Raw feeding 911 Part II - Updated on July 15th,2009
In " Raw feeding 911 Part I",I covered basic stuff in raw feeding lightly. Let's look more in detail.
Bellow is Palette enjoying her Duck feet.You can see her eating it with her smile.
In the entry,I wrote that you feed meat,bone,organ and as addition to those,feed fish/Egg/Green Tripe. I covered what bones are to be avoided,but you maybe wondering what cuts of meat,what type of bones you can feed to your furry friends. For those in wonder,I list up what I feed to my dog,Palette.Cheek,Gullet,Tripe in red meat category shows "Only Beef",just because I do not have access to raw materials of those from other animals.
<Red meat 4 legged animal such as beef,lamb pork>
Boneless meat,Heart,Tongue,cheek(only beef),
Gullet(only beef),ribs,necks,liver,kidney,Tripe(only beef)
** Ribs from Beef/Buffalo are edible for some dogs like mine but for some dogs,inedible. to decide what bones are edible,inedible,just feed it and wait for 10-15minutes to see if your dogs make any dent to it.if they could not make any dent to it,consider it as inedible and take the bone away after meat gets off the bone and gnawed a little. My Corgi can eat ribs from Beef/Buffalo but cannot make any dent to oxtail bone so,I take the tail bone away.
** Stay away from canned Tripe.You would think ingredient is just Tripe but look closer,they do add garlic etc
<Poultry>
I just get a whole poultry,then cut to my dog's portion and feed through
Necks (Turkey neck,Duck neck etc)
Feet (Chicken feet,Duck feet,pheasant feet)
Heart,liver,gizzard
<fish>
I rotate omega3 rich fish such as Sardine,Mackerel,Salmon over the 3 weeks
Then,since my dog is seafood-lover,I feed fish fillet on one other day as half of her meal.The non-omega3 rich fish is usually the fish that looked good on fish counter on that day,and not have any particular kind of fish for me to keep in stock
**I do not feed tilapia because she makes very bright matcha color (very bright green) puddle poop with raw Tilapia,and if it were cooked,she vomits. And,also,I do not feed Catfish just because she is not into eating it but,she is interested in roll on it.
**Fish fillet I have fed to palette...
Flounder,cod,whiting,Mahi Mahi,snapper,haddock,scallop,shrimp,clam,squid,perch,shark,rock fish,Halibut,sword fish,orange roughly,blue fish,monk fish,grouper,wahoo etc etc
**For shrimp,squid,clam are fed just tiny bit along with other fish because #1 expensive and I buy on sale for human and give some to palette occasionally ,#2 exclusive shrimp makes my dog goes diarrhea.
**IF you feed squid like I do,take the cartilage of the squid,wash off the ink and feed it.
** You can feed canned fish.I prefer to feed fish not in the can because of salt added in water. The salt in the canned fish is not as high as salt in kibble bag,but I prefer to feed as natural/fresh as possible for my dog
** If you got wild-caught FRESH salmon from PNW,you need to freeze before feeding but if you buy salmon from grocery store,the fish is already being frozen and being thawed on fish counter's ice so,you do not need to worry about freezing.Farm-raised salmon does not have to be frozen before feeding as well.I do not buy farm-raised salmon because fish eat red dye fish feed to make the fish meat redder than it actually is,and I prefer wild- caught over farm-raised.
<Miscellaneous>
Frog leg
**you can find this in freezer section right next to fish counter at local super market.
I do not buy poultry parts by parts,just because if you do buy chicken backs in case,yes,the price may be cheaper than getting a whole poultry but you need to add extra meat to it to make it to meaty meal.So,in my opinion,it end up paying more to get the boneless meat to add to bony parts meal item.I personally prefer to buy a whole birds.
So,above items are what my dog is eating.
And, after my dog got used to this new type of feeding,I started feeding big meal once a month. That day,I tend to feed very big hunk of meat such as Goat leg,emu leg etc.It probably weigh around 4-5lb.I just put it down for her and she wrestle with it. She is stumpy and 14inch tall,so when she lift the meat hunk up with mouth to try to bite it off,or try to flip it over,it is a little hard for her:too heavy and,she sometimes get wobbly,but it is very entertaining to see how she eats. She put paw on meat,rip tear the meat.
When we first started raw feeding with big meal day in the menu plan, she used mouth only,and if the meat came close to her,she jump/lift her paw up to avoid touching to the meat but as she gets used to more,she started using more paw to meat.
Anyway,weekly menu item is different all the time but,basic for my dog is like this.
1.5 day worth poultry,4 days worth red meat,and 1.5 day worth fish with added Egg,Tripe,Organs to such menu
Example will be ...here is what Palette had ate one week in the past.
Please do not try this at home if you were new to raw feeding.After introducing each single item one at a time to your dogs,and if they did good on those,then,later on,you can feed like I do.
Sunday: Lamb heart,chicken gizzard,Green Tripe,Mackerel,1 Frog leg
Monday:Boneless Lamb,chicken heart,tripe,Mackerel,chicken feet
Tuesday:Lamb Tongue,Boneless Lamb,chicken liver,1 Egg,Chicken
Wednesday:Boneless Lamb,Turkey heart,1 Egg,Chicken
Thursday: lamb Tongue,Boneless Lamb,Goat liver,Turkey
Friday: Flounder,Buffalo liver/Buffalo kidney,Lamb neck,Boneless Lamb
Saturday: Pork heart,Ostrich liver,Boneless Lamb,Lamb ribs
Now you know how I feed,but you may think,"Wait,where is Veggie? Kibble has veggie in it??"If you were wondering like that,compare your teeth to your dog's teeth. Are they same structure?? No,it is not.Teeth has its shape according to its function. Our teeth is all flat not pointy,just because we need to grind food to be able to digest them well. Our digestion starts in our mouth.On the other hand, dog teeth is pointy because it is there to rip and tear food.Then,you would see your dog does not chew zillions of times like you would.It is because they do not need to.Their digestion does not start in the mouth but in their stomach.Their stomach acid is strong.
Have you let your dog eat corn kernels ?? They seem to like it,but try poop patrol after you try these. You know what shape the corn went in to your dog's mouth. Can you see how it came out?? You should be able to find yellow corn in their poop pretty easily.The corn went in as it came out.Thus,it is not digested very good.
Have you tried feeding pumpkin? Next day,you would find very pasty orangey fiberish stuff in their poop as it went in.So,you can conclude this as they cannot digest the vegetable as good as they can with meat.
Home-made feeders do use pumpkins or other vegetables in the meal. They get 80lb of sweet potatoes,peel them taking hours,mush them good ...why do they do that? It is because dogs cannot break the vegetable cell by themselves,so,you need to cook them,puree them for dogs to be able to digesting them better. I think that feeding vegetable is okay if that vegetable part would not take big space as meal,and if it were treat amount.
Vegetables are very interesting food because,it has good and bad. If you had Arthritis dogs,you better to avoid night shade family vegetable such as tomato,potato,eggplant,green peppers etc because those would aggravate the inflammation. And,you maybe have heard broccoli for dogs to anti-cancer but feeding lots of broccoli or well,cabbage family veggie,kale,or spinach are not good because it decrease the thyroid function. And for Dalmatians dogs,asparagus is not good because it has high purine in it and it makes easy for dogs to make crystals. oh,and spinach also interfere absorption of calcium so,it is not good on that part too.
So,if you were not sure good and bad on each veggies,I would think it is wiser not to feed veggies with amount that dominates the diet menu.
On the talk of vegetable,people might come across to read about kelp. I think that most kibble bag has it as ingredient.Kelp offer iodine:aka salt. With raw feeding, we do not sprinkle table salt at all,but meat itself offer tiny bit of iodine,and dog gets tiny bit of salt from food.So, I do not think you need to add extra iodine supplement at all.
Other then Veggies,I wrote I feed Egg. I feed 2 Eggs per week for my Corgi, Palette, 33lb. I feed Egglands' best Egg Cage free Egg. I feel that they taste better and,my dog loves them so much. If you were to feed an Egg in diet,then,you maybe feeding bone in the diet,so,you do not need to feed Eggshell for your dog.Eggshell is good for calcium but you already got that part covered with bone in the diet. BUT if dogs loved to eat them,let them eat it.
I sometimes feed Egg with shell on(I usually crack Egg and pour to doggy bowl) but,when I give an Egg to Palette,she gingerly try break the shell in the middle and eat an Egg making the shell hole like cradles.It is so cute!
IF for any reasons,dogs could not have bone in meal,then,wash the Egg shell,dry them well,grind it with coffee grinder.Then,give 1/2tsp of Eggshell per pound of food served.
In the previous entry,I did not write about this,but with raw feeding,many people supplement dogs with Fish oil. Fish oil is good for skin,coat and be used for boosting up the omega3 in dog's diet. Supplementing with this is pretty good if your dog's diet was heavy on poultry which usually have pretty high omega6 in it.
Guideline for fish oil is that,give 1000mg capsule per 20-30lb body weight.I go with 1 capsules per 30lb body weight just because palette's menu tend to be higher omega3 and,she gets quite a lot from food so,I go with lower personally.
It is believed to be good ratio is 1:4 (4 being omega6). With my way of feeding;1.5 day worth poultry,1.5 day worth fish,4 day worth fish,it tends to be having close to flipping the omega number and making Omega3 being higher than Omega6 if I give fish oil daily. So, I do not try to be exact on ratio number but,I make sure I get higher omega6,lower omega3 and,I decide how much omega3 I would give to palette each week.Depending on menu detail, I give none,sometimes I give daily,sometimes just 2-3 days.It depends.
For example,this week,she had/has Emu,pork,chicken heart,tripe,chicken liver,Turkey heart,pork boneless,pork tongue,pork liver,pork kidney,pork heart,Beef liver,beef kidney,Elk liver,salmon,frog leg,pheasant feet.I did not give Egg this week because she had huge meal this week.And omega3 from food is roughly 6640mg,omega6 is 8439mg.So,you see what I mean? This week,I just give 1 fish oil capsules to Palette.Especially when I feed Mackerel,along with poultry,red meat etc,I tend to see 8000mg omega3 already from food for her.It is about 8 capsule worth amount.
Sometimes,people come across the supplement name called Cod liver oil. What is good for them? It is a supplement to give your dog extra Vitamin A and D.
However,Vitamin A from animal source like this can be toxic if dosed a lot. Vitamin A from vegetables ;AKA Beta-carotine, is to be flashed out if fed too much,but Vitamin A from animal source like this Cod liver oil or Animal Liver get stored in dog's body if not used so,it can build up to toxic level if fed too much.
So,I would not feed Cod liver oil. There is not much food that you or your dog can get Vitamin D,but sunlight can give you some Vitamin D,along with Fish(Mackerel is especially great source), Liver,Egg etc,and I think that as long as dog gets some from food,then,it is fine.It may not meet the requirement from NRC numbers but raw feeding is all about balance over time and if you try to supplement with Cod liver oil,you are adding not just Vitamin D but also vitamin A so,I personally feel safer if I stay away from the supplement to avoid over-dose.
Here I wrote about Vitamin A toxic thing. I once have googled it to find the optimum amount of Vitamin A.Optimum vitamin A is 100-200IU per kg of body weight.Palette being 33lb roughly 15kg so,optimum for her is 1500-3000IU Vitamin A amount daily is optimum.
With the way of my feeding, when I try to look at omega3 number,I automatically get the Vitamin A amount in the menu.It is not exact number,just rough number to give me an idea,but she is getting 1522IU per day in average with this week's menu.so,that is fine.
I have one thing to note you about vitamin A a little more.
1 ounce of pork or beef liver usually carry about 3000IU but if you take Turkey liver one ounce,it is more than double amount.Actually,one ounce of Turkey liver has 7000IU roughly. So,I personally give much less amount of Turkey liver if I give Turkey liver to palette in meal. 7000IU from just one single item of the menu is way too much for palette. I generally feed 3 days a week for liver/kidney.
I hope you gained a little more understanding on raw feeding. Please remember that I am not a vet nor nutritionist so,please understand that information here is what I have learned through my dog's feeding and personal opinion only.
If you were interested in what nutrient in the menu you are feeding,visit the site nutritiondata.com
Bellow is Palette enjoying her Duck feet.You can see her eating it with her smile.
In the entry,I wrote that you feed meat,bone,organ and as addition to those,feed fish/Egg/Green Tripe. I covered what bones are to be avoided,but you maybe wondering what cuts of meat,what type of bones you can feed to your furry friends. For those in wonder,I list up what I feed to my dog,Palette.Cheek,Gullet,Tripe in red meat category shows "Only Beef",just because I do not have access to raw materials of those from other animals.
<Red meat 4 legged animal such as beef,lamb pork>
Boneless meat,Heart,Tongue,cheek(only beef),
Gullet(only beef),ribs,necks,liver,kidney,Tripe(only beef)
** Ribs from Beef/Buffalo are edible for some dogs like mine but for some dogs,inedible. to decide what bones are edible,inedible,just feed it and wait for 10-15minutes to see if your dogs make any dent to it.if they could not make any dent to it,consider it as inedible and take the bone away after meat gets off the bone and gnawed a little. My Corgi can eat ribs from Beef/Buffalo but cannot make any dent to oxtail bone so,I take the tail bone away.
** Stay away from canned Tripe.You would think ingredient is just Tripe but look closer,they do add garlic etc
<Poultry>
I just get a whole poultry,then cut to my dog's portion and feed through
Necks (Turkey neck,Duck neck etc)
Feet (Chicken feet,Duck feet,pheasant feet)
Heart,liver,gizzard
<fish>
I rotate omega3 rich fish such as Sardine,Mackerel,Salmon over the 3 weeks
Then,since my dog is seafood-lover,I feed fish fillet on one other day as half of her meal.The non-omega3 rich fish is usually the fish that looked good on fish counter on that day,and not have any particular kind of fish for me to keep in stock
**I do not feed tilapia because she makes very bright matcha color (very bright green) puddle poop with raw Tilapia,and if it were cooked,she vomits. And,also,I do not feed Catfish just because she is not into eating it but,she is interested in roll on it.
**Fish fillet I have fed to palette...
Flounder,cod,whiting,Mahi Mahi,snapper,haddock,scallop,shrimp,clam,squid,perch,shark,rock fish,Halibut,sword fish,orange roughly,blue fish,monk fish,grouper,wahoo etc etc
**For shrimp,squid,clam are fed just tiny bit along with other fish because #1 expensive and I buy on sale for human and give some to palette occasionally ,#2 exclusive shrimp makes my dog goes diarrhea.
**IF you feed squid like I do,take the cartilage of the squid,wash off the ink and feed it.
** You can feed canned fish.I prefer to feed fish not in the can because of salt added in water. The salt in the canned fish is not as high as salt in kibble bag,but I prefer to feed as natural/fresh as possible for my dog
** If you got wild-caught FRESH salmon from PNW,you need to freeze before feeding but if you buy salmon from grocery store,the fish is already being frozen and being thawed on fish counter's ice so,you do not need to worry about freezing.Farm-raised salmon does not have to be frozen before feeding as well.I do not buy farm-raised salmon because fish eat red dye fish feed to make the fish meat redder than it actually is,and I prefer wild- caught over farm-raised.
<Miscellaneous>
Frog leg
**you can find this in freezer section right next to fish counter at local super market.
I do not buy poultry parts by parts,just because if you do buy chicken backs in case,yes,the price may be cheaper than getting a whole poultry but you need to add extra meat to it to make it to meaty meal.So,in my opinion,it end up paying more to get the boneless meat to add to bony parts meal item.I personally prefer to buy a whole birds.
So,above items are what my dog is eating.
And, after my dog got used to this new type of feeding,I started feeding big meal once a month. That day,I tend to feed very big hunk of meat such as Goat leg,emu leg etc.It probably weigh around 4-5lb.I just put it down for her and she wrestle with it. She is stumpy and 14inch tall,so when she lift the meat hunk up with mouth to try to bite it off,or try to flip it over,it is a little hard for her:too heavy and,she sometimes get wobbly,but it is very entertaining to see how she eats. She put paw on meat,rip tear the meat.
When we first started raw feeding with big meal day in the menu plan, she used mouth only,and if the meat came close to her,she jump/lift her paw up to avoid touching to the meat but as she gets used to more,she started using more paw to meat.
Anyway,weekly menu item is different all the time but,basic for my dog is like this.
1.5 day worth poultry,4 days worth red meat,and 1.5 day worth fish with added Egg,Tripe,Organs to such menu
Example will be ...here is what Palette had ate one week in the past.
Please do not try this at home if you were new to raw feeding.After introducing each single item one at a time to your dogs,and if they did good on those,then,later on,you can feed like I do.
Sunday: Lamb heart,chicken gizzard,Green Tripe,Mackerel,1 Frog leg
Monday:Boneless Lamb,chicken heart,tripe,Mackerel,chicken feet
Tuesday:Lamb Tongue,Boneless Lamb,chicken liver,1 Egg,Chicken
Wednesday:Boneless Lamb,Turkey heart,1 Egg,Chicken
Thursday: lamb Tongue,Boneless Lamb,Goat liver,Turkey
Friday: Flounder,Buffalo liver/Buffalo kidney,Lamb neck,Boneless Lamb
Saturday: Pork heart,Ostrich liver,Boneless Lamb,Lamb ribs
Now you know how I feed,but you may think,"Wait,where is Veggie? Kibble has veggie in it??"If you were wondering like that,compare your teeth to your dog's teeth. Are they same structure?? No,it is not.Teeth has its shape according to its function. Our teeth is all flat not pointy,just because we need to grind food to be able to digest them well. Our digestion starts in our mouth.On the other hand, dog teeth is pointy because it is there to rip and tear food.Then,you would see your dog does not chew zillions of times like you would.It is because they do not need to.Their digestion does not start in the mouth but in their stomach.Their stomach acid is strong.
Have you let your dog eat corn kernels ?? They seem to like it,but try poop patrol after you try these. You know what shape the corn went in to your dog's mouth. Can you see how it came out?? You should be able to find yellow corn in their poop pretty easily.The corn went in as it came out.Thus,it is not digested very good.
Have you tried feeding pumpkin? Next day,you would find very pasty orangey fiberish stuff in their poop as it went in.So,you can conclude this as they cannot digest the vegetable as good as they can with meat.
Home-made feeders do use pumpkins or other vegetables in the meal. They get 80lb of sweet potatoes,peel them taking hours,mush them good ...why do they do that? It is because dogs cannot break the vegetable cell by themselves,so,you need to cook them,puree them for dogs to be able to digesting them better. I think that feeding vegetable is okay if that vegetable part would not take big space as meal,and if it were treat amount.
Vegetables are very interesting food because,it has good and bad. If you had Arthritis dogs,you better to avoid night shade family vegetable such as tomato,potato,eggplant,green peppers etc because those would aggravate the inflammation. And,you maybe have heard broccoli for dogs to anti-cancer but feeding lots of broccoli or well,cabbage family veggie,kale,or spinach are not good because it decrease the thyroid function. And for Dalmatians dogs,asparagus is not good because it has high purine in it and it makes easy for dogs to make crystals. oh,and spinach also interfere absorption of calcium so,it is not good on that part too.
So,if you were not sure good and bad on each veggies,I would think it is wiser not to feed veggies with amount that dominates the diet menu.
On the talk of vegetable,people might come across to read about kelp. I think that most kibble bag has it as ingredient.Kelp offer iodine:aka salt. With raw feeding, we do not sprinkle table salt at all,but meat itself offer tiny bit of iodine,and dog gets tiny bit of salt from food.So, I do not think you need to add extra iodine supplement at all.
Other then Veggies,I wrote I feed Egg. I feed 2 Eggs per week for my Corgi, Palette, 33lb. I feed Egglands' best Egg Cage free Egg. I feel that they taste better and,my dog loves them so much. If you were to feed an Egg in diet,then,you maybe feeding bone in the diet,so,you do not need to feed Eggshell for your dog.Eggshell is good for calcium but you already got that part covered with bone in the diet. BUT if dogs loved to eat them,let them eat it.
I sometimes feed Egg with shell on(I usually crack Egg and pour to doggy bowl) but,when I give an Egg to Palette,she gingerly try break the shell in the middle and eat an Egg making the shell hole like cradles.It is so cute!
IF for any reasons,dogs could not have bone in meal,then,wash the Egg shell,dry them well,grind it with coffee grinder.Then,give 1/2tsp of Eggshell per pound of food served.
In the previous entry,I did not write about this,but with raw feeding,many people supplement dogs with Fish oil. Fish oil is good for skin,coat and be used for boosting up the omega3 in dog's diet. Supplementing with this is pretty good if your dog's diet was heavy on poultry which usually have pretty high omega6 in it.
Guideline for fish oil is that,give 1000mg capsule per 20-30lb body weight.I go with 1 capsules per 30lb body weight just because palette's menu tend to be higher omega3 and,she gets quite a lot from food so,I go with lower personally.
It is believed to be good ratio is 1:4 (4 being omega6). With my way of feeding;1.5 day worth poultry,1.5 day worth fish,4 day worth fish,it tends to be having close to flipping the omega number and making Omega3 being higher than Omega6 if I give fish oil daily. So, I do not try to be exact on ratio number but,I make sure I get higher omega6,lower omega3 and,I decide how much omega3 I would give to palette each week.Depending on menu detail, I give none,sometimes I give daily,sometimes just 2-3 days.It depends.
For example,this week,she had/has Emu,pork,chicken heart,tripe,chicken liver,Turkey heart,pork boneless,pork tongue,pork liver,pork kidney,pork heart,Beef liver,beef kidney,Elk liver,salmon,frog leg,pheasant feet.I did not give Egg this week because she had huge meal this week.And omega3 from food is roughly 6640mg,omega6 is 8439mg.So,you see what I mean? This week,I just give 1 fish oil capsules to Palette.Especially when I feed Mackerel,along with poultry,red meat etc,I tend to see 8000mg omega3 already from food for her.It is about 8 capsule worth amount.
Sometimes,people come across the supplement name called Cod liver oil. What is good for them? It is a supplement to give your dog extra Vitamin A and D.
However,Vitamin A from animal source like this can be toxic if dosed a lot. Vitamin A from vegetables ;AKA Beta-carotine, is to be flashed out if fed too much,but Vitamin A from animal source like this Cod liver oil or Animal Liver get stored in dog's body if not used so,it can build up to toxic level if fed too much.
So,I would not feed Cod liver oil. There is not much food that you or your dog can get Vitamin D,but sunlight can give you some Vitamin D,along with Fish(Mackerel is especially great source), Liver,Egg etc,and I think that as long as dog gets some from food,then,it is fine.It may not meet the requirement from NRC numbers but raw feeding is all about balance over time and if you try to supplement with Cod liver oil,you are adding not just Vitamin D but also vitamin A so,I personally feel safer if I stay away from the supplement to avoid over-dose.
Here I wrote about Vitamin A toxic thing. I once have googled it to find the optimum amount of Vitamin A.Optimum vitamin A is 100-200IU per kg of body weight.Palette being 33lb roughly 15kg so,optimum for her is 1500-3000IU Vitamin A amount daily is optimum.
With the way of my feeding, when I try to look at omega3 number,I automatically get the Vitamin A amount in the menu.It is not exact number,just rough number to give me an idea,but she is getting 1522IU per day in average with this week's menu.so,that is fine.
I have one thing to note you about vitamin A a little more.
1 ounce of pork or beef liver usually carry about 3000IU but if you take Turkey liver one ounce,it is more than double amount.Actually,one ounce of Turkey liver has 7000IU roughly. So,I personally give much less amount of Turkey liver if I give Turkey liver to palette in meal. 7000IU from just one single item of the menu is way too much for palette. I generally feed 3 days a week for liver/kidney.
I hope you gained a little more understanding on raw feeding. Please remember that I am not a vet nor nutritionist so,please understand that information here is what I have learned through my dog's feeding and personal opinion only.
If you were interested in what nutrient in the menu you are feeding,visit the site nutritiondata.com
All this is very interesting... I'm almost finished reading the whole series and have found it to be very informative. I have read from other sources that some vegetables are pretty good for dogs... carrots, yams and pumpkin in particular. They don't digest a lot of it, but it doesn't hurt them and they do get some nutrients from them. Also, when eating animals that they have caught, wild canine species eat some of the intestines, and there they get some of the partially digested vegetable matter, and the nutrients from them.
This sounds really interesting, but I'm trying to figure out how it would work to switch SEVEN dogs over... I'm not sure that I could afford it for one thing, and I don't know how I would keep track of whose poop was whose to be sure that they were getting the correct % of nutrients. I have often fed OC food that I've made from chicken, carrots and rice that the vet told me would be better for her because she used to be overweight, but I have her down now.
I really like the idea of the teeth being so much better with the raw meat/bone diet.
Reply to this
I think there are various ways to approach the method of raw feeding, and even if following the same approach, if you ask 10 people, you will hear 10 ways to feed the dogs. This is because each dog's need is different. It is best to find the way you feel most comfortable with, and the way your dogs do good on.
What you have read in the raw feeding 911 series is just the way I have started,and the way I am most comfortable with, and the way Palette does great on.You do not need to feed every single thing I feed Palette, you do not need to feed exactly the way I feed Palette. It is just the way that works both of us and just take information as grain of salt.
If you research on raw feeding, you may find 2 big ways to feed your dogs raw.
One way is the one that their focus is more on "bones" such as chicken wing, chicken neck,chicken back etc than meat and they usually suggest to feed the fruits and vegetables. This way is, like you have mentioned, come from belief that wolves eat stomach contents of the prey.
The other way is more focus on "meat" rather than bone itself and without vegetable. I am following this approach to feed Palette, and fruits,vegetable are not in her main diet. As you know, I give vegetable/fruits as treats sometimes though via cool down treats.
When I was switching Palette to raw diet, I read lots of books on raw feeding. Then, I have decided that I feel most agreeable/comfortable approach is the way without fruits and vegetable and focus on "meat" not bone. It is because I feel that if they could digest animal source matter much better, I thought why would I feed the plant source matter try to give the same nutrient to her.And I also thought that meat has more nutrient than bare naked high bone % in the diet. So, with the way I feel most comfortable with regarding feeding is , as you know, lots of meat, some bone, some organ with some extras such as green tripe,fish oil, and egg, and the way without vegetable.
Palette gets green tripe as side dish. Green Tripe is basically a stomach contents such as grass from 4 legged animals.It is not "must feed" menu, but many dogs love them including Palette.I feed those when I can get them. This is not bleached white tripe you find at stores.It is unwashed tripe and you cannot find green tripe at regular grocery stores but from raw food suppliers. Usually it is either whole or ground and frozen.So, I do not feed puree/mashed vegetable in her menu to mimic the prey stomach contents but I do feed green tripe.
If/when you switch your dogs to raw feeding and decide to feed tripe, look the label on products carefully. Some products have added charcoal (I do not know why it is there), some are just plain ground/whole green tripe, some are canned. Canned tripe is not just plain green tripe but it has garlic etc and cooked. I do not know how much garlic in the canned one but too much garlic can thin the dogs' blood and can cause anemia and, I am not comfortable feeding canned tripe to Palette. It is just personal preference.
Dogs can do good without green tripe in menu and Palette gets green tripe only when I can get them;the one just plain green tripe nothing added, no canned. Even if you cannot get the green tripe I do not see the problem.
Back to vegetable topic, for example, animal liver,heart are high in vitamin A. Many vegetable is high in vitamin A. Lets say you want to find the way to give vitamin A to your dog.If we know dogs digest animal source matter better, I would choose to feed liver/heart to Palette, not sweet potato for vitamin A.
Also, as you have read in the entry,vegetable has cell called cellulose and dogs cannot break it down by themselves,so you need to break those cell for them if you feed them. Also, it is best for you to know good/bad points of vegetable such as.. if you have arthritis dogs, night shade family vegetables are best to be avoided. And I feel even if you decide to feed vegetable, it should not dominate the overall diet.
Now, poop is the stuff that body took all the nutrient from what you fed and the one body does not need. You can compare the volume of the poop and also you can see if any undigested material in the poop between the two ways of the approach; one with vegetable in menu,and the other without vegetable in the diet.
When Palette was on kibble, her poop was 3 times more in volume compare to the one on raw diet, and also she pooped more frequently than now. With the way I feed now, she poops out much much less which means, she digesting food much much better.And, she got much less gassy too.
I have just Palette and not experienced switching more than one dog but here are some of my suggestions. You maybe can switch one dog at a time or switch all dog but feed same protein source until all dogs do good on the protein source and then move on to the new protein source.
I would guess that if any of your crew had digestive problems, you probably would notice because they may whine to go potty, or you may find messy fur on their rear.
With food, you can buy in bulk, or you can go to grocery store and buy close to expired date or follow the season; Turkey is cheapest AFTER Thanksgiving day,and summer, grilling food is cheaper such as pork ribs,pork shoulder etc. You do not feed every single thing I feed to Palette. With readily available items, you maybe can do chicken,pork,Turkey, fish as final variety goal goes if you use just grocery store.
To start,you can buy a whole chicken and cut to each dog portion and feed until they do good on chicken, no organ, no fish oil, no nothing but chicken, Then, add one thing at a time and move on very slow.
Keep raw feeding journal to track. That is easiest way to find the cause and tweak the diet when/if your crew had digestive problem. Some people give just pumpkin when digestive problems occur but it is like fixing the problem's outcome; result,and no cause is fixed so chances are, digestive upset would occur until you will tweak the diet/find the cause and fix it.So, keeping the journal helps.
Supervise your dogs when you feed always.It is good time to know the eating habit and also good to be around if dogs needed your help.
When you switch your dog to raw diet, first focus should be to get your dog used to the new diet with one single protein source. Then, from there, you can introduce new stuff one at a time and when they were introduced all kinds of stuff, and do great on those,you can then start adding extra stuff such as green tripe,egg,fish oil etc.
Do not feed big hunk of meat too soon.You have seen Palette eating emu leg in the video on raw feeding 911 series.That is how I feed once in a month but that is the recipe for digestive upset if fed to new dogs on raw diet.
I feel raw diet helped Palette teeth cleaner, and also feel it is doing good on over all health. Her coat got shiner and no doggy breath, no doggy smell ...
Since raw feeding is fresh food diet, not processed food diet and free from all those fillers,salt,sugar and stuff, I feel that it is more nutritious, and better for their body. Plus, ingredients list is much simpler and not lengthy list like on processed diet. And, you know what your dog are eating and you get 100% control over your dogs' diet.
So, I personally feel fresh food diet for dogs are great for them too, not just that fresh food is good for us.
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