Why I feed Raw

BARF???

• Healthier shinier coats - because they're getting all the nutrients they need.
• Breath less smelly - because they're not getting all the e-numbers and sugar that's added to commercial dog food brands so their teeth are in better condition.
• Less number twos (and they're firmer and less smelly too!) - because the canine digestive system is designed to cope with meat, bones and natural things!

• Your dog is never too old or too young to start raw feeding. Any dog will take to it. Don't be scared, just do it!
• Never mix raw meat with kibble. Kibble digests at a slower rate than raw meat. If the two are consumed at the same time, the kibble will cause the meat to move more slowly through the gut, potentially allowing infection to build up. I left twelve hours between Bosun's last commercial meal and his first raw meal just to be safe.
• Bones are good. Bones are your dogs friend! But only raw, never give your dog a cooked bone as they can splinter and cause damage to the throat and intestines. Raw bones do a fantastic job of cleaning your dogs teeth so that they don't need all these pedigree chum dentastix and all that rubbish. Start them off on a nice easy bone like a chicken wing or a thigh. Bosun now gets venison bones, beef knuckle bones, lamb ribs and all sorts!
• Start them off on a nice easy to digest meat such as minced chicken and then give them a good variety. Bosun now gets offal, venison, pigeon, beef, fish and whatever else I can get my hands on. I order from www.nurturingbynature.co.uk who deliver to us. Fantastic products!
• Don't be alarmed if your pooch's digestive system is a bit iffy for a day or two. They are getting used to it, but it will settle down very quickly. 
• When they are a puppy, you should start feeding about 10% of their body weight per day. (so a 6kg puppy would receive 600g of meat per day.) As they get older you want to start feeding them about 2-3% of their adult weight. Bosun we estimate will be 30-40kg when he grows up so we are feeding him 700g of meat a day plus a bone. We also mix vegetables in with his minced meat like carrots and broccoli. Each dog is different however. Bosun will be a working dog when he grows up so during the shooting season, he will probably require more feed when he is working hard. If you can see your dogs ribs starting to show, up the feed. If you cannot feel the ribs, you can afford to feed them a bit less. 
• All this is of course on top of a good exercise routine. Dogs need walking every day, sometimes twice a day...but I digress. Dogs and their exercise will be a completely different blog post!

An example of what I feed Bosun. He gets this amount every day, half in the morning, half in the evening.

yummy!

After we started Bosun on the raw diet we found that he calmed down a hell of a lot too. Upon further investigation it turns out that a lot of commercial puppy food is packed with sugar. Imagine your toddler on a sugar high. Hmmm. Now imagine that toddler with fur and teeth! Yep! We thought he was just being a puppy, but no he was just constantly high on sugar. Of course he still plays, he is still a puppy. But he's not bouncing off the walls and trying to tear the curtains off the rails. So it benefits us all round.

To finish, here's a few pictures of a happy, healthy Bosun playing on one of our walks.

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