Raw food diet?
considering a raw diet for my lab. Why buy expensive frozen, freeze dried dog food brands . Isn’t better to go to the butcher at the supermarket
If I do I would properly supplement her with minerals and vitamins. hamburg is not good unless i make it
Tagged with: butcher • food brands • freeze dried dog food • hamburg • minerals • raw diet • supermarket • vitamins
Filed under: Raw Food Diet
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
I get raw meaty bones from a lot of places including:
*Grocery store- whole chickens on sale @69 cents/lb- I strip off breasts and whatever for humans.. feed the rest to my dogs.
*Meat warehouse- I buy directly in 200 lb lots and get chicken backs for 48 cents a lb, pork necks at 50 cents a lb, chicken quarters at 60-70 cents a lb- ALL of these are human grade meats sold to restaurants etc.. so I’ve been known to split a bag of quarters with the dogs. I pay a few pennies more a lb so that I can buy the chicken in 10 lb bags which is just a bit more than one meal for my dogs.
*Butcher- grinds up his leftovers mixed with organ meat. Sells it at 59 cents a lb in 100 lb or more lots. Also GIVES me all his extra game (venison & elk) bones
*Hunters- I ask for hearts/livers and whatever bones they don’t want. I don’t take heads or lower legs. And I deep freeze everything for a month before I feed it to the dogs.
*Fishermen- offal, etc.-
*Dollar store- for canned mackeral
Yes I work for a grocery chain and people are buying frozen and fresh chicken, and meat bones. Lots at one time. They cook it up and feed their pets. Some put rice in with it too!
I would reconsider. Truly. There are some serious health hazards to both your dog and to humans in your home from feeding a raw meat diet to the dog. E coli, salmonella, clostridium . . . definitely not recommended by the U.S. FDA or by most veterinary nutritionists.
Not to mention that unless you’ve worked with a nutritionist it is likely to be imbalanced. You can’t just "add vitamins and minerals" and expect it to meet your dog’s nutritional requirements unless you 1) Know what those requirements are and 2) Know the content of each in the meat(s) you’ve selected.
I would do more research, especially if you have kids at home before doing this. If you have and have decided to do it anyways best of luck.
I hope the raw food you give your lab will be well boiled or cooked. I do not give my dalmation dry food. He prefers meat with rice & veggies.
Oh i love Raw. you need to do some research and understand about how to balance meals over time, but it is by far the best thing to feed your dogs. My vet bills are non existent since i started feeding raw to my dogs years ago. they have no health problems at all whatsoever and i have several dogs. My beloved 12 year old shepherd died of a stroke a while ago and she was running 2 miles a day with me right up till the day before she died (literally) the vet couldnt believe she was12 – or that she had tore her ACL years earlier and had never gotten it repaired (would never have been ableto convince her to stay still for 6 weeks).she was 100% healthy till the day she had her stroke. my dogs have bright,shiny coats, no dandruff, awesome teeth that never need cleaning (i have had several vets comment on how great my dogs teeth look). they never get a sugar high but have plenty of energy to play all day. i cant say enough about the benefits. AND, its cheaper than feeding a high quality regular dog food. BUT, make sure you do the research. you pretty much want to be a nutritionist when you do this, cause there is a lot to understand. Also, things like E.coli and such are not a problem with dogs because the food is out of their stomach’s much faster than with a human, which is where the problem is. you’ve made a great choice if you decide to do it.
I use, Oma’s pride and Bravo. The only thing i get from the butcher is their bones (ocassionally). TO tell you the truth, its changed their lives so much! they have a better coat, teeth, and havent had health problems (used to be in and out of the vet). I would stick to these brands because if you get only meat for them, they wont get the vitamins they need in the veggies that are mixed into it. Even with the vegetables, we give them vitamin supplements and they have salmon oil in there food. If your willing to put the effort into the diet i would, but make sure you find a place where you can get it because we have to drive 2 hours to get the stuff!