RMB Q

[Kelly89084]

Ok, I tried switching my dog to raw meat and bones and she's doing great on the meat part but whenever I give her bones she burries them somewhere and refuses to eat them.  Any ideas on how to get her enough calcium?  She also refuses any form of chicken unless it's disguised in other food.

[kathryn]

I just switched my girls to Natural Balance kibble.  But I saw a new product that happens to be available in LV that is Natural Balance Raw diet.  It is frozen and prepackaged.  I know that there are two stores that carry it in LV because I wanted to try it and Michael was in Vegas a couple of weeks ago.  That's the closest place that has it available to me.  Anyway, long story short the store that he went to was sold out.  You might check that out.  Goto the Natural Balance website and they have a listing of stores where it's available.  If you go that route will you let me know how it works? 

Kat

[Boyle]

Here are some of the sites which relate to raw feeding and some books.  I highly recommend researching as much as possible before switching to raw and join the yahoo raw group - that is a font of information.  I started researching raw feeding months before making the leap.  We started Nola on prey model raw in January and he is thriving on it.  We started with whole chickens to teach him to tear/chew then slowly introduced other meats and organs. In the next week or so we start on green tripe.  Good luck

PS - From what I have read, you shouldn't feed smoked ham only fresh "green" ham.

RAW FEEDING/BARF

Switching to Raw:
http://www.switchingtoraw.com/

Jane Anderson's Raw Learning Site:
http://www.rawlearning.com/

Dog Owner's Guide - BARF: Bones And Raw Food:
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/barf.html

Canine Nutrition - Raw Feeding or BARFing:
http://www.bregorreyglens.co.uk/nutrition.html

Should I feed my pet raw food or the BARF diet?
http://www.caninediabetes.org/rawfood.html

Raw Meaty Bones:
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

Raw Fed Dogs:
http://www.rawfeddogs.net./index.php

BARF FAQ:
http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html

BARF for Beginners - Top 50 FAQ's:
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

BARF Australia: What is BARF?
http://www.drianbillinghurst.com/what_is_barf.html

Nutrition:
http://home.earthlink.net/~pawsreflect/nutrition.html

This is a yahoo group about raw feeding, yet you need to apply to join this group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/

If any of the links are broken, please let us know. Thanks.

Some Books You Might Want to Read:

Work Wonders by Tom Lonsdale
Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale
Grow Your Pups with Bones by Ian Billinghurst DVM
The BARF Diet by Ian Billinghurst DVM
Switching to Raw by Susan Johnson
The Ultimate Diet by Kymythy Schultze

[newflvr]

You can mix a teaspoon of calcium in to the raw food.  Then you know, for sure, that the calcium is going in.  For Cowboy (at about 140 pounds), he gets a  little less than a pound of cooked meat each meal and I add a level teaspoon of calcium and 1/2 teaspoon of enzymes and probiotics. 

[Nicole]

When my dogs were on raw, they really dug the turkey necks.

I have a question about raw pork though...raw pork can contain trichina worms...are any of you worried about that? They're a really terrible parasite. I always avoided raw pork with my doggies cuz trichina worms terrify me.

[Nicole]

So, I was interested in this, and I looked it up on the CDC's website. Here is a link to the fact sheet, if anyone is interested:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm

Basically, it seems as if the worms are more common in wild game than in pigs anymore. I guess it used to be a pretty big problem, but apparantly there are bunches of new regulations that dictacte how and what you can feed to piggies, which is the main factor in whether or not they have the worms.

hehehe....but, here's the major warning:

"If you eat raw or undercooked meats, particularly bear, pork, wild feline (such as a cougar), fox, dog, wolf, horse, seal, or walrus, you are at risk for trichinellosis ."

So, don't eat your dogs, and cut back on the walrus. 

[Kelly89084]

dang it! and here I was planning to have raw bear tonight with a side of wild cat!   

[Kermit]

I am so jealous of all of you who feed raw. I just can't seem to get to the point where we can do that with our dogs. I want to so bad. It is just so stinking convenient to feed kibble! Darn this kibble convenience!!!

[Nicole]

dang it! and here I was planning to have raw bear tonight with a side of wild cat!   

Good thing I posted that, huh? You'd have been all kindsa wormy! That raw bear will get ya every time. I'm really bummed, cuz walrus was a personal favorite of mine.

[Kelly89084]

"You can mix a teaspoon of calcium in to the raw food."


Where do you buy yours and what kind do you use?  I can't seem to find any around here but maybe I'm looking for it in the wrong place. 

[Kelly89084]

dang it! and here I was planning to have raw bear tonight with a side of wild cat!   

Good thing I posted that, huh? You'd have been all kindsa wormy! That raw bear will get ya every time. I'm really bummed, cuz walrus was a personal favorite of mine.

Well dangit!  I guess I'll have to start cooking mine and stop sharing meals with the dog. 

[bhender254]

ground up egg shells are a good source of calcium also.

[Nicole]

Also, you can give canned salmon or mackeral. The bones are in there and provide some calcium. I found that Cabeza wouldnt eat the eggshells. He was somehow able to leave them in his bowl every time!

[sc.trojans]

Ok, I tried switching my dog to raw meat and bones and she's doing great on the meat part but whenever I give her bones she burries them somewhere and refuses to eat them.  Any ideas on how to get her enough calcium?  She also refuses any form of chicken unless it's disguised in other food.

If she doesn't like chicken, then I suggest just listening to her and not feeding chicken. No point in feeding something she doesn't like.

As for bones, turkey necks are a great balanced source and the primary bone source in my home. If she is not into consuming whole bone at this point, then you should consider ground bone. You can do this yourself if you want to buy a grinder, or you can purchase pre-packaged frozen products like bravo or halshans. You can also purchase a natural calcium supplement such as Animal Essentials Calcium (not bonemeal) and mix in with her food if this is feasible, but not as good as bone. Egg shells are not a good source as the sole source, as they are high in calcium but have no phosphorus and will readily throw the calcium:phosphorus ratio off with longterm use - very important balance for a dog.