Raw diet - specific quesions - Page 2

Wonderful thread!!! Thank you fawndallas! Perfect questions.

I have started feeding raw to my two gsd within this last month twice a day. They love, love, love the raw. They seem so satiated now. The poop they leave is very little - as though from a Chihuahua, and of solid texture and actually does turn white in a few days - soooooo easy to clean up the yard -- no stepping on large pyramid size putrid piles of waste.

I have also had questions that this thread is covering well and will bookmark for continual use. Thank you.

Now I just need to transition my 14 year old red healer, which I think will benefit him greatly, and my 5 year old cat.

Also need to keep looking for places to get good bones and scraps. I do not, and may never feed raw pork, especially from the grocery store -- just a personal thing with me.

Thank you ALL for your experience.
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Fawndallas
Good news: there's no shortage of information on this topic online for you to research and consider.
Bad news: there's no shortage of information on this topic online for you to research and consider.

While I've concluded any form of kibble is as about as nutritions as wood chips, I still grapple with cooked vs. raw. The debate has no end and will boil down to - pun intended - personal preference. Any form of real meat is so much better than processed, chemical saturated commercial food.

The previous posts have pretty much highligted what a balanced diet may look like. Personnally I would add some live probiotic - like kefir or greek yogurt, unflavored/unsweetened. Chicken parts, organs, feet, beef soup bones with marrow, lamb, some cooked fish, and eggs pretty much make up the bulk of the proteins I use. I also add some berries/veggies to include plain pumpkin puree. Whole oats, some rice or pasta at times for fillers(all cooked). A bit of fresh garlic and cilantro.

The less conventional meat cuts, organs and whole fish can be found in Asian or Latin markets, at reasonable cost.

Unless your dog is finicky or tummy sensitive, I don't believe a gradual transition is necessary. Let the dog go hungry a day, then feed the new diet and adjust from there if needed.
 

My dogs primary meals are deer.  We pick up roadkill that isn't too mangled.  Our other source of meat is chicken as it is the cheapest meat when bought from the store.  When we run out of deer, we have to buy pork and beef from the market, which gets pricey, to give them a variety.  My kids don't like fish, so the only supplement i give them is salmon oil capsules. I don't cook anything...as the name of the diet says it all  RAW, and I feed "0" veggies, grains, dairy.  Only meat, bone and organ. I get liver and kidney from the store, as it is usually to big of a hassle to try and dig it out of a gut pile when dressing the deer.   We also get all the freezer burnt or old meat from hunting friends of their deer/elk.  For a lot of good info, with documents outlining how to feed, the raw feeding site on facebook has a lot of great info.  http://www.facebook.com/groups/261761471359/

all of this is great. Exactly what I was looking for. You are correct in saying there is lots of info on the internet. It just did not seem to be presented in a clear way.... Most sites spent more time convencing me than giving details. ----------Thank you everyone for your help.

I feed my dogs a variety of homemade meals, raw and lightly cooked veggies and/or well cooked grains. 
I mostly leave the cooking part to any veggies/grains that I feed.  None of my GSDs will eat raw veggies but my little dogs will so I sometimes give them raw veggies (carrots, celery, cucumber, etc.) 

I never feed ground meat from the grocery store, I do have a friend who hunts and has a meat grinder and I sometimes get ground meat from them. 
I'll feed any kind of poultry; chicken, turkey, duck, pheasant, etc.  But my dogs mostly get chicken (except in the fall they get plenty of turkey!) 
Whole rabbit (with the fur removed) is great.
I don't feed pork products to my dogs but I do feed beef, venison, lamb, goat, etc. 
I found an African market near me that sells whole cow feet (the whole lower leg of the cow, hooves and all...except with the hair boiled off.)  Also some stores sell whole sheep or goat heads (again, with the hair removed, or sometimes even skin removed)
necks, feet, wings, backs, ribs, shanks, livers, gizzards, hearts, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, green tripes/stomach, tongues and stew meat chunks are the usual things I buy for my dogs. 

As for fish, I only feed small fish; anchovies, smelt, mackeral, herring.  My dogs go crazy for smelt.  They get the whole bodies of these tiny size fish, (scales, bones, heads, guts, etc.)  The last couple of litters that I had, I was lucky to have frozen smelt on hand, I found that my girls who refused to eat even raw meat would still eat the smelt.  I only feed small fish because they have much lower levels of mercury than larger fish. 

Eggs, raw goats milk, raw cheeses, kefir yogurt, greek yogurt, raw honey, unsalted peanut butter, unsalted almond butter, sesame oil, sesame seeds, chia seeds, food-grade diatomaceous earth, sweet potatoes, fresh minced garlic, all kinds of herbs (parsley, rosemary, mints, basil, oregano, etc.) some fruits (like melon/cantelope, tomatoes and berries) sprouts, juiced wheatgrass....any of these I may add to my dogs meals. 

I feed the herbs raw, but most of the veggies are lightly cooked/steamed and mashed up, I mix in eggs, small fish, cheese, yogurt...whatever smells and tastes good enough to make the dogs eat it. 

As for grain, I sometimes give my dogs some in their meals, I usually stick to gluten-free grains, but sometimes they get a small amount of grain that has gluten.  I also sometimes give them sweetcorn.  Any grain I feed my dogs is well cooked.  Sometimes they get lentils, peas or beans too.  but they get less grain or legumes in their diet than vegetables. 

As for meat, I always feed raw, often I'll dip the meat into a bowl of water that has a few spoonfuls of applecider vinegar in it....this will help kill most of any bad bacteria present on the meat.  But if it makes you more comfortable then you can sear the outside of the meat in a pan (as if you're cooking a steak rare) or boil it or bake it.  OR...you could quickly dip meat that has bone in it in a pot of boiling water for a few seconds....long enough to kill bacteria on the surface but not long enough to cook the bone.  Bacteria primarily stays on the surface of meat.