Started Raw Diet.

[PA_Lab_Guy]

Put Abbey on Raw diet two weeks ago. (4yo, 70 lb. English Lab)

She gets 1/2 Cup of ground beef plus green beans, yogurt and pumpkin 2x day. Gets NuVet vitamin in the morning.

Working through food allergies(Pork, Duck, Rice, Corn, Soy)....heck...her terrible allergies in general. Was on Apoquel 1x day. Seemed to stop working. Scaled it back to as needed...benedryl in between. The infrequent use of Apoquel seems to work better.

Thinking of adding sardines a couple of times a week to the mix.

She seems to be doing well on it. Her anal glands seem to have opened up a little when she goes.....less scooting. Not gaining/ losing weight......she is VERY active. A lot of exercise.

Still struggling with ear yeast infections (Tresaderm).......in water a lot.

I make most of her treats (Beef Jerky). She gets carrots/ cooked chicken as treats also.

We'll see................

[shellbell]

Are you currently feeding her under the advice of a vet who instructed you to start out with the above mentioned recipe of 1/2 Cup of ground beef plus green beans, yogurt and pumpkin 2x day?

Just curious if you are following the advice of a vet or another source. There are two different ways to feed raw, Prey Model Raw (PMR) and Biologically Appropriate Raw Food Diet (BARF) - this does include veggies. PMR is 80% muscle meat/10% bone/10% organ. BARF has it's own set of rules to be nutritionally complete, I feed PMR so am not very familiar with the guidelines for BARF.

[PA_Lab_Guy]

No...we are experimenting based on our own research and the experience of friends who have been doing it longer.

[LucyTudeOn4Feet]

Are you going to add bones and organ meat eventually? 1 cup of ground beef a day doesn't seem like much. You did say you were monitoring her weight. I thought there was a percentage of the desired weight one was supposed to feed. By that, I mean weighing the meat, not measuring it, like feeding 1.5 pounds of meat, etc.

[shellbell]

Are you going to add bones and organ meat eventually? 1 cup of ground beef a day doesn't seem like much. You did say you were monitoring her weight. I thought there was a percentage of the desired weight one was supposed to feed. By that, I mean weighing the meat, not measuring it, like feeding 1.5 pounds of meat, etc.

This. I can only speak for PMR since that is what I know, and for an adult dog you want to feed 2-3% of their ideal body weight. And yes that involves measuring things out with a food scale.

[shelly]

We tried it without the scale and it is way too easy to over feed. We now use a small kitchen scale and we use a stainless steel bowl on top so only the bowl has to be cleaned each feeding. We also used the amount recommended and our dogs gained too much weight. I think that they use almost all of the calories from raw food or more than they did from kibble. That is one of the reasons their poops are so much smaller. You should be ok on ground beef for a couple of weeks but then you need to start adding bone, organs and start introducing other proteins for a balanced diet. Good luck!

[Snowshoe]

I found this monthly diet on line, (the one for Whole Food) revised it to fit foods I could buy here. I revised it again to cut the meat portion down and put in veggies and fruit as we had been doing per my VEt and then ran it by the VEt again. I did use a scale. I do see Abbey has many food intolerances so it's going to be harder for you to balance her foods. It is awfully nice to work with a Vet who endorses a raw diet, as we were lucky to do.

Sample Menu - Totally Raw Natural Dog FoodTotally Raw Natural Dog Food

[Tanya]

I know cooked is different from RAW - but the vet recommended recipes I am making for Rocky (for kidney issues) have much more as far as quantity. I am not sure if food weight more pre or post cooking - but his chicken recipe calls for 200gram of cooked chicken per day plus other stuff - taking a look at the beef one it 's 217grams of cooked beef for my dog's weight (plus tons more other stuff). Rocky is 80pds and not active at 12 years of age.

I go by scale for every ingredient not measurements.

Maybe consider consulting a nutritionist. Many good ones can consult with you online if there is no one local.

[Blackboy98]

Just wondering, does the method of cooking the meat on a Barf DIET MAKES A DIFFERENCE, I.E. BOILED IN WATER VS BAKED OR FRIED(WITH LITTLE TO NO OILS)? As I would think the method would change the chemistry of the meat.

Thanks.

[Snowshoe]

Mike, in a BARF diet the meat is raw.

However we did cook at first and our Vet preferred the veg. to be baked in a regular oven, NOT microwave. This was sweet potato and when we cook it for ourselves I can taste a difference, it's sweeter baked. Preserving sugars might be a no - no for some (if that's what the oven does) so I'm thinking it's going to depend partly on the dog and the reason. I cooked the ground turkey in a bit of water. Nutrients are lost to the water but we used the water, there was hardly any left. Fried was out, especially for us where fat was a concern.

Found this:

How Cooking Affects The Nutrient Content of Foods

ETA: Frying in the link comes out much better than I expected. Especially stir fried.