1. How long have you done this?
Over a year now. I started my first girl when she was about 5 months, Charlie when I first got him when he was 6 months, and Lilly has been eating it since she was about 12 weeks.... Pixie ate it for about a year before she died (NOT from eating raw food, she was hit by a car), Charlie would've been eating it for about 7 months now and Lilly is just a pup so she's only been on it a couple months.
2. What about their health?
No problems. No allergies, no skin/coat conditions, no ear infections, nice firm poop, teeth are white and tartar free....
3. What about supplements in a cooked or raw diet?
I've been using fish oil for the Omega fatty acids... If you use it, be sure it's free of mercury and other heavy metals (it'll probably say it somewhere on the bottle).
4. Where do you find reliable recipes that are guaranteed to include everything your dog needs?
5. I've requested samples of the Nature's Variety Raw Instinct food. Have any of you tried, or do you use this food in place of doing everything yourself? Possibly in conjunction with a home cooked or raw diet?
I'm going to combine questions 4 & 5 since the answer is just about the same... Most of the die hard BARF advocates will tell you that the commercial prepared raw diets aren't good enough and that you'd still be subject to the same problems as the commercial kibble, but we've no problems with the commercial raw. It's still better than giving them grain laden kibble every day... If you want to measure and prepare it all yourself, there are books and internet resources for "recipes" on the amount of bone, meat, organs, veggies, etc a dog should get... I just don't want to deal with calculating all that so I've been using a couple different commercial raw diets... I switch up between the Nature's Variety (I use all "flavors", chicken, beef, lamb, venison..) and the Nature's Menu. It's more convenient for me because I don't have to figure out what amounts to feed but the dog still gets the benefits of the prey model diet. The Nature's Variety is nice because the 3lb bags come in little round 1oz medallions. It's just a matter of throwing a few in a bowl, defrosting 'em and putting it down for dinner. Little to no thinking involved!
6. I'm used to free feeding dry kibble to the boyz. With a raw or home cooked diet how do you know what amount to feed them and how many times a day do you feed?
Feeding amounts are going to vary from dog to dog. A growing puppy is going to need more food than an adult, an active adult is going to need more than a lazy adult... A good starting point is about 3% of the dog's weight and adjusting from there. If he starts to look a little chubby, cut down a bit, if they look skinny, give 'em a bit more... On the weekends my two usually get a little bit extra because they've been up and about all day instead of crated while we're working....
Nature's Variety has a feeding calculator on their site. You input data on your dog and it gives a starting point for you.... Charlie gets roughly 5% of his body weight each day (which is more than the calculators ever recommend) any less and he starts to look a little thin.
We split the daily amount into two feedings, one in the AM and one in the PM.
I know there's a couple other people on here who feed raw and I'm hoping they speak up too....