Raw feeding

[Smilesbetter]

Does anyone on here raw feed their pets?

My 8 month old puppy eats raw, in fact it's all she has ever eaten as her breeders run a raw food company. She is incredibly healthy and the first remark people make about her after playing with her is how unbelievably soft her fur is. They actually often think she still has puppy fur! Nope, it's her diet. It also means that the poops are minuscule and will disappear after a day or two if left out. If I had a garden of my own, this would mean no more doggy poop bags, but I live on a city (I seem to be the only one who poop scoops here though) so I don't.

Anyway my cat Carlotta in the last few days has taken to eating raw meat, so she is now on full raw diet. I'm hoping to move my other cat onto raw as well although I doubt she will have a random change to raw like Carlotta did. Carlotta vomits almost every night or two, completely un digested cat food hours after eating it. None of the vets I've been to think this is a big deal ("just put her on no different food") which is ridiculous as the food should be digested long before then, I can't understand how it can possibly not be digested that long after eating, and she clearly has a problem with normal cat food. She's not been sick on raw so far, sprinters crossed this continues. She also has feline Hyperesthesia which seems to be affected by her exercising/energy levels, so it will be interesting to see if the raw diet has any affect on it.

I just feel it's the best possible thing to feed them, other than letting them catch their own stuff which is neither practical or good for the environment. I am looking into sourcing culled rabbits and things for my dog to eat, and the cat if She will eat them. The hair/feathers are good for them too and a lot of raw feeders miss those out unfortunately, and of course an animal carcass has everything the dog or cat needs in the exact right proportions, so no need for me to measure it all out haha!

[ina]

One of my previous cats was very good at sorting out the gall bladder - just about everything else of a rabbit got eaten... My current cat won't touch raw food, unfortunately! i think with most pets you have to start them very early, otherwise they get used to tinned/dried food, and that might be all they'll ever want again. Well, I couldn't afford to feed just raw, anyway (not only too expensive, I'd also have to get a fridge/freezer, for which there is neither money nor space in my house).

[Smilesbetter]

Haha I dunno, my cat is 6 years old, I just spend ages giving her blood mixed in with her wet food,then added minuscule bits of meat which she eventually seemed to enjoy, but wouldn't eat bigger bits. Then I stopped for ages as I had to go back to Scotland for a month and didn't get op round to it when I got back, until she started pinching the dogs food and hasn't shown any interest in her own food since. Now I just need to change the other cat over.

I actually find it waaaay cheaper than normal pet food, but I suppose it depends how you get the meat and what you bought before. Cat food here isn't cheap, and coz my cat is always sick I was constantly switching brands. She can't have dry food at all so it had to be wet. When my puppy and I went to Scotland for a month we had to get it from some raw food company that had everything prepackaged and frozen, it cost way more than the stuff we get in Germany which is straight from a slaughterhouse. Also if I can get them onto full carcasses then it will be even cheaper. We did have to buy a new freezer as we only had a tiny above fridge freezer, but we've definitely made the money back off buying raw rather than normal dog food.

It's not everyone's cup of tea though haha. I used to find handling the meat disgusting and made my hands go cracked and dry with the over washing hahaha, eventually I came to realise it's the same as the raw so eat I use for myself and so not quite as gross as I was making out (except the cows ladybits I accidentally bought the other day, yuck!).

[BaoisGlas]

Bit of an old thread but I feed my dogs (4 of them) and my cats (2 of them) raw :)
Only my male Dalmatian has been raw fed since a pup, the other animals all came to it later in life and adore it, they all get so excited when it's food time. Their coats have all improved too, a lot softer and really shiny.

[becks77]

I tried raw food for my 14 year old dog he loved it but just kept eating and eating was costing a fortune, and also made his poops really hard and he seemed to strain a lot at his age , not good

[CJay]

I recently went back to feeding my goggie raw. He always did so much better on it. He stayed home with my parents after I moved out. But after I finally changed jobs so I wasn't on the road all the time anymore I got him back. And now that I'm out on my own land and there is plenty to hunt I'm able to feed him raw again.

And score. When I came home from work last night I caught a small group of pigs in my food plot. So yay for more free meat.

As we know. Many dogs will simply eat until they can't eat anymore. That may have been why his poops were so difficult to pass Becks. I'd imagine that if you monitored his intake he would do better on it.

My puppy weighs right around a hundred and forty pounds. He gets a half pound of raw meat ground up with raw vegie waste in a 70/30 ratio (meat to vegies) in the morning And the same mix in the evening.

I've known people who have dogs half his size who feed the same amount and wonder why their dog is not only not loosing weight but are getting fatter. Remember calories in vs calories out folks.

[ina]

My cat refuses to eat anything raw... Basically, it has to come out of a tin with a label saying "cat food" on it, otherwise no joy! She may just nibble a bit of "human style" tuna or mackerel...

[LuckyST]

My cat refuses to eat anything raw... Basically, it has to come out of a tin with a label saying "cat food" on it, otherwise no joy! She may just nibble a bit of "human style" tuna or mackerel...

I'll bump this thread. My new cat refuses to eat raw either, he's a picky eater and loves packaged cat food too. I tried giving him cooked meat and fish, but he barely touched it. At least, he's not refusing to eat the diatomaceous earth which I give him as flea prevention as this article advised.

[Green Aura]

I read somewhere that if you mix a tiny bit of raw into their current food and increase it slowly you can change them to raw eaters. I tried it, briefly, but with five cats, all transitioning at different rates, it got quite confusing (not to mention costly). So we blinked first and they're back on tinned stuff.

At least they will be as long as we can keep getting tins! The push seems to be for individual portions in plastic sachets. When the tins disappear entirely, I'll have to try again.

[Weedo]

All my other halfs dogs (I don't keep pets) eat raw or starve although some dried food is available for nibbles, maybe half a cup each daily. The secret to feeding raw is to slow down the rate of consumption and force them to chew; this stimulates the digestive system and satisfies without eating too much - raw chicken joints, big meaty bones etc or even one of those hard rubber/ plastic thingies you fill with food and force them to slowly extract it.