Choosing a Raw Diet

Since choosing to feed our corgi, Pocket a raw diet... we've had lots of factors to consider. Where to get our supply of meat? What type of meat to feed? How often? How much? What "philosophy" will we follow: B.A.R.F., raw meaty bones, whatever is on hand with no rhyme or reason, should we stop feeding kibble altogether or feed some occasionally? Will we consult a nutritionist, or just follow our common sense? We've come to a few decisions, and we're still working it out with the help of Pocket. So far, so good!

Supply of meat: local. We're open to roadkill and hunting if the opportunities present ourselves, but we've found an excellent source of goat/pork/ and lamb meat just north of town: Winns Livestock and Hatchery. Initially, we found a great source of 'meat' from a butcher about 40 minutes up the road, and still have a few butchers to call up for alternative sources... but the first butcher sold dog food in the form of ground beef (muscle and organ meat). And we've sense decided that what she needs is meat and bone. (Pocket is seen here consuming ALL of a goat neck, from the flesh to two vertebra).

Philosphy: The ground meat, along with chopped veggies and other raw human-grade meat was a great start, but we've since decided that going with the 'raw meaty bones' philosophy makes the most sense to us. I purchased the book "Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones" by Tom Lonsdale and read it cover to cover. His website, rawmeatybones.com (which i haven't visited yet) has more resources and forums, and i feel that feeding meaty bones that require Pocket to pull, chew, "floss" and gnaw makes more healthful sense than feeding already ground up meat. I still feed her chopped veggies, in season and supply her with chunks of meat, but the majority of her diet is now fed from raw meaty bones. And when we're talking meaty, we're not talking a bone with some meat on it, we're talking about a leg of critter, covered in all the good stuff and consumed down to the last swallowed bone chunk. Eating is a workout, strengthening her jaws and shoulders and cleaning her teeth all at once.

So now we have both source and philosophy down, it's time for implementation. Along with meaty goat and lamb bones (and potential pig/sheep/goat heads and other weird body parts) purchase specifically for Pocket from the local farm and butcher shops, she'll also enjoy bones from human grade food, that would otherwise be wasted or saved for stock making. I only buy whole chickens when i want chicken meat, so i have plenty of chicken carcasses coming through the kitchen. When i have plenty of homemade chicken stock on hand, i'll save the chicken frames and backs for Pocket's meals. If i need to save a few for stock making, she'll have to eat something else. If we happen to buy some bone-in red meat, i may cut off the meat for us and save her the meaty bones.  "Reduced for quick sale" meat is a great option for us and her, and one can usually find gizzards and other cuts in the grocery store. Utilizing 'spare parts' or less popular/old cuts of meat, and sharing the edible portions from the meat we do purchase becomes cost effective, resourceful, and healthful for the whole family to utilize as many parts from the animals/meat we choose to eat.

Now that we've decided what philosophy and source we'll be feeding by, the proof is in the pudding: Pocket's coat is shiny and soft, her teeth are getting cleaner and her itchy ear scabs have cleared up. Are you interested in the pros and cons of a raw diet for dogs? I'd be happy to post more about my research and experience, and i'd love to hear from you if you feed your dogs/cats raw meaty bones.

Shall we continue this conversation?

Dog Food Supplement: Seasoning Salt for Pocket!

Since making the switch from kibble to a raw diet, Pocket has been eating with gusto! Other corgi parents may find it surprising that she's always been very picky, dainty, and unwilling to over eat. She'll often take a day off from eating if she didn't get enough exercise that day (wish i could control my caloric intake like that), and has amazing skill at picking out even the tiniest of 'unpalatable' crumbs. Case in point: she always leaves any trace of beet skin at the bottom of her bowl, but picks out all the delicious squash first thing.

So, as much as i believe feeding raw food is the best way to go with her- i want to be sure she's picking up enough extra goodies that may or may not be included in her kibble. Extras like kelp, omegas, minerals etc are important to a pooch, and since we don't live on land where she can forage on clover etc, i need to give her the goods myself. So, i got to work dehydrating some fresh things and picking up some bulk dried herbs at the grocery store and mixed up some 'seasoning salt' to add to her evening meals. By grinding up and mixing together assorted healthful ingredients, and combining "gross" spirulina and beet with "delicious" yam and apple i can add just a touch of this 'salt' to her food without her being able to pick it out.

I let her lick out the funnel to see if she liked it... i didn't have to wash it out much later, so i guess she does!

She'll get a tip of a spoonful every day, and i'll be sure and add other seasonal yummies as they come around. Broccoli is her favorite right now, and the aforementioned delicious squash. She eats up the meat then brings the broccoli to her bed to gnaw on it a while. It's gratifying to feed my dog nourishing food, and to rinse out a totally empty bowl in the evenings. No more kibble being thrown to the chickens because she's not into it - just a diet of 2-3% of her body weight in raw meat, veggies, yogurt, eggs and seasoning salt to keep her body healthy and fit! Gotta love the sound of a bowl being licked clean to the last drop!

If you feed your dogs a raw diet, how do you supplement it to be sure they're getting all the nutrition they need?

Pocket's In for a Change

As many of my long time readers know, my hubs and i are proud parents of one 20 pound almost-two year old..... who is covered in fur.  Isn't she cute?

Pocket's first whiff of sea air at the Oregon coast

Since before we brought Pocket home, we've been planning for her long, healthy, well educated life. I'm a bit of a task master when it comes to her training, but i also bring all my nutritional savvy to her dinner bowl as i do in our own kitchen. As a pup, we fed her Nature's Variety kibble and raw diets. This very expensive, and very high quality dog food was the best we could get in the city, but we want even more wholesome food for our fur-baby that will in turn more reasonably fit into our budgets.  Even Nature's Variety, with its probiotics, grainfree and well balanced ingredients, and raw options doesn't quite get it. Kibble, for so many reasons, is so off the mark. Dehydrating, sapped of nutrients, not very tasty, and far removed from what nature really intends for our dogs to eat: kibble just isn't a great option.

For all the reasons kibble is a poor choice of dog food, i've been supplementing Pocket's food from the beginning with homemade, grain free treats, veggies from the garden, and chunks of human grade raw meat and bones, plus guts and old meat scraps not as appealing for human consumption that i sourced from local farmers. Even with her fairly high quality food, Pocket has had problems with itchy ears to the extent of requiring medication. Moving forward, we will continue to feed Taste of The Wild kibble in small quantities: i'd hate to go backpacking and have nothing to feed the pooch without swerving her diet off its normal course. But i'm talking small quanities, like less than 1/4 of a cup. What will we be feeding her instead?  Real, raw food: raw meat, raw and cooked veggies and herbs, plus homemade yogurt and local eggs.

Once we're raising our own animals for meat, milk and eggs, (and living more rurally with access to squirrels and buns to hunt), we'll have even more options for feeding our pooch. For now, we have to source what we can from local farmers and butchers, and have so far found some great resources. I'll be posting even more about Pocket's new and improved diet in the following weeks here at AAH and over at Not Dabbling in Normal. I welcome your questions and suggestions... i am aware that the subject of what to feed your children: furry or otherwise, can be source of some contention and disagreement and i welcome the conversation!

What do you feed your pets? Do you think your pet's diet or health has room for improvement, and have you noticed any ailments in your pets that could be due to allergies?