Feed Your Dog Raw

When I tell people I have my dog on a raw diet they usually just nod their heads, like they know what I'm talking about, and then tell me how they buy X-Brand Natural Kibble and how much their dog loves it. I leave the conversation there. For whatever reason, they are not interested in hearing what a raw diet constitutes.

I have yet to run across anyone who actually feeds their pet a raw diet. However, occasionally I get people who have been thinking about it, and who ask questions. I'm going to answer a few things here. As always, I encourage people to do their own research!!! Never take just one person's perspective as the way to go.

Q: I buy raw food from my vet. My dog loves it!
A: I'll bet s/he does! It's soft, it goes down fast and the dog doesn't have to work for it. This is a multi-part issue:

For one, it's still a commercial food. It's filled with supplements and vitamins that your dog could get and digest much more easily from eating plain old meat. Amino acids, for example ... why add amino acids to a raw meat food? Meat already has amino acids in it!

Two, bones are good for your dog's dental health. They naturally clean their teeth and keep their gums strong.

Three, the work that it takes to eat a bony, muscle-and-tendon-laden meal strengthens your dogs jaw and neck.

Forth, and this is my favorite for my smart little girl, raw meat with bones, muscles and tendons forces the dog to slow down and actually work for their meal. This mentally stimulates the dog.

Q: But dogs choke on bones!
A: Yes, dogs can easily choke on cooked bones. Raw bones are flexible, cooked bones splinter, get lodged in the throat or intestinal tract, requiring expensive surgeries and even death to the dog. Before I began feeding Kobee a raw diet I read one scary blog about someone whose dog died from ingesting raw bones and a piece got stuck in the dog's intestine. 

I don't know about this; it could easily have been a plant by some commercial dog-food maker. Or it could have been true. I know that for that one sad story I read, I've read fifty others that talk about their healthy, happy dogs who have been eating raw diets for years. Kobee has been eating raw for eight months now.

Note: When feeding dogs, feed big! Dogs used to a commercial diet don't know how to chew. Giving a big dog, for example, small bones to start could create a choking hazard. Start big, let your dog learn to chew, and go slowly so you can monitor how your dog is eating. Conversely no dog should be given weight-bearing bones (like a cow's femur). These bones are too hard for dogs to chew. Dogs, of course, don't know this, and could break their teeth.

Q: I was going to try the raw diet, but the thought of it just freaks me out.
A: Yes, I had that problem, too. I started with the raw food from the pet store. Then I tried giving Kobee piece of chicken, without bones. She licked at it a bit, then wolfed it down. After a few days of this I was able to graduate to a chicken wing. She crunched the wing hesitantly, giving me questioning looks, but after a minute or so gulped it down happily. Now I buy whole animals, I butcher them, and she eats every part I give her ... back, neck, thighs, wings, guts ... faced with either eating or taking a walk, Kobee would be hard pressed to make a choice.

Q: What about vegetables?
A: I went back and forth on this one myself. Some of the literature says yes, some says no. The argument on the 'no' side says that dogs don't eat vegetables in the wild. I think that's probably not true. Kobee loves grass, eats it all the time. The literature saying 'yes' points out that the animals the dogs eat would have food in the stomachs, veggie matter, and this has evolved to be a natural part of a dog's diet, albeit a small part.

In the end, for me, it came down to better safe than sorry, and so Kobee gets vegetables. Going with the idea of veggies in the stomach and intestines of a dog's natural prey, I process all the veggies in a food processor or powerful blender, like a VitaMix. This is similar to the masticated food that would be found in the prey's stomach, but also, dogs don't digest raw, chunky veggies all that well.

My veggie mix is mostly dark, leafy greens, an apple or pear, a carrot, two eggs (shell on, shells provide calcium), and handful of raw (not roasted, not salted) nuts, and a can of mackerel ... I know, mackerel isn't a vegetable, but it gives her veggie mix a pleasing flavor - to Kobee! - and it's great for her skin and coat.* I use about a 2:1 mixture of veggies to mackerel, a 3:1 would be fine, too, but I like to do it all in one batch, and space becomes an issue. I process everything and pour the mixture into ice cube trays. This works well for me since each cube is 1oz, and Kobee is little, so she gets one cube a day.

NOTE: Again, please do your research! Not all veggies are dog-friendly - dogs shouldn't eat things like avocado, onion, tomatoes, grapes, raisins, etc.

Q: It's too expensive.
A: A raw diet is less expensive than a commercial one ... unless you buy your dog the really El Cheapo stuff, but even then I think it's going to be a pretty even match. When Kobee and I travel I feed her canned food - it's just easier. I buy a good brand, and it costs me something like $2.50 - $3.00 a can. She eats 9oz a day (8oz meat, 1oz of her veggie mixture), so about 3/4 of a can a day ... let's say $1.85 a day.

I bought Kobee a 15 pound turkey the other day and it cost me $17.00. Kobee eats the entire bird; nothing goes to waste. At 8oz of meat a day (4 in the morning, 4 in the evening), this costs me 56¢ a day. The cost of her veggie mixture is minimal. I figured it out once, it was 3¢ an ouce. All total it costs me 59¢ a day to feed my 14 pound dog, more if I go with duck or rabbit, but still nothing like the cans I mentioned earlier.

Q: Doesn't it take a lot of time to do all of this?
A: Yes and no. Ideally I'll buy two ducks, two rabbits and a turkey. It takes me about an hour and a half to butcher them all into approximately 4oz pieces (the portion Kobee gets for each meal). I have large freezer bags set out on the counter-top ready to put pieces of meat into, usually about seven of them. As I cut off portions of meat I put them into the freezer bags, divvying the different meats, organs and bony pieces as evenly as I can between bags. I clean everything with hot, soapy water, then store the bags in the freezer. When I finish one bag of meat hunks, I just take another out of the freezer to defrost. This is about five weeks worth of meat.

The veggie mixture takes about 20 minutes to process - I wash the veggies to remove pesticides (I can't always afford organic), but I don't bother trimming them. Your dog isn't your kids, s/he won't care! - and I put everything into the processor and then into the ice cube trays. Once those have frozen, I remove them from the trays and put them in a large freezer bag.

Both the meat and the veggie mixture take me maybe two hours every 5 or 6 weeks. I think Kobee is deserving of this, and she always knows when I'm working on her stuff. She hangs around appreciatively, trying not to look like she's begging.

Q: Will you write out a list of what you feed your dog so I can follow it?
A: No, I will not. Every dog is different, you must do your own research. Plus, I have no idea what your dog likes. Kobee has a cancerous tumor in her mouth. Her vet is a holistic, and yes, Kobee has received acupuncture! The vet has given me a list of approved anti-cancer foods. So for example, chicken is a great, inexpensive meat to feed your dog. Kobee isn't supposed to be eating it - her vet says she's a fire personality and chicken is warming ... yeah, yeah, I'm a freak. Whatever. I also have to minimize the fruit I put into her veggie mixture - fruit has too much sugar.

I also know from hard experience that Kobee can't eat lamb or venison: it makes her horribly sick. Plus, dogs, just like people, have food preferences. Kobee is perfectly happy to eat pretty much anything I offer her, thankfully, but I know not all dogs are that way. Know your dog.
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*For whatever reason, after eating her veggie mix, Kobee likes to jump into the lap of the nearest seated person and belch mackerel breath into their face. She then trots off to roll around on her back, grunting with great satisfaction.