Curiosity question regarding raw

[Piperloo]

When everyone is talking about feeding raw diets are you talking about going to the grocery store, buying a whole raw chicken, eggs, veggies, etc. off the shelf, chopping it up and feeding it to your dog? Or is there a prepackaged raw diet that you can buy that is much the same thing that you must freeze or refridgerate until you are ready to feed it?

I am just curious. :)

Piperloo

[tati]

Sure, I do go to the grosseries, supermarket, butchers etc to buy my dog's food and believe me, I have lots of fun doing that! :lol:

I know from gmacleod, judy, fran and other members from the forum that you can find not supplemented prepacked raw food there (USA and Europe). In Brazil we can not, they just do not sell it here. evilicon

But my preference is to fed the most natural in the proportion it is found in the prey animal's body then yeahh I go and buy what I want! :rolleyes: I do not ground meats/organs/bones, just fed it in whole way. :D I do packed it all in apropriated bag sizes and freeze it for +/- 10 days and then it is readdy to fed. I vary their menu as much I can.

I only supplement them with eggs and salmon oil if they did not eat fish. Vegetables an fruits I do not fed much, but if I want to give that extras I just take a little bit of it from what I have in the frigde and give to them. ;)

[gmacleod]

There is a huge range of pre-packaged raw food available :)

Personally, I don't feed pre-made. I prefer to feed human grade foods, where I can clearly see the quality and determine source. And I will frequently buy whole chickens etc, take the breast meat off to cook for myself, and then feed the rest to my pets. I also prefer not to feed ground meats, or at least, not as the basis of the diet. But that's my choice - and just occassionally, I'm tempted by the convenience of pre-made (most especially that it would take up less room in my freezer - I have four pets eating raw). The only thing I would avoid are those pre-made raws that contain supplements and vegetables (when they have veges, they usually have far too much, and in any case, feeding fresh is better - it's no big deal to throw half a carrot and some spinach into a blender yourself).

If you're interested in looking at the variety of pre-made options out there, this thread has a list of those that the WDJ like: http://www.bulldogworld.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19953#post19953

[Piperloo]

Thank you for your replies - they were very helpful. I am not looking to feed raw per se. I have noticed in my puppy search :) that there are a community of breeders who <insist> that you feed their pups raw / holistic diets. I didn't want to completely remove those breeders from my personal list - since the entire reputable frenchie list is limited to begin with :) - before I explored the possiblility of raw feeding and whether it would work for our family and our life style. I have looked at a few links to raw feeding and holistic diets on a couple of the breeders pages (please don't ask me to recall what they were because I have been to SOOOO many web pages in the past few months they are all blending together! I am dreaming puppies! :lol: ) and also based on what I'm being told by you guys I'm really not sure I would be able to do it. We travel alot and normally with no refridgeration. Now I know that sounds strange :lol: but we often camp and we spend our entire summer living out of a cooler. It is difficult to keep beer and soda cold and it would be impossible to be able to keep raw food fresh. Going to the grocery store daily would just not be an option. And I would hate to switch back and forth when we decide to travel. It's unpredictable and would not be good for their bellies. So as much as I hate to cross yet another breeder off my already shrinking list I guess I will have to nix the ones who insist their dogs will only be fed raw. Sigh.....
Piperloo

[chrestomancie]

Hello Piperloo! I feed raw, but ground because I am very afraid that Pearl will have a problem with the whole bones (proabably totally unfounded but...) I order my meats from www.hare-today.com . It was reccommended by more than one person and I have been very happy with the quality and fast shipments.

[chrestomancie]

Forgot something sorry :o

I still have to mix the extra vitamins and such with my raw as it is not premade just ground - the whole carcass.