Please don't feel guilty

Mine have a raw carrot each as a recreational type of thing sometimes, it will go straight through them as their digestive system isn't designed to break down cellulose (plant matter) hence the need to puree veg so as to imitate what would happen if they made a kill and ate the stomach contents, which would contain pre-digested vegetation which they could then utilise. Not sure about cooking veg, I would imagine it would then lose any benefits, a bit like us overcooking veg, hence the steaming of veg. I think you have to decide what road you are going to follow once you have read all you can, although you can't obviously close your mind to new ideas. There are people who feed raw who never ever give veg except perhaps in left overs, there are others like myself who give them pureed veg, then there are others (like Lyn) who give grains like porridge, I have tried it with mine and they wouldn't touch it. You will find Maska's tastes in fruit and veg changes as he matures, mine would eat all fruit and veg,now they will only eat bananas. I remember having them on the market and buying some broccoli which fell out of the bag, and they immediately jumped on it and started eating it, much to the astonishment of onlookers, they wouldn't do that now!!!
I really don't think there is a 'wrong' or 'right' way, you go with what you are comfortable with and what works for you.

Be very careful how you use porridge, porridge is very high in calcium etc, do NOT cook it as it is already cooked. My oats as I like to call it is soaked as is, in either apple/carrot juice ( watered down ) or honey water over night this is then given to pups along side tree barks gruel as a weaning or convalescent food/breakfast. My oats are used for adults as a pre baked treat bar with fruit added other than that I use it as an oat milk that is added to the rest of my formula for the rearing of orphan or sick animal. Oat milk is also great for bathing animals with skin problems.

Joce, giving Maska a raw carrot as a treat/play toy is absolutely fine but when giving it as a food it should always be broken down but I know that you give Maska working dog from Natural Instincts and that the carrots within it are already prepared in the right form for the dog. X

Wow there is so much info....... It is rather daunting

You just sort of absorb things as you go along Joshua, like learning anything new, you start on the easy basic stuff and when you are ready you move on to different things.
I always remember Lyn telling me about using honey water, so I spent ages searching health food shops for this honey water, in the end I phoned her and asked where she got it from, she collapsed laughing and I realised that I was an idiot, honey water is water with honey in it!!!!

Yeah I know what you mean I have been there before.

I love learning all this though, it is really satisfying and information that will benefit forever.

I am going to see if I can convert my wife to feed her cats raw, but I will do a bit more research to make a strong case .

Any good sites? I have been on Landywoods quickly and the one above.......

I think Britbarf have a cats section you know, not being a cat person I don't take much notice of cat info, but it is worth checking, lots of people on there do say they feed their cats raw though.
I think Natural Instincts is coming out top for pre-prepared meals, Landywoods is good for buying stuff in bulk, there have been a few issues with them though, Lyn got a a box of turkey wings (they are massive, a meal in themselves) opened it and they were off, the smell was horrendous apparently, she immediately phoned the driver to come back for them (he had been gone about 5 or 10minutes) and he refused, as they only deliver monthly up her end she was stuck with a box of rotting smelly meat that he expected her to freeze for a month (taking up freezer space) till the next delivery. I think they ended up having to dispose of it themselves. I haven't had many problems at all with them, once they left me chicken wings (which are tiny, much smaller than in Asda) instead of turkey wings, but I was able to put them in my freezer till the could collect them from me, they deliver fortnightly here so not too bad. Pets@Home is good if you run out of anything, but expensive to use regularly, Iceland I use quite a lot,and my butcher does pet mince.
If you join Britbarf you will find a section with suppliers listed.

Okay. Allyiah just had a treat for a late breakfast, 2 raw Turkey breast stakes. She is now walking around trying to find more

Just looked for Britbarf but no actual website came up just groups on Yahoo or something.

Is it Britbarf dot something?

It is a group on Yahoo,here is a link

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BritBarf/


sounds like you have a convert if she is looking for more, they are far more enthusiastic about their food when they go onto raw, as you can already see

Okay so Gave her a huge chicken wing/leg/breast thing (seriously big) for lunch. It came in a frozen pack of Chicken from Sainsburys. Again she loved it. She really Wolf'd it down . As warned her stomach has been loose today so will kepp adjusting it to her bit by bit. She has been nothing but happy though and I think I will soon have a spoilt eater on my hands


Thanks again all.

I meant to say dinner not lunch sorry.

Oh and after all your persuasion I found myself not worried at hearing her crunching on chicken bones. She hasn't died yet so all looks great

Phew..... What a night. She had me up and down like a YoYo letting her out.

Least her system is being flushed haha. I think I maybe went a bit too strong the first day, so will ease it a bit more.

Atleast she managed to hold it all in until she was out the back and I haven't had to shampoo the carpets!!!!

I did warn you...lol
I can certainly recommend the hand help carpet steamer from the Lakeland catalogue. if she does not always manage to make it outdoors......
I remember one time when Maska had been eating horse poo...I had read that this was pretty natural so did not bother stopping him. OMG...the mess on the carpets during the night..................yuk!!

Personally I feed the largest meal in the morning, with a pup still on 3 meals a day, the next largest is at lunch, and a small meal (sardines maybe??) about 6pm. As raw goes through the digestive system quicker (as you are discovering) they download the biggies during the day this way. You do get to a stage where the download is tiny nuggets as there is little or no waste with raw.
Once she goes onto 2 meals a day (round about now actually) I would substitute the lunch for a bone, which has 'firming' properties
You may be actually overfeeding her, with a pup you are looking at around 5-7% of her bodyweight, going down to 1-2& when she is matured.
Joce, the thing with horse poo is that if the horse had been wormed, it would go out the other end, Maska eats it.......need I say more.........

Haha I know what you mean about dogs and horse poo. I used to live on a horse ranch state side and I swear the dogs food bill was almost non existant haha (I exaggerate but some times it seemed that way). They love the stuff, and never had any problems from it, but I do agree that whatever the horse eats or has problems with will end up in the dogs stomach. However I have never ever known anything go wrong with horse poo and dogs all my life so I wouldn't stress about it.

Thanks for the feeding advice, she has been on two meals a day and often I think she could do with putting on weight not loosing some. I will play around to find the perfect set up for her. I like the idea of the small meal at the end of the day, I hadn't thought of that but it makes perfect sense.

She is going through the gangly stage, I wouldn't worry, I was going frantic with Blaidd because he looked really skinny and didn't seem to be eating much, I took him to the vets for the implant thingy to stop him having carnal knowledge of his mum and aunty, weighed him - I couldn't believe it - he was 35kg, he looked like a bag of bones to me!!!! After that I stopped worrying and he began to fill out a bit, then stopped eating again for a bit, but I ignored it that time, 35kg for a youngster is ample!!!! No idea what size HE will end up!!!

Okay thats good. We went to the vet several weeks ago and she was 25kg. Same reaction I couldn't beleive it, so she must be on track.

Thanks

It is bad for a youngster to be overweight anyway, best for her to be on the lean side. I read a good description of how a dog should look,

A skeleton with a blanket draped over it....

I have been feeding Natural Instincts for a few weeks now. Mainly the working dog chicken which contains:-
British chicken, ground chicken bones, apples, carrots, butternut squash, Brewers' Yeast, cod liver oil, flaxseend oil, kelp, pure ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)...sounds pretty nice
But just thought that twice a week I feed the Natural Instincts Beef, he adores it, which only contains ....beef!
Should I be adding pureed veg, kelp etc to that or as it is only about 4 meals a week, will he be getting enough of the extra things he needs from the other working dog meals he eats during the week?.

Joce if he is doing fine and the poos are good, why change anything??? You can puree some veg up if you want and add kelp, does he get a bone every day as well, that's the only thing I would add to it as I always make sure mine have a proper bone to chew on every day if at all possible, keeps their teeth clean and their digestive system clear, plus keeps them occupied and not looking to get into mischief like chewing shoes, raiding the woodpile etc....

He has a big bone about twice a week although he often chews on it for days. Getting in to mischief...as if lol
He is fully occupied at the moment watching the guys put up the fencing....amazingly he is just sitting there watching. Has not barked once. I thought he might have taken badly to people digging up bits of his garden.

I guess I just like to be sure his diet is ok as I am sure you could do damage to the dog without it showing for quite a while if he was not getting all of the extra things he needs. He looks fine although maybe putting on weight...it is so hard to tell with all of that hair!! Might reduce the amount he is getting slightly and see how he gets on.

I don't think they are instinctive guard type dogs, mine do bark sometimes, but mainly they will watch to see what happens, he has seen you let them in and allow them to do things in 'his' garden so as long as they carry on that way he will most likely watch them to make sure they are working hard and not taking any tea breaks. He may be due a growth spurt as he won't have fully matured by any means, I have noticed that they put on weight, grow, look skinny, put on weight.....the problem comes when they are fully grown like my 2 - they grow outwards I have cut down what they are having twice now, and still they are chubby, just goes to show how little they need really to maintain a good bodyweight.