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A thought and a question on raw feeding

Posted : 11/17/2006 4:19:28 PM

Ive been reading a lot about this raw feeding thing for CoCo...I'm kind of weird like that I guess... if something interests me...I'll research it and study it, taking notes and all as if I have a test on it...for no reason because it interest me... lol Any who.
So I went out to the health store and bought a bag of that Nature's Variety Lamb pattiese, just to see what it is exactly . (I know.... for $14 for 3lbs... I'm a VERY curious person... lol)
So I was thinking. How bout making my own patties?
For instance, for "beef patties," I can take some lean beef, mix it with some baby food such as carrots, peas, squash etc, and because CoCo is a puppy, do a 3:1 ratio of meat to veggies? Then once I get her on an all raw diet, as I read, then I can add supplements to it such as bone meal to balance out the calcium:meat, and vitamins, etc? I could then make them into little patties, shape and freeze?
And I dont know about feeding her chicken though...it grosses me out if I'll have to see her chomp on a raw chicken leg or something... lol Maybe I could take most of the meat off the thighs, throw that in a food processor and do the same with the ground meat above? And then just give her that bone on the side??
What do you think? Will this work?

corvus

Posted : 11/17/2006 4:32:13 PM

I can relate to your curiosity! [

] I tend to take notes and research the heck out of things as well.

You can certainly make your own raw patties. My mother and I make our own with ground meat, cottage cheese or yoghurt, and some processed fruit. We freeze them and give them to the dogs frozen as something tough to chew on. We also give them homecooked and raw bones. Your ratio sounds pretty spot on, although I don't know much about feeding a growing puppy at this stage.

You could try giving the bone on the side, but I don't know if your pup would be thrilled to eat it without all the meat. Worth a try, though.

mudpuppy

Posted : 11/17/2006 4:35:28 PM

you could, sure. Some raw folks buy meat grinders and put entire chickens through them. Make sure you do a lot of research on how to balance the diet first-- how much liver, how much meat, how much bone. Particularly with a puppy-- you can seriously injure a puppy if you accidently feed the wrong amount of calcium.

jessies_mom

Posted : 11/17/2006 4:59:59 PM

Welcome to idog; [

] I think it's great that you do a lot of research before feeding your dog a different type of food; not just because you're curious, but because knowing as much as possible about a new kibble, raw feeding, or homecooked is essential to your dog's health. And with that in mind, feeding raw is a lot more complicated than reading the ingredients from a package and trying to copy the formula or making up a similar one; the food you bought is expensive because the nutrients are precisely balanced for your dog; every ingredient is included for the nutrients it provides and is carefully measured. If you are serious about feeding raw and want to do it right without buying a premade, Monica Segal is an animal nutritionist who has written several booklets and one has recipes for raw feeding; I ahve the one for home cooking. Here's a link to the booklets on her site;
[linkhttp://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/productindex.php?cPath=25_26&osCsid=002d1072875c7fca955a9218bf2b87b7]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/productindex.php?cPath=25_26&osCsid=002d1072875c7fca955a9218bf2b87b7[/link]

The one about raw feeding will be on the next page. Here are 2 articles explaining why raw food recipes for dogs are often unbalanced even though they "appear" to be okay;
[linkhttp://www.monicasegal.com/newsletters/2006-11NL.php]http://www.monicasegal.com/newsletters/2006-11NL.php[/link]
[linkhttp://www.monicasegal.com/newsletters/2006-01NL.php]http://www.monicasegal.com/newsletters/2006-01NL.php[/link]

So, yes , you can make your own patties, but if you're going to that much trouble isn't it worth a little more reading to do it right? [

]

CoCo Chanel

Posted : 11/17/2006 5:06:27 PM

thanks so much for the info!

i started out here: [linkhttp://www.pet-grub.com]www.pet-grub.com[/link] and is still doing research! learning about fatty essential amino acids, and night shade family, etc is making my head whirl... lol

any more helpful hints and tips are gladly appreciated!