I have only fed raw diet to my Chico. But mostly chicken, Cornish Hen, very few beef, just started some fish frozen Talapia. Tuna in the can also Mackerel in the can ,cannot find the real deal here, Eggs twice a week, and today I gave pig ears with half pound ground beef and couple of play bones. all human grade. I am wondering about balance with what I am giving. He is healthy and looks like a horse. anything should I add? His waste is good, not too much and solid, maybe one or twice a day. Just for your FYI. Dan

Sounds pretty good to me. FYI, chicken and Cornish hen are the same thing so I see no need to pay the price for more expensive Cornish hens except perhaps for tiny puppies that cannot handle a chicken.

You might try adding turkey to your menu. It's easy to find and cheap. Pig ears are an okay treat, but as a food source they are mostly fat (nothing wrong with fat if your dog tolerates it) but you can probably also find some inexpensive cuts of pork muscle meat--heart, picnic roast, and pork neck bones are a decent RMB too for larger dogs. I also feed a lot of duck necks which are cheap.

Variety is good. Nothing wrong with chicken as the mainstay, just keep rotating other things in as you can.

Thanks Tracy, I had just try the ears to see, it was amazing treat to see him figuring it out. Good info. We will get better. Dan

 Quote: tracy collins

Sounds pretty good to me. FYI, chicken and Cornish hen are the same thing so I see no need to pay the price for more expensive Cornish hens except perhaps for tiny puppies that cannot handle a chicken.

You might try adding turkey to your menu. It's easy to find and cheap. Pig ears are an okay treat, but as a food source they are mostly fat (nothing wrong with fat if your dog tolerates it) but you can probably also find some inexpensive cuts of pork muscle meat--heart, picnic roast, and pork neck bones are a decent RMB too for larger dogs. I also feed a lot of duck necks which are cheap.

Variety is good. Nothing wrong with chicken as the mainstay, just keep rotating other things in as you can.

Ditto to all.

Wow, I wish I could get duck necks (or backs or anything cheap and ducky!).

If you ask the butcher, Dan, you might find cheap lamb, too. I find something called "lamb flaps," which I gave slowly and gradually because it seemed like largely fat, but I was happy to discover any cheap cut of lamb.

Sometimes salmon with the bones and skin is at a "Family Dollar Store" on the East Coast (per my sister) and sometimes it's here at the discount drugstores ... for a DOLLAR! Nice kind of fish, PLUS the bones, all softened in the canning process. (Remember, no raw salmon or salmonids from west of the Cascades. Canned is always safe from canine salmon poisoning because it's cooked.)

Sometimes I splurge on buffalo just for the variety and I feed it a little at a time, freezing it in small portions.

Plain unsweetened live-culture yogurt is a good protein and source of calcium and probiotics all in one (as long as your dog does well with dairy).

As for balance, I assume that when you say "chicken," you mean mainly RMBs, right?


PS
Amazingly, sometimes those Cornish hens are a dollar at a chain here (Safeway), and every time another board member PMs me to tell me that the sale is on, I grab as many as I can fit into the freezer.

I know they are not usually cheap like that, but when they are, what a terrific and convenient item that is.


Dan, I didn't see any organ meat or fish oil (plus vitamin E with the fish oil).

Also, a little produce (or green tripe) ....

Here in St. Louis, duck necks are a pretty common item in stores that have a large African-American customer base. I have no idea if this is a regional thing--but a lot of folks here must eat them. You might visit a store in a black neighborhood. That's where I find all kinds of good stuff. Mountains of gizzards. Pig brains. All sorts of goodies. And Asian stores are a treasure trove of even more unusual parts. Pork uterus, spleen, loaves of congealed blood (I kid you not) and the only thing I simply refuse to buy--something marked "pork bung." Shudder.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Dan, I didn't see any organ meat or fish oil (plus vitamin E with the fish oil).

This jumped out at me too... I assume there must be organ meat in there for the dog to be eating raw for so long without any deficiency problems... but just so it isn't overlooked - organ meat is crucial to a nutritionally complete raw diet and the RMBs and muscle meat must be accompanied by a percentage of organ (roughly 10% I think?). Chicken livers are generally very reasonably priced (and you can often get them in big buckets at the regular grocery store), and beef and pig kidneys are also generally common.

Sounds like Chico is doing great though Dan - well done on feeding him a good diet of fresh raw food!

~Natalya

Organs are the meal that the alpha wolf eats from the first-in-line position. The pack lower down the chain gets to gnaw the meat off the bones.

That said, the dog we were feeding raw earlier this summer wouldn't eat the organs, especially liver. Although his tastes were closer to my own - the organs have alot of good stuff in them.

Oh and COW ears are alot lower in fat than pig ears. There are some ebay sellers that sell them in bulk at an OK price.

Yes Connie, Raw meat and bones, I get all my meat at the commissary on post, not the cheapest meat, but safe. on organs, I gave beef heart once, they don't carry it no more. other than that is chicken organs. I will take a chance and go to the butcher store and have a talk. Thanks for waking me up. Dan

Tracy, that is were I am going tomorrow, at the Butcher store. I have found items there for me. so I guess is safe. Dan

Thanks Natalya, As important as it is we will be adding it to our menu, I have bought the chicken organs, but never seen the rest. I guess I don't shop as well. The Fish oil and vitamin E has me puzzle. How much is a doze? is it the human kind? I ask today at the commissary no one shopping in the pet aisle knew. So give it to me,I will read and learn. The internet was confusing so I just shut down. and thanks once again. Dan