# Is anyone feeding a raw food diet?



## kkrize (Feb 4, 2006)

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone tried a raw food diet with their babies? I have done a lot of reading on this over the last 6 months and decided to give it a try. The claims for health benefits are many. Even with the highest quality dog foods on the market, they are still processed. Deja has been recoverying from luxating patella surgery about a week and a half ago and was just not eating very much. All she wanted were her treats. I was concerned that she should be getting good nutrition during the healing process and she only wanted the treats. Not wanting to indulge her at the expense of feeding her body a healthy diet, I poured over the internet for 1/2 a day getting more information. I knew I wanted to give her home prepared meals, but should they be cooked or raw?







I knew cooking destroys some of the important emzymes. Also dog's digestive system is a lot shorter than ours. They can bury a bone and dig it up a week later and eat the rotting flesh without adverse consequence. I read many positive articles supporting the raw food route.

Deja was originally on Innova Evo. It was the only quality food she would eat, and believe me I tried many. She turned up her nose at them all. Even with Innova we had to entice her, threaten her with cat getting her food, etc.







I have never seen her get excited over a meal or eat it down to a clean plate...ever.

I was concerned that a raw food diet would be complicated and time consuming. But I decided to take the plunge. I purchased some organic ground turkey meat, added a little softened oatmeal and some juiced vegetables (I just blended a small carrot and a leaf of kale) dropped a few dops of California Natural (made by Innova for the omega 3 oils and vit. c, b and e) and offered it to her. My picky eater gobbled it up like I had never seen her do before. I could not believe it!!! She became a member of the "clean plate club" instantly. The time it took to prepare was short. I had divided the turkey meat into small portions and froze them. Each day I take one out and put it in the refrigerator. The oatmeal can be softened in some warm water for about 15 minutes (this is a very small amount of oatmeal) and then the vegetables took seconds in my bullet mini blender. I just drizzeled the juice on the meat and tossed the pulp.

Time will tell if this is good for her. So far, she is eleminating normally (formed poops), sleeping soundly and is alert during the day. She is restricted in her activities because of the surgery but she wants to play even if she can't...this frustrates her.









I have also ordered a dehydrated product called Honest Kitchen which has all the ingredients for a raw food diet...you can add your own raw meat if you want. It looks like real food. I'll let you know how that gets rated by Deja when I get it.

I would be real interested if any of you have had experience with raw or cooked home prepared meals. Do you malts like it and do you think they are healthier?


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

Here's a recent thread about raw food. It's long but there's some good information.

http://spoiledmaltese.com/forum/index.php?...amp;hl=raw+food


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## hillary&lola (Apr 4, 2006)

there are some people here who are very passionate about the raw diet- i'm sure you'll get some good answers! i was going to put lola on it but i chickend out- and it is a little time consuming. i just didn't feel comfortable with it so lola is as of today eating wellness (chicken). she seems to love the sample pack


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## Furbaby's Mommie (Jul 10, 2004)

I just picked up a sample of a new freeze dried raw food by Nature's Variety. It's called Raw Instinct. It says "grain free, potatoe free exclusive freeze dried raw meat". It just looks like a dry kibble, and is tiny little pieces. When reading the ingredients I am amazed at all the things in there. It isn't all meat.

Check it out at Nature's Variety 

P.S. Using the "point system" mentioned here in another post, it gets 117 or A+.


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

Here's another link, with a points system for 'grading' your food.
http://spoiledmaltese.com/forum/index.php?...ic=13102&hl=


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## kkrize (Feb 4, 2006)

As I mentioned in my original post, I have ordered a rather new dog food called Honest Kitchen. It is FDA approved to be labeled "human grade". It is a dehydrated raw food product that simply requires warm water to reformulate. It can stand alone or act as a basis for adding your own raw or cooked meat, unflavored yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. It can make feeding a raw food diet easy and allows you to vary your dog's meals. I think our babies probably world appreciate a little variety in the diets. I have included a link to an interesting interview by Lucy Postins, founder.

www.puplife.com/dogcaretips/honest-kitchen-dog-food.html - 25k -

I am anxiously awaiting my delivery. I'll let you know how it goes with the 
deja taste test.

Ops, Sorry the link did not work. Here it is again.

www.puplife.com/dogcaretips/honest-kitchen-dog-food.html


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