they are processed at different speeds and are alleged to cause problems (I have no first hand knowledge of this since I never feed them both at the same time).

 

MY LAW - this is the first time I've read that the vitamin and mineral requirements of a puppy are the same as that of a baby. . not disputing your post but would be interested to know more about feeding powdered human milk to puppies.

think about it ,only the best is given to a baby and it is on this powderd milk for a long time ,no solid food untill its stomach can cope with it .

[ABDog 0]

think about it ,only the best is given to a baby and it is on this powderd milk for a long time ,no solid food untill its stomach can cope with it .

Well yeah. . but. . the nutritional requirements of the 2 species are very different.

 

Just not heard of it before (although, do know of people who give/have given goats milk to puppies). . .

[sandymere 8,263]

ok,cheers for the details.I will try and keep the diet consistent. I have a beddy thats very picky eater and a beddy whippet that eats like a horse.

ive been giving them the barf diet about two weeks a month because thats usually all the breast of lamb my butcher has. I also give them chicken and the od bit of fish and eggs. I will introduce some rice to them now.

 

rather than giving BARF for 2 weeks and then not you could freeze the raw in daily servings and use them a cople of times a week with complete etc on other days which will give a slightly better balence and last untill the next lot is available. Skycats post describes a very good diet with the oats giving a good source of protein with the carbs but raw or cooked, or even both, a few times aweek with complete and table scraps, eggs etc will give good results and give a good broad spectrum of nutrients. Dogs gastric track is not like a cows but is very like a humans and as such can digest a variety of vegtable matter and gain valuable nutrients from them.

[ABDog 0]

can digest a variety of vegtable matter and gain valuable nutrients from them.

Not quite accurate, dogs cannot break down cellulose so any vegetable matter (that is to be used for the purposes of nutrition - not that it is necessary, they are fundamentally carnivores) needs to be liquidised before feeding.

Those I know that do feed veg as part of the diet tend to make ice cubes out of the pureed veg and use as required.

[kvnmcwebn 0]

ok,cheers for the details.I will try and keep the diet consistent. I have a beddy thats very picky eater and a beddy whippet that eats like a horse.

ive been giving them the barf diet about two weeks a month because thats usually all the breast of lamb my butcher has. I also give them chicken and the od bit of fish and eggs. I will introduce some rice to them now.

 

rather than giving BARF for 2 weeks and then not you could freeze the raw in daily servings and use them a cople of times a week with complete etc on other days which will give a slightly better balence and last untill the next lot is available. Skycats post describes a very good diet with the oats giving a good source of protein with the carbs but raw or cooked, or even both, a few times aweek with complete and table scraps, eggs etc will give good results and give a good broad spectrum of nutrients. Dogs gastric track is not like a cows but is very like a humans and as such can digest a variety of vegtable matter and gain valuable nutrients from them.

 

cheers

[Guest MY LAW]

red meat is the best food ,i was a whipper in to a pack of fox hounds ,all they got was raw meat 5 days a week and a maze mash the day before the hunt and boild meat after the hunt ,there is not many other dogs that gets the work that the hounds used to ,or cover the miles they done in a day .and any pups that was reard in the yard was given the baby powderd milk to drink ,and it was also sprinkled on the carcass,s a couple of times a week for the older hounds

[sandymere 8,263]

can digest a variety of vegtable matter and gain valuable nutrients from them.

Not quite accurate, dogs cannot break down cellulose so any vegetable matter (that is to be used for the purposes of nutrition - not that it is necessary, they are fundamentally carnivores) needs to be liquidised before feeding.

Those I know that do feed veg as part of the diet tend to make ice cubes out of the pureed veg and use as required.

 

 

I'd agree dogs can't break down cellulose nor can humans but light cooking weakens the cellulose cell walls alowing digestion by dogs and humans though purred, freezing and even the act of chewing break open some cell walls so alowing access to the nutrients within. As dogs don't chew like humans i pref to cook as although some nutrients are reduced by the cooking process imo the gain off greater amounts being made available outweights the loss.