# Help convincing DH to try feeding raw



## all that jazz (Feb 6, 2011)

My husband was also against feeding raw initially. Mainly because he is a gourmet cook and wanted to cook for them. However we were finding they did not always want to eat what he made. Now I feed them prepackaged raw which is not messy or gross at all. I use mainly Orange County and sometimes Stella and Chewey. Very easy to measure out. It's usually cold from the refrigerator (I put it into a container every night, taken from the freezer for their day's rations.) It thaws within 10 minutes (the Orange County) ones and they lap it up and Zoe is a picky eater. Nothing to clean bowl and we're done for that meal. When my husband saw how much they liked the food and that they would clean the bowl AND that their poop became small and great consistency for picking up, he was sold. It is sooo easy to use the prepackaged products. I did not contemplate fresh raw because I too felt it would be too messy.


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## Jamie Hein (Aug 17, 2013)

Feeding in a crate solves the mess issue. Here are some talking points to help sway your husband: 

Kibble is unnatural for a carnivore. It takes them longer to digest. 

Kibble is more expensive than purchasing meat/ rmb/ organs (unless you buy Beneful but that can cause health problems)

Raw feeding adds to mental stimulation and helps clean teeth

Dogs lack the enzyme amylase to break down carbohydrates which are in kibble

And if he likes to read just show him a few good raw feeding websites:

Raw Fed Dogs - Natural Prey Model Rawfeeding Diet

The Many Myths of Raw Feeding


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## Maggie B (Jul 8, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestion all that jazz, unfortunately I think prepackaged raw would be just too expensive for us, Mila is a 45lb standard, and although I haven't looked into those specific brands, based on calculations of other brands we'd be spending way too much, and that definitely won't help to convince DH!

Thanks Jamie Hein, the crate suggestion is a great idea, do you clean the crate after each feeding or once in a while? Mila has a bed and blankets in her crate, I'm assuming I'd take all of that out for feeding time. We do have another slightly smaller crate, maybe I could devote that to just feeding...hmm. I've hit him with most of the points you mentioned, but I'll just have to keep trying to drill them in! He does like to read, so maybe letting him look through everything may be better than trying to explain it to him. I read Tom Lonsdale's book "Work Wonders" and it was a great resource on raw feeding and an easy read and really convinced me, maybe if he reads it himself he'll be more on board. 

I think part of the problem is that changing to raw seems like it will be a daunting task at first (figuring out just what to feed, etc) so it would be nice to have DH's support rather than trying it alone!


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## spindledreams (Aug 7, 2012)

For his messy complaint let him know that many raw feeders use towels to put the meat on. Once the meat is finished the towels get picked up and tossed in a bin reserved for them. When you have enough wash them in hot water with bleach in a load by themselves. 
Ask him if you can try it for just one meal a week. Start with chicken leg quarters and let him see how much she enjoys them. I will warn you it make take her a little bit to actually start crunching away on her first chicken as she may not recognize it as food. The towel thing is really easy to teach. If they move the meat off the towel it gets taken away and set back on the towel. They learn very quickly it has to stay on the towel if they want to eat it. Even if all she gets is that single meal a week you will get some of the benefits of raw feeding and grin if your husband is like my dh he will quickly become the one that brings home the special treats for her like the back ribs dh found on sale and the dogs had a blast with....


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## spindledreams (Aug 7, 2012)

There are a number of groups and sites that can help you get started right. And it can be confusing as there are different types of "raw" feeding. I would check out some of them and see what you feel most comfortable with.


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## Maggie B (Jul 8, 2013)

Thanks spindledreams, I like the idea of trying once a week to see how she does/let DH see how she does. Hopefully it would help convince him of how easy it is and how much she likes it. It would take some of the beginning pressure of getting it exactly right off too. 

You're sure right that it can get a bit confusing. I've been doing a good bit of research and trying to decide what might work best for me, but I think it is something I may just have to dive into and adjust as I go to find the right diet for Mila.


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## Aubrey (May 18, 2013)

As for keeping *her* nice and clean(front legs, ears, etc) while eating, there are lots of clothing options out there. Poodleit makes them or you can make your own. 
I know someone who buys sweatshirts at goodwill and chops the arms off and adds an elastic band at what used to be the shoulder. She keeps her poo's ears fairly short, so she just clips them to each other over her head so they are out of the way. She also feeds on a towel, so she just pulls the "leg warmers" off and tosses them with the towel into the laundry basket specifically for raw feeding laundry.


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## Shamrockmommy (Aug 16, 2013)

Adding a powdered digestive enzyme over the food will increase his digestion and possibly stop stool eating. It works well for my chihuahua, who loves to eat her own poo only. With the enzymes she stops. 

I do partial raw (I mix n match kibble, crock potted/cooked, and raw). I feed raw meaty bones either on the back porch or in crates, and keeps the goo to a minimum, but i prefer the back porch. I just spray the area down with some bleach spray and the hose once in a while. No wildlife issues and we live out in the country with coyotes and foxes.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

You might pick up a copy of Steve Brown's Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet. It may be a bit too detailed for a quick read (Brown is deep into nutrient microanalysis), but he has a couple of meal plans for feeding raw once a week. That's how I started. It was so rewarding to watch the dogs chow down that I quickly went to full raw feeding. 

I will say, though, that it's considerably more trouble than throwing some kibble into a bowl. I get most of my beef free from a local slaughterhouse, heart, tongue, liver, kidney--parts they'd just throw away (good thing, as our dogs are big and eat at least 70 pounds of meat a month). I usually bring home around 50 pounds, and it takes a lot of time to cut up and package that much meat. My dogs also get chicken, turkey, canned fish, some dairy, and vegetables. I use a food processor to grind up and freeze the veggies once a week. 

I haven't found it messy. The dogs eat most of their food in a bowl, and we take them outside to eat the meaty bones. Not a problem unless it's pouring rain, and we just skip those days. You do have to be careful about sanitation, but that's mostly just common sense--wash your hands, clean the counter and sink when you're finished, etc.

Initially my husband wasn't sure about it and said he'd just give them kibble if I was gone for any length of time, but he's so sold on the benefits now that he says I'll have to prepackage/freeze daily portions for each dog so he can continue the real food.


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## Jamie Hein (Aug 17, 2013)

Maggie B said:


> Thanks for the suggestion all that jazz, unfortunately I think prepackaged raw would be just too expensive for us, Mila is a 45lb standard, and although I haven't looked into those specific brands, based on calculations of other brands we'd be spending way too much, and that definitely won't help to convince DH!
> 
> Thanks Jamie Hein, the crate suggestion is a great idea, do you clean the crate after each feeding or once in a while? Mila has a bed and blankets in her crate, I'm assuming I'd take all of that out for feeding time. We do have another slightly smaller crate, maybe I could devote that to just feeding...hmm. I've hit him with most of the points you mentioned, but I'll just have to keep trying to drill them in! He does like to read, so maybe letting him look through everything may be better than trying to explain it to him. I read Tom Lonsdale's book "Work Wonders" and it was a great resource on raw feeding and an easy read and really convinced me, maybe if he reads it himself he'll be more on board.
> 
> I think part of the problem is that changing to raw seems like it will be a daunting task at first (figuring out just what to feed, etc) so it would be nice to have DH's support rather than trying it alone!


I clean the crate if I can see a mess in it but the only time there is a mess is if I feed deer lung which is rare since my cats don't really like it much. 
It is easy to figure out what to feed for me.I follow the 80% muscle meat 10% bone 10% organs rule and used a scale to measure when I first started out. The hard part for me is finding organs other than liver. I switched to wet food, premade raw, and then did the raw food by myself all of this over about 1 month. They loved the premade raw food so I just cut up small bits of chicken and put that in there and once they were eating it all did larger chunks of chicken until I got them chewing on a chicken thigh. Anything they aren't too eager to eat I just sprinkle on freeze dried raw chicken liver. I like the Stewarts pro treat brand.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

You could do what I do and feed a good kibble with raw supplements on top or left overs we've had or cooked chicken or whatever. My dogs haven't had any digestive upsets doing this. I know some people complain their dogs have diarrhea and what not changing up foods, but it hasn't been an issue for us.


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## brownlikewoah (May 3, 2012)

My boyfriend was resistant to raw at first too, but now we both love it. In researching raw the light bulb finally went off for him with the phrase, there is no such thing as dog food. food is food. My two dogs do awesome on raw and I find great satisfaction providing them with the best thing possibly.


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## brownlikewoah (May 3, 2012)

My boyfriend was resistant to raw at first too, but now we both love it. In researching raw the light bulb finally went off for him with the phrase, there is no such thing as dog food. food is food. My two dogs do awesome on raw and I find great satisfaction providing them with the best thing possible.


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## Maggie B (Jul 8, 2013)

Thank you all for the great advice. I've convinced DH to give it a try! One thing that really helped is that last week I found out that the trainer we're using feeds raw. I think DH felt slightly better once he heard of someone he actually knew doing it. 

Now we have to figure out how to start. I'm thinking of slowly introducing chicken quarters or chicken backs. Hoping to start next week!


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## Spoobark (Jul 17, 2013)

Chicken backs are a good start for a spoo, quarters might be better. Necks may be to small and could be swallowed whole, which is a choking hazard. A good size raw beef neck bone is also nice treat to see how Your dog will respond to a raw diet, and will keep him busy for a little while. ...it's funny, no matter how many times you might read that your dog will eat the bones, you'll still be in disbelief when he does. It makes for a nice firm stool that will actually dissolve in your yard much faster than a kibble stool will. Not to mention smells a lot less!!!

I feed raw in the morning and Acana kibble in the evening. The dogs do well on that, and if I run out of kibble then they just eat raw until I get to the store. Fortunately, I haven't ran out of raw yet because I buy it in such large quantities.

Honest Kitchen makes a dehydrated food called Embark (I think), you just add a bit of water and your meat. It (apparently) has all of the nutrients to supplement a raw diet. It takes the guess work out of it a bit. I have however read a few posts on PF that it can cause loose stools, but it might be worth a try.
Good luck!!


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## Maggie B (Jul 8, 2013)

I just wanted to update everyone- Mila had her first chicken leg quarter tonight, she did great! She really seemed to enjoy it. At first it took her a little while to figure out how to get into it, but she finished the whole thing other than some skin I removed for this time. I was amazed when I heard her chew the first small bone, and even more impressed when she took care of the rest of it. Part of me didn't believe she'd be able to do it. She did well with the chewing and didn't try to gulp anything down. We fed her in her extra crate and wiped it down when she was done. She wore an old long sleeve t-shirt while she ate too keep her neat (I'll have to take a picture next time).

For now we're just going to feed her some raw once in a while still keep keeping her mainly on kibble (not at the same time). That's what DH is comfortable with for now, but I'm hoping once he sees how much she likes it and how easy it can be, maybe we can switch to all raw. 

I'm excited! Thanks for all of the helpful advice and encouragement!


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Maggie B said:


> I just wanted to update everyone- Mila had her first chicken leg quarter tonight, she did great! She really seemed to enjoy it. At first it took her a little while to figure out how to get into it, but she finished the whole thing other than some skin I removed for this time. I was amazed when I heard her chew the first small bone, and even more impressed when she took care of the rest of it. Part of me didn't believe she'd be able to do it. She did well with the chewing and didn't try to gulp anything down. We fed her in her extra crate and wiped it down when she was done. She wore an old long sleeve t-shirt while she ate too keep her neat (I'll have to take a picture next time).
> 
> For now we're just going to feed her some raw once in a while still keep keeping her mainly on kibble (not at the same time). That's what DH is comfortable with for now, but I'm hoping once he sees how much she likes it and how easy it can be, maybe we can switch to all raw.
> 
> I'm excited! Thanks for all of the helpful advice and encouragement!


Yeah! I am so happy for Mila (and for you and hubby). I could almost see a grin on her face and a happy tummy too as you described her eating. My spoo is now almost 100% raw (except when I have run out, or occasionally when traveling). 

I just thought I'd say what I do for cleanliness. I taught him to eat his meat on a towel, as someone else mentioned here. That is on the kitchen floor which is vinyl so also easily cleanable if he gets any on the floor. I keep his ears clipped short enough that they don't touch the raw meat. After he eats I wipe his mouth area with a wet cloth, sometimes a dab of pet shampoo if he has really made a mess. Then (this is the amusing part) he drinks his water! It's gotten really funny, if I am not paying close attention when he finishes and wipe his face, he just won't drink his water! Anyway because of that he doesn't get raw meat in the water and any water drips are cleaner. 

I have arthritis and crawling in a crate is not something I do anymore, this is way easier. Happy eating to Mila


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## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

I feed my dog on a towel as well. So easy, nothing to wipe down just throw it in the wash with a little bleach. I don't even put the towel in his crate. I just lay it in the mudroom floor. It is easy to teach them to stay on the towel while eating. When I get his food out he just runs to the towel. I fed both kibble and raw first and had no issue. Swizzle loves his raw and now has quite a discriminating palette. If anyone gives him food with preservatives ect. He spits it out.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

CT Girl said:


> ..... Swizzle loves his raw and now has quite a discriminating palette. If anyone gives him food with preservatives ect. He spits it out.


Yes, my Spoo is the same way. He can detect what meat has had something done to it. I bought him some turkey thighs and he wouldn't touch them. I went back to the store and asked if they had dipped the bird in something to kill germs, or what. They said no, but my lie detector saw the shift in the eyes. When I told them my dog refused it they claimed it was even free range turkey. Well, maybe it was, but I trust my Spoo more than I trust them. 

The same thing happened recently when I was traveling and bought some beef liver for him at a large chain store. He took two bites and spit it out and refused to have anything more to do with it. So I fed him a chicken leg quarter which he gobbled down. I thought maybe he was off liver, but when I got home the next day I gave him liver from a local farmer and he ate it all very contentedly.


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