A Discussion on Raw: Taking Your Pet’s Health into Your Own Hands
Natural News has a great article introducing raw diets for cats and dogs.
For many, the discussion of feeding your pet a raw food diet can be a scary thing. There is so much work and knowledge that is involved, not to mention all the health factors to take into consideration for both you and your pet. Or at least this is what your vet and mainstream media may lead you to believe. If it doesn’t come in a bag with feeding instructions on the back then can it really be trusted? There may be feeding instructions but there is also generally a list a mile long of ingredients and without a PhD in Veterinary Nutrition you would be lucky to know the purpose of half of those ingredients.
Well, Hello There!
All my faithful readers (by which I mean Hi Heather!)
I’ve been super busy with my new job as a dog trainer, and haven’t had much chance to blog. But a LOT has happened with the pets raw diet! Check out my Bear going to town on this chicken drumstick
A few weeks ago, Sadie, Felix and Bear all got to have pork for the first time. I was nervous about the cats not wanting it but they both dove right in. So we finished off a couple packages of pork.
Next, Felix and Bear got their first meat-on-bone - chicken drumsticks! I was so worried they wouldn’t try them - but Bear was delighted. He grabbed his and ran into the laundry room to demolish it. The crunching and smacking was slightly gross - but oh so exciting.Turn the volume up on this video for the full effect:
(don’t worry, I cleaned this floor very thoroughly. We’re still working on staying at the plate!)
Felix picked at it. We’ll have to keep working on him.
And of course, Sadie got to have some too. I’m going to be giving her more food, because she has gotten a bit underweight. The breed standard says she should be anywhere from 18-40 lbs depending on who you believe, so I have always aimed for 25-30 as her adult weight. At 10 months old she’s 18 lbs - but that seems too low.
Sadie also got to have a special treat on Thanksgiving - Eggs! I had a few eggs I was using for deviled eggs that just didn’t make it. She got one whole hardboiled egg with shell (yes, I know that’s not raw, but look how cute?), and some plain eggshells. The kitties stole another egg and finished it off.
(These photos are from my iPhone, sorry for the quality)
Review: Big Cheese Rodent Factory
I picked up some rats and mice from Big Cheese Rodent Factory today.
Pros:
The staff were helpful and nice
Prices are good
Pinkies and fuzzies were all good quality
Cons:
Packages of 50 are not individually frozen or packed - so I had to thaw, rebag in appropriate sizes, and re-freeze.
A few of the “hopper” mice (listed on the site as 8-10g) were less than 6g and very tiny.
Most of the “hopper” mice had nosebleeds and were very squished and deformed.
Several mice had limbs broken off
Finally, the cats did not seem as interested in these. Bear would eat the pinkies, but nothing else - when last night he was begging for and gulping down “Gourmet Rodent” mice. I may have to get another small pack of those and offer both, and see if they have a preference.
Bear’s going nuts on the mice
Today was Bear’s third meal of mice - and the first time he ate ONLY mice for dinner. He ate 6 “fuzzy” mice and then when Felix turned down his, he ate Felix’s three pinkies. I found out that it’s very hard to him to eat them from a bowl because they get stuck against the edges, so when I put them on a flat plate he ate them right up.
Sadie got to have a chicken back and some liver.
Bear - Fuzzies
Tonight Bear ate two three “fuzzies”. Felix was not impressed, yet again. I will keep trying him on the pinkies, it took a few days for him to be interested in any raw at all. There is something cool about seeing them eating something so natural for them.
Later Felix was whining for food, so I tried to give him the last fuzzy. He was still not interested. Bear was happy to finish it off, VERY fast.
Bear Eating Pinkie Mice
It happened so fast, I barely got it on film! Tonight he gets to try “fuzzies”, and I’ll keep trying Felix on the little ones.
Our Raw Progress
Over the past few weeks, Sadie and the cats have done very well with their new raw diet. I haven’t posted because my main computer got a virus and I got locked out of my blogs since I didn’t remember the passwords. I finally got back in and have tons of photos and video to post!
Felix and Bear have moved on to plain raw chicken, in whole 2-3oz pieces. Tonight, Bear ate his first pinkie mice. Felix got one, but he just licked it and around it, and tried not to eat it. So I eventually gave it to Bear who wolfed it down. I’m going to head over to the large rodent “factory” in Ft. Worth to get more, since Petco’s brand is SOOO exensive. ($10 for 3 pinkies and 3 fuzzies [pinkies are 1-3 days old, no fur, eyes shut. Fuzzies are 4-10 days {I think} and have slight fur]). And they make up nowhere near a meal, so I will have to give them to him with his chicken until he gets to the furred sizes.
Bear ate his chicken and pinkies, then told Felix “Well, if you’re not going to eat it…”
Sadie watched them eat, and found this bowl and pushed it under their cat tree. She was very sad that it was empty.
Welcome to my Raw Blog
Welcome readers! I am starting this blog to have a place to chronicle switching my pets to a raw diet. Rather than continue to post stories and photos on my personal blog where they might be icky to some of my friends and readers, I decided to start an additional blog. (All the posts dated before this one are from the old blog, I just moved them over.)
I’ll be recording how I make the switch and how all of the animals adjust, what foods they are fed, and what they like, as well as my sources for meat, and any important research I find regarding the raw diet. I hope this will help anyone else considering making the switch. When I first decided to adopt a raw diet for my pets I was very concerned, but with research and the support of friends and online communities, I have wholeheartedly embraced it.
I currently have a dog and two cats:
- Sadie, American Eskimo Dog, born Feb. 2008.
- Bear, Black Domestic Shorthair, born summer of 2006.
- Felix, Siamese/Tabby, born summer of 2004.
I also keep a mischeif of pet rats, who are fed a high-quality lab block and homemade food mix. We, along with my very tolerant and loving husband, live in the Dallas, Texas area (DFW). I currently work from home as a software programmer / web developer.
Sadie Likes Rabbit
Good thing, cause I’ve got 20 more in my freezer!
I ordered from Prey 4 Pets last week and my box got here today! As I laid everything out on the counter to sort it into baggies, the cats and Sadie went nuts! Bear of course thought the best thing to do would be to help. He and Felix got some beef liver added to their breakfast. Felix was not pleased. I think his had too much, I’ll have to work him up to it.
Sadie got to pick between having a rabbit, some chicks, or a turkey drumstick for lunch. She chose the rabbit.
I decided to feed it outside so I could easily watch her, and not make a mess. So then I thought, oh, don’t want it to get dirty, so I laid a towel under it. She quickly showed me that was silly. Rabbit obviously tastes better when it has dirt on it. Not to mention, is on my welcome mat. *sigh*
I took a video and got some photos.
I love this shot, doesn’t she look so evil?
She’s going to get to have more of it tonight, and I’ll have to try something else for the kitties. I got liver, heart, turkey thigh, chicken thigh (costco), to cut up and mix in with their food. Sadie also got tounge which I couldn’t quite open yet, too gross still, tripe, chicken necks, turkey necks, chicken back, chicks, rabbit organs, turkey wings, turkey drumsticks, and probably something else I am forgetting. Most of it I just put in the freezer but later this week Sadie is going to get to try the chicks!
My Weekend
So, on Thursday, this is what I thought I’d be doing this past weekend: Paint Den, Work.
What I ended up doing: Driving to Boling Texas with Cait, Lizzie and Sadie, picking up 30 rabbits, and storing them in my freezer. Sunday: recoup.
I got ahold of someone who has a meat rabbit farm, and she had many rabbits to give away, due to the rising cost of feed. She was actually happy to give them to us so they could be used for something good. So we set out with the dogs around 9am, and headed down to the southern edge of Texas. We had to stop for an hour to get a new tire for the car, which took way longer than Walmart said it would. We finally got there around 5pm, and loaded up the rabbits. We hadn’t brought enough crates so we used boxes until we hit a Petsmart, and I grabbed two small carriers, along with some cedar. The car smelled like rabbit alright.
We got back to DFW around 12 and took them to a friend’s house, where they were going to process them for us, as I have only ever seen it done and I’m also not very strong. After a stop at Walmart for ice and knives, we unloaded the car. 3 of the rabbits were completely docile dwarf bunnies who did get pardoned, and are going to a neighbor who has pet rabbits. We got the rest all beheaded, with only minor emotional trauma to Cait as she was attacked by an angry bunny, and by then it was way too late to finish them. We got one skinned and gutted and they gave it to their dogs who didn’t seem interested, but I think it was because it was new and weird. So we put the rest in bags and piled them into the freezer. I got home around 4am, washed Sadie’s crate, showered, and hit the hay.
Assuming Sadie, the cats, and Cait’s dogs like the rabbit, we may go back down when we’re out to get more, and we’ll be better prepared. With the gusto Sadie has shown for chicken wings, drumsticks, thighs, and turkey neck, I think she will be happy to try the rabbit. The cats are also enjoying their meals more and more. I want to get some other meat to introduce to the cats, and then Sadie, but now my freezer is full. I did place a small order with Prey4Pets right before I found out about the rabbit, so I have a bunch of stuff coming. I forget exactly what I got but I think I got a bunch of different things to see what the pets all like.
Today I took about an hour and a half and cut up a week’s worth of raw chicken for kitties, mixed it with canned food to make 2oz raw, 1.5 canned and put it in baggies, and sorted out Sadie’s meals for the week, bagged it all up and put in the freezer. Now I don’t have to do anything for them until next Monday. It wouldn’t have taken so long if I’d used the right knife, but I had to slowly cut up the chicken. Plus, it still is a bit gross. But then again, I have about 24 rabbits in my freezer. So I kinda got over it.
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About
Welcome to my Raw Pets Blog. This site is all about the prey-model style diet my dog and cats eat, including photos, videos, stories and information. Please note that content may be disturbing to some viewers.
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The Stars
Sadie - American Eskimo Dog
Felix - Siamese/Tabby
Bear - DSH