The Nitty Gritty: Basic decisions

So I read, and read, and read, and read...

I asked questions on every forum I belonged to...

I read every sticky that related to dog food on every other dog forum I came across...

I visited every grocery and club store, called every chicken-only store (we have a lot of those in Arkansas), called every butcher and abattoir...

I culled all this new information, waded through the various options, and decided on a plan forward.

It's changed quite a bit, but here's what we landed on to begin with...

The Schedule
At the time, I was still afraid of not giving them the right balance. I was also concerned that any place we boarded them for vacation wouldn't be willing to feed raw. So we decided to split the difference, and do half raw, half kibble. They got kibble in the morning and raw in the evening. Many people will tell you it's bad to mix kibble and raw in the same meal because of the different digestion rates, increasing risk for bloat. I don't know if this is true or not, but why risk it?

I started for a week or more giving only boneless chicken thighs with no supplements to try and acclimate their tummies to it. The important thing is to move slowly, adding in new proteins, new supplements, and new organs, a bit at a time so as not to cause tummy upset. Some dogs take to it right away and some take a number of weeks to transition.

We also made the switch cold turkey with the three girls; just, one day, gave them a raw meal. That was that. No one had problems, and in fact, almost all the dogs' stools firmed up immediately. It was like their intestines were saying, "What took you so long!?!" When switching Andre, because he has such a sensitive system, I switched him slowly from kibble to cooked meat, and then slowly from cooked to raw. That's another way of going about it if you have a sensitive soul and don't want to mix kibble and raw.

The vast majority of sources suggested roughly 50-65% of the meal be raw meaty bones, RMBs-- meaning bones with a lot of meat on them-- and the rest boneless meat and organs. So we chose to do 4 meals per week of RMBs and 3 meals of organ and boneless. When we switched to all raw, we chose to feed an RMB meal in the mornings and a boneless/organ meal in the evenings. We now do what they call a "Frankenprey" model, where we have a mix of many things, from many protein sources, in each meal. 

**One important thing that nearly every source stressed is that this is a diet emphasizing balance over time. No need to cram everything in every meal; it's not how we eat, it's not how any animal eats, it's just not necessary. Try to be as balanced as possible over small spans of time (days/weeks-- not months).**

The Mix

The diet we chose is based on a 10/10/80% ratio-- 10%bone/10%organ/80%meat, give or take (again, balance over time). I sometimes give them more bone than that. 

For a long time, they got a ground chicken leg quarter/liver meal in the morning and a boneless/other organ meal in the evening. 

One meal every week to 10 days, they also got a mix of canned salmon or mackerel, cottage cheese and eggs. Eggs are best served soft-boiled, but raw is fine if it's not all the time, in large quantities. 

Especially in the beginning, when I didn't have the variety of organ meats that I do now, I liked for them to get some veggies for fiber and filler and for the nutrients they weren't otherwise getting. I would either mix one green and one root/squash, or alternate weekly. I lightly cooked them, ran them through the food processor and put them in muffin tins and froze for easy use later. 

Now that we do the Frankenprey, I usually use a mix of very bony grind, boneless meat and organs in each meal.

To Grind or Not To Grind
Many people will tell you that NOT grinding is the only way to REALLY do raw right. And some dogs handle whole RMBs very well. River does. I give River a chicken neck-- a little ol' chicken neck for my 60lb lab-- and she delicately crunches and chews, never guarding it from anyone or hiding it under the couches. Allowing them to really chew, rip, and shred their meals has the bonus of mechanically cleaning their teeth and giving them a mental workout, as well.

However, I'm terrified of them choking. Little miss 45lb Luna swallows chicken backs WHOLE. Silently. In one gulp. I'm pretty sure Andre would, too. No idea how she'd handle larger pieces, but I don't entirely trust her judgement. I do know people who have had to pull a stuck piece out of a choking dog.

I am also a germophobe, to a small degree. I could feed them in their crates, but then I have to remove the bedding and spray everything down. I tried giving Robin a bone-in thigh, and she picked it up out of the bowl, set it next to the bowl very suspiciously, ate everything else, then looked at me sideways while she ran out of the room with it to the couch...

Which brings me to the other problem I, personally, have with whole prey feeding. It wasn't easy getting that back from Robin while she dragged chicken juices all over the place. She resource guards on a occasion. Not terribly, but enough that I'm not thrilled with the idea. And Luna resource guards from the other dogs. She already doesn't want them near her crate; I didn't want to add one more high value thing to the mix. Our house at the time was tiny.

So if you've got a chewer, live in a temperate climate where they can eat outside all the time (I didn't have time to police that situation), or are cool with cleaning the crate all the time, or can teach them to eat on a mat, etc., be my guest. I'm too much of a worrier/germophobe/crunched-for-time-with-an-hour-long-commute-in-the-morning to do any of that. So we grind. I'll do a post on all our equipment later...

To Supplement or Not to Supplement
Again, you'll find people who sit on both sides of that fence.

**One other thing that most everyone will point out is that variety is key. Variety, variety, variety. Variety in proteins, in cuts, in organs, in sourcing, in everything. Every cut from every animal offers something different, and so the more variety you can lend, the less (theoretically) you should need to supplement.**

As I began, liver was about the only organ I could reliably get, and cost dictated that chicken made up the bulk of their meals. So I added in the veggies and supplemented, alternating between a couple of different blends. One was a seaweed based blend, offering trace minerals: Solid Gold Seameal. Another was a general flax based blend: Missing Link. Nearly every source will also suggest, even if they are opposed to supplementing for the most part, that you add a source for omegas, usually fish oil. This can be in the form of salmon oil or in whole body fish fed regularly, or flax if they can't tolerate fish oils. We've altered this some, but this was the basic starting point.
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So those were our primary decisions. A basic formulary, a basic RMB, a schedule, a consistency, and supplements. Again, remember, these aren't the only way to go. Its what we decided was going to work best for us at the time, and as I've hinted at here, as our living situations, finances and sourcing have all changed, our methods have changed. But I wouldn't hesitate to go back to the way we began if that is what would suit us best for whatever is going on.

The Nitty Gritty: Research Part 2, The Reading List

What have we got for dinner, mom?

For those of us who grew up feeding the dogs whatever was on sale, and just pouring kibble into the bowl, going to a totally homemade diet is daunting.

For one thing, we've been told over and over by pet food manufacturers (and many vets) that we're somehow not capable of providing everything a dog needs in homemade food. That, to me, is like saying that I'm not capable of providing myself with a complete breakfast unless I only eat Total Cereal. Does that sound right? The cereal and kibble industries both grew out of manufacturers finding new ways to conveniently market and use their products. That's it. 

As I pointed out in my last post, many people don't provide a complete diet for their dogs-- or themselves or their kids, for that matter-- so the research is important. But just as it isn't an exact science for people, it's not an exact science for dogs, either. The best you can do is read a wide variety of material, find the areas of commonality, and make decisions for what feels most reasonable, logical, comfortable, etc. for your individual situation. 

Here is the list of things I read in preparation for feeding raw. I'll get to the decisions I made for myself and why I made those choices later. And one of these days, I'll dedicate a full blog post to reviewing each one. For now, you make your own decisions:

--The Yahoo raw feeders group; The majority of this group advocates a whole-prey model with minimal-to-zero supplementation. This is not the route I chose, but I learned a ton of the basics.

--Lew Olson's book, RAW AND NATURAL NUTRITION FOR DOGS

--Steve Brown's UNLOCKING THE CANINE ANCESTRAL DIET 

--Also talked to folks who use the Volhard diet, but did not read the book... 

--Kay Laurence at Learning About Dogs has a great little $8 ebook, COME DINE WITH US. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book, particularly for the principles. I am not keen on giving large dogs chicken wings, as they can choke if they are gulpers like my Luna. But lots of good info, and Kay is very laid back and very reassuring.

--And Whole Dog Journal has a LOT of info. A year's subscription is $20 and gives you access to the entire searchable archive. ESPECIALLY GREAT if you like a more holistic approach to wellness. One of the best decisions I've made.

--Kymythy Schultz's book NATURAL NUTRITION FOR DOGS AND CATS is definitely a good one.

--And for those with puppies, I haven't read it, but if I have puppies in future, this will be on my list: GROW YOUR PUPS WITH BONES, by Ian Billinghurst.

--For cats, check out www.catinfo.org.

Further reasons for raw

Sorry for the lapse here... I've been out of town and tied up in the preparations for going and the return to civilization upon coming home. Finally getting to the nitty gritty of what we actually do/did is coming up... in the meantime, I appear to have left off with our other reason for the switch to raw:

Luna
When we found Luna she was 4months old, or so. Her skin was in such bad shape that I thought she had mange; rather, she was just allergic to everything. Fleas, pollens, you-name-it. And we could never get a solid stool. She had worms, was skinny, had ear infections, and her flea bites ALWAYS turned into pustules and staph infections, so she was constantly on antibiotics. She has a Shar Pei horse coat, and topical flea treatments didn't work on her. Her nails were brittle. She was a hot mess.

Hard to see how patchy she is, but you can see how red and just "off" she looks.

But because we had no idea how big she would get, and I was new to raw, we decided to put her on kibble until she was done growing vertically. I might do things differently in future now that I know more, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.

With growing puppies, the conventional wisdom has always been to make sure that the calcium content of the food is appropriate so that they don't grow too quickly for their bodies to keep up with their bones. We tried premium foods with grains and could never get a solid stool. Upon removing grains, the change was immediate. Solid stool, weight gain. We were good to go. Her skin certainly improved, especially after adding coconut oil and salmon oils to her foods, but she, too, had a UTI and crystals, and her allergies just never quite settled down. She still got staph infections; Benadryl stopped working for her and we switched to Claritin.

When she was nearly a year old, we made the switch. And we haven't looked back. We have only had to treat for fleas a few times in the last few years; when she does get a flea bite, it's a bump, but it's not the end of the world. No drugs required.

People who normally are plagued by the Shar Pei coat comment on how she is the only Pei or Pei/mix that doesn't make them itch. She still makes me itch on occasion, but it's nothing like it was. She's no longer patchy. She remains trim, but healthy and muscular. She generally has solid stool. Her nails are far less brittle (she broke 3 or 4 over the course of about a year, all of which required vet treatment). She is happy, beautiful, and energetic.

When she went for her check-up earlier this year, I made sure I didn't need to put weight on her or anything. No, he told me she was perfect condition, don't change a thing. He said we know what we're doing, so keep doing it. :)

She still struggles with seasonal allergies, but they aren't nearly as problematic as they were.

River
A word on River. We'd initially hoped the change to raw would help with her anal glands, which were needing to be expressed more frequently than I'd have liked. Raw alone didn't help, but other dietary measures did.

That said, raw has decreased her shedding by quite a lot. And because she is now 8 or 9 years old, I went ahead and asked the vet to run blood work for her. And it looked great. :)

Going raw

The other two reasons for switching to raw, and the real tipping points, came in the form of out pit bulls-- Robin, our APBT rescue, and Luna, a pit/shar pei mix (best guess).

Robin
Not long after we found Robin, she had a series of urinary tract infections with struvite crystals.

We knew a bit about struvites because our cats had experienced them. Our male cat, Chester, had a complete blockage that required surgery and an open catheter for a week. A big cat with a constant drip of urine is a less than pleasant event. Some of the others had also had these crystals.

I'd read quite a bit about this and about the benefits of raw feeding for this condition from the CatInfo website. While the cause for these crystals is somewhat different in cats than in dogs (in cats, the crystals, which form in an alkaline environment and dissolve in an acidic one, tend to be a result of diets high in certain nutrients and low in moisture-- we'd fed the cats a lot of fish and mostly dry food-- sometimes accompanied by infection; however, with dogs, the crystals are a result of an infection that creates an alkaline environment conducive to crystal formation), the principles remain the same: more moisture means the UT remains flushed out more frequently, and a diet higher in meat creates a more acidic environment that is hostile to crystal formation. For more info on crystals, University of Minnesota's vet school has a whole center devoted to urinary crystals. A whole freakin' center!!

When Robin experienced her second or third run-in with the crystals, the vet pushed hard for us to feed her the prescription food. By this time, we've been feeding the dogs Taste of the Wild, Simon's been getting home- cooked foods, and feeding Robin a food where actual meat product was 4th on the ingredient list didn't sit well with me at all, much less all the corn (filler), brewer's rice (cheap filler), fat (flavoring), and very low protein. We had her eat it for a while, but we saw our once muscle-bound, athletic dog's rippling muscles wasting away. Plus, she hated it. Just hated it. She liked the canned version better, but it DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A MEAT LISTED. Only by-products.

I convinced the vet to allow me to try and find a diet that recreated a similar profile with better ingredients. We used a lot of the Natural Balance foods; California Naturals low-fat; Innova senior; some of the Castor and Pollux varieties. Even though it's not necessarily diet-related, we went with foods that had similar mineral profiles, just in case, and began preparing a raw meal for their evening meals. And voila. We went a very long time without crystals or UTIs.

After a while of this, I got busy. And lazy. They were only getting a few raw meals a week. And then Robin started hating her kibble. I had to mix wet food or cooked turkey with it to get her to eat. And even still, she would shuffle to the bowl, ears down, tail tucked, like she was being beaten. Seriously, like someone was torturing her physically to make her eat.

Then she had another UTI. This time, with crystals. We used the Rx food just long enough to dissolve the crystals and that was it. No more dry food. No more canned food. No more miserable meals.

A diet high in meat creates that acidic urinary environment hostile to struvites (not calcium oxalate, which are a different story altogether). A raw diet is also extremely high in moisture, so there's that flushing that we want to keep a clean UT.

So we switched to all raw. We have yet to have a UTI with crystals since then, knock on wood. And even if she did, it wouldn't warrant a change to the Rx food unless she had recurrence after recurrence like she was before--a UTI and crystals every 6-8 weeks. As is, she's had a couple of UTIs. No crystals, and the UTIs have been mild.

Best of all, this is how she is for every single meal. I should have started filming at the top of the stairs because she literally dances the whole way down... Look at that wagging tail.

A raw deal

River waits patiently for her supper.

I get asked a lot about why/how we feed our dogs-- how we came to that decision, how we knew what to do, where we get what we feed, and just why go to the trouble.

It's true. Raw feeding is not simple-- although it is a very stripped down, basic way to feed. I mean that unless you have a lot of money to toss around (and if that's the case, let's be friends!!), you don't just go to the store, buy a bag, and dump it into their bowls. And even buying premade raw requires safe food handling practices, washing their bowls after every meal, and planning ahead since the stores that carry those premade formula's aren't open 24hours a day like your neighborhood one-stop-shop.

And once you've made the decision to feed raw, there are countless permutations to wade through.

Yes, there are premade formulas. If you decide to do these, you still have to find out what is available to you locally or that can be shipped. There are formulas that are "complete and balanced" and others that are a base formula to which you add your own supplements. There are formulas that may include various proteins or single proteins. And then you may want to find out where these proteins are sourced from, what THEY are fed, what their living (and dying) conditions are like if that is something that's important to you-- and if it's something that you can afford (I'm sad to say we have not yet found all humanely sourced meats that we can afford yet).

Heart, kidneys, tongue, sweetbreads.

And then you can also go the route of DIY. At this point, you have to learn how much of what you need to feed. How much bone, how much fat, how much organ meat, how much muscle meat... and you have to find sources for those things. For many people, chicken livers are about all the organ meats that are available. If that's the case, how do you make up what's missing? Where can you get affordable kidney, sweetbreads, pancreas, etc. And the same questions of sourcing apply here.

And then there's the question of grinding or not grinding. There are benefits to both.

There's storage space, packaging and portioning.

That River dog. She is so patient!

There's a lot to think about. And it's not for everyone. It's not for every dog, and it's not for every household. Our choices have changed over the years, as the dogs' needs have changed, as our finances have gone up and down, as our sources and knowledge have changed, and I'll details a lot of these changes and the research we did throughout the coming posts, particularly for those of you who are interested in learning more about it.

And that is the beauty of it all. You have control. You make choices. You aren't bound by what's in the bag. And as much as you wish you could just feed kibble sometimes, you are hooked on that control.

And seeing the results in our pups... I am glad for every minute of this. It's a learning curve, a journey. So far, it's been good for us.