melissa, rottimommyal is right on the money here. but that works for her dogs. you may need to fine tune this to suit your dogs and your household. but she has given excellent advice here. also about vets not recommending raw feedings-its true they really dont. and like was mentioned they promote science diet (as well as other dogfood brands) so why should they recommend anything but what they are trying to sell. also if you dog is healthier, then chances are you wont need their services as often. i have to apologize to any vets reading the board if you recommend raw feeding or are open minded about it. i know alot of the vets i have experienced in my area do not like raw feeding. even my own vet is not a big fan of it. i have sorta learned not to discuss raw diets with vets because all i get is moans and groans from them. Â
as far as it being messy, as long as you are clean about it and make sure you disinfect any area that the dog might drag some meat to and of course you will want to wipe down any utensils you use to prepare the food, just like you would when you cook for your family. i feed hugo either outside or on a towel in the kitche right out of his food bowl. i dont feed anything like tripe, brain, stomach, or whole carcass, etc (just cant bring myself to do that) so i somewhat avoid the really icky messy raw food items.
if you know some of the ingredients in dog food you would think that was even worse than feeding raw meat. you wouldnt even want to stick your hand down in a bag of dog food!!!Â