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Old January 10th, 2010, 08:03 PM
CLV CLV is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 10
New to Raw for my dogs

Hello everyone,
I have 2 American Eskimo Dogs that have been having numerous problems over the past year with commercial kibble diets. To make a long story short, we have tried everything from Wellness Core Ocean, Purina Pro Plan, Fromm Salmon a la Veg, California Natural, Evo Salmon and Herring, and The Honest Kitchen with no success. I always do a very slow transition (the last one with Evo I just got up to a 50/50 switch after a month!) They always start to have diarrhea, really really bad diarrhea- waking us up 3-4x in the middle of the night to go out. The only thing that keeps them okay is Science Diet I/D, which I hate for obvious reasons. I wish it wasn't the only food that would keep them from having digestive problems. One of our pups was on I/D for several years because we just didn't have all the information we do now. I was able to switch him to Wellness Core Ocean with the other dog on Fromm for almost a year before they both spontaneously starting getting sick from their foods. (I guess if I think back it timed out during the summer when they were eating Mulberries from a tree in our neighbors yard.) Our neighbor cut the tree down, we switched to I/D for several weeks and then tried to reintroduce their food with no success.

That leaves us where we are today, almost 8 months later with no success with kibbles (and we have used some good high quality kibbles.) My husband and I are really disgusted with the ingredients in I/D and decided we just didn't want to feed it to the boys anymore. One of them is also having a lot of skin issues (Black Skin Spots, severely dry skin) while the other one is super itchy. This week we decided we wanted to try raw to see if it will help them. We tried Honest Kitchen but after a few TBS of it they were still not able to tolerate the food. So we stopped feeding it. .

This weekend they had very bad diarrhea from the EVO so I stopped them both and gave them homecooked chicken, white rice with some peas/carrots mixed in. We decided we are done with I/D and would rather deal with the inconvenience of cooking vs feeding a poor quality food. I made enough rice and veggies for the week and am planning on feeding that until they are somewhat better, at which point I want to transition to Raw.

I went to a local store and have done a lot of research online and for now, I think the commercially prepared Raw are going to be better for us. I know they are very pricey but we figured it would be an easier transition for us initially. If it becomes too expensive we can then start to give our own raw. I think this will help ensure they have a balanced diet too (since the NV and the Primal seem to have a good mix.)

I guess the question I have is if anyone thinks one is better than the other. I have read both sides and even at the store there were some who preferred one vs the other. I ended up purchasing the Primal Lamb Nuggets for now. I haven't fed it to them yet- will start next week. I chose it for 2 reasons, first it seems to have less ingredients. It didn't have eggs and flaxseed (which was in the Organic Chicken by NV.) I feel this way I can at least rule out allergy possibilities with egg or flaxseed. I also wanted to go organic and Primal states the Lamb is Hormone and Antibiotic Free (although not Organic) and all the other ingredients are Organic. I also was a bit confused about Chicken vs Lamb. I have never tried Lamb in any of their foods (even kibble.) I have read it is better for sensitive stomachs, but am not 100% sure.

I did also purchase a Leg of Lamb from Whole Foods this weekend that I boiled for the boys. I figured after the cooked Chicken from this week was done I could try the Lamb just to see how they do on it. I just am not sure if I am feeding enough of the Home Cooked Food. How do you know how much to feed. I have read 2-3% with raw- is that just meat? My boys are both about 32 lbs, so according to calculations they should get about 10oz/day- just meat or the whole mix of meat and veggies?

Sorry for all the questions. I guess I am just looking for some support and information on feeding raw. Thanks for any advice and suggestions.
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