RAW diet.. anyone care to help me out?

WOLFY!!

Small world.

Anyway. Good information. Something else you can do, if you are not squeemish is go to the live stock auctions and pick up a live animal, and butcher it yourself. It will greatly cut down on both your food bill, and the dogs. But you need to have space, and a good sized deepfreeze.

BARF is a great book for a raw diet for dogs. Good luck :colbert:

Hey Typ!
If I had a chest freezer, I'd definitely do that. So far, the dogs are doing very good on the raw meat and bones. I even noticed the old english sheepdog has CLEAN teeth!!!
It's mostly been chicken(thighs, legs, backs, wings), and some beef. I'll be picking up some organ meat and liver to have that once a week each.

It sounds like you are doing well with it. Good on ya. Mine really seem to enjoy their meals more raw. It almost seemed as if they were just eating to keep themselves going when they were on food.

They do enjoy eating more don't they? When I started raw, I was only going to put our GSD on the diet. He was only about 5 months old at the time. Our other 2 dogs (one has since passed from old age) would get all excited, and then give me this blank look when I put their bowl of kibble down in front of them. So, we put them all on it. The old girl made the most drastic change. Within 3 months she looked like a new dog. She was 11 at the time, and only lived to 13 but I think her quality of life was improved the last 2 years. I think the prior 11 years of crappy food ultimately couldn't be overcome.

Here's a before and after shot of her- the change is dramatic.
Before- tufts of hair falling out, lick sores, stinky fur, stinky breath, dull and itchy all the time.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...rawmidnite.jpg

After- shiny coat (that isn't silver fur- that's sunlight shining off of it), clean teeth, no smell, a change in muscle mass/body composition, and more vigor.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...8z/midnite.jpg

I can't see your pics from my work computer, but will try to remember to check them out when I get home.

But yes, there are a lot of things in meat, that are cooked out when they make kibble. They really seem better off.

Yeah, some people just put them on supliments to give them the extra stuff they need, but I prefer to go the natural route.