Would like to add some raw to a cooked homemade diet.

[Cordell N]

Hello,
I home cook for my three dogs. A 7 month old Australian Shepherd, a senior Boston Terrier and a senior Bassett Hound. I make their food in a crock pot twice a week.
I use a combination of meats which usually include chicken thighs or chicken quarters and ground beef and chicken gizzards. I also add ground lamb if I can find it in the discount area.
I throw in carrots, green beans and other vegetables from my garden like squash and tomatoes. If I have some fruit that needs to be eaten I throw that in also. I add some water and cook until done. I remove the everything and debone the chicken and mash with a potatoes masher and mix well. I then cook my carbs in the liquid. Sometimes rice, potatoes, lentils, oats or barley. I least that cook until very well done add a can of pumpkin and mix it all together. I would estimate that the meat comprises about 75% of their diet.

I add a supplement I make at feeding that includes ground egg shell, nutritional yeast, kelp powder, lecithin granules, ground multivitamins, salmon oil, yogurt, apple cider with the mother and Brazil nuts. I also put a cube or two of cooked beef liver or canned sardines on top a couple of times a week.
I would like to add some raw food and bones to their routine.
I bought the following at the Asian and Mexican markets.
Chicken and turkey necks
Pork neck bones
Beef feet cut up
Pork heart.
My questions are can I give a neck a couple of tomes a week as a treat?
Are raw pork neck bones and cut up raw beef feet safe as treats?
Should I cook the pork heart in the crock pot with my other meat or serve a small portion raw on top of their cooked food?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Cordell

[theBCnut]

You can replace 20% of their balanced meals with unbalanced without doing any harm. If you feed twice a day, that means about 3 meals a week, or you can make sure you stay to 20% or less of each meal, however you want to divide it up.

[USA]

Hi Cordell

You deserve to be praised for the time and effort you take to prepare your dog’s meals!

Personally I would not mix raw with cooked. I believe that over time a dog who eats only cooked foods will develop changes to his digestive system that will make it harder to deal with the bacteria in raw food. For senior dogs I think this problem could be even worse.

I would think about about adding digestive enzymes tor your dog’s diet to replace the ones that are lost during cooking. I would also read Steve Brown’s book “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet”. While your homemade supplement looks wonderful, Steve’s book will help you make sure you are feeding your dog’s a diet that is perfectly balanced and nutritionally complete.

Keep up the good work!

[Judy M]

Raw and cooked foods digest at different rates and pass through the GI tract differently. It’s best to feed separately. I have a lot of clients who feed one meal of home cooked and the second meal raw. You’re doing a great job.

[Author]

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