I've recently switched my dog to a mostly raw food diet. Thanks to Woody's Pet Food deli and the Wedge. Anyone else doing this? Where do you source your food? I know about Raw for Paws. Not interested. Other sources for free range, organic raw meats, organ meat?
And do you supplement? If so, what and why? I do add plain yogurt and a raw egg every 3 days, though on different days.
Thanks, Bill and Tinsel.

Yep, I feed Primal and Nature's Variety Raw diets. I don't feed it exclusively, because I can't afford it, but I rotate from kibble to raw to canned to kibble to raw to canned, anon. She also gets raw bones.


I supplement whatever I feed her with SeaMeal from Solid Gold, which is a kelp based mineral and probitoic supplement, and fish oil. She also gets glucosamine condroitin for joints.

I get mine from Chuck and Don's or Urbanimal.

Jen, what brand/form do you get the glucosamine condroitin in? My 12 year old puppy is starting to show her age

What are the advantages? I could definitely deal with less potent dog farts.

Some friends of mine feed their dogs almost exclusively raw meat. IIRC, they get it quite cheap by buying freezer burned meat from stores and individuals. They keep a chest freezer or two so they can stock it up when they find it.

pheadrus, just feeding steaks/tissue aka grocery store meat to dogs is not a complete diet. Tell your friends that.

eta: They need the organ meats, entrail contents (tripe, stomach bacteria, what their prey eats...complete store-bought raw food diets include this by having a mash of berries/veggies/grasses in the mix), and bone meal/marrow, too.

omgmrj, the advantages are exactly the same as when WE eat raw foods. All the nutrients are there, including natural food-derived vitamins and minerals, good bacteria, and naturally occurring chelates that don't survive the cooking process. Cooked foods have these artificially added later as supplements. Supplemental vitamin and minerals, even if naturally derived, do not offer the same absorption levels as the ones we get simply by eating a balanced diet. Therefor, they are added in MASSIVE quantities to compensate this lack of absorption, and in a lot of cases, can cause an animal (including ourselves) to become deficient.

I would really need to have this conversation with a power point and my biology notes, but what I'm saying is it provides, IF DONE CORRECTLY, more balanced and whole nutrition. Although, there are plenty of studies on the "other" side that will say otherwise.

I like feeding raw, because it's in line with what I've learned about nutrition and digestive health and my personal philosophies.

*nodnod*

Cats, which are obligate carnivores (dogs are omnivores), benefit GREATLY from a raw meat/grain free diet.

Psssst, Jen:

Not Jen, but I use Puritan's Pride for Tinsel. 2 a day.
http://www.puritan.com/glucosamine-chon ... her-017895

I tried that Blue Buffalo Wilderness stuff for my cats for a while. Made one of them have really gross fur. I ended up dumping the bag out for the raccoons. I supplement their dry food with moths that I catch in the yard. Grasshoppers and crickets are other welcomed crunchy treats.

There are many opinions regarding feeding raw. Some say don't do it, some say it's the best for your dog.
And within the raw camp is the Barf diet and Prey model. Veggies, no veggies. Raw eggs, cooked eggs. And even ground bones vs whole bones.
Some say you need supplements, some say you don't.
All it says to me is nobody really knows, so we have to choose our beliefs out of all the opinions.
And even if the food is raw, contains organs and bones, we have to remember it is still not a mouse, vole, rabbit, deer, elk just killed and eaten. But then our dogs are not wolves. Just decendants of them. And it's really not practical to feed them live animals.
So, we make our choices.

And Jen,
Check out Woody's Pet Food deli. You might like it.
Bill.
http://www.woodyspetdeli.com/

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DOG FARTS?