raw food, dogs & dehydrators

[Anastasia Alston]

Do any of you who feed your dogs BARF (Bones And Raw Foods - or - Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods) make meat/veggie blends & put them in the dehydrator? What about raw treats you make with meat?

I'm not so sure I want to dehydrate food for my pups in my dehydrator where I make MY food - esp. while I have my food in there, but I suppose if all usual meat handling precautions are taken it could work. Dehydrated foods make training treats easier to handle & traveling with raw pups easier.

I'm concerned about the cross contamination of FLAVORS, not bacteria, etc. as that wouldn't be an issue seeing as they won't be on the same tray or even close to each other beyond sitting in the same dehydrator. Thoughts anyone?

- Stasi

[IamLoved]

Hi

We recently switched over to feeding our dogs the BARF diet. They get raw chicken or whatever meat is on sale. Plus I make them green smoothies that have kale, spincah, apples, flax, and garlic and kelp.(I don't put the garlic in my blender though, just add it in later). They also eat my childrens apple cores when they are finished eating their apples and sometimes they get my leftover carrot pulp from juicing if I am not using it to make something else. I also give them eggs and oatmeal right now because one is pregnant and the other is underweight and we are trying to bulk her up.

I don't dehydrate anything for them, they just eat it fresh. I don't think I would want to dehydrate their stuff, if it had meat in it, with mine. Ewww.

Their fur is so much softer and they don't have nasty gas anymore since we took them off kibble. Before they would about kill us farting at night and stink up our whole living room. It was soooooooooooooooooo gross!!! Now, no more gas. It is wonderful!

[Anastasia Alston]

Yeah, raw feeding is every bit as good for dogs as it is for humans! And it's just as simple, too. I have fed my dogs raw for more than 10 years. My one dog, Rosie can't eat commercial dog food. She's never been able to handle it & has been raw-fed since puppyhood; she's 4 now & I never had any trouble with her health except when I kept trying to feed her commercial stuff! (You'd think we'd learn a little faster, huh?)

I have 3 dogs ranging in size from +/- 25# to 61# (2 pit bulls & a what's-it) & they all eat raw. I sometimes have fosters & my largest dog I just got about 3 weeks ago; I switch them over to raw food cold, the only transition time being the time it takes to get them to my house from where they were & get a meal served. I have never had a problem, though I doubt I'll be taking in any more foster dogs for now. I have to work with Rosie on her dog reactiveness a bit more before I consider going there again. Then there's the time issue involved; fosters are usually adolescents or older dogs with no manners, training, etc. Since I don't work with any rescues, I also have to do all the leg work finding good homes for the dogs.

For now I think I'll pass on dehydrating stuff; it seems like more trouble than it's worth. I can freeze up batches of the meat/veggie/fruit mix & keep it in a cooler until needed. I'm so used to traveling with raw dogs! I guess I was trying to think of a way to make it simpler, but I think I was just complicating things...

- Stasi, Pea Pod, Rosie Cotton & Binnabik