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Raw feeding


Dirty Harry
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I've recently started to feed my dogs on chicken wings and carcasses. I know the dogs can cope with this as the birds are quite young and the bones quite soft.

I was wondering how many people feed pheasant and duck carcasses to their dogs and how they get on with them? Chickens are about 6 weeks old when slaughterd but the ducks could be a few years old. Is the bone going to be safe for them?

 

Harry

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Just be careful raw feeding on two counts 1. easy to feed to high a protein content 2. easy to get some nasty bugs and perhaps parasites? into your dogs. I used to be a big fan but now only feed quality complete and home cooked foods with meat and fish included in a rice and veg base.

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I've found in my limited experience that with puppies at least, raw feeding ends up with a leggy dog with less bone. I can substantiate this as I bought a pup at 8 weeks from a litter and fed her on puppy food. We subsequently bought her sister and brother who had been fed a raw diet and they had nowhere near the same 'substance' as her. Of course dogs differ but to me at least, the difference was obvious

Edited by bigbird
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fed my dogs on raw for years never had any problems all are in very good conditon and there weight is always right never over or under you need to feed more than chicken carcasses though mix it up a bit look at www.daf-petfood.co.uk for the range of frozen feeds that they stock for a reasonable price iv never tryed duck or phesant carcasses iv do alway cut the necks out of ducks or geese and give the dogs them iv fed a pup from 8 week old on raw and never found that she has turned out any different from other dogs in the litter apperarance wise so dont belive that makes any difference

Edited by ian g
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fed my dogs on raw for years never had any problems all are in very good conditon and there weight is always right never over or under you need to feed more than chicken carcasses though mix it up a bit look at www.daf-petfood.co.uk for the range of frozen feeds that they stock for a reasonable price iv never tryed duck or phesant carcasses iv do alway cut the necks out of ducks or geese and give the dogs them iv fed a pup from 8 week old on raw and never found that she has turned out any different from other dogs in the litter apperarance wise so dont belive that makes any difference

Yup, I'll agree with this. The pet shop frozen stuff is almost all rubbish so you can't just feed this with the odd raw chuck wing - it simply isn't enough.

 

Find a good supplier that does 'whole animal' food, not just the minced carcass, skin and fat. We use Purrform for our raw cat food as it's whole minced rabbits and chickens, but we also use Natural Instinct for cat and dog food http://www.naturalinstinct.com/working-dog-range/. It's not cheap, but there's no water to pack it out, so a little goes a long way. We do buy our dog food via a friend at the moment though - just minced whole rabbit & chicken.

Edited by Paul T
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1 of my cocker pups was only fed raw chicken carcasses and you can tell the difference from that to the one that is 2wks younger which we have fed iams puppy and ped chum mixed.there is not enough nutrience in raw feeding as pups.

The other thing to consider is too much protein can actually harm a dog

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Paul the puppy is on Natural Instinct puppy with Eukanuba. Your right it does seem to be good quality but if I was just feeding that it would at least double my feed bill.

I use to use natural instinct but started using Durham animal feeds because it worked out a lot cheaper

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1 of my cocker pups was only fed raw chicken carcasses and you can tell the difference from that to the one that is 2wks younger which we have fed iams puppy and ped chum mixed.there is not enough nutrience in raw feeding as pups.

Raw carcasses hasn't got everything a dog needs and iams and chum mixer are both shockingly poor quality foods

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have only ever fed raw to my dogs, ( CURRENTLY 4 WORKNG VIZSLAS) I had a litter 5 months ago and they were all weaned at 3 and a half weeks to minced chicken carcasses and tripe. and are the most healthy pups I have ever seen.

 

I feed just whole chicken carcasses 6 days a week and 1 day a week steamed veg. they do not miss any nutrients in this diet whatsoever

 

on a cautionary note I would never feed the feather or fur I hunt to my dogs as require them to be retrieved to me and not seen as a food stuff. So if you shoot pheasant and duck and your dogs retrieve them then I would look for alternatives

 

:) mark

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on a cautionary note I would never feed the feather or fur I hunt to my dogs as require them to be retrieved to me and not seen as a food stuff. So if you shoot pheasant and duck and your dogs retrieve them then I would look for alternatives

 

:) mark

Bit surprised by this: I feed my dogs chicken, but they don't look on my own chickens as food. Neither do they try and retrieve them as they would a pheasant 'runner'. The dogs and chooks spend all day together by the way.

 

Similarly, my dogs know they are to retrieve game to hand and they know they get fed at home home by me - They wouldn't dream of trying to chow down a bird when they working. Generally, if they find it they bring it back (unless I tell the viz to 'set it') - that's how it works and mine ain't perfect by a long way!

 

In fact the cocker will bring back eggs laid in the hay barn (not in the coop) completely whole. Occasionally she will get one cracked in a dish for her and that is her reward. She knows she could eat them, but she doesn't - that's my choice to make.

 

Dogs know the difference between work and walk and the same applies with food and game...

 

Dogs might be pretty simple animals, but they are not stupid, and if they are half decent with their training there should not be a problem.

 

If you don't believe the above, then be very careful feeding lamb if you want them to be steady around sheep ;):lol:

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T

You shouldn't be mixing raw with other foods guys, one goes through the digestive system slower than the other so can cause food to back up and start to fester apparently . Anothe vote for natural instinct here as well, it's not cheap and I have to add more veggies as well but the dog doesn't seem to mind

The digestive system is not that selective or we would be in trouble with the mixtures we ate.

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My girl has raw mixed with veg, rice, eggs etc on occasion (usually twice a week).

 

She has cod liver oil added occasionally and she looks a treat on it.

 

Often get complimented on how healthy and alert she looks.

 

Getting a new pup next year and will feed him the same.

 

I think it depends on the breed a lot, but being from sled dog lines it suits her well.

 

Also get dry white poo that doesn't smell as well which is a bonus :lol:

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