Which raw meat to choose?

[paulabeans]

Hi all!

Well, I am finally going to try Molly on the raw. As you might know, I have been homecooking for her - I was buying the Bravo boneless venison, browning it and adding rice or potato. She suffers from both inhalant and food allergies, although I have not completely narrowed down what foods she is allergic to.

So, here is my question...I bought the Bravo Ground Whole Dressed Rabbit and the Bravo Ground Elk with Bone, Heart, Liver, Kidney and I don't know which to start with. Does anyone have any experience with either formula? Also, what does "dressed rabbit" mean?? I was reading that it might not be totally safe to feed raw rabbit because rabbits can carry tapeworms and rabbit fever - which would be transmissible if fed raw. I haven't heard anything about Elk.

Gwyneth, I know diet is your specialty and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say!

Thanks,
Paula

[gmacleod]

Well, if you were talking about wild Rabbit or Elk, then it might be more of a concern - but those sorts of things are rarely a problem when you're talking about animals raised for slaughter. That's the great thing about being able to piggyback off the human food industry for raw dog food :)

If it makes you feel more secure, things like tapeworms are killed by freezing anyway. You simply need to ensure that meat (especially offal) is frozen for a minimum of 24 hours (I prefer a week) before feeding. That should not be necessary with Bravo (which I think comes to you frozen) - but is worth remembering should you ever be contemplating meat from a wild source. Here's more on tapeworms: http://www.chclibrary.org/micromed/00067290.html

Personally, I'd start with the bunny. That's partly because rabbit is a pretty easy to digest meat source (more so than red meats from larger animals) and partly because it is whole rabbit. Bone is a very important part of diet - far more so than things like vegetables ever will be.

[paulabeans]

Thanks Gwyn! Rabbit it is. I will let you know how she does with it.

Paula

[angec]

Whole dressed rabbit is the whole rabbit, meat, bone, heart, liver, kidney, etc. I feed Rocco the Bravo rabbit but tried the dressed rabbit last week. He loved it.

[paulabeans]

Molly loved the raw appicon

It was so cute - this morning when she first tasted the raw rabbit, she took her face out of the bowl and looked at me, then dove right back into the bowl and finished her breakfast in record time! I also added the Bravo pureed organic veggies (zucchini, broccoli and yam) and she loved that as well.

I have to say, I already notice that her stool is nowhere near as loose as it has been.

Paula

[gmacleod]

Good to hear she liked it :) and that it's having good effects on her stool too! Always a nice side effect ;)