Dog Food Advisor Forums Cheryl F

Cheryl F

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  • in reply to: Advice on my raw diet #75473 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    I just was able to contact a local butcher who supplies USDA meats for human consumption. They are also offering quite a number of items that I already feed my dogs, that I have to pay shipping/packaging for and has greatly increased the costs for me. Being able to buy fresh meat from a local butcher means that not only am I getting very good quality food, but also that I’m not being charged for additional packaging or shipping is a huge bonus. We will now be able to trim our monthly costs for feeding our animals (4 medium sized dogs) from $500./month to about $200-250./month.

    For the specialty grinds such as green tripe, trachea and gullet, chicken w/organ meat, beef w/organ meat – i will still purchase from online shops.

    By having a local butcher means that I can control how much food i have to store by not needing to order in bulk to offset shipping charges, and having a readily available stock local that I can drive to replenish my supply.

    Sharon B – my vet’s office has several vets employed there. When I was on a business trip my husband took our puppy in for routine puppy care exam and the vet tried to scare my husband about ecoli and salmonella with the raw diet. Fact is, humans get those issues a LOT more than dogs can. Their stomachs are stronger than ours and we are more susceptible than them. Employing good hygiene and common sense is a must when handling any meat – whether it be for human or canine consumption. None of my dogs have ever gotten salmonella or ecoli from raw diet and i have ‘collectively’ been feeding this way for about 12 years.

    Hope that helps.

    Cheryl

    in reply to: switching large breed dogs to raw #75166 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    Hi Sharon,

    You said for the 2nd day your Newf pup has thrown up. Is it immediately after he finishes eating, or some time later (say 1 hour post feeding). If it’s immediately – thats regurgitation and oftentimes dogs on RAW will do that and then re-eat the food. Nothing to be worried about unless its an every day occurrence for a ‘period’ of time. Hardest part is to keep the other dogs from “clean up on aisle 12” participation! You also mentioned a couple other things – but didn’t fully qualify them. He came back positive for 3 bacterias….what bacterias. What is the infection he was diagnosed with and what is he being treated with? Not that that has any bearing on the BARF diet, but I’m curious. I would advise you to call your local butchers/food stores and ask them what they have in the back that they haven’t put out yet, ground up etc…. If you get on their good side and ask them for help in the processing of your meat requests, they may do the chopping for you. i dont recommend feeding your dogs ground up food all the time. The chewing action is what they need to clean teeth, expend energy (in the case of your newf pup – chewing a good big knuckle bone for an hour or so will tire him out and give you a break). Plus it’s good for the dogs to learn how to ‘hold’ the bones properly in their paws so they can get at the good stuff. It’s quite amazing to watch them learn what they need to do. I wont forget the day that my one puppy learned how to use his paws as tools and then his raw meaty bone handling skills went over the top for him. 🙂 You can feed large dogs full chicken necks without worrying about having to cut them up. I only cut up now because I have ‘smaller’ dogs than i used to. NEVER feed a turkey neck without it being cut up. I have had to fish my hand into my Saints mouths in the past to retrieve a full neck that was getting stuck because i didn’t cut it up….so word of caution on that.

    Sounds like you have done a ton of research on this topic and while the whole process of feeding raw is foreign to some and maybe a little scarey or cost prohibitive up front – it’s far better for them, costs less $ in the long run due to smaller portions, less vet bills, less $ for meds due to allergies, etc…

    Id love to hear back from you on what the specific issues are with your newf pup by the way. Have a great day.

    Cheryl

    in reply to: switching large breed dogs to raw #75131 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    Hi Sharon,

    I replied to you on the other thread about most reputable raw food supplier. One other thing to consider. Dont get yourself too worked up about mixing in kale, garlic, this that or the other. Easiest thing for you to do would be to source a good supplier for Salmon Oil, multivitamins and DE (diatomaceous earth). The raw food suppliers will have the ground mixes available for purchase. In my house we buy the grounds (such as ground up chicken with organ meat with vegetables mixed in, beef with organ mix, trachea/gullet mix as well as green tripe. the green tripe is a very excellent source for dogs as it can help them with kidney problems. When dogs are on a raw diet their BUN/Creatinine numbers will different than if they they were on a kibble diet. I dealt with a saint that had symptoms of renal failure when I had her on kibble – and when i had her on raw the green tripe helped to level out those numbers. We feed whole chicken necks, chicken paws, cut up pieces of chicken (back, thigh/leg, breast and gibblets) as well as turkey necks, duck necks, ground mixes and the three x/ week raw meaty bones such as marrow bones, knuckle bones, etc…

    We give our dogs a good multivitamin that is tasty to them, salmon oil and DE mixed in with their food daily. My 14 yr old basset had horrible plaque build up on her teeth and now they are all sparkly white. My ‘western medicine’ vet is now finally convinced that the raw diet is so much better than the kibble could hope to be.

    Hope this helps you.

    in reply to: Most reputable Raw food supplier #75067 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    Hi Sharon – Thanks for your thoughts. Not a day goes by when I dont think back on my four Saints. The RAW diet could have helped them to live longer healthier lives. But embarking on a change for you to a RAW diet is the best thing you can do for your pooches. The advice you were given already on calculating amount of food is accurate. Go with 2% of their body weight (assuming they aren’t overweight now). If you want them to loose weight you need to adjust. I feed my 4 dogs (small ones now….) 3 x/day. I do this because I lost one saint to bloat and i’m not going down that road again. Since I work from home, I can do this with relative ease. Any deep chested dog is susceptible to bloat. I have a separate stand up freezer that is dedicated to my pooches so I can order in bulk. That way when it’s time to prepare their food, I take out about 20lbs at a clip, and spend about 1-2 hours chopping up, and preparing their food in large tupperware type containers. Then I freeze them and can portion out food for 5 days or so before I have to chop again. Not only does it help the dogs, but helps to build up biceps! 🙂 Added benefit. I also frequent the grocery stores for deals on chicken. I have found that I can buy chicken for sometimes $0.69/lb rather than an exorbitant $3.00/lb online at these food suppliers. Good luck with your change over.

    Cheryl

    in reply to: Most reputable Raw food supplier #74740 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    I’m in search of another raw dog food supplier in the northeastern section of the country. Hare todays quality is very good, but the prices are quite high comparing to some others.

    I started another investigation this morning looking for some suppliers where I can get actual food, not a blend, freeze dried or combo. Looking for RMB’s of chicken/duck/turkey necks, chicken paws, stuff like that.

    Many of the companies that supply raw dog food that is recommended by this forum are all blended foods or freeze dried combos.

    What am i missing? Why dont people want to feed their dogs actual bones instead?

    in reply to: Most reputable Raw food supplier #74501 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    On the Hare food, our cost is about $500/month. I KNOW!!!!

    We have 4 dogs currently.

    1 14 yr old Bassett – 60lbs
    1 10 yr old Mix – 60lbs
    1 5 yr old Basset – 50lbs
    1 7 month Border Collie Mix – 50lbs

    That price is food + delivery (we pay about $60.00 for fedex 2nd day delivery as Hare is too far away to drive to).

    Average it out, we are spending about $125/dog per month. (give or take). I’d love to investigate some of these other providers I think i need to at Pawfectly RAW NE and others near me. (I’m in northern NJ right next to the border of PA/NJ)

    in reply to: Most reputable Raw food supplier #64446 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    Thanks much for the wishes DogFoodie and Mark S.

    I placed my first order with Hare-Today over the weekend and it’s due to arrive tomorrow. Looking forward to getting my 3 dogs switched over for good!

    in reply to: Most reputable Raw food supplier #64159 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    Thanks InkedMarie. I have been researching Reel Raw…they look real good so far. Great reviews and prices are competitive. I’m also looking at Hare Today and maybe even Greentripe.com. Things have changed a lot in the raw dog food industry since I left it in late 08. I wish I never changed the dogs food, as I have lost all my saint bernards to various types of cancer. My last two died within the past 9 weeks – so it’s been a very rough couple of months.

    in reply to: Most reputable Raw food supplier #64015 Report Abuse
    Cheryl F
    Member

    Hi theBCnut,

    Thanks for your reply. When you say you feed whole, what do you mean by that? When I fed my dogs in days past, I used to get a whole chicken, and cut it up for them. I’d never give them a WHOLE chicken in their bowl. Certainly they can rip it apart themselves, but then how do you portion it out if your dog only needs say for instance 1.2 lbs per day total, and the whole chicken or quail (whatever) weighs more. Do you hack off certain parts of the body for them, or cut it up? I used to cut up the food for them in relative bite-size chunks.

    Thanks for your reply.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)