I Found an Awesome Raw food Supplier In My Area...

I found something really great (finally) in my area for getting raw feeding supplies. I know most of you live a long way away form where I do so this isn't something that would be a possiblity for buying from, but I think it's a great idea for a business! I'm just learning about it, but it looks like the perfect answer to many of the problems people run into in trying to find good sources for raw food.
http://www.togipaw.com/
I'm especially excited about the chicken necks! I just can't find them anywhere! And they deliver to my city

 

Okay Pam, that really grossed me out :shock:, you need to put a disclaimer must have strong stomach to view!
I am such a weeenie on raw, that is why I feed jake ground raw

but it does look like good product, is it fresh or frozen

honeybear

 

Sorry---guess I didn't think about the gross out factor...I guess 15 years of working in healthcare made me immune to the gross out thing! It could be worse! At least it's just treaccha's and stuff!

 

Pam, it was the raw ears ears that did it, I could never work in the medical field, just walking in a hospital I practially pass out.

honeybear

 

Wow! What awesome stuff at great prices! I have to move to Washington.

 

I knew you'd like it, Jamiya!

 

I'm jealous! I want trachea and lung, too!!

 

since I'm new at this dog thing, I just want to know...

You can feed raw meats to your dog and this is suppose to be good? It sounds kinda gross to me but hey...what do I know?

 

In my opinion, raw food is the best possible nutrition for your dog. It is the way they were intended by nature to eat. Dry kibble and canned food compromise the immune system, introduce poisons into the system, and are the cause of many health problems that often don't appear until later in life. Poor dental health is an obvious one that leads to many other conditions if not corrected. Food allergies are also on the rise, due to the practice of feeding your dog the exact same food day in and day out - a food that often is not highly utilized by your dog's body.

I feed raw according to the prey model - meaning as close as possible to how a dog would eat prey in the wild. Since I don't have access to whole carcasses, I feed a variety of raw MEATY bones to my dogs - pork ribs, pork necks, chicken leg quarters, beef cuts, turkey legs and wings, rabbits, etc. Bones should be RAW and 75% meat/25% bone. I also feed organ meats, which comprise 10% of the total diet - beef and chicken livers, kidney, heart, etc. The more variety, the merrier. I also feed whole raw fish and supplement with wild fish oil capsules for the extra omega-3's. A whole egg a couple times a week rounds out the diet.

Cooked bones should NOT be fed to your dog. They can splinter and cause many problems inside your dog. Many people also say to not feed the marrow bones of large animals (weight-bearing bones) because they may cause teeth to break.

Raw feeding promotes a healthy immune system which makes other interventions - such as antibiotics, pesticides, etc - not needed. Raw meaty bones keep the teeth clean, so that dental work is never needed. It improves the musculature of the neck and shoulders. It provides mental and physical exercise for the dog, who actually has to work to eat rather than just snarfing down a bowl full of dry kibble. Bloat does not occur in rawfed dogs (to my knowledge). It also has other benefits like less smelly dogs, and small well-formed and almost odorless stool. To me, this is the definitive proof that the diet is good for the dog. The huge, squishy, stinky stool produced by kibble-fed dogs shows you that the food is mostly fillers that the dog's body cannot process. On a raw diet, the majority of the food is actually used by the dog, making the stool small and firm. In a couple days it dries up completely and blows away - we never have to pooper scooper our yard anymore.

And also - dogs LOVE it! They are excited about eating and it takes up time and energy, which those of us with hyper dogs really appreciate!

Here are a couple links you can look at for more info:

http://www.bullovedbulldogs.com/sarf.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/rawdog/

 

I know...it goes against what we have all been conditioned and bombarded with to believe, but I am becoming a true believer convert. At first, I was very skeptical, and worried that it might not be safe, and all of the usual things. But I've gradually been working Rusty into a mostly raw diet, and just look at him! He's glowing with health....when I first got him, he shed horribly...now, he barely sheds at all! And his body changed too-- he has gained weight, but he is just a year old so that's to be expected.. but he is very lean and muscular now. And he really likes it, and in fact prefers raw to most other things now. It was a little strange to him at first, but it didn't take long before he was sold also.

 

Jimiya, I am thinking of trying a turkey leg for Jake. I just worry he is such a chow houng he will sawllow the thing whole. Is there a need to worry with dogs that are so food oriented?

honeybear

 

Some people say to hold on to one end of it so the dog has to eat more slowly. Others say that can backfire and cause them to really wolf their food down, thinking you might take it away.

Nala is a chow hound, but she has never had a problem with the raw food. She does eat it much faster than Bonnie does, but she chews it at least a little first.

The best advice I have heard about getting dogs to slow down is to feed them a portion larger than their head. Then they HAVE to crunch it up to eat it. If this size is bigger than what Jake would normally eat in a meal, you can compensate by feeding less on other days.

Also, keep in mind that the goal of a dog's chewing is different than the goal of a human's chewing. Humans chew food to break it into smaller, digestible pieces and to begin the digestive process with the enzymes in the saliva. Dogs don't have these enzymes, nor do they have grinding teeth. Their goal in chewing their food is to make it small enough to fit down their throats - so they will often chew just enough to get a piece they can swallow.

Do be sure to supervise Jake while he eats, so you can intervene if anything does go wrong. I have never had a problem. Also, with a dog new to raw, they often start out slow because they don't know what the heck to do with it! Nala used to take much longer to eat the same cuts that she eats quickly now. Bonnie is great to watch - she takes her time and really rips at things and crunches them down.

I would also make sure Wylie is not around, so that Jake doesn't think he has to eat fast so he doesn't lose his prize.

I was nervous the first time I gave Nala a chicken leg, let alone a turkey leg! You look at that bone and think there's no way they can bite through that thing....but they can! Nala eats turkey legs and she's nowhere near as large as Jake is.

 

That's what I did wiht Rusty the first time, I took him out on the deck and sat down with him and held a chicken leg out. At first he sort of licked it, and looked at me like"What now?" So I sort of started pulling a little of the skin and meat off so he could get hold of it, and he tried a little more at it...until it was like all of a sudden, his wild dog part took over, and he went to work on it. Not all crazy or savage, or anything....he just set to work on it, and within 4 or 5 minutes had completely eaten the whole thing.....like he had been doing it his whole life!

 

do you just buy regular sotre bought chicken and turkey?

honeybear

 

I do, and I think that's pretty much what most people do... look for good sales, and such. Ask Jamiya, since she has more experience with bigger dogs, but maybe for jake a whole chicken would be a good start. I ahve to go small with Rusty, but I know bigger dogs need bigger pieces. That's why I'm so happy to have found this new supplier in Seattle...Rusty does well with chicken necks, but I can never find them.

 

I don't know about some of you people here, but here in Phoenix there are Hispanic Food stores and meat markets everywhere. I get my dog's raw meat at these stores. They have liver, heart, kidney, tongue, tripe (stomache tissue). All this stuff if just pennies a pound. The only thing I don't do is the meaty bones. Bones are the only thing my dogs try to "compete" for. I can separate them while they have them, but if I should forget to pick one of them up.........

My dogs eat more meat than they do kibble, now. I am interested in the trachea treats.

 

Nala will horde all the food, so mine are fed outside on tie out lines in their favorite eating places. I don't let them off until they are both finished. Mine eat everything I feed them, so there are never any leftover bones to worry about.

As for cost, it can be expensive at grocery stores. I tend to use things like chicken leg quarters (37 cents per pound) 2-3 times per week which allows me to spend a little more on other things. Talk to the meat counter guy and see if you can order some stuff in bulk. Sometimes things like chicken backs just get thrown away and you can get them for cheap or for free. Same with most organs. If you can find meat processors or restaurant suppliers in your area, they can be a great source. Ask local hunters who butchers their meat and talk to that guy. Find local farms and fairs. Look for ethnic markets. And look for a local raw feeders co-op - if you have one of those you are set!

Pam, chicken necks are probably small even for Rusty. They're not very meaty, so you should probably make sure he also gets other things that have more meat on them. I think the cartilege in the necks is very good for his joints, though.

 

Oh and Sharon - make sure you are NOT feeding your dogs just meat!! Meat only is VERY dangerous to their health. They need the bones for the correct balance of nutrients. If you don't want to feed whole bones for some reason, grinding them is better than nothing.

 

Today is my stop for meat.... I've had to start paying for Smokeys meat now....I guess the butcher I was getting it from figured he could turn a profit off my dog!!! Oh well.... its not market price but its a big leap from free!!!

I'm going to try something new for Smokey tonight. I think maybe tongue or heart. He's been doing really good on the femur sections, and oxtails. I got some of the "Purina" canned veggies for him. He flat out won't eat them. Sooooo!!!! Any suggestions on how to get him to eat veggies? He won't eat them raw jsut cut up and put in his bowl, or as a treat. So I thought the purina canned for dogs would be good because the veggies are in a "Stew". But he eats the gravy and meat out and not the veggies....grrrrrr

 

He doesn't need veggies. If he doesn't want them, then don't feed them! If you insist on feeding them, try grinding them up in a food processor or something, until they look like what you would find in an animal's stomach.