Help with feeding raw
 

I would appreciate any advice on feeding raw....I can get Stella and cheweys and natures variety brands, freeze dried and frozen. I am worried about the high fat content tho. Has anyone had a problem with it?

I feed primarily Prey Model Raw. I have been feeding it for 4 years. All my dogs do great on it. I do occasionally feed NV or Primal and have no issues with that either but I prefer to feed PMR most of the time.

I feed premade and I feel good about the fat content, never had a problem. I've fed it for about 4 years, I think...?

Which one do you feed?

I mainly feed Primal Duck...but sometimes get the Chicken or whatnot, for variety. Other brands are Natures Variety, Bravo, Stella and Chewy's. Some of the varieties contain flax, which I usually stay away from as it can bother Wylie.

What's nice about raw too, is that they often provide a novel protein (novel=one your dog hasn't eaten before)...which can be helpful w/ allergy dogs if you're trying to avoid certain proteins.

Primal And Nature's Variety Frozen Premade Raw
 

I usually feed Riley frozen premade raw one meal and Acana Kibble the other meal. I like to keep the kibble around so that at times when we travel I don't have to worry about traveling with raw.... When I am home I will feed raw both meals some days... or if I forget to thaw some in the fridge, I will feed kibble... it just kind of depends... but I have to say that Riley really seems to thrive when I am feeding him this way. He has environmental allergies and his skin really seems to clear up when he is on raw.

I usually feed either Primal or Nature's Variety. He did recently have a reaction the Primal raw lamb.....
I bought a bag of the Nature's Variety Organic Chicken this past Sunday and fed it to him Sunday Night and both meals, yesterday. He got kibble, this a.m.

I am liking the Nature's Variety more than the Primal lately and I think it is because NV has more percentage of meats and less veggies. I pretty much always chop up a few frozen green beans after running them under warm water and a baby carrot.

That 'lil stinker really lives the life...he has trained you well :p. I gotta get me some green beans, mine would love that.

He Suuuuure does.... all he has to do is flash those lil eyelashes of his and my heart just completely Melts!! ;)
Yes, get a bag of frozen green beans. I get the long skinny ones... and then just chop them up, after you run them under hot/warm water for a few seconds... The vet said they are - 0 - calorie and as soon as they finish chewing them, they have already burned them off!! LOL!!!!

So I guess I should go with the frozen then, rather than freeze dried? The freeze dried is the one with the 25% fat content, idk seems like a lot. Worried about pancreatitis.

I had a conversation on Facebook with a Primal Rep about their new Primal Freeze dried Formula. I was concerned with whether the fat % was a lot higher percentage in their freeze dried formulas like I have heard of other companies freeze dried products. They come in Nuggets just as their frozen Nuggets come, but you just need to add water.

Primal Pet Foods: Hydrating is easy. You'll add 1 tablespoon for every nugget. You'll want to mash it up a bit with a fork to mix in the water.

The calculator works the same way. You'll feed based on nuggets only, not weight. (i.e. if you feed 5 nuggets of canine chicken raw formula, you'll also feed 5 nuggets of canine chicken freeze-dried formula.) They are both the same product only the freeze-dried has the moisture removed.

Theresa: Is the Fat Percentage in the freeze dried a higher percentage?

Primal Pet Foods: Hi Theresa, thanks for your question. The canine beef freeze-dried formula is the exact same product as our raw frozen canine beef formula with the moisture removed during the freeze-drying process. You can't directly compare guaranteed analysis of a wet food to a dry food because the moisture has been removed from the dry food (3% moisture vs. 67% moisture). If you look at the crude fat in our canine raw frozen beef formula (with 67% moisture), you'll see that the value is at 14% crude fat. All of our products list guaranteed analysis "as sent". You can read a good blog entry on our website that explains guaranteed analysis in wet and dry foods and how to compare them. Primal Blog Understanding Guaranteed Analysis

Mine loooove their green beans...fresh or frozen but if frozen Maddie Jo only likes one brand :rolleyes: Their sister, Molly, follows my sister around her garden and eats the green beans right out of the basket when she picks them...she grazes her way through the herbs and fresh produce every morning and she loves the lettuce buds so they have to watch them pretty close or she will eat all of them! She also stands on her tippy toes to eat fresh berries right off the bushes...amazing to see what they will actually eat when so many fresh and different foods are available to them.

OMG!! THAT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!! :thumbup: :D
Riley Looves little pieces of lettuce!!

Ok, I see...so they are both the same basically. So if I understand this correctly, I would just have to add water to the freeze dried to lower the fat content?

But won't watering it down lower the overall nutritional content? I am curious to see what others respond.

I'm not really sure... LOL!! It's kinda of confusing to me. I just use the frozen premade raw.

I have talked with a Primal Rep. on the phone before and they are Great!!

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Not sure.... I like to go right to the source so I have called them or Facebooked them, before. It is still confusing to me.

I read somewhere on here that someone was giving their furbaby stella & chewy's dry and she got pancreatitis.... I have always heard that fat in that one was high....

The fat content of the primal freeze dried chicken is even higher than Stella and cheweys....37% compared to 25%

I'm confused to...I think I'll go with the frozen formula and don't have to worry about adding water :)

Ohhhhh My Gosh!!!!!!
Yeah, I totally can't figure it out. :rolleyes:
Even after reading their analysis blog....

Do you have a Fresh and Easy out there? They have the best Green Beans!! :D

Nope!! But we do have a Whole Foods and a Harris Teeter..... :D

O ok pretty much the same thing :D

Please stay away from Stella & Chewy's Dehydrated patties. Zoey was on those for just 4 weeks and she got pancreatitis. Everyone told me not to be concerned about the 30% fat content because after you hydrate it the fat content goes way down. Not so. I only changed to S & C because I hated feeding cold food to Zoey. She has been on Nature's Variety for two years with no problem. We are back on NV after getting her over the pancreatitis and she is doing well.

There it is!! ;) I knew I had read this recently... I think it was from You!!

I just switched Riley from Primal to Nature's Variety and I think he is doing
much better on it... It has only been a few days... but so far, so good!! :D

I am so glad to hear she is fine now! That is exactly what I was afraid of. Is the stella and chewy frozen ok? Or should I get the nv frozen? I heard the nv had a recall awhile ago :(

Also....they source their rabbit from china :(

NV. They do HPP, now...

What does HPP mean? How did you find out that NV imports from China? I thought I read that all meat comes from USA or New Zealand.
Cherie

I'm glad you posted this. I just drove 70 miles this afternoon with the intentions of buying Stella & Chewy's freeze dried patties. Once I got there I didn't like the looks of them so I bought NV Organic chicken frozen patties.

I still plan to get a trial package from Darwin's.

A process which sueezes out any bad bacteria. They had just started it when i attended the NV raw seminar. Primal uses it as well on all their poultry formulas.

Under FAQ in the safety and quality section it says rabbit from china:(