One question which a lot of raw feeders are asked, or indeed, they themself worry about when deciding to raw feed, is 'How do you ensure you feed a 'balanced' diet?'.
Well, let's examine that.
First of all, do all of us eat a completely nutritionally 'balanced' meal every day? What about every week?
Raw Feeding isn't difficult, and it isn't precise. And just like with humans, a varied and balanced diet is more achievable in terms of weekly diet, rather than daily.
When people start off feeding their dog(s) raw, they usually start off with Chicken. Or Turkey.
Some people (myself included) may choose to start by feeding a prepared mince, whilst others dive right in at the deep end and feed RMBs (raw meaty bones).
I have done both.
With my pup, I started off giving Natural Instinct's Puppy Chicken and Country Banquet.
This seemed the best way for me at the time for 2 reasons:
First, I am Vegetarian and have been for many years, I wasn't sure about my ability to handle meat.. was it going to be too 'icky' for me? I hadn't had any meat in the house for 3 years. Now suddenly the bottom drawer of my freezer was a dedicated raw meat drawer!
The Natural Instinct food came ready prepared in margerine-style tubs with lids. Perfect for the least mess and good containment.
Second, this was (is) a reputable company, so it took the worry out of getting a 'balanced' diet right. I was able to put my trust in them that my pup would be just fine eating their food.
Then I tried Wolf Tucker, which was very similar in ingredients and composition. I also bought a few Primal meals which contain offal.
Around this time (about a month or so in to feeding raw) I decided to try feeding bones. We started with a marrow bone (not what I was expecting... a bit too large really... but you live and learn!) and then lamb bones, and eventually Chicken carcasses.
When Enzo came to stay, I had already been feeding RMBs for about 4 months, so with Enzo I dived right in at the deep end, and his first raw meals here were chicken wings and turkey carcasses (though of course he didn't eat a whole one, given they weigh over 500g. He had about 100g and Buster ate the rest).
Well, back to the post...
So you start off with chicken or turkey, and then once you are happy and your dogs are happy and used to their food (could be a few days or a few weeks), you start adding in some variety. Red meats and offal and muscle meats are quite rich, so they should always be added gradually and in small quantities to start with, at least until the animal gets used to them.
There is no hard and fast rule, but a good guide is 80% meat and bone, 10% offal (liver, kidney, tripe etc) and 10% muscle meat (heart, lung) and/or fish.
A general guide for meat to bone ratio is 80% meat 20% bone, but these ratios are just a guide. Most raw feeders can tell by their dog, and what comes out the other end. If it's very white and crumbly, there's a lot of bone in the diet, and consider adding more meat to the meal, or a little offal. If it's darker or less firm, there's too much offal or red meat, consider feeding chicken and/or more bone, less offal next meal. And so on.
BUT, it is worth remembering two things:
1. In the wild, dogs and wolves are not measuring out quantities. They are not going to stop eating this bit of meat so they can have a bite of that bit of offal in order to make their meal 'balanced'.
Also, in wolf and dog packs there is hierarchy, the ones at the top get first pick, the ones lower down get what's left.
2. How 'balanced' do you think commercial food is? If you look at this post, it's not hard to see that commercial dog food is really not nutritionally balanced at all!
If you use the above ratios as a general guide, you won't go far wrong. After a while you will know by sight and can adjust according to your pet.
And last of all, whilst a dog (or cat) can happily live off one type of meat, just like us, they like variety.
Buster had chicken & bone mince only for many months, then some marrowbone, and lamb bone, and then turkey & chicken carcasses. Enzo mostly has chicken (as he is small, chicken is more practical as the size of the 'bits' are a good size, not too big, and the bones are soft, so he can crunch them up), but he also gets a mix of other meats and offal.
I buy minces from a company called Raw to Go.
Their minces have an approximate ratio of 80% meat 10% bone 10% offal. No veg or added anything.
This was what I got in my last order from them:
Beef (2?)
Beef & heart (4)
Beef & Liver (3)
Venison (5)
Pheasant (7)
Rabbit (5)
Each bagged in quantities of 1lb (454g approx). Last month I also got about 7 bags of minced green tripe from a company called Tripefactory, and still have a few left. I have been giving the dogs a bag of tripe every week or every other week. They love it, but it does stink!
My dogs do not get mince very often anymore. RMBs are much better for their dental hygene and health. Dogs need to use their jaws and teeth. And working on a nice RMB cleans their teeth. No need for costly vet appointments for dental work in this house!
But, in an average week, 2 to 4 times a week they will get up to half their daily quota of food as mince, usually for breakfast, and the rest of their meals they get RMBs.
Buster gets around 500g of food a day, split over two meals. Occasionally slightly less, and occasionally up to 700g. Enzo gets around 130g a day, split over two meals. Meaning between them they get through around 4.7kg of food a week.
Between them, in an average week, 500g is heart, 500g is tripe, occasionaly 500g is offal/liver, and 500g to 1kg is minced meat & bone, the other 2.2kg to 2.7kg is RMB, mostly chicken carcass/neck/wings, and occasionally lamb bones or turkey back.
Which should show that my dogs get a varied and nutritionally balanced diet, much more so than a dog who is fed one type of kibble, or even one brand of tinned food in a variety of flavours.
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