Raw feeding

Sophatp

New member
Feb 2, 2014
248
4
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Leonidas
Has anyone done a write up on raw feeding? I can't seem to find all of my questions in one organized thread. Leo will be 7 months in a few weeks and I would like to try raw feeding, but I do not know where to begin. Looking for information about how much per lb of meat, what type of meat and cut, bones, organs should I feed him and how much per day should he eat if I am to feed him twice a day? should I add any oils to his food such as salmon or coconut oil? Thanks in advance!!!
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
Staff member
Community Veteran
Jul 28, 2011
48,581
3,673
Gilbertsville, PA
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Chelios (Frenchie), Nitschke (2004-2011) Banks (2005-2014) and Lambeau (2014-2024)
There is a forum dedicated to raw fedding.... I moved your thread there so those that raw feed can help you. I also tagged a few of them
 

anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
Hi!

There are many types of Raw Feeding methods. So, your first step is to do some research on which method you feel matches your philosophy and your dog.

There are 3 main methods - 1.) PMR (Prey-model Raw), 2.) BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food), 3.) Pre-made Raw.

The Pre-made Raw is the easiest but also the most expensive - it's basically buying commercially prepared raw food. Just like any commercially-prepared food, you don't control what goes in the food which can be a good thing if you don't want to have to figure things out yourself, but which can also be a bad thing because you are putting all your trust in the manufacturer of the food who doesn't really know your dog's specific needs.

PMR is also easy. Basically, it mimics what a dog would normally eat in the wilderness - which is Whole Prey. But instead of the dog hunting, say, a rabbit for its meal, you buy a pre-killed whole rabbit from a store (or hunt/raise rabbits yourself) and feed the thing to the dog. But then, city dwellers don't really make a habit of chasing after rabbits and it's not easy to find pre-killed whole rabbits for sale in the grocery... so PMR modifies the Whole Prey into something we call Franken-Prey which is basically taking different cuts of meat easily found in a standard grocery store to model after whole prey - so you might get chicken leg quarters, boneless beef chunks, turkey gizzards, beef heart, pork liver, pork brains, beef kidney chicken feet and take certain percentages of each to make up an approximate ratio of body parts to equal that of a rabbit... As dogs in the wilderness don't normally eat plant matter unless it got chewed up in the process of getting to the meat (like a rabbit's stomach contents getting chewed up in the process of the dog trying to eat the stomach lining), plant matter is not considered in PMR.

BARF, on the other hand, uses pureed vegetables and fruits (dogs don't have the proper balance of enzymes to break down veggies and fruits in their digestive tract, so it needs to be broken down before feeding) to supplement nutritional elements in the diet. This goes with the idea that the regular grocery store meat is farm raised in a process that doesn't match what is appropriate for its biology (cows eating mainly corn instead of grass, etc.), therefore its nutritional elements need supplementation. Additionally, BARF prefers that the food, including bones, is ground up to make it safer for the dog to eat.

You can go with any combination of methods, or even your own method. Personally, I go by PMR. It is relatively cheap and easy. No need to do much prep-work and it is the most comfortable for me from my own personal philosophy and healthy for my dogs.

So, once you decide which one you want to do, we can then provide some more information on some kind of Starter Guide...
 
OP
Sophatp

Sophatp

New member
Feb 2, 2014
248
4
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Leonidas
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
[MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION], hey I have searched google and actually was reading one of your post and vids from another site about PMR. I found it Very informative and would like to learn more about it
 
OP
Sophatp

Sophatp

New member
Feb 2, 2014
248
4
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Leonidas
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
My pup currently weights about 42lbs at 6 months. I know you want to ideally feed him 2-3% of his body weight. I'm guessing he'll be close to 60lbs. So about 1.5-1.8lbs for my bully Leo a day. How often do you feed your bullies? I wanted to start by quartering a whole chicken and giving him that. So you just give him a Chicken thigh for a whole day or or per feeding? Or do I weigh out the chicken quarter and add stuff such as liver or meat to equal 1.5-1.8lbs?
 

anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
This site helped me when I was figuring this out myself:

http://rawfeddogs.org/rawguide.html

I started off by buying an entire chicken then cutting it up into servings for the week until it is all gone then I bought another chicken... Did this for a couple weeks then went to add other meat sources. But, unlike the week-by-week guide in the link above, I did not start with the chicken breasts. I started with chicken backs as I wanted to start off boney to alleviate the cannon butt common in Bulldogs while switching diets.

My dogs went on a 24-hour fast before I switched them. Yes, I did this for Angus too which at the time was about a year old. For a 7-month old, you can fast one meal (so about 12 hours for a two-meal day).
 
OP
Sophatp

Sophatp

New member
Feb 2, 2014
248
4
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Leonidas
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #8
This is great info anatess thanks a lot. How are your bullies doing on this diet? Any health problems? Would like to see some pics of them. Your brindle Bullie looks almost like my Leo's dad, Angus.
 

anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
My Bullies are doing great on it. They have not needed to go to the vet other than the annual check-up. The brindle one is named Angus as well! And the tan one is named Bullie. Yeah, we were very creative... not! LOL. I also have a bichon frise named Gizmo who is on it. Besides the stain around his mouth from the wet meat and drool while gnawing on bone, he is doing awesome as well.

The most noticeable benefit is in their teeth. My dogs have pearly white teeth that the vet wanted to know what product I use to clean their teeth.

The second one is their poop. I use a home-made doggy dooley and with 3 dogs, the dooley has barely some stuff on it. Their poop is teeny and it breaks down very quickly.
 
OP
Sophatp

Sophatp

New member
Feb 2, 2014
248
4
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Leonidas
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #10
That is great to hear. Can't wait to put Leo on the PMR diet. What and how much are you feeding angus and Bullie now? Yeah what a coincidence. Guess angus is popular
 

dieMuttivonBifi

Well-known member
May 25, 2013
1,817
178
Germany
Country
from the Philippines but residing in Germany
Bulldog(s) Names
Bifi (beef-ii)
Yup [MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION] is my Guru! She's also the one who helped me to finally go raw. She's my go-to girl :bow:. I couldn't have started without her.
 

karenben

New member
Apr 18, 2011
1,056
88
uk
Bulldog(s) Names
Hilda
I started Hilda on just 12oz a day to begin with ,that was 5 weeks ago( roughly) she's now on 20oz including either pork,duck,lamb ribs ,it seems a high amount but she weighs 13 kg she's 18 weeks old and putting the weight on nice and slow,her diet consists of duck,turkey,lamb,beef,pork,lung,heart,sweet breads,liver,kidney ,rabbit tuna steak,venison,tripe and egg I also add cocanut oil but that's just because she came to me on kibble and even though she's so young she has some yeasty ears tail pocket and on her face,it is getting better but it's a slow process ,heart is her main meat with other meats added
 

anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
That is great to hear. Can't wait to put Leo on the PMR diet. What and how much are you feeding angus and Bullie now? Yeah what a coincidence. Guess angus is popular

Bullie is a 65lb almost-6 yr old girl. I give her between 1.5 to 1.75 lbs per day. She is a lazy bulldog. Angus is a 55lb 2-year-old. He gets between 1.75 to 2lbs per day. He is a very active bulldog. I adjust up or down depending on how they look. You will notice that when feeding raw, you can see the effect on their bodies within a short period of time so when I notice the dogs' waist-to-hips getting more barrel-like, I decrease the food and increase it if I start to notice rib lines. I don't feed on a regular schedule. Sometimes, they get 3-days worth of food in one sitting like when we go on weekend trips so I won't need to bring raw meat with me on the trip. So they would look like ticks after eating and be lazy for the day completey relaxed and happy.
 
OP
Sophatp

Sophatp

New member
Feb 2, 2014
248
4
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Leonidas
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #14
[MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION], What would be good parts/ cuts of other meats should I feed him? I'm looking at duck, turkey, lamb, pork, cow, etc but there are a lot of choice cuts to choose from? Any good ones? Thanks
 

anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
@anatess, What would be good parts/ cuts of other meats should I feed him? I'm looking at duck, turkey, lamb, pork, cow, etc but there are a lot of choice cuts to choose from? Any good ones? Thanks

All parts are good parts. And the point of PMR is whole prey - so it is advisable to go with as much of a variety of parts as you can find. For example, if you choose chicken, get the entire chicken - with innards and head and feet if you can find it. But depending on your dog, you might want to keep weight bearing bones away except for small fowl like chicken or duck. Cow, pork, lamb, and even turkey leg and shoulder bones are tough and if your dog is not experienced, he could chip teeth on it. And if your dog is unsupervised, he could gnaw endlessly on big bones in his excitement causing severe damage to teeth, gums, and jaws.

Also, for inexperienced dogs, avoid cuts that is small enough to fit in his mouth but big enough to get stuck in his throat. Dogs don't need to chew their food. If you notice, they don't have the flat teeth like we do nor the side to side motion of their jaws that is designed to grind. They chomp at the food only as much as to make it fit through the throat. Dogs that grew up on kibble would need to learn to chomp really good at big things. It's better to give the dog something bigger than his mouth then he spends lots of stimulating time tearing and chomping and gnawing before swallowing. But this can take your dog hours to eat which may not be good for you. If you must chop his meat for him, chop it in pieces much smaller than his throat.

Dogs also have this amazing gag reflex. They can upchuck their food right out of their stomach! This is because dogs figure out if something is edible by eating it. Hah! So they eat, find out it is bad, so they upchuck it. They also do this when they swallow their food, realizes it's still too big coming down the throat so they upchuck it to chomp on it some more then swallow it again... They could do this over and over for the same item and when they upchuck it, they make this gagging noise and the food comes out a blubbery slippery mess. I call this a do-over. Lol. It's scary to experience it the first time because you can't tell if he's just upchucking or choking!
 

Most Reactions

📰 Latest posts

Members online

No members online now.
Top