|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
09-30-2007, 03:44 AM | #1 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mostly in a world of books
Posts: 255
| Question about raw food vs cooked food vs canned food for a puppy Suzy is nearly 11 weeks old. When I got her from the breeder she was eating canned food so I've been keeping this up but I'd love to switch her diet around. Should I go with raw food/raw veggies or cooked food/cooked veggies? I'm not a fan of canned food, I cook all human food from scratch, so cooking it up for her isn't going to be an issue. This may seem like a silly question but does it matter what age a puppy can start eating raw food? I've tried her on a little bit of plain raw mince when I was making tacos and she went absolutely nuts over it (she loves food fullstop, but this was more excitement than usual.) So there's going to be no problem with getting her to eat it, it's just the timing I'm concerned with. I'm going to check out the recipe thread that's stickied and try a few things out but I was wondering if anyone had any input on this topic. (Sorry everyone, I'm only new and this is my first yorkie so I want to make sure that I'm doing everything right by her.) |
Welcome Guest! | |
09-30-2007, 03:59 AM | #2 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: UK
Posts: 1,920
| IMO both raw and home cooked is better than canned food or kibble. Obviously I am going to say that raw is best because its what I feed and its what my furkids do best on but there are home cookers on here that will obviously say that their way is best. I would advise you to do your research on both and decide what you believe is best for Suzy. I will start with some advise on raw and hopefully some home cookers will chime in and offer some advise on that. The diet consists of muscle meat, raw meaty bones and offal. Then there are the extras that you may or may not decide to include. The muscle meat can be minced/ground meat, breast meat, diced meat, heart (yes it is muscle not organ) basically any meat without bone. The RMB's are edible bone covered in meat, beef bones are not usually considered rmb's because they are too hard for most dogs to consume. Some examples are chicken wings, thighs, legs etc. Lamb ribs, chops, necks. Turkey necks and whole (or halved etc) rabbits. Whole raw fish are also considered an RMB but not all dogs can handle them. The offal is organ meat such as liver and kidney. Then there are extras that some people feed and others don't such as live yogurt, raw eggs, tinned fish and pureed fruit and veg. I personally feed them all but in moderation (like perhaps a little bit of each 1-2 times a week). The raw fruit and veg should ideally be pureed for them to get the best out of it and remember no grapes or onions. Some people give a cocktail of supplements and others give none. I only give salmon oil and vitamin e. Remember that the more you can vary the different foods she eats the wider variety of different vitamins and nutrients she will get. The raw feeders that give heaps of supplements are usually those who for one reason or another cannot feed very many different things. If you get it right and vary it lots then they get everything they need from a raw diet. Meat should ideally be frozen for 48 hours or more before defrosting and feeding as this completely kills the neosporum caninum. Here are some good links that you can read through when you have some time, http://www.rawmeatybones.com/diet/exp-diet-guide.pdf http://www.rawdogranch.com/ http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm http://www.naturalpetcare.co.uk/nutrition/dogdiet.htm http://www.holisticvet.co.uk/nutrition.htm http://www.rawlearning.com/ http://rawfeddogs.net/ http://www.rawmeatybones.com/ http://rawfed.com/myths/ There are also alot of great books about raw out there, a couple that I think are great are 'Switching to Raw by Sue Johnson' and Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats by Kymythy Schulze. I know it sounds very confusing at the moment but once you start it will get so much easier. You will do doubt see the massive benefits too. Good luck with you decision and if you do decide to go with raw then feel free to ask me as many questions as you like
__________________ Indy, Benjamin and Malachi There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face- Ben Williams Last edited by lara2913; 09-30-2007 at 04:01 AM. |
09-30-2007, 04:08 AM | #3 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mostly in a world of books
Posts: 255
| Hi lara. Thank you very much for such a thoughtful post! It's given me a lot to think about. I'll take a look at those links tomorrow (it's 10pm here) and see if I can pick up those books here in Australia. Thanks again! |
09-30-2007, 05:30 AM | #4 |
Furbutts = LOVE Donating Member Moderator | I homecook, but I think raw feeding is wonderful - and may try it some day. You have some GREAT advice from Lara - I'm going to save this thread because of just that! There are a ton of recipies for homecooking (and just as many opinions ABOUT the recipes) - so you'll see quite a bit of variation. Here a few tidbits: ** They don't NEED grains - and they often cause allergies. Grain is a filler, so it's up to you whether you use them. Many use brown rice as a grain. I don't use any grain. ** They don't really need veggies either, but some debate that point. You can use veggies, but use caution - bc they are more difficult to digest for dogs than meat is. If you feed them raw, make sure you pulverize as this helps digestion of them. If you steam/pulverize, you do lose some nutrients - but this eases digestion too. ** If you feed raw, very few supplements (if any) are needed. If you homecook, you MUST supplement. Most people supplement w/: vitamin, mineral, Calcium (a must), EFAs, digestive enzymes, and probiotics. ** Many homecookers recommend Pitcairn's book - I think it utterly overwhelms most new homecookers, to the point where they almost give up on the idea. So....wish I had a book recommendation, but I don't. Just be prepared if you do order Pitcairn... ** I'm currently feeding a hypoallergenic diet of whitefish, white potato, and steamed/pureed green beans, btw. Good luck!
__________________ ~ A friend told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn. ~ °¨¨¨°ºOº°¨¨¨° Ann | Pfeiffer | Marcel Verdel Purcell | Wylie | Artie °¨¨¨°ºOº°¨¨¨° |
09-30-2007, 05:40 AM | #5 |
Phantom Queen Morrigan Donating Member | Lara and Wylie's mom gave excellent information. I also raw feed but not like lara does. I feed mostly a prepared commercial frozen raw diet that comes in patty formation. I use Nature's Variety and Primal Raw. Nature's Variety can usually be found in smaller pet store (not petco or petsmart, if you even have that in AU) and Primal is even rarer to find in a store unless you have a Holistic pet store near you. There are also other companies like Bravo! and Aunt Jeni's which make frozen raw diets. I also feed raw chicken drumsticks and turkey necks every now and then. I supplement with fish oil and a joint supplement (for her knee problem). Do alot of research if you want to feed raw or home cook for your dog. Lara provided excellent links to great information. I find that feeding the pre made raw is easier and a good stepping stone to eventually feeding prey-model raw (what lara does)
__________________ Kellie and Morgan |
09-30-2007, 06:05 AM | #6 |
Donating YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: USA
Posts: 7,178
| I prefer to homecook for my two furbabies in large quantities so that I only have to cook once every 3 weeks or so. I leave out enough for a few days, and freeze in 2-day portions in freezer bags... My yorkie is liver compromised, so his diet didn't come out of a book....It was formulated for liver compromised dogs by one of the top vets. As far as my maltese goes, I used Dr. Pitcairn's book as a guideline...I like his healthy powder mix, so I definitely use that. I supplement calcium (by using eggshells or sometimes calcium carbonate), vitamin e, fish oil and vitamin b-complex. He recommends supplementing Vit A, but she gets enough betacarotene from carrots or sweet potatoes, and I'm afraid of Vit A toxicity so I never supplement with this vitamin. I also give both of my dogs cottage cheese and yogurt for prebiotics and probiotics.
__________________ Miko 's his Mommy |
09-30-2007, 07:21 AM | #7 |
2 Pups=Double Trouble! Donating Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Iowa
Posts: 6,581
| You've got some great information here, Lillium-from the best cookers of home prepared diets you'll find on YT! These ladies helped me to get started on my home prepared diet for my two dogs. I make the recipes from Dr. Pitcairn's book and sometimes used cooked meat, other times raw depending on what I have available at the time. I usually feed beef, ground beef, and ground turkey raw. I can hardly stomach the liver myself, so I cooked that so it was "less gross" to me, and I also cook any chicken or fish I'm feeding them. As Wylie's mom said, Dr. P's book can be difficult at first, so if you order it, please, PLEASE feel free to ask questions and stick with it if you can until it becomes easier! I use Dr. P's healthy powder mix, and also supplement with Vitamin E, flax seed oil, and Vitamin C when they're not getting fruit. I use vegetables, and like the meat, I may cook it or serve them raw depending on what type of veggie they are. I give carrots, & zucchini raw, but cook celery, squash, sweet potato/reg. potatoes, and I give them cold frozen peas, which they love! I also give some yogurt about 3 times each week, sometimes mixed with a few berries or other fruit.
__________________ Suzy Emma & Milli What's better than loving a yorkie? Loving two yorkies! Milli 's Remi! |
Bookmarks |
|
|
Thread Tools | |
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart