Weaning To Raw Diet? And Switching To Raw Diet?

Question

I would like to know from other breeders out there that feed a raw diet, do you wean your puppies onto a raw diet? If so how to you put together the needed nutrients in the right combination? Would any of you be willing to share a sample menu and when you start. Has anyone also switched their dog over from commercial kibble to raw? If so any advice on that would be great. I am really wanting to see about doing a raw diet for my Boxers as well as to try weaing to a raw diet. Thank You all so much in advance.

Jessy H
Pryde Boxers
South Carolina
http://www.PrydeBoxers.com

Answer 1

I am soooo excited that you are looking into raw. It is without a doubt the best thing you can do for your dogs!

I haven't had to wean any puppies although i could tell you that I have been feeding my dogs raw for a little over a year and a half and happy to report that they're both doing FANTASTIC - 2 westies 3 yrs or 1.5 yrs). When i brought the youngest one home at exactly 8 weeks, I started her on raw right away. The breeder gave me a small bag of Eukanuba for puppies and i simply told her - "keep it we won't need it - this girl is having a chicken wing for dinner!" and boy did she ever! She went after that chicken with the most fervor i'd EVER seen! She was this tiny little shark making all kinds of grunting noises (lol)!

It's truly a piece of cake to switch them from kibbles to raw... JUST DO IT! I know it can be a bit scary at first (especially since we've all heard the horrible bone stories) Just keep in mind that if so many dogs died from eating RAW meaty bones (keyword here is RAW) none of us raw feeders would do it. You will need to feed your dogs a certain percentage of their body weight (depending on their age - the younger they are the higher the percentage) in meaty bones (chicken, beef, pork, lamb, elk, goat etc) every day and that is it. Some of us add veggie/fruits but many of us just stick to meat/fish/offals and our dogs are strong and healthy!

Also, if you are going to consider raw food, I would highly recommend you also look at either no longer vaccinating your dogs or giving them minimum vaccinations to ensure they have the best and strongest immune systems. (www.truthaboutvaccines.org - a true eye-opener)

Finally, you may want to also consider at dealing with a homeopathic vet so that your dogs are treated the most natural way possible. The goal of feeding your dogs raw is to give them the healthiest diet possible and therefore, healing them with homeopathy is the most logical route.

Here are a few reference books:
Raw Dog Food (making it easy for you and your dog) by Carina MacDonald http://raw-dogs.com/
Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

You should also visit the following sites:
www.drianbillinghurst.com
www.barfworld.com
www.njboxers.com
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://personalpages.tds.net/~jcole/Delilah%20barf%20diet.htm
http://www.truthaboutvaccines.org/articles.html

There are also a bunch of Yahoo! Groups you should belong to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClassicalHomeopathyPets/?yguid=140730069
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalRawDog/?yguid=140730069
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RawPup/?yguid=140730069
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pets4Homeopathy/?yguid=140730069
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawdiet/?yguid=140730069
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/?yguid=140730069
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TruthAboutVaccines/?yguid=140730069


Congratulations about your choice and happy feeding!

Answer 2

You can run into big problems feeding raw food - the legal standards for animals foods are slack compared to those for humans. And even people can get serious illnesses from eating contaminated raw food. Wouldn't recommend it, especially for pregnant dogs or young pups - one of my friend's dogs got pretty sick on it.

Personally, I like Nutro - it has no by products and is reasonably priced and my dogs have done fine on it for more than 10 years. They make canned and dry dog foods for puppies and adults. Any changes in diet should be made slowly to avoid diarrhea - gradually mix more new food in with what you've been using until he's switched over.

Answer 3

Raw / BARF diets aren't all they're cracked up to be. Feeding anything but commercial kibble requires a lot of nutrient requirement calculations. The commercial feeders go through months of testing of the metabolize contents of foods. You can't just toss him a chicken. You have to consider vitamin content, amino acid balances, digestible energy content, among plenty of others. With raw, you also have to consider bacteria growth in foods, and with the popularity of poultry and beef in raw diets, the bird flu-type disease epidemics. Organic commercial foods are a far better choice.

If you're unhappy with the way commercial dog food companies add corn meal, and wheat gluten, and all that junk, look into Wysong. It was made for people who wanted to cook for their pets, but don't have the time to measure out 30 different supplements needed to complete the diet. They use meat raised without hormones, and grains and veggies grown with pesticides or even fertilizers. Everything that can be organically certified is. Also, their canned food is basically "chicken in a can". Great, whole food diet. Balanced and natural. WAY better than raw!!

Answer 4

120 Raw Diet Food Recipes : http://Go.StayEatingRaw.com/?cGZu