How did you get into raw feeding your dog/s?

[Stephanie]

I see there are quite a few of us raw feeding our dogs on here just wondering what got you started?

For me, my last dog was such a dear little thing but she drove me bonkers with her eating, she would eat something one day and not the next - I went through every tin dog food there was and then the kibble, then I cooked meals for her, still she would eat one day and not for 2-3 days. I added this to her food and that to her food, worked for a little while then she would stop eating again. One day, in pure desparation I went into a pet shop and asked for advice - the shop girl said well you could try raw.....Tbh, I had no idea what she meant, anyway I came away with a bag full of raw meat packets and thought well what have I got to lose? For the first time in her life, she ate not just one meal but every meal...... so that was the start of it for me. I only wish someone had told me about it earlier, but never mind. Despite all my incompetence, my little Sherry [collie x terrier] lived until she was 17 and a half years.

[ZenDane]

For me it was just common sense. I started out with homecooked and grain free kibble, but that didn't cut it. Then I met Bill and his endless banter paid off. Now I help many people switch to raw from all over the world. I started my own website/blog dedicated to helping people switch (although, I've been busy the last six months or so with dog training and haven't had time to devote to the blog...). I switched just under three years ago....never going back

Here's my site:

Dedicated to proper carnivore nutrition - Prey Model Raw Feeding for Dogs & Cats

[Bill]

I just stumbled onto some talk about raw feeding online about 10 years ago. It sounded interesting so I read a little about it and decided it was a cool idea. Then I didn't do anything for several months and stumbled on it again and decided to try it. I bought a book by Ian Billinghurst called Give Your Dog a Bone. Finally I bit the bullet and began feeding BARF style raw. Fortunately I met Tom Lonsdale a few months later and he convinced me I didn't need to feed veggies so I dropped them from the diet. I started feeding only meat, bones, and organs and have been feeding that way for 9 years now.

I guess I was so excited about feeding raw that I got online and I suppose I created endless banter about it. I have been posting online about raw feeding for 9 years.

[Stephanie]

Natalie, your site looks amazing - I am so jealous of what you can get for your dogs.......... How great is it that your dogs can eat togther like that. I have never seen whole beef heart before, they are massive! I love your poopy pictures - LOL, LOL!

[Stephanie]

That's amazing Bill, I followed Billingshurst [I remember going to the library and asking for books on feeding dogs and that book was the only one they had!] I was feeding BARF style with my last dog and these 3 up until about 6 months ago when I found the raw feeding sites and started reading about prey model on there. As you probably noticed on another thread, it's impossible for me to source whole prey, so I have to do it Frankenprey style - I won't give you a link I'm sure you know what I mean! Since BSE [mad cows disease] there are very strict laws in this country on what parts of the animal are allowed to be sold - all the interesting parts have to be destroyed - spleens, trachea, gullet - can't get any of these things. It seems to me that other countries are far more geered up for this style of feeding, I find it such a struggle and very costly.

I downloaded a few videos of mine eating raw..........YouTube - ‪Boxerdogmad It's mostly Ruby, I ask my butcher to grind the bones down for Roddy - watch and see how he eats sheep tongue, believe me, it's no fun trying to pull a chicken quarter out of his throat because he is chocking and gagging on it. He just doesn't understand he has to chew things a couple of times at least. I have no problem with him having ground-in, I know the purists will disagree, but I have to do what I consider best for my own dog.

Bill I would love to see some pictures of your dogs eating raw.............would that be possible sometime?

[Bill]

Frankenprey is no problem. It's what most of us feed, including myself. It doesn't bother me that I don't feed the whole animal. I never give it a thought until I read about it online. Tom Lonsdale goes to UK pretty often. Hopefully you will be able to meet him someday. The only organs I feed are liver and occasionally kidney. I don't really worry that the other ones are difficult to find. Of course I feed heart but techincally it isn't an organ nutrionwise.

Hehe, the video was cute. That thing would have lasted about 5 seconds with one of my dogs. I will have to try and figure out a way to take pictures/video's of my dogs eating. They eat so fast that by the time I finish feeding the cats, they have finished their meal and are begging for more. A chicken quarter will be gone in about 5 seconds. Two or three chomps then down the hatch. Yes, sometimes they bring it back for re-chew but I don't worry about that. They don't even bother to lay down with chicken quarters. Pork roasts take them a little longer and they will lay down sometimes when eating those. I'm going to get an I-phone next month. Maybe I can get some good movies and pictures then.

Of course I'm not there to watch but perhaps you worry a little too much about Roddy. Possibly you are panicking and pulling the quarter out when you don't need to. My dogs gag and cough some but it only takes them a brief few seconds to get things where they need to be. I just don't like ground food and would avoid it if at all possible.

[ZenDane]

Once I got to the point where I was helping other people switch to raw I found they were asking the same questions over and over. I figured it was easier to write it out once in great detail and forward that link to them instead of writing it all out over and over again. But I still find myself answering peoples questions in detail even though the PMR website spells it out how you should do things step by step. We get hits internationally all the time

[DanePaws]

For me, I had a little Pembroke Welsh Corgi that was terribly ill for about 8 months. No matter what I fed him he would have awful diarrhea, and vomiting on a daily basis. Lethargic, skinny, and all around miserable.
Grissom BEFORE raw feeding:


I went online, and came across a dog nutrition forum, and for a while, was on the search for the right kibble. After a while I realized.... there is no right kibble. It doesn't exist. I still had doubts about raw feeding, I was hesitant... but I made the leap. Not more than three days later, Grissom had perfect, solid stools (had not happened his entire life) and no vomiting (had been daily for 8 months)
Most importantly, he gained weight, and was a high energy Corgi once again. He's since been rehomed due to unfortunate circumstances, but he is the happiest little Corgi in the world.
Here's Grissom after about a month of raw feeding:

[milomum]

Does all this mean that chicken bones are safe for dogs to eat? I always heard that they splintered and were a hazard.

[Bill]

Raw chicken bones are great. My dogs eat them every day and have for 9 years. Cooked chicken bones are exactly what you heard.