Raw Fed Pits

Seriously, I never thought I'd be a raw dog food feeder. When I first heard about it I thought it was just a little too "out there" or "over the top" for me. But when we began having problems getting quality dog food in Hawaii on a regular basis. We started looking into a raw diet. Here you'll find some tips and our favorite resources in feeding raw.

One note/disclaimer: we are not animal nutrition professionals, we are not veternarians, we have no professional training in animal science or any such related field. Please do as much research as you can and consult any professionals necessary to make your own well-informed decision about your dog's diet. We're simply sharing our own thoughts and experiences with raw feeding.

Challenge: eating raw is a both a physical and psychological challenge for the dogs. It gives them a good workout.

Dental Health: feeding raw is one of the best things you can do for your dogs teeth. Dogs floss and brush while they eat and all the ripping, tearing, and chewing associated with raw feeding really gets the job done!

They Love It: every time I hear a dog owner talking about how picky their dog is with food, I think, "Try raw." Our dogs absolutely love it! It's true some dogs may have to get used to it when first switching over, but we really didn't have much of a problem at all.

Helps with Allergies: blue pitbulls are prone to sensitive skin and we found that feeding raw really reduces their breakouts. Most dogs react to the "unnatural" stuff in processed dog food. Since switching to raw, we've been very happy about the condition of our dog's coat and skin, which leads us to...

The look great: so many people comment on how great our dogs look. Not only in structure or size, but in regards to their skin and coat. The raw diet really does enhance your dogs color and makes their coat look beautiful. While we're often asked what we feed our dogs, there are now a number of people who say they are asking because of how nice our dogs coats are.

They smell better: I had read that raw fed dogs have less "doggy odor" but didn't really believe it until after we had been feeding raw for about a month. Our dogs really did smell much better. Where before we had to give them a bath once a week to stem the strong "doggy" smell, our dogs can now go much longer without smelling like they need a bath. And no it's not neglectful to bathe them less than once a week. In fact one popular dog training site says that unless your dog is rolling around in mud or poo, once a month is enough. That's about where we're at now, and even then, it's not like, "Ew, you stink. You need a bath" like it was before.

It's fun: I have to admit, it's so much more interesting to watch a dog eat raw meat and bones than it is to watch them eat a few cups of kibble.

Easy to get: We can walk into any grocery store or meat market and pick up "dog food." No more "Sorry, we're out of stock" issues.  Plus meats in the stores seem to go on sale far more often than our kibble ever did. 

Less waste: Many dog foods claim to lessen the waste eliminated from a dog, but raw feeding has done this far better than any other dog food we've ever tried (and we've tried some pretty costly premium stuff). Seriously, we have nearly 80+lb dogs with "piles" you can easily pick up with one hand (using a plastic bag of course). Before where we used to have 4-5 landmine sized piles, we not have just 1 pile of a few non-squishy nuggets.

Less smell: The only thing better or as good as less waste is less smell accompanying that waste. Seriously, having multiple dogs can get smelly very quickly. You'll be amazed at a raw fed dog's waste. I know, not the most pleasant conversational piece, but really, anyone who has dogs can appreciate waste with far less smell. One of our friends said that was their decision maker to switch to raw. They came by our house one day and there was "no smell." Another one of our friends was also surprised at the lack of smell when they came by our house for the first time. They new we had more than one dog and were thinking that there would be quite a strong "dog" smell, but they were amazed at how little dog smell there was on our property.

Really, not much. 

Yes, it can take a bit longer than just scooping kibble into a bowl, but seriously, if you don't have a few spare minutes in your day for your dog, you really need to make more time for your dog.

Yes, you do have to use your brain a bit more (but so does your dog and that's a good thing).  After all learning about raw feeing and figuring out portions and what to feed is a little more complicated than scooping kibble according to instructions on a dog food bag or container.  Once you get the hang of it though, which doesn't take very long, it all but become a non-issue.  If we can learn how to do it, so can you.  It really isn't anywhere near rocket science or brain surgery.  You probably don't have too many qualms about feeding yourself or your family every day.  Feeding a dog is not a heck of a lot more complicated.  In fact, I think it's easier than what humans are "supposed" to eat.

Now if we could only trade in our old dog food containers for a stand up freezer, I'd be in heaven!  That way we could really stock up on food when it's on sale. 

"What do you feed your dogs" continues to be one of the most frequently asked questions we get. Now when we answer that question with, "We feed raw" it's followed by a kazillion other questions such as:

• What do you mean raw? (raw meat: chicken, turkey, beef, etc)

• They can eat that? (uh...yes!)

• Oh, but you take out the bones? (nope, they need the bones)

• Don't you have to cook it? (actually, that's less nutritious for them and can make the bones dangerous)

• What about salmonella? (dogs digestive tracts are much different than humans and their system is designed to deal with it much better than ours, however good food handling practices are still important)

• Do you cut it up for them? (not usually unless we have a huge turkey, then we split is into about 4 pieces and feed, but only so we can feed more than one dog at a time, if we have the time though, we'll just let one dog start in on the whole turkey, then pass it along one by one to the others)

• They eat the bones too? (yup)

Of course, we had a ton of questions too, when we first looked into raw feeding. Below we share some of the best places we found answers to our questions.

There are two major raw feeding models or diets. The BARF diet and the prey-model diet.  I really don't know that any one is better than the other, but the one we personally follow is the prey-model.  It just made a whole lot more sense and was a lot less complicated. 

My suggestion is that you do as much research as you can on each.  Get in touch with people who use each and ask questions.  Then make decision for yourself which one you're more comfortable with.  Just Google each model and read as much as you can.  There are even some yahoo groups out there where you can get more information on feeding raw. 

Here are some of the common mistakes we see people making when feeding a raw dog food diet.

1. One feeding only one protein source: the dogs need a variety, not every day, but over time. Feeding only chicken isn't best for your dog

2. Forgetting about organ meat: sometimes what's on sale at the store doesn't include organ meat, however organ meat should be included in your dog's diet. Again, it doesn't have to be every day, but they should be eating organ meat (heart, liver, lungs, etc)

3. Cutting up the meat: yes, it may be faster for your dog to eat if you make the pieces smaller, but it's also a MAJOR CHOKING HAZARD. Resist the tempation to make things easier for your dog by cutting up the meat and bones or by grinding them. Even a small frenchie puppy can take care of a whole piece of meat without it being chopped or ground up for them. It's safier, healthier, and more beneficial to feed as whole as possible. It's not that they can't eat ground beef or turkey from time to time, I just wouldn't make it a habit.

4. Not doing enough research: many people hear we are feeding raw, they ask us a few questions and think they can just go down to the store buy cases of chicken thighs and feed that to their dogs. There is a lot more to raw feeding than that. There's certainly more to it than one five minute conversation can cover. But like I said, it's really not all that complicated. Once you understand the concept, it's pretty easy to do, but there is learning involved and it's important to take the time to do that learning.

5. Feeding both raw and kibble: I'm not sure why people do this and it's not necessarily a "mistake" per se, but I really don't understand why you would want to feed both. Raw is by far more beneficial to your dog and feeding kibble and raw together may cause some digestive issues since raw food processes much faster than kibble. However, if there's still kibble in your dog's digestive tract, then the raw food gets "backed up." It's not impossible to feed both raw and kibble, and it's probably better than feeding only kibble, but it's just not something I'd recommend.

When we started learning about raw feeding we searched the internet, bought a few e-books, then found one really great site that we liked.

If you want more information about the BARF diet, check out BarfWorld.com.

Our favorite site about the prey-model diet and the site we went back to over and over again when we first started is RawFed.com

There is also an instantly downloadable e-book called "Real Dogs Don't Eat Kibble" and you can get it at http://tinyurl.com/5k7u2b.

This e-book shows you:

• Why raw dog food is great
• What foods you can use
• What foods you should avoid
• What to do when you can't feed fresh food
• Tips on journaling for increased wellness of your dog
• A bonus sharing 5 Secrets you must know about your dog's health

If you prefer having a book you can reference, please see the Amazon.com suggestions below.