# Raw Food Diet



## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">We recently had a dog fitness center open here and I visited there last Sat. morning for their "Yappy Hour", which is just open play time in a climate controlled building (which is great in winter for northern Indiana) and noticed people buying food. I wasn't able to talk to anyone "in the know", but want to stop by sometime in the near future to learn about it. I guess it is a combination of fresh meat, veggies, and grains...not sure what else...but raw. It comes to you frozen. So I'm not sure if you feed it raw, or cook it up first. Does anyone know anything about this? Not sure how I feel about giving Zoe raw meat, but then again maybe you cook it first. But I guess that's what dogs orginally ate thousands of years ago. Would really appreciate any insight.</span>


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## NewMom328 (Apr 15, 2005)

I used to feed raw.. it was called Nature's Variety and it came in frozen patties and I would thaw it the day before I was going to feed it to them and then feed it raw. I dont know if you can cook it first.. Anyway, it's pretty expensive and goes very fast and it cant really get shipped since it was raw and needed to be kept frozen and the nearest store that carried it wasnt close so I stopped feeding it. Mine scarfed it down though!


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## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

> I used to feed raw.. it was called Nature's Variety and it came in frozen patties and I would thaw it the day before I was going to feed it to them and then feed it raw. I dont know if you can cook it first.. Anyway, it's pretty expensive and goes very fast and it cant really get shipped since it was raw and needed to be kept frozen and the nearest store that carried it wasnt close so I stopped feeding it. Mine scarfed it down though![/B]



<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">Well Zoe is a picky eater, although not picky when it comes to her treats!







I would really love to find a food that she loves. She is doing fairly well with DVP Natural Balance Duck & Potato but I still have to let her beg & beg for treats sometimes in the evening before she will finally give up & eat her food (sometimes as late as 11:00). So do you think this is a healthy diet? What about crunchy kibble for her teeth? Just want to make sure I understand, the only reason you stopped using it was because it was too hard to get, right?</span>


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## *tink's*mommy (Aug 15, 2005)

I feed *TINK* Nature's Variety Chicken/Turkey Frozen Medallions. She LOVES them!!! I defrost in the microwave a little and then chop them up into bite size bits and zap them for about 20-30 seconds. I took *Tink* to a Holistic Vet yesterday who really likes Nature's Variety. She did say I should cook the medallions before feeding them to her just to be on the safe side. I only give her one of the medallions a day plus either Nutro dry food or Life's Abundance dry food, which I leave out for her all day. She would probably eat the entire bag of Nature's Variety if I let her. That's how much she loves it!


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## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

> I feed *TINK* Nature's Variety Chicken/Turkey Frozen Medallions. She LOVES them!!! I defrost in the microwave a little and then chop them up into bite size bits and zap them for about 20-30 seconds. I took *Tink* to a Holistic Vet yesterday who really likes Nature's Variety. She did say I should cook the medallions before feeding them to her just to be on the safe side. I only give her one of the medallions a day plus either Nutro dry food or Life's Abundance dry food, which I leave out for her all day. She would probably eat the entire bag of Nature's Variety if I let her. That's how much she loves it![/B]


<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">Thanks for the info. I'm going tonight to talk to someone at Planet Canine (the dog fittness center) who is supposed to know all about the food. At this point I'm not even sure of the brand. I do like the idea of cooking it a little bit for her. Boy I would LOVE to have a holistic vet...I'm really envious! I have talked to this lady at Planet Canine before on other things & she seems very knowledgable. She can't be at the Center during the work day since she still has to work her regular job to support herself & the Center. It is brand new & will take time to get off the ground, but it is really impressive.</span>


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## kwaugh (May 8, 2006)

> <span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">We recently had a dog fitness center open here and I visited there last Sat. morning for their "Yappy Hour", which is just open play time in a climate controlled building (which is great in winter for northern Indiana) and noticed people buying food. I wasn't able to talk to anyone "in the know", but want to stop by sometime in the near future to learn about it. I guess it is a combination of fresh meat, veggies, and grains...not sure what else...but raw. It comes to you frozen. So I'm not sure if you feed it raw, or cook it up first. Does anyone know anything about this? Not sure how I feel about giving Zoe raw meat, but then again maybe you cook it first. But I guess that's what dogs orginally ate thousands of years ago. Would really appreciate any insight.</span>[/B]



I use to feed my dog BARF and had the frozen raw foods been available to me in my area, I would have kept him on it alot longer. I was mixing up all the raw foods myself and my problem was with finding good quality meats & bones AND to find room to keep it stored. I will say, my dog really loved it. I used Dr. Billinghurst's books as a reference. There was also another book by an author who I for the life of me can't remember her name, but she's either from the US or Canada. Raw diet is definitely something you need to do alot of research on before starting with your dog and it's really important to have a vet that's familiar with it and supportive of you feeding your dog a raw diet. It's definitely not for everyone and it's really a personal choice whether to do raw or not. But, like I said, it's a decision that needs to be made after extensive research. There's a lot of agruments for and against it. 

I wish there was a place that had a doggy "Yappy Hour" in my area!







In the last state I lived in, I use to take my dog to social nights every Friday night (can you guess who didn't have a social life), and I loved it for him, although he didn't care for it unless the right girls were there.









Karyn


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## starry (Sep 4, 2006)

Again!!!
My dog got toxoplasmosis from eatting those raw meat medialions, later GME. This ended up being terminal.








The nuerologist told me NEVER to feed a dog ANY raw meat.








They are not wild animals anymore.
I don't want to sound like a broken record but this is the 3,4,5,? time I have said my input about the raw food question.
Maybe she was already weak and ill but the lab report did not lie! Or I'm out alot of $$$$.
Also perhaps the meat was not kept correctly. Please take this in consideration anyone with a small puppy.
My 14lb Lhasa was fine and the vet thought she was probably strong enough to handle any toxo infection that the meat probably had. Also this can come from eatting cat poo







. I have no cat and she never went out w/o me.


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## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

> QUOTE(Crystal&Zoe @ Mar 6 2007, 11:12 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=346135


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<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms"><span style="color:#6600CC">Thanks for the info Karyn. I haven't made it to the doggy fittness center to talk with them about the food but I do plan on checking w/my vet before I make a change. Zoe is really doing just fine on the Natural Balance but I just wish she LOVED it. Sometimes it can be as late as 11:00pm before she will finally break down & eat her dinner. And yes, for a small town I can't believe we have something here like the fittness center with "yappy hour". I'm really happy about it but think Friday nights would be better than our Sat. mornings...just cuz I'm not a morning person!







Guess that would mean someone else doesn't have a social life either!







</span>


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## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

> Again!!!
> My dog got toxoplasmosis from eatting those raw meat medialions, later GME. This ended up being terminal.
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<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">Thanks so much for the info. This is why I posted the question, so I could learn if there were potential problems or risks. I'm really sorry you lost your furbaby.







I had not seen the previous threads on this subject so was unaware of your situation. I'm not able to be on the forum every day & some days am limited to the amount of time I am on. Some days I'm on a lot, other days not at all. So I'm sure there are a number of posts I miss. I would really hate to feel like I (or any other person) could not ask a question for fear that it had been addressed in the past. We have newbies coming on all the time that ask all the same questions I asked when I first found SM. It makes me realize how beneficial this forum has been to me and how much I have learned since joining. I just love SM!







</span>


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## NC's Mom (Oct 23, 2004)

Before we went vegan, my dogs were on a raw meat and bones diet. Sir N flourished on it. Actually, Sir N just flourishes period...he's just as healthy eating vegan and healthier than when he ate strictly kibble. Little C on the other hand....she did NOT do well. When she had to have knee surgery, the vet ran the blood tests and the results were that her liver was in really bad shape. It could only be attributed to her diet. I don't know if the difference was that Sir N still ate a lot of fruit and veggies and Little C wouldn't, but anyway, it certainly did not work for her and if she hadn't needed that knee surgery, I might not have known about her liver until it was too late. 

Now they are both vegan, get bloodwork done a minimum of twice a year and are declared brimming with health every time.


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## JessicaMO620 (Sep 18, 2006)

my parents give their daschunds (sp?) raw meat all the time... they always boil it first though, just to get rid of the ick factor so they wont get tapeworms or anything. Those dogs tear that meat up!! They get MEAN when you give it to them. Same thing with ribs. One time I fed Chester some rib meat (fully cooked.. with sauce, yummy) and he became ferocious... I havent fed him any since. But anyway, my parents dogs are about 6 years old and are doing fine... They eat Iams dry food and they also eat whatever else they can find.


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## starry (Sep 4, 2006)

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Crystal,
I am sorry I sounded rude.








I was just getting frustrated bc I thought my input was not being taken seriously, not that I was looking for pity.
I am so passionate about warning new owners or those of small dogs about my experience with the raw meat medalions.
I am sure it was a bad batch or my puppy was already so weak she could not fight off the toxins. This is what the vet said too.
Any way please forgive me for sounding mean, it was not directed at you and I know how important this site is to any of us wanting to ask a question regardless how many times it has been discussed. Really, I am so sorry..


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## Joey's Mom2 (Aug 24, 2004)

> Crystal,
> I am sorry I sounded rude.
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I really appreciate that you continue to post up your story over and over again. I took heed the first time you warned about it, and I have come across to you repeating this same warning more than once, but each time I really appreciate it. A lot of owers feed their dogs raw, and a lot of vets are claiming that it's great. We need to hear the other side of the story if we truly want to hear the truth about it, which is, for small dogs, it's a risk that we are taking. So I just want to thank you.


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## starry (Sep 4, 2006)

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Oh thank you for your comment about me posting it over so much.
I am glad you took heed.
Yes her vet here in town didn't think the raw food shld hv been an issue, but the specialtist in Houston (neurologist) was the one that looked me flatly in the eye and said he would never feed his dogs raw meat of any kind. This after we discussed where the toxoplasmosis came from and since I never had her around any cat poo we knew it was from the medialions she thru up.








Perhaps most all dogs can handle the raw food fine. I am just referring to the meat, I think and do feed raw veges or fruit but mostly I end up stepping on them and squishing them into my carpet.


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## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

> QUOTE(Crystal&Zoe @ Mar 12 2007, 09:21 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=348957


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> Again!!!
> My dog got toxoplasmosis from eatting those raw meat medialions, later GME. This ended up being terminal.
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<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">No apology needed. I could tell it is a subject you are passionate about and I truly appreciate your input. Just thought maybe you hadn't thought about newbies and people who hadn't read the past threads. Again I am really sorry for your loss but am glad you told me about your experience. I wanted to know both sides of this subject, so thank you.</span>


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## Cosy (Feb 9, 2006)

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Haha, I can relate to squishy fruit. I don't believe raw diet with meat is the way to go for these tiny babies either. There are so many well balanced dog foods out there that are safe and help our beautiful maltese grow and thrive...why would we want to take even the slightest risk if we know there is a chance of toxiplasmosis? 

Thank you for telling your story. I know it had to be heartbreaking.


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## 3Maltmom (May 23, 2005)

I've been to three Internal Specialists in the past few years. They all said not to feed raw diet period. Not even vegetables. Here's an article, which is interesting reading, and may lead you to other articles of interest, with regards to this subject.

http://home.att.net/~wdcusick/raw.html

Happy Hunting


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## starry (Sep 4, 2006)

Wow that's a great article.
Now I will have to rethink the raw vege diet. Not that they were actually eatting them anyway.


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## Cosy (Feb 9, 2006)

> I've been to three Internal Specialists in the past few years. They all said not to feed raw diet period. Not even vegetables. Here's an article, which is interesting reading, and may lead you to other articles of interest, with regards to this subject.
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> http://home.att.net/~wdcusick/raw.html
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> ...


 

Thanks for sharing that article! I'm saving it. 72,000 chemicals really makes you stop and think about what WE are putting in our mouths too.


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