# Does anyone here feed raw?



## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

After reading Scared Poopless, I'm thinking of changing my girls to a raw diet.

Does anyone here feed raw? Do you use a particular brand or do you make it yourself?

How long did it take you to transition to raw? Do you furbabies seem to like it?

Have you seen any changes in allergies and such?

Just need any info you can provide if you are or have fed raw.

Thanks


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## luvmyfurbaby (Feb 11, 2007)

Yes all 4 of mine eat raw. I feed them NV raw & freeze dried and Stella & Chewy's freeze dried. http://www.stellaandchewys.com/site/produc...ied_chicken.asp http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.lass...196B8YMT367A5E4 I have always switched them over cold turkey and never had issues with diareah or upset tummies. Their stool is less and dry/brittle since they absorb all the nutrient and have no fillers. I did notice less face staining and no itchy feet. The freeze dried is the easiest and less messiest. When feeding raw make sure to clean their mouths off after. I think Stella & Chewy's also carries raw. I buy them the chicken. Hope this helps.

Oh BTW they hated the primal and threw it up. It has a different texture and the smell is stronger.


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## ShilohsMom (Jun 25, 2007)

Shiloh has been on NV raw since the first day we had him. No problems, scarfs it done, love its, less poop to pick up.


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## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

Maggie,

Thanks for the info. I got the nature's variety yesterday. I bought the organic chicken and also the venison and plan on starting them this weekend when I'm home so that I will be able to watch them in case of any issues.

Lacie is having terrible problems with her allergies and is eating her feet. I don't want to put her on Steroids and so I'm hoping this will help. Also her eyes are tearing again because of allergies.

Thanks for reminding me to clean their mouths afterwards. I read that I need to wash their bowls even more carefully, but their bowls go into the dishwasher with our dishes so that shouldn't be an issue.

Glad to know someone who has used it successfully.

Lynn


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## villemo (Aug 21, 2006)

steini & fairy both get raw and love it. brand? none - made by mommie with veggies and love 
before this fairy didn´t want to eat anything and i had to feed her by hand.
she had diarrhea once a month - now its completly gone. her hair is much better. 

for steini everything is ok, he loves food, no matter what it is :smpullhair: 

i was long time afraid of trying to read scared poopless because of the language... that was very stupid. :brownbag:


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## wooflife (Aug 8, 2007)

My guys eat Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw it's nice because you don't have to worry about the bacteria as much. They've always liked it. I do switch up with Northwest naturals frozen raw it seems they need more variety with the raw, but no one has ever had any problems.

Leslie


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## casa verde maltese (Apr 7, 2007)

Lynn:

I've had the nature's variety for awhile - but we just finally fed some to the boys last night. Rugby loved it - and he was actually aggressive about his food for the first time he growled at Atticus! Atticus didn't seem to like it that much and just moved it around on the plate and licked it - he did eventually eat a bit. I really got it for Rugby since he is so much pickier then Atticus (which is saying a great deal - since Atticus is pretty picky). We also switched the boys to INOVA puppy food http://www.innovapet.com/products/default.asp?id=502 - which is a holistic puppy food - that I had gotten some samples of and the boys really liked it. 

jennifer


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## lilguyparker (Aug 16, 2007)

For those of you who feed your babies a raw diet, do you mix it with dry kibble? My pup is 5 months old and eats Canidae dry mixed with Wellness for puppies (canned). I want to incorporate a raw diet, but I'm not sure how or when to transition.


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## Bonnie's Mommie (Mar 2, 2006)

> For those of you who feed your babies a raw diet, do you mix it with dry kibble? My pup is 5 months old and eats Canidae dry mixed with Wellness for puppies (canned). I want to incorporate a raw diet, but I'm not sure how or when to transition.[/B]


I feed Bonnie Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw, twice daily. Breakfast she gets just 1/2 patty S&C lamb, and at dinner she gets 1/2 patty S&C beef mixed with a little Solid Gold kibble. She loves it and her poo is nice and firm and odorless. (most of the time :smheat: )


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## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

I have been feeding Lacie the raw for several weeks. I don't mix with anything else as one of the reasons I changed her to raw was to get away from ANY gains. She loves the raw and really cleans her bowl -- Lacie has always been a very picky eater, so I'm glad that she's enjoying this.

Tilly will not eat the raw and maybe that's good. After her episode with HGE last week, I was glad that she wasn't eating raw so that we didn't have to rule that out as a cause for her bloody diaherra. Tilly loves food -- all food -- but she won't eat the raw. She just looks at me and then if I try to give her a bite, she'll take it from my hand and then spit it out. Since she isn't the one that's having food allergy problems, I'm still feeding her the Nature's Balance potato and duck kibble with a little boiled chicken mixed in.

I will continue with the raw for Lacie and see what happens.


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## luvmyfurbaby (Feb 11, 2007)

I have been told several times not to let them eat kibble and raw together because it slows the digestion process and you have a chance for bacteria build up in the digestive tract. The raw passes quickly thru the system since it has no grains. You can feed them kibble alone as one of their meals if you don't want to cut it out completely. I supplement with kibble without grains like Orjen or NV Instinct.


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## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

> I have been told several times not to let them eat kibble and raw together because it slows the digestion process and you have a chance for bacteria build up in the digestive tract. The raw passes quickly thru the system since it has no grains. You can feed them kibble alone as one of their meals if you don't want to cut it out completely. I supplement with kibble without grains like Orjen or NV Instinct.[/B]


Maggie -- are you feeding any of yours JUST the raw? I am not currently giving any kibble to Lacie.


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## MissMelanie (Feb 13, 2006)

> I have been told several times not to let them eat kibble and raw together because it slows the digestion process and you have a chance for bacteria build up in the digestive tract. The raw passes quickly thru the system since it has no grains. You can feed them kibble alone as one of their meals if you don't want to cut it out completely. I supplement with kibble without grains like Orjen or NV Instinct.[/B]


I also was concerned about going to Raw and then finding a Kibble that was grainfree but our doggies LOVE the Instinct so we are sticking with that. Micro and Blackjack get dry for breakfast and raw for dinner, and Wookie gets dry for breakfast and raw lunch and dinner. Mr Wookie has even put on several ounces since being on the raw.... WOW! hehehe

Lynn good luck!

enJOY!
Melanie


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## villemo (Aug 21, 2006)

> Mr Wookie has even put on several ounces since being on the raw.... WOW! hehehe[/B]












the same happened to my fairy... now she is a dog, not only bones in white fur


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## luvmyfurbaby (Feb 11, 2007)

> I have been told several times not to let them eat kibble and raw together because it slows the digestion process and you have a chance for bacteria build up in the digestive tract. The raw passes quickly thru the system since it has no grains. You can feed them kibble alone as one of their meals if you don't want to cut it out completely. I supplement with kibble without grains like Orjen or NV Instinct.[/B]



They usually eat the raw alone I only give them kibble when we are going to be out for awhile or when we take them with us. It is perfectly fine just to feed them raw. It has all the protein, vitamins, veggies & fruit that they need.


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## MissMelanie (Feb 13, 2006)

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Yeah :aktion033: for Fairy!!


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## mooshe (Dec 12, 2007)

I just picked up this thread as we've been away for a few weeks - and I wanted to add that I feed only raw food to all five of our puppies - two are maltese - and I noticed remarkable differences in the dogs when I switched - cold turkey - to raw a few weeks ago. I use BARF now and the dogs all **LOVE** it - they lick their bowls clean and then cleaner and then cleaner!!! I have tried the other brands (mostly Primal and Nature's Variety) and find that all of my dogs prefer the BARF. It seems to have fewer ingredients and is not as dense as the NV - my malts do not like the NV and make these little balls of it by gumming it around in their mouths and then dropping it wherever they may be  -- their poops are much smaller and more brittle and the tear stains from ALL THE DOGS have completely disappeared. They seem to have more energy and at meal time they are very, very, VERY anxious for me to get those bowls filled and to the floor!!! 

I do not feed anything else because the kibble requires a different digestion time, keeping the raw food in their stomachs longer than necessary and digestion not as efficient.

mooshe


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## Zoe and Bella's mom (Jan 23, 2006)

> I just picked up this thread as we've been away for a few weeks - and I wanted to add that I feed only raw food to all five of our puppies - two are maltese - and I noticed remarkable differences in the dogs when I switched - cold turkey - to raw a few weeks ago. I use BARF now and the dogs all **LOVE** it - they lick their bowls clean and then cleaner and then cleaner!!! I have tried the other brands (mostly Primal and Nature's Variety) and find that all of my dogs prefer the BARF. It seems to have fewer ingredients and is not as dense as the NV - my malts do not like the NV and make these little balls of it by gumming it around in their mouths and then dropping it wherever they may be  -- their poops are much smaller and more brittle and the tear stains from ALL THE DOGS have completely disappeared. They seem to have more energy and at meal time they are very, very, VERY anxious for me to get those bowls filled and to the floor!!!
> 
> I do not feed anything else because the kibble requires a different digestion time, keeping the raw food in their stomachs longer than necessary and digestion not as efficient.
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> mooshe[/B]


Excuse my ignorance :blush: - where do you get this?


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## mooshe (Dec 12, 2007)

> Excuse my ignorance :blush: - where do you get this?[/B]


I initially did a lot of research on raw foods and went to the BARF website <www.barfworld.com> and went to the list of stores in my area. There are just a few and I can get the frozen packages there. They also ship as there aren't a lot of places you can get the food - next time we travel, I plan to have the food shipped to us when I run out (we travel in a motorhome - yes, with all five dogs :biggrin: ) and on our last trip we couldn't find the BARF in the area that we were - that is when I tried other raw frozen foods - but now I know that I can have the BARF shipped and order it online and will do that when we run out - the freezer in our motorhome is small so we can't take a lot of packages with us. I am very lucky that I can get it from a store locally. 

mooshe


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## Zoe and Bella's mom (Jan 23, 2006)

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Thanks for your reply. So, how much do you feed them daily (my Malts are 5 lbs. each) and how long would one package last for two Malts?

Thanks again!

ginny


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## mooshe (Dec 12, 2007)

> Thanks for your reply. So, how much do you feed them daily (my Malts are 5 lbs. each) and how long would one package last for two Malts?
> 
> Thanks again!
> 
> ginny[/B]


my larger maltese weighs 10 pounds and gets about 3/4 of a frozen patty per day - I divide this between two meals each day. The smaller one weighs 5-6 pounds and gets about 1/2 of a frozen patty per day - divided among two meals. this doesn't seem alike a lot of food and they whip through it in seconds, but it is PACKED with nutrients and I feel that they are really getting excellent nutrition without ANY fillers, etc. My Shi-tzu also gets 3/4 of a patty per day - so I am feeding these three dogs 2 patties divided among them total each day - or 1 divided at each meal.

For your malts, you would feed 1/2 patty per DAY, DIVIDING IT BETWEEN TWO MEALS and both dogs - so one patty would last you 2 days and there are 12 patties in each bag - The package says to feed a 12 pound dog on a 2% body weight 1/2 patty per day - so I guess I am feeding a little more than that, but I don't give them much of anything else - just an occasional treat - but they seem full and don't beg for food.

mooshe


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## Zoe and Bella's mom (Jan 23, 2006)

OK - thanks!!!

ginny & zoe & bellaj

p.s. Have any of you fed raw and not had good results?


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## Zoe and Bella's mom (Jan 23, 2006)

Started Zoe and Bella on raw today and they gobbled it down (and looked at me for more) They have always been picky eaters so I am pleased with the results so far :biggrin: 

ginny & zoe & bella


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## villemo (Aug 21, 2006)

:aktion033: :aktion033: :aktion033: for raw food :aktion033: :aktion033: :aktion033:


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