[Tanya C]

Hi my name is Tanya and I have many fur babies which include 3 Great Danes, 1 Chinese Crested and 3 Cats 2 orange tabbies and a black white kitten. They all range in ages from 8 weeks to 8 years. Up until recently I always fed my fur family members commercial kibbles and wet foods cause food is food right. Man was I WRONG !!!Anyway we recently lost our baby girl Thunder who was a 15 year old Husky. My husband watched me struggle with her death and how badly depressed I was becoming so he suggested a new furry baby to help focus my attention on and to maybe help fill the big hole in the heart. I eventually found Chance a 10 month old Great Dane puppy, he is a great source of happiness 🙂 He was raised on a raw dog food diet and his previous owner had switched him over to commercial foods and he is doing fine but it piqued my interest because I didn’t really know what Raw Dog Food was. I’ve been researching and researching for the last 2 weeks, I made a recipe and the dogs really seem to like it but I would like some constructive criticism. I mean I did do a lot of research but there is just so much information and a lot of it contradicts what the other is saying, so I just wanted some feedback. One thing that all the information agreed on was that it is very important for the diet to be balanced and that you can do more damage by feeding an unbalanced raw diet than by staying with commercial foods, so I just want to make sure I’m doing what is best for my fur babies.
Thank you, Sincerely, Tanya

10 lbs – ground organ meats Beef (heart, kidney, liver, spleen, brains, etc..)
5.5-6 lbs – ground Chicken thigh/leg attached bone in
350 g pureed Sardines
4 – whole x-large Eggs shells pureed with the veggies (also 12 egg shell left over from breakfast)
1 cup pureed Carrot
3-4 cups pureed Yams
3-4 cups pureed Broccoli
750 g – Biobest Plain Probiotic Yogurt

• This topic was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Tanya C.

[theBCnut]

I’m not the one to figure out if a raw diet is balanced or not, but I do see some glaring(to me) issues. I think this recipe is very heavy on organs. Organs should make up about 10% of the meat portion of the diet with liver being half of that. Heart does not count as an organ because it is all muscle and fat. Adding chicken with the bone in is OK, and so are the eggs including shell, but the extra shells may be too much calcium, and too much calcium is a big no-no for large and giant breed puppies. Basically, 2 large egg shells are enough calcium for 1 lb of boneless meat. Make sure you use different veggies every batch, because feeding broccoli all the time isn’t good either. I prefer to use one type of protein at a time and rotate proteins.

Have you called your breeder and got their recipe for the raw that the puppies were started on?

[pugmomsandy]

A helpful site for homemade food is dogaware.com. And I agree with BCnut about too much organ meat (dense in certain vits and minerals) and calcium. A chicken leg quarter is roughly 27% bone according to PreyModelRaw.com, so I’m not sure what just a bone-in thigh would be. One recipe book I’ve used “Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats” uses 3 parts meat/organ mix to 1 part veggie mash – about 1.5 cups meat/organ with only 1/2 cup veg (with 1 cup of meat being 1/2 lb). It also has a vitamin recipe and a recommendation for puppies.

Using your chicken thigh for my calculations at *approximately* 27% bone, this is what I come up with roughly to end up with around 10% bone:

6 lbs bone-in thighs/96 oz
8.6 lbs muscle meat/138 oz
1.6 lbs/26 oz beef organ mix

for a total of 16.25 lbs/260 oz

Also for variation, you can substitute 18-19% of the meal (meat portion) with sardines or egg (no shell). For 1 lb of food – 9 oz meat mix, 3 oz sardines or egg, 4 oz veg (from the book I mentioned above).

I’d recommend the books “Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats”, “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet”, and I believe there is an e-book called “See Spot Live Longer the ABC Way”.

[theBCnut]

“Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” is also available as an ebook. Thighs don’t have as much calium by % as leg quarters, but I also don’t know what the % is.

[Tanya C]

Thank you everyone for your comments. theBCnut I did not get my dogs from a breeder they are all rescues and up till now have been fed commercial prepared dry/wet dog food. I never even heard of Raw Dog Food until Chance came to us. Then I started researching and like I said above it is all so confusing one site contradicting the other etc.. so I appreciate any and all comments. I bought my meat straight from a butcher, it came pre-grounded. I was told that the 10lbs was a mixture of heart,brain which I understood to not be considered organ meats and then kidney, liver and spleen with I know are organ meats. I also know that tongues are included but wasn’t sure what they are considered. If I added lean ground beef to my recipe say 10-15 lbs would that balance it out better. I am making very large batches as I try to make at least a weeks worth at a time. My Danes range in size from 90-160 lbs so I have been feeding them approx 2% of there ideal body weight per day which is about 3.5 lbs if I worked it out properly, I feed them half in the morning and half in the evening. I will not add the extra egg shells next time and do what I normally do, add them to my garden instead. pugmomsandy the chicken I purchased was from my local grocery store and I ground it myself in a hand grinder at home. I believe I should have called them quarter chicken legs they were thighs with legs attached and bones still in. The next batch will be purchased from the butcher chicken backs with bone in pre-ground. I will look into those books as well, I have a tablet and an e-reader so I should be able to get them. Thank you all so much, I really do appreciate the comments !!! I’m so new at this and I find it confusing even though I did research. I’m still trying to figure out what meats are what hence the mistake with too much organ meats. I just want to make up for my past bad food mistakes and do what is best for my fur babies. Thank you !!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Tanya C.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Tanya C.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Tanya C.

[pugmomsandy]

Chicken backs have even more bone than leq quarters. I’d have to look that one up but to me, they’re almost like necks – very little meat. I’ve bought turkey backs from the store and they’re pretty much just bones. Without knowing more about the percentage of muscle and organ meat the butcher makes, I would still keep that relatively low. You might check out a commercial grinder or one you can find at a sporting/hunting store with at least 1/2 horsepower. They should be able to handle chicken parts without a problem. Large turkey necks and backs might be a problem. I use a 1hp grinder and I’ve ground 100 lbs in 15 minutes! It’s awesome! The packaging takes up the most time. Also, check out local restaurant supply stores. You should be able to purchase items by the case, 30 lbs or more at a time. The savings will add up quickly since you’re feeding big dogs and the grinder will pay for itself in a couple months. Oh…an extra freezer comes in handy too!

[pugmomsandy]

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u651/pugmomsandy/pictures%20for%20posting/IMG_5170952x1024_zpsec466d4d.jpg

This site has a demo video:

http://northcoastpets.com/barf_hardware.htm

Other raw feeders have told me they have the 3/4 hp Cabela brand grinder and it’s worked just fine on chicken and turkey parts and it was less than $200. And adding in the lean ground meat and decreasing the beef organ mix would balance it out better (the meat and bone portion), but also check out the supplement section at dogaware. And you can also find hearts, tongues, cheek, even uterus at ethnic grocery stores as well.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by pugmomsandy.

[theBCnut]

Tongue is muscle, and brain has some really good stuff in it, but is high fat. I really like that grind you get from your butcher, but you need to ask about the ratios. It sounds like you are on your way to a very nice meal, just watch the calcium. And remember that adding variety is how you cover all those miconutrients that AAFCO doesn’t even know how much or what a dog needs. One time add in a can of oysters, another oily fish. Sometimes use spinach or kale, sometimes go for kelp or spirulina. Use lamb instead of beef and turkey instead of chicken sometimes. Collect several different recipes. Have fun feeding your pups, I know they’ll have fun eating it!!

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