Right you lovely lot, we going natural

[TobyTeaCosy and Angela]

Hello my dears, after a day of laughing at Alex’s windowsill incident [see this weeks gossip!] I’m down to serious business.  We decided to go natural

THAT’S RIGHT WE GOING NATURAL

I feel quite relieved that we all finally agree on Toby’s diet, the story is:

We went to the vets after Toby’s bout of colitis, not about that, about his itchy bald nose and ears  this has been a problem for about two months now and Toby has had antibi and steroids for about four weeks, it now starting to clear up.  We happy, go to vets, want to stop meds and talk about the colitis and food, vet wasn’t happy that it hasn’t fully cleared up and suggests that we get a biopsy done to check for underlying causes and concerned about his eyes, they been a bit gungy for the eight months he has been with us, goldeneye can help but mainly we just bathe as he seems happy enough. 

This has caused me much consternation as I wanted to get the problem cleared, then give it a while to see if it comes back, but keeping a more close eye on diet, scratching behaviours etc.  I promise you its not about the cost of the biopsy, it just feels a shame to put my scaredy pup through the procedure, I do worry it might be something under the skin, mites etc but the skin scrape last time came back clear, although vet would like to do another scrape to test again.  Am reluctant to go down the allergy testing route too, again because it seems like more hastle to Tobes when he seems to be getting better.

As he isn’t scratting like mad anymore and in principle the hair seems to be growing back I am inclined to keep an eye on it with no meds, what do you lot think?  His nose almost perfect again, ears are patchy but the hyperpig is significantly fading and some regrowth coming in.

So back to food, post colitis chicken and mash made this wee boy super happy, I was so happy watching him enjoy his food after our little scare and so discussed with Alex and as Toby sat so patiently in the kitchen watching me cook his chicken we agreed to give natural a go given it made him so damn happy having yummy food and the Burns is possibly causing some reactions, it just makes sense to us now to keeping him happy and healthy.

We clearly re-reading Bev on a Rant thread, but wondered, anyone recommend a book on feeding natural, just a getting started guide that could help re ideas, portions, nutritian, my eyes getting done in on the computer all day!

Thanks all  :-*

I’m getting big boys food, yippeee  😀 Toby

[xtine]

Am sure Val and Bev can give you loads of advice.. Bev can do you a diet plan too for a donation to Clumber rescue

There is a BARF book by Ian Billinghurst… http://www.barfworld.com/

good for you for giving it a go.. it took me ages to convince R –  we haven’t looked back since –  we love it and Fritz loves it too… good luck hun  :-*

[kizkiznobite]

up his fruit so that the zinc in the diet can be better utilised..

[Anonymous]

There’s another book by Ian Billinghurst called ‘Give your dog a bone’ that i read when i first got Cass. I have a raw food menu somewhere of what Cass has each week i can give you if you need a starting point – obviously you will need to reduce the amounts because it’s for a Rottweiler but it will give you an idea where to begin. It’s really not scary once you get your head round how simple it is.

[TobyTeaCosy and Angela]

Thanks everyone, and thank for the advice re the fruit Bev, that really helpful while we getting it right and he loves his fruit too.  Will check out the books, and the barf website too for some ideas and if it not too much trouble Mark I would like to see an example menu, would need to reduce to a quarter if not more for my pigdog!

Am also interested in food that would or would not suit a terrier so will look into that too, my books are not very well focused on natural.

:-* you all angels

[Anonymous]

For someone coming to a natural diet for the first time then Ian Billinghurst books are well written and easy to understand the most important thing in my view is to remember the diet balances out over the week NOT in a day.
If ever you lose the way apart from asking on here, just think wild dog and what they eat and and how they eat you won’t go wrong.
Are you going natural medicines as well  ;D
A word of caution his skin will still be showing signed of getting better because he has had the steroids it’s early days yet it will possible come back, if it starts too and you want to try the Witchy Woo route give me a shout
Good Luck I am so pleased Toby has shown you what he wants  ;D
Val

[Anonymous]

Angela, have a read through this –

My raw food menu for Cass.

The thing to remember is that everyone has their own versions of what works for them, some use different ingredients in different ways. I used the menu my breeder gave me and just added to it to make it as balanced as I could, while keeping it simple enough to keep on top of.

Other people will have their own ideas and might not use the same ingredients as me. To be honest I don’t think you can realistically give a dog every single mineral, trace vitamin etc, etc, etc, in one meal anymore than you could a human so I don’t try to, I balance it out over the course of a week instead.

Supplements & oils are something I try to use less of if possible by making the meal as balanced as I can – ie, if I give a tin of mackarel in oil once a week then I don’t put a tablesp00nful of oil on the food til a few days later because the fish had enough.

Every other day I use a bone from butchers, rib, back, shoulder, knuckle etc.

Calcium supplements should never be given to dogs on raw diet because the bone content in their food provides enough & too much can cause problems aparently.

Supplements I use every day are Flexi Joints  Click Here and every other day I use Kelp tablets and Brewers yeast tablets from Holland & Barratt, and once a week I use a combined capsule containing Omega3 oil & Evening Primrose oil and Zinc called Glossy coat conditioner for bitches – Click here.

Oils I use vary, sunflower oil, linseed, olive etc – just a tablesp00nful every other day over the food. I tend to use whatever is available to me at the time.

Bear in mind that this menu is for maintaining a 32kg Rottweiler, so you need to fiddle about with the amounts to suit your own dog depending on it‘s size. I don’t weigh anything, I just do it roughly. If Cass looks a bit ‘fuller’ then I know to cut down on the amounts.

For me raw feeding is relaxed and easy to follow – I don’t want anything complicated, it’s only complicated if you make it so. Once you get used to the idea that raw feeding is not as complicated as it seems it becomes natural.

I buy my raw foods in bulk from http://www.prizechoice.co.uk and make up each meal the night before so it’s already done ready for breakfast. I use a 400g pack of mince every day as a base to each meal and add other ingredients to it to balance it, (all of which I buy from my supplier in 2kg bags) and what I make up each day is split into 2 meals – morning & night.

Monday

Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, piece of turkey neck, chopped heart, natural yoghurt.

Tuesday

Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, turkey neck, liquidised veg, sardine OR mackeral in oil.

Wednesday

Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, piece of turkey neck, egg yolk, cottage cheese.

Thursday

Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, piece turkey neck, turkey breast meat,  tablesp00nful oil.

Friday

Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, piece turkey neck, small coley fillet, liquidised veg.

Saturday

Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, turkey neck, tripe chunks, natural yoghurt, tablesp00nful oil.

Sunday
Pack of mince, 2 chicken wings, turkey neck, beef chunks, dollop of cottage cheese
—————————————————————————————————–

As you can see from the above there really is nothing to the daily ingredients & you can buy them all already bagged and chopped & delivered to your door. All you have to remember is the supplements, oil & bones added to it which is easy. Most important thing to remember is it is only complicated if you make it complicated.

Don’t be deterred by the introduction of this post as it really is just a rough guide & as I said before, everyone has their own variation of ingredients with raw feeding so if you can’t get one ingredient just substitute it,  it really is very flexible and there is so much info on the net. I had never even heard of raw feeding til I got Cass a year ago and I thought it was really difficult – once you get your head round how simple it is in practice it becomes natural – I can do it with my eyes shut now! :0)

[Anonymous]

Start of the not list  ;D do not give Toby Brewers Yeast

[Anonymous]

Why’s that then?  ???

[kizkiznobite]

he has itchy skin mark…it flares up skin and ear probs

[Anonymous]

Second on the not to list NO red meat that includes Tripe

[SuzAndTheDiva]

Im really really pleased you are going to give it a go. I know exactly how hard it is to see them with bad skin.

Now all I wil say is go slowly, try each thing seperately and watch for signs of reaction. No point rushing or trying two or three things at once – because you will never work out whats causing the reaction. Thats what happened with Honey – a few weeks into raw shes was better, but still the ‘signs’ of stuff not being right kept cropping up. His eyes may well be a reaction to something – thats the first sign I get with Honey that something isnt right. Weepy eyes not gungy as such but her eyes used to run constantly – so her entire face owuld be wet  :-X

Its been well over a year now and im still ‘testing’ stuff. Was hard because was giving lots of fruit – and thats one thing that screws  poor Honeys skin up  ::) I lived and learned lol!

But Bev and Val can really help so never hesitate to ask, and I have a million and one threads on this on the board  😀

[*Nick*]

Good for you Angela

I am seriously, very seriously considering this for Sadie.

and Mark, that is a very useful post.  What is mince? Ground beef?

[Anonymous]

Yes Nick here we call it minced and ground is really fine minced meat

[quote author=*Nick* link=topic=12248.msg236810#msg236810 date=1218996902]
Good for you Angela

I am seriously, very seriously considering this for Sadie.

and Mark, that is a very useful post.  What is mince? Ground beef?
[/quote]

[Anonymous]

I’ve just noticed the censor has changed the word Tablesp00n to tablesthingy, presumeably because it contains the word p00. LOL

[Author]

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