# OK - All You RAW People...



## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

I'm guessing that it's no coincidence that my store posted about this product on Facebook just this morning. It's quite the deal! I'm intrigued by it so I look forward to hearing others chiming in.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I have fed Molly HK and unfortunately, although she ate it, she wasn't crazy about it because of the veggies in it!(she picked out and discarded the sweet potatoes) And she didn't seem to like the texture....I had to mix stinky canned food into it.... so after I finished the boxes ( got a good deal at the time) I just went to raw meat and she always eats that! LOL!


P.S. I also tried the Sojo's and she did like that a little more, but still was not really into it!


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

Dehydrated raw is like the poor man's raw. My dogs love raw and they wouldn't even touch this food. Be careful not to buy too much, in case your dog doesn't like it.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

Honest Kitchen is a good food, but it is a dehydrated food - cooked. It is not any form of raw. This is in contrast to freeze dried raw foods like Sojos or Grandma Lucys. If you want to feed a raw food but not deal with the blood, you'd want to feed a freeze dried raw food.


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

Thanx, all for your experience. 

I'm not really sure what I want to feed him. Anything to get him to eat more than a cup and a bit a day. He dropped from his usual 45 lbs to 37 last summer, and now I'm doing my durndest to keep him steady at 40.

He doesn't seem to like the HK that much, but then Mr. Picky never likes anything that much...


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

They tend to like freeze dried raw better than dehydrated food. You could also try Ziwipeak.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

I know a lot of sport dog people who feed THK, but my guys never cared for it. If "Love" isn't working for you, you might try the base mixes - they're dehydrated veg mixes, and then you add your choice of protein. You don't have to deal with feeding organ meat and all the gross stuff that goes with raw. I think you can stick to regular out whatever meat people eat (I'm veg, so I have no idea, but I think they're not super bloody).


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

I'm not a huge fan of HK, plus it's pretty pricey for what you get...basically dehydrated kibble and veggie heavy. You could try a freeze dried raw or a raw grind like Blue Ridge Beef or order stuff from My Pet Carnivore...keep it in a pan and there won't be blood in your fridge. Have you tried just giving him some raw bits and bites to see if he likes it?


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

I think Tonka has been given chicken backs. I bet he would prefer a thigh to that alleged raw


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

I make home cooked for the girls and go to great lengths to make sure it's balanced, but I always keep THK base mix on hand. My girls love it, and it comes in very handy for those days I can only cook up some meat for them. It's also a product I use more during the summer when we spend so much time at the lake, throw some meat on the bbq for them, add THK base mix and you have a balanced diet.


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## StormeeK (Aug 3, 2015)

Frank, I've thought about Tonka since you posted months ago about him losing weight. I do not claim to have any answers but I do use Honest Kitchen. Like CM said the dehydrated is not raw but is a cooked dehydrated meat. My guys ( std poodle and GSD ) think this is just ok.

However, when I use the Honest Kitchen base mix called Kindly this is a different story. This is the one you either add cooked or raw meat to it. My guys absolutely love this ( I do cooked chicken breast, gizzards, hearts, liver, ground beef, beef heart, liver, etc. ). My poodle isn't real picky but will slowly come to eat unless he smells that I am mixing the Kindly with real meat; he actually come running and stares until I put it in the bowl.

Now I know you have visions of you and Tonka sipping a meal from the same bowl  but maybe it is worth a try? 

I just wish the best for both of you!


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

So many 'quotes' I should include here. Y'all make me smile.

I picture all you women completely at home in the kitchen, thawing and boiling and simmering, feeding yourselves, hubbies and kids... all effortlessly. 

Moi?? I'm one of those bachelors that would sooner starve than cook. Not exactly dangerous with a stove, but not at all comfortable around one. The burger joints and the Mr. Sub in town know me by name.

It seems that people in here who know have labeled HK healthy. That's good to know. I set out a bowl of it last night and he didn't touch it. I'll let him think about it for the day and set it out again tonite when he's bound to be hungry.

It will wind up incorporated into his mixture of kibble and wet somehow. I won't throw it out, but so far, I won't rush out and buy more. I will look at freeze dried RAW. Or chicken backs 'breaded' with HK... hmmmm.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

Lol. The only cooking that happens around here is Blue Apron and...it's my husband doing the cooking! I feed mine commercial raw patties that I pop in the fridge the night before feeding. Some brands even come with each patty in their own individual plastic shrink packaging! You literally just peal apart the plastic and pop it into the bowl. Tucker's and Darwin's and I think Bravo Balance do that. Totally eliminates the blood mess and it would probably be super enticing to Tonka!


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## StormeeK (Aug 3, 2015)

The only real cooking that goes on in my kitchen is for the dogs.  My husband finds this so funny because he knows I dislike cooking most of the time. I will cook all kinds of things for dogs and of course they never complain! They don't care if the meat is too tough and chewy.

It is embarrassing to admit but we eat out at the SAME restaurant at least 4 times a week. Everybody from the owner to all waiters know us.

I know there are some people on here who sound like amazing cooks, but I'm not one of them and neither is my husband!


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

Countryboy said:


> I picture all you women completely at home in the kitchen, thawing and boiling and simmering, feeding yourselves, hubbies and kids... all effortlessly.


Psh, I had an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel with cheese and some leftover chips and salsa for dinner lol. Thawing, boiling, simmering dog food...no thanks! I literally get a few days of food out of the freezer and put it in cake pans in the fridge, then each day I dump some in a bowl and put bowl and dog outside (+ bowl and cat in the bathroom so I don't get a cat eating a chick on my bed). The most effort I put forth is repacking 40 lb cases of meat every few months


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

Well on it's own, HK is a bust with Mr. Picky. He hasn't eaten since Thursday afternoon when he finished the last of his usual kibble and wet mixture. The HK has been offered since then, but remains untouched. 

Tonite I'll throw in the usual 680 gram *well over a pound* can of wet. Cheap stuff from Giant Tiger but he will eat it. And we carry on from there. 

I'm glad to have this thread for all your suggestions... and I'll be keeping them in mind. But you've destroyed my pre-conceived image of y'all as Julia Childs with dogs.  lol


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

CB I think I'd try anything just to get him interested in eating. If you have a crockpot (if not stovetop) just put some stewing beef and water in there and try using it as a tasty topper for hk or kibble. It's easy and might work for you and him.


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## BrooklynBonnie (Jan 16, 2015)

Maybe the frozen raw would work? My picky eater, Mochi, is nothing but skin and bones, and for the whole first year of her life I was constantly asking the vet how to get her to eat. She would leave her breakfast kibble in the bowl all day and around 7pm eat about half of it. Some days she wouldn't eat at all. She had hunger pukes constantly, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine. I tried freeze-dried raw bits mixed in the kibble, but she would just eat the freeze-dried bits and leave the kibble.

I tried canned, and she liked it at first and then stopped eating that too. I finally got something she scarfs down - Nature's Variety Instinct Frozen raw. I buy the bites whenever possible because it is beyond easy to serve. I use a coffee mug to scoop the bites and then leave them out for about 45 min to thaw in a bowl or on a plate. Then dump into doggy bowl and serve. Sometimes, if I remember, I will put a scoop in the fridge, covered, overnight, so it takes less time in the morning.

And she now eats her dinner kibble more consistently. To be honest, I may be slightly underfeeding her the breakfast raw, but it seems like she's more eager to eat her kibble for dinner, though still takes about an hour to eat it and usually leaves a little in the bowl when time's up. And the few times I've been out of frozen raw for breakfast and had to serve kibble, she ate it right away like she does the raw. 

The downside; now Mochi won't let us sleep in because she wants her breakfast. :argh:


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I am a domestic goddess! Picture me, perfectly coiffed, exquisitely dressed, ever smiling, wooden spoon in one hand and iPhone in the other, as I simmer, stir, add a pinch of this and a touch of that while pulling off multi million pound deals and raising a family of perfect children and perfect dogs, all at the same time! It is total fantasy, of course, but who am I to wreck a man's dreams?!


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Countryboy said:


> What do you think of this?
> 
> I picked up exactly this box the other day. Only 'cos it was a less than half-price promo... so I thought I'd try it. Dehydrated RAW... hmmmm.
> 
> ...



I feed a balanced, raw diet. I would not STAND for blood in my refrigerator! I am very careful of cleanliness. Does this look like a disgusting kitchen? Or fridge? LOL.

See? No blood dripping onto the shelves. haha. See that little 8x8 cake pan on the lower shelf? That's where their dinner for tonight is.



Their dinner for tonight is chicken, spleen and chicken feet (toes). There's a little container of mixed veggies, steamed and pureed, which I don't regularly feed but I am experimenting, so there it is thawing. And they get a little squirt of sardine/anchovie oil from a pump bottle I get from Hare Today Gone Tomorrow, online. That's the only supplement they get.



I would not do this if there were no way to do it with sanitation. I am a fairly picky clean freak. Not extreme I guess, but use clean technique I learned not only from my mother, but from being in the medical field. lol. And what's more relevant is most people fix food for themselves that starts out raw. haha. It's just basic. 

There's a pork roast in that crock pot for my daughter's b-day dinner tonight. Cooked food for people on the right, raw food prep for dogs on the left and never the tween shall meet. 



I can almost guarantee no pickiness with a raw food, natural diet. My dogs will refuse at times (not always) store bought food. But the day they refuse their raw is the day they're whisked off to the vet. 

The only work involved is when I first get the meat and have to chop it up and bag and label it and put it in the freezer. Otherwise...not a terrible lot of work. And very little blood. Well, it depends I guess. So you never fix yourself a rib eye steak for the bbq or catch a fish and clean it? How can your name be Country boy? LOL. Maybe with practice, you can desensitize and counter condition yourself to not being squeamish about a little bit of blood and mess. Or maybe it's just too much work. It is I guess. It does take time to prepare things for the freezer but only occasionally. Once that job's done, it's just grabbing something for dinner and putting it in their bowls. 

So I hope you figure out something for your dog that she'll like and that is healthy and balanced. Good luck. Don't trust commercial food stuffs. They don't care about your dog. They care about making money. Feeding a home diet of human food, at least you know what's going in, at least to a pretty good extent. Eating should be one very enjoyable thing for dogs. So if my dogs don't like something, I _would_ cater to them and not hold out for too long because sometimes there's a good reason they don't like it.


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

I know it's odd PBG but the blood or anything raw is tough for me, yes, even food I prepare for DH and I turns my stomach until it's cooked. I would be a vegetarian except for the fact that I do love a good steak, lol.


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

DH and I took one look at the box of Honest Kitchen and decided to give it a miss. I'm glad we did. But we don't have a picky eater just a slightly iffy stomach. Having a picky dog sounds rather torturous... I sure hope you can find something he likes consistently.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Caddy said:


> I know it's odd PBG but the blood or anything raw is tough for me, yes, even food I prepare for DH and I turns my stomach until it's cooked. I would be a vegetarian except for the fact that I do love a good steak, lol.


Haha...my daughter is a little that way. But she does like a good rib eye steak and she gets over it just for that. lol. Me...I grew up on gross. I've had horses and other animals most of my life and dealt with bloody gashes and disgusting mess all these years. And like I said, was in nursing and again...bloody wounds, surgery, and all kinds of grossness. So, it doesn't faze me at all. So I forget sometimes that it is within the realms of possibility that not everyone has as tough a stomach. Oh, and I fished for years, killing, cleaning, gutting. (well, I often got my son to do the killing. I didn't like that part) Yep...gross. But as long as you can get over it enough to have your favorite steak...I guess that's the important thing. :amen:


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

fjm said:


> I am a domestic goddess! Picture me, perfectly coiffed, exquisitely dressed, ever smiling, wooden spoon in one hand and iPhone in the other, as I simmer, stir, add a pinch of this and a touch of that while pulling off multi million pound deals and raising a family of perfect children and perfect dogs, all at the same time! It is total fantasy, of course, but who am I to wreck a man's dreams?!


Great image... Martha Stewart with Poodles. I'll stick with that. 

He's pestering me now for food. I'll give him another couple of hours and then mix a can of wet in with that HK. He'll be good and hungry by then. 

He seems to like this stuff. He gets it mixed with TOTW, or BB, or some other decent kibble. I change it up all the time. 

Tri-V Pet foods Canada Chilliwack BC.
Tri-Natural - LEAN CUTS - BEEF.
Ingredients: Fresh ground lean beef steak and roast meat, beef liver and kidney, carrots, vegetable gums, calcium, vitamin and mineral supplements, and water sufficient for processing.
Moisture 84.5% MAX
Protein 10.4% MIN
Fibre .2% MAX
Ash .9% MAX
Fat 6.3% MIN


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## aasteapots (Oct 6, 2013)

We love honest Kitchen. It is a staple of Coals diet.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

OK Countryboy, I have to ask you. What do you really love to eat? What if there were a picky manager in charge of your food that said you couldn't have what you wanted because they didn't like the look of it or approve. So they kept trying to feed you stuff you didn't like. Instead of listening to you, they just kept asking other people how to make you eat what you didn't like? And so you didn't starve you occasionally gagged some of it down.

And along came someone else who listened to you and said: Hey, I will let you have what you like to eat all of the time! And I also will love you and let you sleep in my bed, and do the sports you love, and hey, what else do you want?

My spoo lets me know he loves what he gets! He goes crazy over his food and loves me to bits. This morning he had a raw chicken leg quarter, with a side of strawberries and some high quality cod liver oil. Tonight he will have raw beef soup bone with a lot of meat on it, plus half of a cooked sweet potato. He will eat it all and chew on the bone for awhile. Then he will come to me, I will wipe his face with a wet washcloth, and then he will go drink some water. Then, with a clean face he will bring me a towel so I can put it between me and the back of the couch, and he will snuggle up and love me while I write you a suggestion.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I'm sure Country boys dog loves him to bits too, just like all our dogs love us to bits. They're just like that no matter what we feed them. lol. Having a weak stomach would be hard to feed raw. I don't know how one could get around that exactly other than a slow conditioning somehow. I do hope something is found that Gracie will love. I don't know if commercial raw is any better than other commercial foods. I'm skeptical but do keep a bag of Nature's Variety on hand for when I have to have someone take care of the dogs once in a while. Only just lately, Maurice has decided he doesn't go for that stuff. I keep some canned on hand too. But again...sometimes they eat it and sometimes they leave some or all of it. They've gotten kind of eh-hem..._picky. _ I even have a little TOTW for treats and when my son's dog comes over. They actually like that. I just give them a piece often when they come when I call them in from outside. 

My dogs' dinner tonight was beef heart, pork liver, raw green tripe, 1/2 egg each, drizzled over their food, part of a chicken bone and a squirt of sardine/anchovy oil... They were ecstatic. They are never picky with this kind of food.

So, if you have a picky dog that doesn't love the food, I recommend looking into feeding fresh human food and you can find out how to do it so it's balanced. It's not that hard...sure seemed over whelming at first though. But it all levels out. It is more work for sure. So, maybe it's just not in the cards for you. But I sure hope you find something she'll really love because that would be a bummer eating stuff you really don't cotton to but have to in order to avoid starving.


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

Tonka's my buddy. We don't cuddle... but we look after each other.  

He's getting up in age these days tho. Since his 13th, I've been mulling over us gradually morphing into more care and spoiling for him. But I'm not there yet. 

Anyway, we're back to roughly what he would eat before... but a little less kibble. He seemed to relish it. He free-fed on it thru the nite and this morning. The Tri-V Lean Cuts seems to be a better food than I thought... so I can keep him on it as long as we like. 

Our little adventure with HK is over...


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## Verve (Oct 31, 2016)

I weaned my first litter of puppies onto Honest Kitchen. I loved that it was easy to make a slurry with goat milk. What I didn't like is that it was very expensive AND I noticed that it looked coming out a lot like it looked going in! It has lots of fancy veggies and fruits, but I got the sense they weren't really being digested, hence the similar appearance on both ends. I also am not a flaxseed fan, and most kinds of HK have a lot of it.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I just realized I'm making a nice and easy transition into dementia and called your dog Gracie. Why didn't you correct me??? At least I didn't call Eric's dog Tonka, right? :afraid:


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

Poodlebeguiled said:


> I just realized I'm making a nice and easy transition into dementia:


- pfffft - Yup! You and me both... 

I put it down to the too much that's stashed in our minds. I use that excuse with my daughter regularly.


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