# Experienced Raw Feeders - What do you think of this recipe?



## TeamPoodle (Aug 10, 2015)

We went to talk to someone who both sells raw food and feeds it to her dogs, and this is her Raw Recipe. I don't know much about raw food, so I'd like your opinion. Anything we should omit or add? Thanks!!!

RAW RECIPE
Approx. 50# of food

20 lbs ground chicken
10 lbs other RMB (ground duck, rabbit, beef, lamb, etc.)
4 lbs muscle meat (ground trachea/gullet, heart chunks, gizzards)
4 lbs organ meat
4 lbs tripe
1 doz. raw eggs with shells (crush shells in food processor)
10 lbs vegetables (must be finely ground.juiced to a pulp for your dog to utilize them, they cannot break down veg on their own)
2 lbs blueberries if in season
1 cup organic apple cider vinegar
1 cup organic aloe vera juice (add if sensitive stomach or digestive issues)

Suggested additions (to be added when you feed)
- Fish Oil, E-BARF Plus (or other vitamin/mineral supplement), organic kefir or yogurt, coconut oil, digestive enzymes, raw goat's milk
- RMB - chicken wings, chicken necks, duck necks, turkey necks, turkey wings, beef chunks, rabbit chunks, lamb breast, etc.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I'm not that experienced. But I'll chime in. First of all, I'm no mathmagician. :aetsch: So you'll have to do the math. Those are some big numbers. lol. I prefer to feed more individual things rather than a pre-made mix. I started out making a mix with ground turkey but after that was gone, I went to just feeding at each meal (you don't have to at each meal though) about 80 muscle meat, 10% bone, 10% organ meat, (1/2 of which is beef liver). I add about 1/2 to 1 tsp of pureed vegetables/fruit/berries. (although I really don't know that you have to) 

So, here are a few examples of what I do. 1st, I feed once a day except sometimes a light breakfast for them, like 1/2 an egg or a TBLS of yogurt. (I have very small dogs) Dinner might be something like the following: 

Chunks of grass fed, organic, free range beef, (80%) a blob of spleen (10%) and a tiny part of a chicken wing. And 1/2 tsp of lightly steamed, pureed vegetables. (which actually alters those percentages a little) A squirt of Icelandic sardine/anchovy oil and perhaps a pinch of turmeric and 1/2 tsp of green lipid muscle powder. Besides the fish oil, those supplements are probably unnecessary. I just like to add them. 

Another meal might be some pieces of a fresh, whole sardine that I keep in the freezer. Not canned. They get this or mackerel once or twice a week. Those times I do not add the fish oil. I alternate the liver and other kind of organ (kidney, lung, spleen, so forth) daily. So one day they get liver, the next another organ. 10%. 

Another meal might be made from chicken gizzards and hearts (considered muscle meat, not organ) They would get a small bone, usually chicken as they're flexible enough for my tiny dogs. 

Anytime I don't have enough of one kind of meat out of the freezer, if there's left over from the night before, I'll give them both. They might get for one meal some goat meat and some pork, along with a small piece of bone and whatever small amount of meat is on that, their organ meat and a tiny bit of vegetables. 

If they're poop is too hard, I increase the organ a little or even more muscle meat and/or lessen the amount of bone for that meal. Or increase the vegetable matter. Over all, they have good consistency in their poo and do very well.

I have lots of variety of meats and organs, not so much variety in the bones I give, which doesn't really matter. 

People with big dogs or you might say most people get the balance over a week or so of time, not each meal. I was having trouble with consistency in their bowel movements so I went this route and it works very well. 

As far as a pre made mix, maybe someone else will chime in on that. I do use Nature's Variety pre made frozen on occasion when someone is "baby-sitting" or if I haven't had time to prepare their meals ahead of time. So I keep a bag on hand. 

That probably doesn't really answer your question. But that's all I know. Good luck.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I am not an expert, but it looks reasonable to me apart from the huge quantities! I like to give my dogs their RMBs whole, which for my toys means mainly chicken wings and riblets. I therefore use less ground chicken when making up batches of food, and I watch the amount of bone they get in the various foods - 10-20% by food weight is about right. If the chicken in the recipe is ground up wings and necks etc, and the other RMBs are also high in bone, the bone content could end up a lot higher than 20%.

I also prefer to feed oily fish rather than fish oil, and feed tripe as a separate meal - that way only some of the meals stink of tripe! The organ meat component should be about 50% liver, preferably beef; the amount of vegetables looks rather high for my dogs, especially if they are green and leafy (healthy, but too much gives mine diarrhoea) or starchy (fattening). I use about 8oz veg to a total of 6-7lbs meat and fish, which seems to suit my dogs.


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## TeamPoodle (Aug 10, 2015)

Thanks FJM and Poodlebeguiled for your insight! 

Yes, it is a huge quantity, I was planning on making only half or 1/4 of the recipe. The ground chicken doesn't have bones, so the total bone content would be around 10-20% (the RMB portion listed would be approx. 20% of the recipe, but obviously that's not all bone, there's meat on there too). She said that about 3x a week she'll feed her dogs RMB whole instead of the ground up mixed food.

If the recipe doesn't have big red flags for you guys, I think we'll start with this but lower the vegetable content. I love how Poodlebeguiled has a formula figured out and just gives a little bit of this and that every day, but honestly that approach gives me a headache (I'm the kind of person who can't cook without a recipe). This would be the end goal, but we've got to start somewhere .

How many times a week do you feed tripe?
Where do you find fresh/frozen sardines and mackerels?


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

If the math works out to approximately 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% organ (1/2 liver) then it doesn't raise red flags. You can also watch the poop. That's a big event around here. _"Oh! You're pooping? Wait! I wanna see!" _lol. I want to make sure they're not straining and that it isn't too hard or like a rabbit pellet. I also watch for excessive mucus or too loose. Sometimes it isn't right. But most of the time it is just fine. I think the neighbors might see me sometimes bending over and examining the poop and telling whichever dog it is, "Now _that's _a perfect poop!" Hahaha. When I started out, I gave too much bone and Matisse, my white Poodle had white poop. So, I quickly got that fixed because too long a time of too hard poop can cause an impaction or blockage and that's really dangerous. 

I found that feeding a balanced meal each day with the correct ratios works out better for these teensy dogs of mine. I can see maybe a bigger dog having a higher tolerance for amounts of things...not sure though.

I feed tripe every day. I have it cut up already in small bite-sized pieces and each dog gets about 3 or 4 little chunks. It's already perfectly balanced for calcium and phosphorus. It is truly an amazing addition with all kinds of benefits. The stink doesn't bother me much at all anymore and they gobble up their food pretty fast. The Stink On Tripe- For Your Dog - Dogs Naturally Magazine But you can feed it as a whole meal once a week. I just find that keeping some things more evenly dispersed seems to work better with their digestion.

I get that (because raw green tripe is incredibly hard to find unless it's ground or in a can) at this site: https://hare-today.com/ It is also where I get my sardines and fish oil. I also ordered that green lipid muscle powder and some other meats and organs from them, along with some dried trachea for treats to chew on. It's a good store and very good service. This time of year, as it gets hot may present a problem with shipping long distances, as the ice she packs in there may not last long enough. I ordered enough tripe to get me through summer. I also shop at Asian markets for other interesting things. And look for good deals in the grocery stores when I'm there...things that are about to expire. They're fine. 

It's not that hard the way I do it. I've got bins in my freezer. One is labeled Specialty muscle meat and the things I have in there are listed. Then there's chicken muscle meat in a bin. A bin for specialty meaty bones (not chicken) And one for chicken bones. And one for fish. I put baggies with one or two meals-worth of liver (chicken and beef, but mostly beef) and lamb and beef kidney, spleen, beef lung etc in a shelf on the door. And down below is a large area with a little gate thing where my storage is...where things I haven't broken down or packaged in small packages yet. And somewhere on a shelf is a little stack of little plastic containers with veggie mixture in it. Each afternoon, I examine what's in my fridge in the kitchen. What do I need for tomorrow, I ask myself. Hmm, no more liver, no more tripe. But there is a baggie of beef and a duck foot. Okay, so I go to my freezer and get those things I'm missing for a complete meal and put them in there to thaw for the next day. (or sometimes 2 days) I keep those baggies that are in the fridge in an 8x8 metal cake pan so they don't touch the shelves, just in case. Sometimes the tops of the baggies get germs so I keep those from touching anything. I use gloves when I handle the meat because otherwise I have to wash my hands several times during the prep so I can touch something else. That makes it easier. It takes me about 10 minutes sometimes to fix their food in their bowls an put a couple towels in their crates so they can eat. Another 5 minutes to wash the cutting board and utensils with hot, soapy water, dry and put away.

Good luck!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I am a lot less organised than PB - and don't have as much freezer space! Mine get some raw, some cooked. When I started several years ago I got a large batch of small freezer containers on eBay - the chinese take-away type, but the right size for meals for my dogs and cats. Because everything is frozen in servings all the cleaning up is done at the time of preparation - the meals are tipped into bowls and halved, and the containers just get rinsed and put through the dishwasher. 

I buy supermarket chicken wings, cut them in half, and pack four pieces to a container - that does a meal for the two dogs and the two cats. I get human grade dog mince (80% meat, 10% organ, 10% bone) from a localish supplier, mainly beef, lamb and some chicken. They get that either raw when I first defrost a batch, or cooked (5lbs meat simmered with 8oz or so mixed vegetables, packaged up in 3-4oz portions with most of the veg in the dogs' meals). The same supplier has mixed ground chicken and salmon and another local store has bags of frozen tripe chunks, both of which which I defrost just enough to portion up. If there is anything suitable on offer when I am shopping it is bought, chopped, portioned and frozen - one meat or mixed, depending what is available. I have cans of sardines as a stand by, and scrambled eggs with toast are served if I forget to defrost a meal and they can't wait for the microwave. If the dogs are getting a tad plump I add more green beans to the cooked mix and reduce all the portion sizes slightly.

I don't use any supplements in their food, but they get a daily dose of PlaqueOff, which is kelp based.

I take a couple of boxes out of the freezer in time to defrost for the next meal, with an approximate rotation around the chicken wings, cooked meals and tripe (the cats don't eat tripe!) and fish a couple of meals a week. And, of course, there is the Great Poo Watch, although I have to be careful not to overcompensate in the other direction, especially when it comes to liver and green vegetables...!


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## West U (Jul 30, 2014)

Sounds like a lot of work to me. My raw (partial raw I guess) is much simpler, cut up frozen raw chicken, raw frozen turkey necks cut into 1 inch peces, some dehydrated tripe for snacks instead of bisquits, a small bit of kibble, veges and fruit left from what I make for lunch or dinner. They love yogurt too.


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