[Jukee Doodles]

Hi

We feed the raw meaty bones to our dogs, it's fantastic for them and they love it but it is a faff. Helen's idea of naturalinstinct sounds a really interesting one. I've not heard of that before but will research it as an alternative to complete food for our new puppy owners.

One thing I seems to remember from the www.rawmeatybones.com website is that dogs were not evolved to eat cereal. Also that they struggle to digest both cereal and raw diet at the same time as it requires different enzymes to digest. They suggest that you choose one or the other so as to not create digestive problems. You might want to check those facts out and see what conclusions you find.

Hope you find a workable solution.

 

[Jukee Doodles]

We used to feed Purina Pro Plan complete. We did a lot of research on the Barf and the Raw Meaty Bones diets and eventually decided to try it with all of our dogs, cold turkey! As I mentioned they apparently can't digest the raw stuff and the cereal simultaneously. So now we just feed RAW chicken boned out carcasses, no legs, and very little flesh on them. We buy them fresh, in bulk from a poultry producer then freeze them. A working cocker or cockapoo of about 12 kg will eat one small carcass a day. Every couple of weeks they have one starve day because it is a natural occurrence.
We read that we should also feed them veg, mince and egg mix every day but in practice they don't need or want it so often. We have found that every three weeks or so they are ready for the veg and will start to pull grass roots themselves. So we steam any root and leafy veg, NO garlic, leaks or onions though as they are toxic. We mix it hot in a bucket with an electric drill and a plaster mixer, and add some frozen dog mince and a raw egg with shell one for every dog. Whizz it to a mush and feed it in addition to the chicken carcass. Once cool enough they have a big ladleful each. We don't feed them any shop bought treats that are cereal based, but use cheddar cheese to train and reward them.
The benefits we have found is that all of the dogs have fantastically clean teeth, great condition even the nursing bitches don't loose weight, glossy coats, pleasant breath, far less poo that is very firm and practically odorless. Plus it's reduced our feed bill by over half.

It might not be everyones cup of tea, it does take some organising but for us it's a result.

 

[Jukee Doodles]

Hi Jules

It's understandable that you want to keep the food convenient to fit in with your lifestyle. We too, up till now, wean our puppies onto Royal Canin Medium Junior complete kibble as the new families will carry on the same food when they take them home, as raw diet is not what most people want to do. (From this thread, now that we know that Natural Instinct diet is an option for puppy buyers we are considering weaning our pups onto a Raw diet too) However it is well worth remembering that dogs didn't evolve to eat cereal at all and some dogs are at least intolerant and at worst allergic to cereal. That might be what Betty is trying to tell you indirectly. Maybe you could see if she is better with a convenient cereal free dog food? Just a thought.

 

[Jukee Doodles]

Applaws was the first dry food I tried for Dylan when I first got him. The ingredients are pretty good - it was the best I saw until I came across Orijen, which is a bit better. Dylan ate it ok (he eats everything!) but for the first few days I had him he had a bad tummy which I was trying to clear up, and the Applaws seemed to make it worse. It wasn't until he went onto Natural Instinct that his tummy cleared up. But it's definitely one of the better kibbles. Hope it works for you.

Thanks for all your info on food products. It gives us much more options with weaning our puppies, because of the convenience we've previously had to use a puppy kibble with cereal in. We have now joined Orijen Breeder Programme so can give their puppy packs with each pup and we can tell new owners about Natural Instinct. This leaves is free to experiment with weaning our pups straight onto a BARF/Orijen puppy diet from now on. We're really chuffed about this. Thank you!

 

[Jukee Doodles]

I would be very happy to have a new puppy that had been weaned onto Orijen, so great that you'll be doing this.

I think the only downside of weaning a puppy onto BARF is that a lot of new owners wouldn't maintain them on BARF and might put them straight onto a cereal based kibble on arriving home. This might mean you would get lots of calls from new owners experiencing tummy trouble with their new pup as it was moved from ideal BARF to kibble with cereal that could upset their tummies. Weaning a puppy onto non cereal based kibble, like Orijen, seems a good option and would also encourage new owners to feed a 'good' kibble in the long term.

Yes I agree with your thoughts, BARF is too extreme for 90% of people. So an Orijen based weaning programme is our preference too.