Puppy on Raw Diet

RE: Puppy on Raw Diet

Emma Bartlett — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 08:40:14 GMT

I have been feeding raw for 10 years and I have just brought my Rottweiler puppy up on raw. I fed her Nutriment and Natural Instinct to start with before moving her on to DIY along with my adult dogs. It is not an easy option to feed raw and for me it certainly doesn't work out cheaper than feeding a good quality dry food.

Here are some links to a few resources that might be helpful - I hope this helps

http://honeysrealdogfood.com/ - Honeys are happy to give advice and they have a nice little raw feeding guide book.

http://holisticvet.co.uk/index.php/reading/reading-nutrition/ - Nick Thompson is a holistic vet and he has a natural nutrition reading list on his website. I recently went to one of his day seminars and I was surprised by the number of Vets and Vet Nurses who were there to learn more about raw feeding. I found that although Nick is very passionate about natural nutrition, when he talks he gives a balanced opinion and doesn't slate dry food etc which I like as it isn't for everybody.

http://www.rawfeedingrebels.com/ - lots of easy to understand information.

RE: Puppy on Raw Diet

Charmaloo88 — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 15:43:09 GMT

Ok here's a guideline, although if they're new to raw it's probably best to get a pre made frozen diet like Natural Instinct or Nature's Menu - I've had good reviews using the latter but no experience of the first one.

If adamant they want to give it a shot themselves then need to work out what 4% of the adult body weight is and feed that in raw food. Ratio needs to be 80% muscle (including skin and fat) 10% bone and 10% offal. When using offal no more than half the amount offered can be liver as has too much Vit A in it. With bone the dog should always be supervised, and as a puppy it's probably best to hold the bone (start with something like a chicken wing) and get him used to licking and nibbling, not trying to swallow it whole! I wouldn't recommended knuckles as they're too solid for young teeth. And goes without saying but no cooked bones :)

The amount fed can be tweaked depending on how he responds.

Hope that helps, I was trained on commercial diets so knew how to sell them and was super wary but raw isn't actually as scary as it sounds, if clients want to try it then go for it, I'd rather that than a vegan diet ;)

RE: Puppy on Raw Diet

Charmaloo88 — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 12:54:43 GMT

I've got a friend who's a senior RVN and huge raw advocate, she's helped me out with a few cases in the past so I'll pick her brains.

I used to be completely anti-raw as well, especially after reading articles on BARF diet (the same website claims vets invented hyperthyroidism in cats to make money...hmmm) however there are some pretty heavy scientific papers claiming there are benefits, but agree these are not client friendly in the slightest.

As with everything there are pro's and cons, but from the clients I've helped they're pets have yet to have any issues. They were all adults though...I'll get back to you if I have anything that helps!

RE: Puppy on Raw Diet

steph fursland — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 12:05:43 GMT

HIya,

I haven't found any 'owner friendly' unbiased literature about raw feeding unfortunately. I don't encourage people to feed raw, but if they insist, I try and get them to feed it as safely as possible. What I generally say to people (with the knowlege that they all probably trust Google more than me...!) is:

It is very hard to homemake a diet to be balanced for a dog (and even more so for a puppy, and especially a giant breed like a Rottie!) so if they want to make it from scratch then they should find a nutritionist who will formulate the recipe and any necessary vitamin/mineral balancers for them.

Commercial raw diets are available such as Natural Instinct (recommended in one of the webinars I watched) and Nutriment. Both do specific puppy diets. If you are feeding a diet which is marketed as 'a complete food' then it has at least undergone some testing not to have specific deficiencies etc.

In terms of risks with the diet, 1. is that it is less likely to be balanced, which we can get round to some extent by feeding a 'complete' diet or working with a nutritionist - but this might be more difficult that with traditional pet food.

2. is that, just as if we as humans ate raw chicken/lamb/beef etc, that there may be a higher risk of food bourne disease. This includes tapeworm, other parasites, bacterial (campylobacter, salmonella etc etc). These might cause overt disease in the dog (possibly more likely in a puppy), or the dog might simply be colonised and shed the organism in its faeces (and remember lots of these are zoonotic, so asymptomatic shedding is still a potential problem).

3. If feeding raw homemade, bones may be a choking/swallowing hazard.

Hope that's helpful :-) I wish there was better info out there too!