Who Feeds A RAW diet

[magtie]

just wondering who feeds their dob a RAW diet. It's really popular over on Boxer Hub (http://forums.boxerhub.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17), but i don't see much discussion about it over here

[RKCM]

I feel kibble but we always add meat at least once a week. Using a pressure cooker we make it mush and put over the food. We add veggies from the garden when it's in season.

Currently, the dogs are picking pears off the tree and are really good at finding the ripe one. Lol.

[Dobs4ever]

Magtie - I just can't get excited about raw. I know a lot of folks feed it but for me it seems it would make traveling to shows very difficult. When I go to NATIONALS for example a whole week of keep food fresh just seems like way too much. It is hard enough to load a van, take extra crates, x pens, food, bowls, equipment etc. AND I still have not packed a thinkg for me and am now struggling with will I have room to take any clothes for myself. I JUST CAN"T HANDLE RAW!! Nope for for me and I am not convinced they get the proper nutrition.

[jelly8bean]

It is very popular with my rottie board as well. But everyone has their own take on nutrition and what they believe. I'm not convinced all the dog food companies are trying to kill our dogs so I stick with kibble,everyone seems to do fine. I also think alot has to do with the dogs that have tricky digestive problems and allergies. Some of this may come from the way the breeding is trending, fortunately we don't seem to see that much of it in Dobies. Whew!

[Big Dogs]

I think I'm with the others on this I'm with jelly our dogs do fine on the kibble and don't think the food companies intentionally produce bad food. In our kennel I will feed the customers dog what ever they bring for them to eat with in reason one person wanted us to prepare a meal that I wouldn't have minded to eat myself so we had to come to a compromise on that one. Our dogs eat kibble with a cooked egg and cottage cheese once a day and there other meal is kibble with fish oil on it and they seem to do fine with that no growing pains we used to give them vitamin c for growing pains but since we switched to this they don't seem to get them.

[fatwilly]

Can someone clue me into the feeding of raw chicken to Dobies ? I read some posts where some were feeding their dogs half chickens and it kind of took me by surprise. Our two ( one 4 years/female, and the other 2.5/male) and all of our previous Dobes have all grown up eating Eukanuba or Iams, along with lots of fresh veggies in season ( mostly tomatos ! For some reason they LOVE the tomatos from our garden ?? ) and raw red meat scraps but never any raw chicken and certainly no chicken bones ! But.... maybe I've been misinformed about the issues of chicken bones ?? As much as our dogs wolf their food down, I can only shudder at the thought of a pierced esophagus from a splintered chicken bone .

Any comments ?

[jack]

I thought that with the chicken as well, but when we got our Dobermann a couple of weeks ago, the breeder says she gives whole chicken carcasses to his father, who is extremely healthy and just over two.

In the information book she gave us, it said it was all to do with the way they eat it, if they wolf it down its not good. I do not really know how to teach a dog to eat slowly???

[Dobs4ever]

Fatwilly - there is a difference in cooked chicken bones and raw. The cooked are a definite no no as they splinter and will puncture vital organs etc. But the raw is different. If which I will not but if I fed chicken raw I would feel the neck, leg, thigh and wings. I personally would still be scared of the rib bones. Back bone would be fine.

At 2 most dogs appear healthy - so unless you have full blood panels and multiple test run you might not know if what you are doing is working or not. I would not make my judgements on a 2 years old looking good.

[Panama]

I feed my youngest raw chicken.

He is just 10 1/2 months right now, but when he was 3-4 months old, he started getting bumps on his back. He was being fed California Natural (4 stars on the analysis chart I believe). Vet recommended changing food, of course to Iams (something they sell), but I tried Taste Of The Wild instead for 2 months... still kept getting bumps. Then I tried Wolf Cub, and he just wouldn't eat that period.

This is when I caved and decided to try 50/50. Kibble in the morning and raw in the evening. I started him with chicken necks and thigh meat as well as gizzards and progressed up to just raw period with leg quarter, stripped chicken back, necks, thighs, (whatever was on sale) gizzards, liver (very little liver). I have tried Ground beef, Turkey necks, Ox tail, Pork back bones. He gets a Raw meaty bones during the week, and on the weekend he gets a recreational bone.

Anyway, the bumps went away within the first week of the raw chicken, and he has not had any flare ups since. His coat is amazing, teeth sparkling white, and doesn't have (excuse the phrase) ass breath. I have given him the ocassional bowl of kibble, but he just sort of looks at the bowl, then at me as if to say....'you want me to eat THIS?' 4 months on raw and is doing fantastic.

[jelly8bean]

What dobs4ever said.. raw bones are fine vs cooked.

[dobegirl]

I feed both my dogs RAW. It has been great for them and they absolutely love it!

Someone asked about bones -- raw bones are fine to feed and will get digested. Do NOT feed cooked bones.

[tidibole]

During the winter I keep my CROCK pot going 24/7. I buy inexpensive chicken thighs, add potatoes, celery and pretty much whatever else is available with a very hefty amount of fresh garlic and then simmer. This soup/broth is poured over their dry food. I feel really good giving them a hot meal! LOL...and they love it.

[magtie]

mmm that sounds almost good :)

[tandy]

I feed raw and donot feed any processed dog kibble etc at all. I just can't get enthusiastic about feeding little brown biscuits that I don't have a clue what has gone into.

I feed chicken raw too and also bones.and then my greedy guts girls go and hunt for anything else they can manage to eat.including this week some berries from a bush! We have hens, I have seen them push a hen from a nest to pinch egss!

[Rich S]

I feed raw and donot feed any processed dog kibble etc at all. I just can't get enthusiastic about feeding little brown biscuits that I don't have a clue what has gone into.

I feed chicken raw too and also bones.and then my greedy guts girls go and hunt for anything else they can manage to eat.including this week some berries from a bush! We have hens, I have seen them push a hen from a nest to pinch egss!

At least they didn't eat your hen!

[magtie]

my greedy guts girls go and hunt for anything else they can manage to eat.including this week some berries from a bush! We have hens, I have seen them push a hen from a nest to pinch egss!

do they ever try and kill the chickens?

[tidibole]

I have always been under the impression that RAW chicken is not adviseable for consumption for both beast or man. Kind of scares me! Even at the grocery stores the checkers will bag raw chicken separately from any other raw or processed meat. My mother is Europeon and loves the raw ground sirloin (TaTa) with eggs, onions, capers, etc, makes me gag and certainly moreso in the morning. But I have made my own liver treats and biscuits. Guess it just isn't that big of a concern to me as most people rarely know what is in the processed food they eat so I try to buy the best kibble I can for the money and add the broth, cooked chicken, potates and vegetables. It is a hot meal and appeals to their senses as well as softens the kibble. I cook everything, liver, heart, tripe, etc BUT always reserve the broth for the added, what I hope is nutrional value. I also use a large amount, fresh and crushed. Again I remember someone, a long time ago telling me that was the way to go.

[Rhiannon]

I feed chicken raw too and also bones.and then my greedy guts girls go and hunt for anything else they can manage to eat.including this week some berries from a bush! We have hens, I have seen them push a hen from a nest to pinch egss![/QUOTE]


My dogs are on kibble as well and I supplement with the chicken quarters. I also mix hamburger, ground chicken and cheese for them once in a while which they love. Unfortunately we do have chickens on our property and one of the dogs has been getting into them way to often. I keep telling my daughter that he thinks he is going through the drive through at KFC.......he looks at a chicken and you just know that he is thinking......original, extra crispy or grilled today.....what will it be...... dang chickens won't stay in the chicken pen they keep flying out even when their wings are clipped. :(

[tandy]

They never tried to eat the live hens or kill them and when the dobies were very young they did chase the poultry. I think a live hen must smell pretty much like a dead plucked one but they never crossed the line with them..an egg is just there for the taking though...lol.

I buy chicken carcasses from an animal feed supplier and feed them raw, dobies love them....but its very rural here and they also have a regular supply of rabbit and occasionally venison, which I feed totally raw and then make sure the dogs are wormed regularly. They will chase rabbits if they come across them in the field but I don't think they ever caught and killed one...they will chase cats too cos they hate them.

We have pheasant here....lots of them.they don't bother them either but they have eaten them raw.

They also have table scraps which are cooked and as a treat I give them rawhide chews which I read were not good news for dobies but I don't really understand why.

I don't know very much about the breed, didn't go out to get a dobie and now have 2 girls that are roughly the same age. 1 came to us cos the breeder didn't want to sell her as she had a problem with her foot(which has sorted itself out now) and the other one was being delivered to her new home when the new owners changed their minds, so my friend brought the 2nd one here and we ended up keeping her.(think it was a big mistake having 2 so close in age together, really hard work at one point)

My girls are so greedy that I thought maybe there was a problem with them.now I read that many of them are also greedy. They were being fed a complete feed when I got them but they were both hyper and hard to deal with which is another reason why I changed them to raw..and, there seems to be less dog waste to clean up on raw feed than on complete.

Both girls are good natured and love kids and are rubbish guard dogs!lol(they are now 20months old) have loads of energy and beautiful shiny coats, in fact, they have so much energy that if I fed them complete feed I would be worried they would become hyper cos then they would be unmanageable.

They are crated in the utility room at night but during the day are outside in the yard and fields.......and they are usually hanging around the house and don't go very far....they play with each other all day and are extremely fit and just generally follow us around the farm.in fact, they will be quite happy to follow anybody around the farm.

[tidibole]

I live in a semi rural area as well with alot of open land. Rabbits are safe until they get into the yard and then it is open season. The dobes enjoy the chase but not necessarily the end result. However, the Weim is a different story. He came running in the house with what I thought was a stuffed animal in his mouth and ran into his crate. Then I heard some commotion and sure enough he had a rabbit and was going to have a dinner but evryone else thought that he should share. Didn't happen. Had a real problem with that.

[magtie]

yeah it would be interesting to see if they actually finish the hunt with the a kill.

[tandy]

I wouldn't like to put money on that one either way.....they do chase and I have seen them munching on a dead rabbit in the field but I don't think they made the kill.

They love raw fish, especially salmon.....in fact, they just love anything that they can get down their throats I think.lol.

[fatwilly]

I've started feeding chicken and young turkey to my two. I'll buy a roaster and plop it into a giant covered sauce pan to let simmer @low temp for 6-8 hrs. De-bone all the splintery bones , leave the neck and cartiledge in and of course mostly water. I put in part raw chicken along with the cooked stuff, and after a day of chang-over poop, they are magnificent ! Good strong stool, shiney coats and NO bloating.....energy out the ying/yang too.

I buy whole Rib Eyes to grind up into hamburger for us and give them much of the trimmings...not too much fat though, it causes the most terrible smelling poop. I buy frozen fruit from GFS in 30 lb boxes, Blueberries, Raspberries, Strwberries...anything but cherries. for some reason they get the runs from Cherries. They like Vietnamese cinnamin in raw honey too. Oranges in season and corn on the cob from my farm....with the occasional cobb ! They've never had an issue from eating the cobb along with the corn..raw only, though.
BUTTERMILK is a real treat for them. Its cheap protien and other stuff and they can't get enough. They perform without being given a command !!

[apollo]

Nothing on raw food but he gets alot of fruit