Weigh in number 2 for the dogs

 Got the dogs weighed in tonight and it was good. 

Max was 64.4 which is .4 lbs more then what he started at so were headed in the right direction with him.

Mylie was 56 again which is right where we want her so nothing will change with her.  

They both got a little extras with their meals but Max got more by weight.  I gave them about 8 oz each of extra cow tongue with their veggie pattie tonight and will continue to give them a little extra meat (chicken wings or cow tongue) with their veggie pattie.Max is still 'looking' thin (can see some sign of ribs showing, however he was always a hard dog to keep the weight on no matter how much kibble he ate) so we will continue to monitor him with that.  Mylie looks perfect so we will keep her at 56 lbs or right around there.  Still very happy with the Raw diet for them both and do not plan on going back.  

Cow tongue?

I honestly wasn't sure how the dogs would take to it but oh wow they REALLY enjoyed it.  It was their first time eating it and we served it as a side to their nightly veggie pattie.  I have fed more to both tonight because we had the tongue that needed to be used soon.  So tomorrow they will get more.  I haven't read up a lot about the muscle meat (I'm assuming that the tongue is considered a muscle meat).  So will do that tonight before I go too overboard on it.  The butcher I have has TONS of them and he's selling them to me A LOT cheaper then in the store.  Will update on what I find out.

Update

So far so good.  The dogs are enjoying their food more and more every day.  One thing I have noticed is that Max seems to continue to lose weight so we added more food to his day.  Mylie is doing great though.  NO more weight lose and she looks perfect right now.  Will weigh Max twice a week until we get a steady weight on him.  He now needs to gain close to two lbs.  I don't think that will be hard at all seeing he's WILLING to eat it.  We just have to up his portions.  He is VERY active now.  So we give him his 12 oz of chicken plus a little extra beef or whatever we have on hand that day.  The dogs will get their first taste of beef tongue prob tomorrow.   And Max got an extra patty as well yesterday.  We will see what that does for his weight after a few days of that.  Otherwise, still going great and the dogs seem to do well.  Its coming up on three weeks now. 

The Truth Comes Out In the End - A Poo Story

One thing I kept reading all the time while reading up on the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet was how different a kibble dog's poo was from a raw-fed dog's.  I didn't believe the stories or at least assumed there was some exaggerating going on.  Oh how wrong I was!

I kept reading things like: "a fraction of the size" or "no smell at all" or "we never have to clean up after him anymore." No way.  How could that be right?  They are eating about the same amount (by weight).  What goes in must come out right?

Apparently that is true for kibble but not so much for a raw food diet. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures.  They aren't mine but they mirror what I'm seeing with my dogs.  Funny enough, it never occurred to me to take photos of dog poop for "before-and-after" purposes.  (I wish I had thought of it now though.)

From http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/2009/07/its-in-bag.html

First, overall quantity really is a fraction of what it was.  In fact, at times our lab produces even less.  (I haven't checked on Max's since he runs way to the far corner of our property to do his business.)

Then there is the smell.  A sudden wind change after Mylie dropped a doggy-land-mine was nearly enough to knock you out.  It definitely was enough to drive you away from the area. Since we switched the dogs to raw foods, I can honestly say I haven't smelled a thing even once.  I'm not going to go and put my face down there to get a good whiff, but before 10'-15' was more than close enough.


Finally, those "no clean up" rumors look like they'll be pretty much true once we get to spring again.  Someone took the time to take several comparison photos over time.  Here is the difference between kibble and BARF poo after only six days!

Even in the cold weather it really does literally crumble to dust just like in this photo.  When spring rains come the evidence will be gone.  No more stepping in a big pile of poo!  


Just wanted to share my 2¢ on the real scoop about poop.
  

An update and their first weigh in after switch.

The dogs are into their second week on the Raw Food Diet and it's been and amazing week.  We already see changes and they are GOOD ones.  The best change (for us) is the poo amounts (will do a post on this next)  The water they consume is hardly anything now.  A bowl of water used to last them a day IF that.  Now we have a bowl sitting out there for days and we have to refresh it before it's even gone now.  And of course I have mentioned the NO farting.  Not even one since we have switched them over to raw.  It's just great!  I'm sure we will soon see other great results the longer we keep them on it. They are now devouring the food MUCH faster then when they first started.  It used to take them about 20 min to finish a chicken quarter, today it takes them 7 minutes tops.  They got the hang of it now! 


They continue to love the foods and their Veggie patties as well.  They really look forward to breakfast and dinner time now.  We are very happy we switched them over and will continue to update on how they are doing.

WEIGH IN:   

Well tonight's weigh in wasn't bad.  Both dogs lost  just a little weight.  Mylie lost a lb (she started out at 57 and she was at 56 tonight) not bad considering she did look a little overweight so we won't do much change with her unless she loses any more next week.   Max on the other hand will have a bit more food every third day (to start) he has only lost a 1/2 lb (Max's weight was 64 lbs and is now 63.5) but we did want him to gain a lb.  We will see what next week brings with the extra he  will be getting. 

Making our Veggies patties for the dogs (Pics included)

 We started our "Veggie Patties" that we made for the dogs.  


The recipe we made up (for now) was:  

NOTE: We shredded all of this  before hand in our food processor and then added it back in the processor a little at a time and adding raw hamb to it.  There was 10 oz of veggie mix to 8 oz of hamb but we will try 1/2 and 1/2 mix next time (it is recommended to do it 1/2 and 1/2).  If they are too gassy we will up the meat a little for sure!  The veggies are bound to give them SOME gas I'm sure. 

3 lbs carrots
2 bunches of celery
1 head of cauliflower
2 bunches of brocoli
1 bag of spinach (10 oz bag)
1.5 bell peppers (found in fridge and pass their prime so we added them)
Dark leaf lettuce (also found in fridge but still edible enough for the dogs)
11 lbs of hamb (raw) to hold the pattys together and make it 
pleasing to the dogs so they 'eat their veggies' 

NOTE:  We are planning to change our recipe to add a few more important veggies, eggs, and also probiotics as well.   The new recipe will be added to a newer post.  As we learn and time goes on this MAY change again.  

This made 51  8-9 oz patties which will last them  about 26 days (each dog gets one a night)

Some ppl add garlic we did not.  I have read some places not to feed dogs garlic so I choose not to add it.  
Now, this was messy, I'm not gonna lie!  But it was kind of fun in a way also. We worked together (husband and I) and we kind of enjoyed it...THIS time haha.  We will see how it goes as we keep doing this.  My sons girlfriend claims that this was the strangest thing she had ever seen.  I believe her!  
We only got about 1/2 of the patties made so far and will finish up tomorrow.  We ran out of hamb so had to put it on hold until we get more tomorrow (another 5.5 lbs which I already added to the recipe so don't get 16.5 lbs of meat...you only need 11 lbs TOTAL) we have our veggie "slaw" in a big bowl for tomorrow.  
SO...bet your wondering how the dogs liked it??  We DID try it out on them.  First I tried a piece of veggie here and there.  They ignored that and dropped it on the floor.  OK, then I tried our mushed veggie pattie mixture and they went crazy for it!  We tested the mixture on our Boxer and our Chocolate Lab and they were both pleasantly (VERY MUCH SO) pleased by them which made US very happy because we worked hard on making these and made a big mess in the process!  
We also added a little beef  carne picada (just shredded beef pieces)  to the chicken they had been eating for the first week to give them a little something different for week two.  Week one WAS a shorter week then planned but they had NO problems at all so I figure it would be just fine.  We will give them the meats for meal one at 7-8am and then the veggie pattie with a very small portion of meat with meal two.    Also weighing the dogs today to see what the  results of week one is after being on this diet for about 6 days.  Will update that tomorrow. We will get the costs together also vs. the cost for our kibble food.  So far so good with that! Little more to figure yet but we are keeping a spread sheet on our costs of the meat/veggies and will post it on another post.


Now for the pictures of our Veggie Patties: 

Pic 1 is of the shredded "slaw" mix (this is ONLY veggies using the shredder blade on the food processor)
Pic 2 is getting ready to pulverize about 10 oz of veggies ("the shredded mix (pic 1)"), 8 oz of hamb and about 1/4 cup of leaf spinach.  Pulse that until it looks like a paste.
Pic 3 is what that mush should look like when done
Pic 4 is the patties (put them on a large cookie sheet and flash freeze them for a few hours and add them to a gallon size baggie grab one our per night time meal (5-6 pm) along with a small protion of meat (chick wing) maybe.
Pic 5  we measure each pattie out to equal about 8 oz per Pattie. the plate shown in picture is a med sized plate. 

Max

Day two on raw

I was going to do Raw in the mornings and regular dog food in the pm for the first week but I have decided to just go cold turkey since the first feeding went so well.   Mylie threw up a TINY big of foamy stuff but that was it.  Their stool has not turned runny at all and in fact if it changed at all it got more compact...no white anything yet.  I already noticed that they have been drinking less water and the BIGGEST thing.  NO farts since they had their first meal.  Oh man, prior to eating the raw meals they farted SO bad and constantly!  I hope that keeps up :D   Feeding them their second meal went a little faster then the first.  Less licking the meat and more chewing from the start.  Still took them about 15 min to eat a leg quarter though which is good.  They really look forward to their meals that's for sure.  After the first week I will be adding a little beef along with some veggie patty mixture (carrots, spinach, cauliflower) to start. I still have not been able to get my video to transfer from my phone to the computer so will keep working on that but for now, here is a picture of them enjoying one of their meals :D
NOTE:  The photos went on a page of their own so be sure to look for them  They are titled Mylie, and the other is Max.
Oh and NO choking at all on the bones so far and not even a close call which is a real relief for me. I  was so worried about that and with all the reading I have done on it I felt a lot better knowing there is a very slim chance that they will ever have an issue with it.
Their third meal this morning went great as well...still about 15 min to finish but they do get right into eating now with very little licking.
I feed them about 7am and 5 pm and that has been going really well.  By the time 10 pm comes around we know that they will go poo before we have to close up the house for the night until morning.  In fact I did notice this morning that my Boxer did NOT come wake me up at 6 am to go outside to poo.  Usually he wants out right away. And he's crying and yowling about it telling me to hurry it up!   I had to call HIM to go outside this morning :D

Mylie

The first meal on Raw

Well this morning we fed Max and Mylie their first RAW food diet and at first they licked the meat and that went on for at least 7- 10 min or so.  Then they began to chew on the skin a bit and finally after a bit of time they got into eating the meat and bones.  Once that started it didn't really take long. I was really worried that they would not eat it!  It was quite amusing and entertaining.  We will see what comes out the other end in a few hours haha.  I'm expecting lose stool for a few days so that won't be a surprise.  I'm hoping that their is no throwing up though. 
What did they have:  They both had a leg quarter and one gizzard each.  Which would be right about 1/2 of their daily amount needed.  My boxer is 64 lbs and Mylie is just behind him at 57 lbs.  She's much shorter then he is and Max has always had the problem of seeing ribs (which is one reason among many we switched to a raw food diet) so he needs to put on a few lbs but not much.
At first I was worried about them choking on the bones (Max seemed to be doing better) so I held the leg for Mylie (once she got down to just the leg)  while she chewed but then she would not chew into the bone while I was holding it! She would start and then stop...I think she thought it was my finger.  Then I decided to let it go and be ready to grab it just in case.   At first she was trying to eat it the long way (that freaked me out) but then she finally turned it and chewed the bones right up like it was kibble!  Amazing really how strong their teeth are. We fed their first meal at 10am (I slept in, usually it will be closer to 7am)  and they both finished the same time.  It took them about 20-25 min from start to finish.  About 7 of that LICKING the chicken!  I think next meal will be a bit faster now that they know it's OK to eat that. And bones ARE for chewing (they are NOT fingers).  I have a video I will post also.  It was right after throwing the chicken to them.  I fed them out on our patio in fear they would haul raw meat all over the house (had a dream the night before about that).  Will update on what happens later. 

Switching to Raw Food in a few days!

Wanted to start this blog just to keep a record on the costs and how the dogs do on a  raw food diet.  I have done a lot of research on the diet and read both pros and cons.  From what I have read the pros FAR outweigh the cons.  The cons coming from ppl who are either selling the pet foods or getting paid to sell the pet foods.  Of course they don't want to lose business so they will find any con they can to try to sway ppl to steer clear of the Raw food diets.  I get that, I do, but I'm not being swayed away from what I feel is a healthier diet (IMHO) just because they say it's bad.  I will try it out for myself and see how it all goes.  What we have done so far is collect any meats we have been finding on sale and sticking them in the freezer.  We find a lot of chicken quarters/ hearts/gizzard and I did get some Suet because my Boxer does need to put on some weight.  I weighed them out and put them in bags for each dog.  Going to stick to 2-3 % of the dogs body weight as recommended.  Also, just feeding ONE type of meat for a week for ONE meal each day (chicken).  The second meal will be their Kibble.  One leg quarter (with a little cut off) was enough for one meal per dog along with a gizzard and a heart. 

Many have said that you CAN go cold turkey and just begin the switch right away and others say you should slowly switch.  I'm kind of doing more of the meat and just a little kibble at the end of the day.  They say you should NOT mix  raw and kibble because Kibble takes a lot longer to digest. So I'm going with the many raw food experts I have read about out there and doing what they recommend.  I will update as I go!