Raw feeding

Right...I have found someone who will supply me with two or three fresh, whole rabbits a week.I am reading Juliette Levy's book and understand the other things that need to be fed along side the raw food. As Maska is 10 months I feel happy now to branch out into other forms of feeding....
Question...To those of you who don't raw feed from a young age or anyone else who wants to answer How did you introduce your dogs to raw feeding. I imagine if I just give Maska a whole rabbit...he will love it and eat a good part of it but would probably be upset by the change in diet. Should I find a butcher that sells prepared rabbit and introduce him to rabbit a few chunks at a time in with his present diet. Or give him the whole thing.......He has eaten some raw chicken etc but it has never formed the major part of his diet which is Burns, a little meat and extra veg.

Oh you can go cold turkey with raw. Make sure you freeze the rabbits for at least 48 hours because it gets rid of any visitors it may have. I just pop them into asda bags and pop them in the freezer. Then I leave them to defrost overnight and give them in the morning, Cariad loves them, Lona won't touch them.

you could get the rabbit chopped up or chop it up yourself and do half half kinda thing for a few days and then go on to purely raw. thats just my opinion. Lyn, June, Carol and the other raw feeders will be better for this.

Please make sure that if the rabbits have been shot that all lead pellets are removed, to me that could do more harm than not freezing them first. If one wants to feed fresh caught wild rabbit it is best feeding it whole but gutted as rabbits carry tape worm.

Yes..the shot will be removed and gutted but with fur on. Do I still need to freeze them if they are freshly killed that day??

Well I would, I was advised on the Britbarf site to freeze rabbit due to any fleas they could be carrying, I can only tell you what I would do in the same circumstances

gbjoce wrote:Yes..the shot will be removed and gutted but with fur on. Do I still need to freeze them if they are freshly killed that day??

When I have been given fresh caught rabbit I stick them in piping hot water, it also makes the flesh go supple again as if it is still warm after the kill but I tend to do things Levy's way[written in my old book, no idea what the latest revised one says on the subject]. All I can say is none of my dogs have come to harm, I would go with what ever you feel comfortable with. X

I personally have never fed rabbit to my dogs, but both Hal and Tai would catch wild rabbits and eat them whole. If I were to buy them rabbits, I think I would be tempted to follow Lyn's method of popping them in hot water. I don't worry about the tape worms, as I worm my dogs regularly because of this wretched Giardia we have round here thanks to the human sewage sludge they spread on the fields. We all take Panacur every 12 weeks, humans too, otherwise we get sick.

As for the fleas, they will leave the dead rabbit very soon after death, and certainly dropping the bunnies into hot water would sort out any eggs I would think!

The latest revised edition still suggets the hot water treatment Lyn....think I will do that for a rabbit killed that day and freeze a second/third one.
Just need to stock up on seaweed etc lol
Not sure what I feel comfotable with...I worry about small bones for sure but want to give him the best diet I can and now that he is older I feel ready to try. Although I have wondered about having a blood test done now and one in say 6 months just to see if there is any difference...either positive or negative, for the change in his diet.

Will have a chat with you about it at the show lol! Just remember that I'm only a phone call away if you get stuck or need to ask anything lol! About small bones, if you find he is gready with raw then I would sugest turkey wings and not chicken. Anzara is extremely greedy, always has been from when I picked him up from his breeder, even though he gets fed on his own. The others are quite delicate and calm feeders but I never give Anz chicken wings, he is fine with the occasional cacass. Another thing I do is to dip the turkey wings etc into hot water and then into horse bran to mimic fur and feather. Funny to watch them shake it as if killing it.

I have switched Juneau over to raw feeding. He eats: chicken thighs, breasts, leg quarters, gizzards and livers, turkey wings, necks, deer meat, beef, cow heart, and squirel once. Whatever I can find that is on sale. He doesn't seem to have any issues with the raw meat. I do chop them up a little bit and freeze it in single meal portions. He normally eats slow and chews real well. Never has had any issues with any of the bones!

Thanks Lyn...I'm just an over anxious mother lol.
Funnily enough I met an old guy on my morning walk and we had a lovely chat as we walked along.
He had been a game keeper all his life and raw fed the many dogs he had owned. We were chatting about seaweed, oats, feeding rabbits, chicken etc. He had lost two dogs to raw feeding over the years...both died of bone splinters in their stomachs. He suggested rabbit and chicken should be boned and to stick with venison or sheep if I wanted to feed food with bones.

god wrote:Thanks Lyn...I'm just an over anxious mother lol.
Funnily enough I met an old guy on my morning walk and we had a lovely chat as we walked along.
He had been a game keeper all his life and raw fed the many dogs he had owned. We were chatting about seaweed, oats, feeding rabbits, chicken etc. He had lost two dogs to raw feeding over the years...both died of bone splinters in their stomachs. He suggested rabbit and chicken should be boned and to stick with venison or sheep if I wanted to feed food with bones.

Hence why I feed roughage ie flaked bran. The theory being that when say a wolf catches it's prey[bird or beast] to get to the flesh it has to get through the fur or feather first, now I'm not saying that they like to eat the fur or feather but it stands to reason that it is going to swallow some, thus lining the stomach and providing a bit of protection when bones are swallowed. Remember that to get to the bones they have to get through fur/feather then flesh and then the bone, by which time the stomach is full or fullish. I always try and feed mine according to order of a caught prey.

decisions, decisions lol

keeper wrote:

god wrote:Thanks Lyn...I'm just an over anxious mother lol.
Funnily enough I met an old guy on my morning walk and we had a lovely chat as we walked along.
He had been a game keeper all his life and raw fed the many dogs he had owned. We were chatting about seaweed, oats, feeding rabbits, chicken etc. He had lost two dogs to raw feeding over the years...both died of bone splinters in their stomachs. He suggested rabbit and chicken should be boned and to stick with venison or sheep if I wanted to feed food with bones.

Hence why I feed roughage ie flaked bran. The theory being that when say a wolf catches it's prey[bird or beast] to get to the flesh it has to get through the fur or feather first, now I'm not saying that they like to eat the fur or feather but it stands to reason that it is going to swallow some, thus lining the stomach and providing a bit of protection when bones are swallowed. Remember that to get to the bones they have to get through fur/feather then flesh and then the bone, by which time the stomach is full or fullish. I always try and feed mine according to order of a caught prey.

Makes perfect sense Lyn, Tai will eat rabbits fur and all, and unfortunately the one chicken he has killed was partially eaten before I got it off him. The Chihuahua works in partnership with the cat and catches voles and shrews which he devours, much to my chagrin because they do so much good in the garden, and Ben, Hal's son, currently staying with us, I would think would eat a rabbit if he killed one also. It is the one thing they are missing in the BARF diet, so I am always pleased when Tai catches rabbits.

Max is fed just about everything. Kibble(Wilderness Select), carrots, broccoli (stems only, he hates the tree tops, guess they tickle), pickerel and various freshwater fish (his favorite treat is pickerel when i can pry it away from my hubbie, teehee), raw moose, bear, deer (i have a few friends that hunt and will give us scrap and bone), apple, any animal rib bones, chicken, mice when he can catch them, wild rabbit when he can catch it- same with grouse Though I am not fond of feathers all over the yard). Cheese cubes for training. Peanut butter when my son thinks i am not looking and various pies and breads when Max can sneak them from the counter top. We tried to put a stop to the counter raids (MY PIES! with mouse traps as they are noisy but Max figured out in the first day how to push them away without setting them off to get the goodies ) Seaweed is new to me though...any advice on this?

Over here you can buy dried seaweed and you just sprinkle some on their food, excellent for coat condition, also skin and nails.