Homemade Dog Food.

[Nienke]

Commercial pet food explained : http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/784/Patrick06.html

Pretty long, but worth a read if you truely love your pet!

[Nienke]

And as far the dangers of raw food/eggs and salmonella ... it seems that dry pet food is also not completely free from it: http://www.cdc.gov/Salmonella/schwarzengrund.html and http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art...rticlekey=89530

as are American grown tomatoes, Mexican grown pepper, peanut butter, pasteurized milk, Veggy Booty Snack Food .... just google "Salmonella outbreak America"

[Cuban]

You just tried that out, didn't you?!!!!

To be totally honest, in fact no. But since I made that post I have.

Sunday is our weekly BBQ day and yesterday I cut the ribs (full rack) so that the long rib bones were free from the joint with the back bone and also the cartilage at the front of the rib cage. Using a very sharp knife carefully cut through the membrane surrounding the bone (periosteum) and eased off the meat; which in this case was deep fried to destruction Thai style with too much salt!

The pile of resultant long bones was half cracked with the back edge of my cleaver and put aside in the fridge to act as doggie treats / quieteners.

I've noticed when cutting cooked chicken in the past - the larger bones splinter and go everywhere - when chopped in their raw state with care you can just crack the bone to allow the marrow inside to seap out a little - dogs prefer the latter.

In another thread I mention raw fish bones, gill covers and fins. Again chopped up small and raw they are fine.

[F1fanatic]

It's honestly not that I don't believe all the posters on this thread, but I just can't bring myself to give my dogs raw meat. I get my meat from the market, and it's covered in flies! (Plus - on the odd occasion I've given them raw meat to clean their teeth, they've ignored it!) Until recently I refused to give them any cooked bones, but someone told me about a month ago that if you boil chicken carcasses for about 20 mins it softens them up so much they're no longer dangerous.

My dogs are VERY fussy eaters, but much to my amazement they LOVE chicken carcasses! (I mix it with Pedigree Chum and biscuits)

If there really is a problem here, please tell me!

[Cuban]

There are many resources on the internet about the benifits or raw and risks of cooked bones.

Here is one of many such sites.

Try my little experiment in post #29, try it with a chicken leg bone if that is easier than pork ribs. There is a marked differance to the structure of the bone.

When you remove the meat from a typical chicken leg (drumstick) bone there is a small support bone that has almost a finger sized grip on one end - where as the other end tapers down to a point. Once this bone is cooked, that point becomes like a needle - it does not take much to consider stone-age man using it to sew together rabbit skins. Compare chopping that cooked bone to a raw one.

Flies on meat. Yes Thai markets can be a hygeine free zone - but buy from one of the better stalls - wash the meat before cutting up, you or your dogs won't die from it.

Also the ability for the dog to digest raw meat and bone is greater than processing cooked. It would take some time but comparing dog poo from one fed raw to one fed only cooked meats - I suggest the dog on a raw diet has better poo - less smelly and more compact. Just my observations comparing dogs that I know that live around my area.

Further reading.

[Cuban]

Partly as an update and partly as a bump in response to a link in this thread on cooked chicken bones.

The two dogs that I will name as GoodDog and NaughtyDog, are enjoying their mostly raw semi-natural diet and growing well. I consider their only problem is me providing more excerise when we are in Pattaya - when up country they have 5 rai to play with and the rice fields are fun for wet muddy dog chases.

Favorite food at the moment remains raw mackrel, I remove the head, tail and fins/spines. These I chop down to paste and return to the roughly chopped fillets, removed from the classic fish skeleton. The gorey fishy mess is watered down a little and added to dog biscuit, a two minute soak then served, is finshed off quickly and over time the fish oil has given their coats an almost varnish like finish. When they look to me for more, Oliver style, they get the raw skeleton. As the bone is raw it is soft and eaten with no ill effect at all. ( Mackrel typical 24 Baht a kilo - discount price RFQS.)

Tinned mackrel/sardine/pilchard is a store cupboard standby at 10 Baht a small tin. Although these bones are cooked they crumble in the mouth.

Chicken carcasses are roughly chopped, if anything shapped to make them chew rather than 'woof' the smaller lumps down in one, down in one as if it were a race between the pair. I take off the skin for cooking rather that left them eat it as raw fat. ( Chicken carcasses 20 Baht each by weight.)

New to their diet over the past few week is pig tails, I have had to score the skin a few times to give them [dogs] a start as it's quite thick, but once inside they are quiet for ages. Best method I've found it to split the tail in half with a knife & hammer. ( Pig tails 50 Baht for three.)

The percentage of meat:offal: is suggested to be in the range of 80% meat - 10% bone - 10% offal. My version is not that lean and does contain a percentage of cereal and bean, in the form of noodles. No different from the listed contents on many bags of dog biscuit. Rice or bean cooked with the chicken skin or pork fat.

The other dog food that I have seen but not tried yet - is brands like 'Mr Dog' & 'Mr Pet' or similar(?), not a tinned food but a pre-frozen 1kg bag, retailing at about 23 Baht each in the freezer section of Tesco - only place I've seen it. From reading the lable it would seem to be 100% ground (not sure how finely) chicken carcass. I might buy some this afternoon and report back if anyone is interested?

One point I would like to make for the benifit of those new to raw food and uncertain about sources of information. Do your homework - I found this web site that promotes garlic for dogs - this is not healthly IMO. I feel they are just promoting the 'healthy' image of garlic to the buyers rather than to those that eat their product. I understand there is debate about raw vs cooked garlic - and with humans at least cooked garlic is missing much of the health benifits. Mine don't do garlic.

I have included prices as this is an interesting point in itself - I consider raw is cheaper than tinned / bagged food alone and so much better for the dog.

The Bones and Raw Food Diet (BARF Diet) [!!] is among the healthiest and most common homemade dog food diets.

Source: Google search. Raw Wiki.