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highsierra
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  • Register:11/27/2008 1:55 AM

Date Posted:07/25/2009 11:58 PMCopy HTML

Yes, we find the Raw Diet as cheap if not cheaper than what it used to cost feeding her on premium kibble and it's a better quality diet (in our opinion).

The reason it is so little is because our giant breeds have very slow metabolism and so only need about 1% of body weight a day...so in Honey's case, her ideal weight is about 68-70kg - so she needs about 680-700g of raw meaty bones, etc., per day.
(The raw diet approaches feeding differently to processed pet foods and you have to forget all about X number of cups for a certain life stage, etc - you feed more based on ideal weight and on looks. Like I tend to go on how Honey looks - I'm always aiming for a waistline and being able to see her last ribs and feel them...I prefer her slightly leaner than slightly fatter - better for her health - so you get a much better "instinct" for how your dog looks and whether they are getting fat - and then you adjust the amount you feed accordingly...I'm pretty accurate now - I can predict a weight and when we go to the vet to check, it's usually right!)

We split her daily portion into a bigger morning meal of 500g (usually 2 x chicken carcasses 250g each or 1 x lamb brisket 500g each) and then a smaller meal in the evening of a ready-made raw mixture of mutton, pork and beef, salmon, egg, honey, sea kelp, apple cider vinegar, bit of grains, etc.
Once a week, for her morning meal, she gets some raw offal instead (eg. lambs liver, ox kidney, heart, etc) - and another day a week, she gets 500g of fresh oily fish (eg, pilchards).
In addition, we add any healthy leftover to her evening meal - vegetables, ripe fruit, bits of rice/mashed potatoes, etc - anything not heavily seasoned.

The key to feeding the raw diet successfully is having a good supplier of raw meaty bones - we're very lucky to have a vet here in Auckland who believes in raw feeding and she has started a company supplying pet owners - and our local pet store has a freezer stocking her stuff - so we just go there every fortnight to do a shop for Honey like our own supermarket shop! It's very convenient and unmessy - everything is in plastic bags, in convenient weights (eg. 2 x chicken carcasses in a plastic bag = 500g) - and we just buy what we need and then take it home and put it in the freezer - and then every day, defrost what you're going to feed tomorrow. That's the only hassle - remembering to do that but it becomes a routine.

She sells a range of different types of meat & meaty bones but given the amounts we have to feed, it is just not economical to feed the more expensive rabbit legs & shoulders or ostrich mince or possum or other more exotic things...although we do get them for Honey from time to time as a treat. The smaller dogs do very well on those things - although chicken is usually the foundation staple of any raw diet as it is a low-fat, good quality protein that is kind to sensitive stomachs and cheap! Smaller dogs get chicken necks & wings, larger dogs do better on whole chicken carcasses (after the breast & legs have been removed for human consumption).
Most people who feed raw have a separate freezer so they only need to stock up once a month or something but we haven't got the space so we just put Honey's stuff in our freezer compartment and just have to shop more often, that's all, but we manage OK.

She's been on the Raw Diet for about 3 years now and seems to do very well on it - shiny coat, good energy, no weight problems, fantastic teeth - our vet is very happy with her condition and we're always getting comments when we go out from random strangers! :-)

Sorry - got a bit carried away there but hope some of this info might be useful to anyone interested in switching to raw...

Hsin-Yi
My Funny Girl
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