I recently started making the dogs food myself. Prior to this I was buying pre-made raw from our good friends at Raw Feeding Victoria. In addition, I've fed food from Pet Lovers' Choice and Red Dog Blue Kat.
I've been asked what I feed now that I am making their food myself. Before changing your dogs diet, I recommend doing your own research and if possible talk to a pet certified nutritionist.
Currently, I am making their food weekly in order to watch the dogs weight and make the best determination of how much to feed. Now this can change and vary based on activity level. Kona and Cali are already extremely active, but some months may be more active due to competitions.
Some great resources for feeding raw are Dr. Karen Becker and Rodney Habib, Planet Paws on Facebook. I've been using the Perfectly Rawsome website as a guide, as well as, guidance from Raw Fed and Furry on Instagram.
Below, I've added a great video by Dr. Karen Becker and Rodney Habib showing a great recipe for first time home made raw feeders to ensure you don't miss out on important nutrients.
I feed the dogs a BARF diet, which includes fruits and veggies. Perfectly Rawsome has a feeding calculator. My maintenance percentage is 2.5% for Kona and 3% for Cali.
The meals I create will vary, but typically a meal will consist of: Ground turkey, pork or beef, chicken or beef heart for the muscle meat. Beef liver. Beef or pork kidney. Veggies, such as spinach, broccoli, kale, and fennel. Fruits, such as blueberries and raspberries. For bone, I really like giving chicken feet. Another favourite is lamb neck, which I usually feed at night because it takes the dogs longer to eat, so it gives me some down time. I avoid weight bearing bones as the dogs can be tough chewers.
Here is a great website to help calculate bone.
In addition, I add Cod Liver Oil, cinnamon, ginger, wheat germ, kelp and seeds. I also like giving goats milk, bone broth, kefir, and quail or chicken eggs with shell. Shells are typically crushed and mixed in the food for better digestion and for dogs who don't always like eating shell.
I also make molds in silicone ice cube trays I get off amazon. Molds will be coconut oil with fruit. Kefir. Goats Milk. Coconut oil with spirulina and chia. I've also done coconut oil with Dr. Dobia Greenmin and Soulfood.
Recently, I watched some great videos of Karen and Rodney speaking at an event. I learned about the nutrients commonly missed from a raw food diet being complete. I learned a raw food diet can be deficient in Manganese, Iodine, Zinc, Copper, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Iron, Potassium, Selenium, Thiamine B1, Folate B9. What we can add to the diet to ensure are dogs are deficient in these nutrients are by adding ginger, wheat germ, kelp, oysters, beef liver, cod liver oil, seeds, blood, veggies, and kidney.
How I prep: I bought food containers in bulk. All containers will be set out on the counter for the amount of days I'm prepping for. First this I prep is the veggies. As per the advice of @rawfedandfurry, I put them through a blender to chop it all up. I take a bit of each veg and place into containers. I then add kelp, cinnamon, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and chia, and mix together. All meat is weighed into each dogs meal amount and added to the containers. I topped it off with hemp seed oil and berries. Then I place all containers in the freezer.
As I feed the dogs, I will add the bone of my choosing, cod liver oil, and anything other, like Primal Pet goats milk, bone broth, coconut oil, egg, etc.
As always do your own research and what you are comfortable with. Knowledge is power, so constantly strive to learn more when it comes to your dog.
