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From Kibble To Raw

Brian M

Well-known member
Hi

I posted in another thread about our decision ,in my everlasting pursuit of healthier Cavaliers ,about our decision to change the girls food from a kibble base to raw based meals.
We decided to go with http://www.naturalinstinct.com/ raw food as it seems to offer for a person of my limited knowledge a good complete Cavalier diet to start all the girls off with and then we will see how we progress ,and so far they have all eaten every meal with relish, and like all good Cavaliers always look for more and most importantly there is no sign of any sloppy poos .So for our first batch we ordered 10 one kilo bags of the Natural Instinct raw mixture which comprisers of chicken ,lamb ,ground bone and other assorted goodies which as I guesstimated will feed them all for approimately 17 days based on an approximation of 600 gramme for all four per day ,though I do add some boiled veg and a few burns kibble ( 6 pces per Cav ) and another five different lots of vitamins and oils and of course their whitebait ,calamari and king prawn and a teaspoon of plain probiotic yogurt.We did try them all with a raw meaty lamb neck bone on Sunday ,but as mentioned Poppy and Daisy just growled at each other ,Lily licked hers and Rosie hadn't a clue what it was so after an hour of utter chaos they all went in the bin ,and so far I haven't had the courage to try any chicken wings with any of them .Just ordered their second lot yesterday and this time we will try N. I. tripe mix but only as the company told me their was no smell attached to it , and then on Sunday we will have our first weigh in so I will then be able to tweak the quantities if needed in the hope that our Pops can continue on her downward scale weight wise ,but I have just remembered Sibby's biscuits arrived today courtesy of wagtails and they have to all be eaten fairly quickly so I shall have to keep a sharp eye on their total food intake:) .
 
It's great that you are trying this Brian but please be very careful about everything you are adding - you could be unbalancing hte diet.

I wonder if you might be better with http://www.darlingsrealdogfood.com/about.php - they offer a very personal service and prepare the food according to your dog's requirements.

I'm really surprised they didn't take to the bones - be careful though with chicken wings, some will eat them too quick and not chew them up properly which is where you can get problems.

If you try the lamb bones again, flash fry them for a couple of minutes first and let them cool slightly, then offer them. That often works!!

Lamb and tripe are both very fattening so many not be good for Poppy.
 
Ive had Ruby on a half kibble/half raw diet for 2 weeks and she has lost 300grams so far. So she is currently sitting at 10.2 kg- she is noticebly thinner and im really pleased.

She still has her burns in the morning (50grams) and for her nighttime meal she has raw brocolli, fine beans, sweet potato and fruit and eithersome rawchicken or cooked fish.

Since ive been on my healthy eating diet since Feb i thought it was high time i Got Ruby on the wagon too.
Ive even been adding lots of veggies to the liver cake i make for our training nights so I can get away with not giving her any dinner on those days.

Good Luck Brian with the girls!!
 
I wonder if you might be better with http://www.darlingsrealdogfood.com/about.php - they offer a very personal service and prepare the food according to your dog's requirements.

This is really interesting, thanks for posting.

I have always fed mine on Raw Food, the chicken wings are chopped as Molly is
so greedy I am scared she will swallow one whole. This is the only way I have been
able to keep their weight down. They have lots of fresh ground veg, fruit, chicken and fish. Their favourite is boiled egg!
Dougall will not eat meaty bones, in fact he won't eat anything that requires work. I am not sure if it is because he is lazy or if there is another reason. He will sometimes have a nibble if we hold the bone for him

Good luck Brian, I am sure the girls will love the variety and it sounds as though you are very busy in the kitchen. Exactly where they want you :D
 
Brian - I looked at the site and their list of ingredients. As an expert amateur ;), I say "well done." There are no potatoes or carbohydrates to make them fat and the bones will supply their calcium. The food looks very, very similar to the Oma's Pride I feed Sophie. I am starting to suspect she has a potato allergy and now that we're done travelling for a while, I'm keeping her on the Oma's. (If she keeps scratching, I'll know it's grass pollen allergy.)

You'll know what and where to cut back if the dogs start to gain weight. As much exercise as they get, they'll probably do very well.
 
Hello Waldor

And thank your for your kind comments ,and with you being an expert amateur your words are very reassuring for me as I have some knowledge but not in depth. And after reading one of your other posts I looked up your quality food Oma's Pride which does indeed seem an excellent production ,and any other comments to guide me would be most wellcome ,thanks again.
 
Hi

We are still feeding http://www.naturalinstinct.com/ and so far so good ordered our third lot today so we will try lamb ,no upset tummy in sight ,their coats look better and our Pops is certainly loosing weight and its quicker for me to prepare and Daisy eats it in about 15 mins instead of 45mins , and I do so value waldors comments on the quality of the ingredients those words made me so happy.So I think I will have to buy a mini freezer to take on hols so I can take a weeks supply each time we go away or maybe get an order sent direct to our holiday cottage .As I am feeding meat should I use steel dishes and not plastic ,any thoughts pls .
 
Glad it's going so well Brian cl*p

I don't know if you have a dishwasher? If so I would tend to wash the bowls in that. My friend's puppy had an overgrowth of E Coli. He had had chicken necks, also raw tripe. It made us both obsessive about hygiene.

If you do not have a dishwasher, then soak the bowls in Milton solution every few days, We use stainless steel or ceramic - if you are using the metal ones, then make sure you take them out at exactly the 15 minutes.

Obviously be obsessive with anything the food comes into contact with - like you would if you prepared a raw chicken for yourselves. I use Ecover kitchen spray for surfaces {I try to be careful with chemicals}

HTH
 
As I am feeding meat should I use steel dishes and not plastic ,any thoughts pls .

When we feed our dogs raw meat that needs to be served in a bowl, we always use stainless steel bowls. We have the kind with the rubber bottoms so they don't slide all over and they also don't tend to tip over. We wash them in hot soapy water or just put them in the dishwasher.

I'm glad the new food is working out for you! :)
 
Hi
As I am feeding meat should I use steel dishes and not plastic ,any thoughts pls .

Your thinking is spot on. That's what we do. We use regular glazed type ceramic/porcelain/china. I have some old saucers from a set of dishes we no longer use (teacups are long gone) and put Sophie's food on a fresh one for every meal. Even though she licks it clean, and it looks spotless, I won't take any chances.

For travel, stainless won't break, so it's the best to try.

Have you noticed that the poops are smaller? One nice benefit of raw, especially if there are no potatoes in the mix.
 
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