how about my dogs and my cat

[mxx]

any tips on giving my pets a raw diet, thanks for your help

[pizda]

IMHO dogs and cats should fed with fresh raw meats and liver.
I give my cat chicken liver and she is HAPPY.
They will eat anything, but in essence they are hunters and not vegetarians.

[tames]

Hi! There are many web sites that address this issue. Use a google/yahoo whatever search on "dog natural diet". Some of the sites recommend a diet that has some vegetables mixed in with the raw meat. Some on the other hand only feed raw meat and raw bones (cooked bones will splinter). I was thinking of trying this also. I was exploring how much this would cost to do since I have a small dog and three cats. I am sure it would be healthier for them though. I would probalby tend to go with raw meat only most of the time with some veggies maybe once a week. There are also companies that will prepackage raw meat and deliver it frozen to you. That would seem to get expensive for me though!

Here are a couple sites that I bookmarked recently:
http://www.mypetsfriend.com/
http://www.pet-grub.com/

--Tim

[spockafina]

a family I baby-sat for fed their dogs only raw meat. They would give them a few raw chicken breasts (these dogs are HUGE) for breakfast, some more for lunch, and then this weird ground raw meat mixture.

I think my cat is too old and feeble to switch him to raw, but all of my future pets will be raw.

[askcassyfirst]

As far as I have read, although dogs can live on a vegetarian diet (they are traditionally scavengers,) cats can't. However, both do well on raw.

I have my kitty on a raw diet, and he ADORES it. We buy a premade frozen mix in little packets from a local manufacturer. You can also make your own. They key is that cats eat the WHOLE prey, so the mix contains meat, bones, as well as some greens for balance.

We have been meaning to try this diet, but finally decided to when kitters develped a strange skin issue, and flea dander. He was also overweight. I don't believe in using flea chemicals, so we tried the raw diet and viola! He lost probably 4 pounds, and has gained back his kitten energy. The hot spots dried up, his fur came in soft and fluffy like a kitten, and he has no trace of fleas! This is great, since we never had to use the pesticides and collars! (We did bathe him in a special neem shampoo for cats, and treated him with a cream on the hot spots that contained neem.)

I know lots of people give thier cats raw meats, but the key is to include raw bones and greens so they get all the minerals and such as would come from a diet of little mice and reptiles. I noticed some brands of raw pet food use beef, but I have a hard time imagining little kitters taking down a cow even IF he were a wild kitty! :)

Hope that helps.

Cassy

[sweetgoddess]

I just found raw dog food at my local health store. Handling all that raw meat , cant do it, the thought makes me ill, so I was overjoyed to find it!
And of course, he loves veggies, sprouts and fruit.

Cassy, my kitty kills all kinds of mice and yet never eats them-ever. I dont understand that! Maybe shes a vegetarian at heart ;)