Haleigh
Posted : 2/17/2007 7:58:00 PM
You can think that dogs are ominvores, but the truth is that they are NOT. The only greens (like fruits or veggies) they receive in the wild is that in the stomach content of their prey. MY moms dogs never get any vegetables (except for when they the rare table scraps[
]) and my Border Collie gets a base mix, which is dehydrated vegetables. It's Preference, made by The Honest Kitchen. I only feed her the base mix, which is mixed with mostly meats, because I feel it may be beneficial to her health. But because I feel some vegetables may be beneficial, doesn't mean that they're ominvores.
We (meaning humans) are omnivores by nature. If you look at our dentition, we have teeth in the front for tearing, and teeth in the back for grinding. Canids have all pointy teeth, designed for tearing and ripping. For more informaiton, [link
http://rawfed.com/myths/omnivores.html]http://rawfed.com/myths/omnivores.html[/link]
Reasons of of rawlearning.com why NOT to feed premade diet (which I agree % with)
- The food is not presented in a "natural state" - dogs need to have their food presented in as natural state as possible. When you deviate from this, you decrease the benefits of an appropriate diet.
- There have been a small number of cases where dogs have had impactions caused by the glob of pre-made and ground food hitting their stomachs, before their digestive system has had time to produce the necessary chemicals to process the food. ***(eh...probably true, but not on a regular basis)
- It is invariably based on the incorrect premise that dogs are omnivores. Dogs are carnivores and yes, it does make a difference!
- The food contains [linkhttp://www.rawlearning.com/supplementmyths.html]unnecessary supplements[/link].
- It contains food your dog doesn't need - many pre-made foods contain things your dog doesn't need (they don't say this on the label though, do they!)
- You cannot be assured of the processing procedures used
- It is far cheaper to go down to your local butcher or supermarket and get your supplies *****(you can do a co-op, so you get it WAY cheaper)
- You know exactly what goes into your dog's food when you get it yourself
- When you get your dog's meals ready yourself, you can make adjustments yourself
- Your dog should not have a "balanced" meal everyday. It should vary. "A daily balanced diet" is great as a sales pitch for pet food companies, but does nothing for the health of your dog.
Here are some websites that are pretty good on info:
[link
http://www.rawfeddog.net]Raw Fed Dogs[/link]
Rawfed.com (darn, all ready posted)
rawlearning.com (darn again)
If you're wondering what the heck you're supposed to feed your dog, it's really quite simple. Organ meat and muscle meat. Organ meats are kidneys, livers, hearts. These are all necessary to keeping your raw fed dog healthy. These can be hard on a dogs stomach and cause diarrhea, so feed small pieces the size of your pinky combined with some muscle meat and start to decrease to the amount of muscle meat and increase the amount of organ. Muscle meat is breast, brisket, legs, necks, shanks... A dog should consume a lot of bone. At least fair sizes every week, preferably every day. These bones should not be weight bearing bones like knees or marrow bones. I don't EVER give weight bearing bones as a treat, but I give raw marrow bones. The types of bones I feed for meals are from drumsticks, chicken wings, necks, hocks and shanks. About twice a month I feed whole rabbits. Raw fed dogs has a wonderful [link
http://www.rawfeddogs.net/Recipes]recipe[/link] page, mixed with some humor. It has a list of meats, but you don't need to feed all of it. This is a list of what I feed my dogs, varying each week:
Chicken livers
Chicken giblets
Chicken quarters
Whole cornish hens
little bits of beef liver
lamb kidney
lamb shank
lamb liver
Whiting
Salmon
RAbbit (occasionally, as its expensive)
Peanut-butter oatmeal treats with ground turkey centers( I make them myself)
I may feed whatever kind of meat is on sale, but this is on my grocery list on meat day. About once a month we head over to the grocery store, buy everytihng on the list, go home and package everything in meals and stick it in the downstairs freezer. At meals time, simply defrost the meal and pop it in the crate.
Wow, my hands are getting kind of crampy. I'll try to post later if I'm not overwhelming you yet[sm=biggrin.gif]