Anyone Cook for Dogs/cats or Use r.a.w or b.a.r.f Diet...? Holistic Foods, Etc

We do raw. There's lots of info out there on line. Some people believe in feeding only meat, some thing veggies are okay too. We did both.

My formula was 2% of the dog's weight in protein. So, my animals were 50 pounds and ate 2 pounds of chicken (or lamb) a day. My dogs were big, so I left the bones intact and fed them drumsticks and wings mostly. My bigger dog could handle the breasts, my smaller dog needed smaller pieces.

I steamed broccoli and carrots and cauliflower, etc. Sometimes threw in a raw egg, shell or not, yogurt and whatever whole food leftovers I had. Canned pumpkin, potatoes, etc.

I really worried about it at first, but then found a vet who did it and that's how she fed her dogs.

There were some groups on yahoo groups for raw diets. You can look there for some support too.

I didn't do any pureeing or anything like that because I had bigger dogs.

good luck. I thought it was a great way to go! I did buy an extra freezer though so that I could stock up on good priced chicken. I also checked the clearance meat at the store....they may not want you to eat day old meat, but the dogs can. You can ask your butcher too, sometimes they will have extra marrow bones, etc to give you or sell you cheaply.

There are some co-ops out there too where you can get raw meat...just start googling away.

It can be overwhelming, but as long as they are getting meat and bones, they will probably be fine.

The only advice i can give is that if they're not getting enough crunchy things in their diet, you need to make sure you are cleaning their teeth regularly. My neighbor feeds her dogs chicken and rice & her dogs have all lost most of their teeth, because they aren't chewing anything crunchy to keep their teeth healthy.

J., I wish I could help. I'll tell you, since all my dogs over the last few years have been rescues, usually with health issues, I have looked into it in the past. But I just didn't feel I could devote the time to do it properly with kids and their activities.
I actually feed my 2 big dogs Azmira dry kibble with literally just a teaspoon of some kind of Merrick can food to moisten it. And the can stuff, is really human food in a can!
Good Luck!

I am a veterinarian and recommend the website petdiets.com. It is run by veterinary nutritionists that can actually formulate specific homemade diets for your pets. You need to make sure that you are including all of the necessary nutrients for your animals, so they can tell you exactly what to feed your pets.

I do not recommend raw diets to my clients because of the risk of bacterial contamination in the meat. Dogs and cats are not immune to the effects of nasty bacteria, such as salmonella or e. coli, that are often found in our meat supply in grocery stores. Yes, dogs and cats often hunt and eat raw meat when they are outside. However, those wild birds, mice, etc are not usually contaminated with the same bacteria found in grocery store meat. So if you are determined to feed raw, be extremely careful about your meat source-only local, small farms that use natural practices. Good luck!

My girlfriend does and my pool guy does. There is probably a website of people that talk to each other that do too. If you want to personally give me your e-mail address, I'll forward it to Marsha. She loves her dog so much that she takes him with her everywhere, including California home visits. My pool guy is not the best communicator and if he talks to you personally, well, it can go on and on and on and on revolving around him.