I have been feeding my dog raw for about a year now, buying my supplies from a pet shop every couple of weeks. Unfortunately my supplies have run out and I'm unable to drive the 10 miles to my supplier, as I can't even get my car off the drive for the snow and ice. I'm very lucky in that I have a small supermarket within a few minutes' walk, so none of us will starve! But of course I can't buy actual raw dog mince with ground bone. I have bought minced lamb and beef, and Max is very happy indeed to eat this, but I'm worried because it won't have the calcium he needs. Please don't suggest I give him chicken wings or bones, I'm just not happy to do this, but I really don't want to take him off raw, especially as the range of prepared foods at the supermarket is very limited. Is it ok to just feed human mince until the weather improves?
Darren Holmes, Ash, Surrey
Positive help to stop dog-on-dog attacks
9 years ago
4 comments:
Remember that you are trying to achieve a balance over time, not at every meal, so yes, Max will be fine on boneless meat for a few days – you could add in a small amount of liver too, about 10% or so. You don't have to feed just mince, you could try chunks of meat too – stewing steak, chicken thighs, any cut of any meat really! Does Max enjoy fish? Canned sardines or pilchards are very nutritious – drain off the oil or sauce – and the bones in these will provide some calcium and are soft enough for people to eat. Will he eat an egg? Eggshells are very high in calcium, some dogs will eat an egg whole, some won't, but you can crumble the shell into the minced meat, or dry out eggshells in the kitchen, grind them down in a food mill and add to his meat – not too much, the general recommendation is half a teaspoonful per pound of meat.
Please don't worry unduly though, and don't go back to the processed supermarket brands!
Christine
Getting supplies of raw foods has never been so simple and the UK BARF club offers a next day delivery service for all thier BARF diets and ingredients. Super range of meats and pre mixed BARF diets and great value. Try WWW.UKBARFCLUB.CO.UK
If you're feeding raw meat, and no source of calcium, your dog will end up with dissolving bones. The entire point of a raw diet, either prey model (80% meat, 10-15% bone 5-10% offal) is that it simulates a wild diet and has a good meat to bone ratio.
When I was a vet, we routinely saw dogs fed only meat with greenstick fractures caused by the imbalance of calcium and phosphorus. I don't mind how you do it (I feed my working cocker on raw rabbit and she crunches the bones as a a treat. She also loves pork bones from the supermarket), but you do need a source of calcium and mince doesn't have that.
There is a great raw food available from Natural Instincts which has ground bone plus fruit/veg and nutrients added.The meat is of human grade and it's delivered frozen to your door for free!
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