A while back I made the switch from feeding one meal of raw a day to feeding an almost entirely raw diet. I was unsure about feeding all raw because the first raw diet I had read about was complicated and filled with things my dogs had no interest in eating (grains, and lots of raw veggies). Then a good friend of mine told me that the current idea was a ‘Prey Model’ diet, which mimics what a dog might eat in the wild. This concept made a lot of sense to me, so I started my research.
What I learned was:
1. Feeding a prey model diet is just as easy as feeding kibble.
2. Feeding a prey model diet is as cheap and sometimes cheaper than feeding a top quality kibble. You can find a lot of ‘co-op’ groups on the net who buy in bulk and then spread out the results to those involved.
3. If you add in a good pro biotic and a quality green tripe, digestive issues from the change are minimal.
4. My dogs poop will stop stinking if they eat raw, dries out as a small white pellet that crumbles and washes away with rain if you don’t get up to pick the poop up within a few days. (when you have 3 plus dogs in your house, this is a big one!)
5. My dogs have the prettiest white teeth you have ever seen!
6. You can feed one meal a day with no increased bloat risk to your dog. Generally I feed two meals, but if things get tight I can drop it to one and it isn’t’ a risk.
7. My dogs need very little water. Kibble is dry and expanse when wet. It sucks all the moisture out of your dog. Raw food is full of moisture. They only need enough to keep themselves hydrated, not them and their food. Less gulping of water means less risk of bloat.
After I switched I was raving about my dogs to my sister. She came down for a visit and was shocked at how easy it was. She switched her Standard Poodle to raw and the different is amazing. Gatsy is 8 years old and she was going to have to take him in for a teeth cleaning. Not now, his teeth look like he is a 9 month old puppy! He is calmer, has a good weight, and is eager for his meals. Gatsby, like many Standard Poodles was a nervous dog who stayed thin and never enjoyed his kibble.
I was speaking to Patti and Gene this weekend at a local Agility show. They have Boo from my first litter and Hemi from my good friend Glori. Gene is very interested in doing a prey model diet on Hemi who is skinny and not really interested in his kibble, as well as a little high strung. He asked me for the details, which I was going to write up and send to him via email, but then I thought I would just write it all up and make it a blog post.
So, what are the details? Here is a blog with a very detailed explanation. http://preymodelraw.com/how-to-get-started/
You will be feeding a combination of Meat, Bone, and Organ Meat.
The feeding guideline is between 2-3% of the adult dog’s ideal body weight per day total of the above. A 50lb dog would need between 1-1.5 pounds each day. Of course if your dog is fat, you would reduce this. If feeding a puppy you would start out at 10% of their weight until they reach ~18 lbs, then move them to the 2-3% range for their estimated adult weight. You do not need to feed them more than what they would eat as an adult in most cases, but for some breeds that mature at 100lbs you wouldn’t want a little guy to eat 2-3 lbs of meat/bone at 7 weeks of age. If you have a pretty good idea on how much a typical cut of meat weights, then just go with your best guess and increase or decrease the amount you feed based on the dogs weight. If they are getting chunky, reduce. If they are getting skinny, increase. A dog’s metabolism changes with age and activity, so just play with it until you see the desired results. ALSO: It will probably take more food than you expect the first few months. You might think your dog is a bottomless pit, but once their body adapts to the diet, they will utilize all the food they take in and you will need to decrease their intake.
The guideline on how much to feed of what: 10% whole raw bones, 10% whole raw organ meats, and 80% muscle meats. This 1:1:8 ratio represents the average amount of bone, organ and meat tissue within prey animals. I never calculate this out. I just make sure the vast majority is meat and fill in with Organ and Bone as I can. This is an average to shoot for. Tonight my dogs got Chicken Breast and an egg and that is it. No bone, no organ because I am getting ready to leave for a trip tomorrow and i didn’t have any meat with bone thawed out, nor any organ meat handy. I’ll catch them up this week by adding in some chicken necks (which are mostly bone) and some extra liver. You do not have to balance each meal! Feed what you have and know it is going to be better for your dog than a bowl of kibble. Also, when you first change your dog to raw you will avoid organ meat until you are darn sure they can digest the meat and bone without an upset stomach. Some dogs this is a week, some a month. It depends on how long your dog has been eating kibble and how strong their constitution.
What protein sources can you feed? Chicken, Turkey, Fish, Pork, Beef are good for the non-hunter. If you hunt or know someone who does feel free to add in any wild bird (quail, wild turkey, duck, etc), deer, elk, etc. WORD OF CAUTION ON WILD MEAT (including wild caught fish from your local pond or pacific northwest salmon!) You must freeze the meat for 2 weeks to kill all parasites. If it isn’t farmed raised, freeze it.
I feed almost all chicken and some egg (once a week, usually when I feed a no-bone meal). It is cheap, easy to find, easy on their tummies, and you can buy whole chickens that come with the organ meat or just grab a super large bag of chicken leg quarters if I am traveling. Chicken is loaded with good teeth cleaning bones. When starting a dog on raw, make sure to give them large enough pieces that they can’t swallow it whole. Chicken leg quarters are perfect. No chicken wings for a new raw eater! If you think your dog can get it down in one gulp, don’t feed it. Once your dog is eating chicken with ease, understands how to eat it, is taking his time eating, you can move to Turkey, Fish or Pork or maybe wild bird meat. Save beef, elk, deer for last because it is very rich. Also NEVER feed a weight bearing bone from a cow or other large animal. It will crack your dogs teeth. Honestly, it is best to avoid cow bones all together. No bones from a T-bone steak (like I am going to feed my dog a T bone steak…). They are really hard and jagged. The dog could eat it whole and cause a blockage. Fowl and Fish bones are ideal, and pork is also ok, though I don’t feed much pork.
Ground meet is good in a pinch. Maybe one meal a week ends up some sort of ground meat or boneless type meal around this house. I buy the super huge packages of ground meat. Then I make spaghetti or burgers for us, then pull out 1 plus pound chunks for the dogs and toss it in their bowls.
At first you can just go to the store and stock up on some chicken legs quarters. Your average active Standard Poodle should eat about 2 of these a day, which makes meals easy! Once your dog is eating these with ease (in a month or maybe even two for a hard case), you can add in some liver, kidney, lung, or pancreas. Liver is a must. The rest you can mix and match or just feed liver. Some people feed one entire meal of organ meat ~ once a week. I prefer to add it to most meals. I buy a large container of chicken liver and just toss a couple in my dogs bowls. Some dogs don’t like organ meat. Mine LOVE IT, so I don’t have to season the meat to get them to eat it. Heart and Gizzards are not organ meat. They are considered muscle. You can feed them, but don’t think of them as your organ portion.
When switching any dog’s food, I give a good pro biotic. FortiFlora is a great brand. I send it home with all my pups to keep them from having an upset tummy when they first get to their new home. The dogs LOVE the flavor so you can just sprinkle one packet a day on your dogs meal for the first week. See how they do and continue until you see the stools you expect (small, compact, not runny). Also, these pro biotic’s are nice to have around if your dog ever has to be on antibiotics or has any sort of stomach upset.
Also, I give my dogs Green Tripe, though it isn’t ‘included’ in most prey model diets. I’ve seen to many benefits to using it with these gurgling stomach poodles. I use it like a supplement, adding in a heaping spoonful (about a tablespoon / tablespoon and a half) in their bowl. You can use the canned green tripe in a pinch but for best results get the real raw stuff ground up. Here is a good website to learn about Green Tripe and what it does as well as purchase. This stuff smells horrible. Best method when dealing with the real raw tripe is to freeze it just until firm but not rock solid. Chop it up into meal size amounts. put it all in a ziplock, freeze it. Then you just toss in a frozen chunk with each meal. It takes a little prep time but it last forever and won’t be done often. http://www.greentripe.com/
If you are on the fence about it, try giving a chicken leg quarter in the evening as a meal. I know, a lot of places say you can’t do this. They are dead wrong. I did it for 5 years with no issues. Gloria has been doing it longer than me and she has never had an issue. As long as you space out their kibble meal and raw meal by 12 hours you should not have any issues. The raw meal moves faster in the gut, so you do not want kibble within a few hours of eating raw or it will cause tummy upset.
I don’t give much as far as supplements. I do give Mocha a fish oil tablet most days because she’s on a ‘diet’ and I take all the skin and fat off her raw meat. 🙂 She needs to get oil from somewhere or she starts itching. Fish oil is great and the dogs love it. Also they get some fruit because they like it. Today Jazz finished off my apple (no she didn’t get to eat the seeds). I have a video I need to upload of that.
Give it a test run. One meal of raw is better than no meals of raw. Plus, the dogs love it!
VIDEO: Flash’s dinner tonight.
EDIT: Uploaded the video of Jazz eating my apple today.
~Becky