Rosie and Edie go on RAW

[Schnauzenator]

Hi.
I have just popped my Shnau onto a combo diet. I throw her frozen fish (nose to tail) as treats, along with dehydrated liver and heart.
I make a bone broth every 2 weeks adding pulverised eggshells for the entire boil.
I then prepare a few veg for the fridge for the week ... sweet potato, butternut, peas, broccoli, etc (she loves those as frosted treats too) then she gets that with whatever meat my hubby and I eat for the night (raw) with Kelp and salmon oil.
She likes a little porridge and scrambled egg for breakers ... but I also have Pooch and Mutt nibble on hand for a quick, crunchy alternative.
She is a happy pup. Well. I’ve smelled the occasional Uric acid on her - but she was shredded by a Rottweiler a few years ago and she was on serious prophynol (like M Jackson) and morphine and and and and.
I carried her for toilets for months - so I understand her lover/kidneys have been tortured. I do prefer lean turkey and white flaky fish too (but boy, she goes crazy for a frozen sprat!). And a frozen pea. And frozen mango . All in all, I would say that we manage. Looking forward to reading more posts to get some ideas

[Oscar 12345]

Have any of you raw feeders fed pork? I ask because I am going to try Otto on a different raw brand just to give some more variety. I have pretty much decided on Paleo Plus and in their range they do two pork completes one of which has pork offal with very good fat contents. I have heard that some dogs are more sensitive to pork but perhaps it is where there is a high fat content.

[zeta1454]

Have any of you raw feeders fed pork? I ask because I am going to try Otto on a different raw brand just to give some more variety. I have pretty much decided on Paleo Plus and in their range they do two pork completes one of which has pork offal with very good fat contents. I have heard that some dogs are more sensitive to pork but perhaps it is where there is a high fat content.

I have never fed pork to our dogs as I was a bit concerned about the fat content but also the terrible conditions in which so many pigs are reared even in the UK. I know that Paleo Ridge have high ethical standards and so the latter shouldn't be a problem and, if the fat content is not too high, I don't see why the Paleo Plus pork complete would not be fine.

I would be interested to hear how Otto gets on with the Paleo Plus meals actually anyway. I did move our dogs over to the Paleo Ridge range a couple of years back as I was encouraged by their ethical standards regarding the sourcing of meat and their packaging. This was before they offered the Plus meals so they were simply meat completes. For some reason which I could not work out, our dogs did not do well long term on these and lost weight and condition. Eventually just to see if it was something lacking in the diet, I tried them back on Wolf Tucker and they recovered back to normal. The canine chiropractor we take a few of our dogs to commented on the change so it was not just me thinking it! One of our puppy families who have two of our minis also changed from PR (to Honeys) for the same reason. I have no worries over the quality of the meat but wondered whether the lack of added 'nutrients' of oils / vegetables / fruit even at a small level were the cause or whether the PR meat is such good quality or prepared in such a way that the fat content in many of the meals is extremely low and while this may be ideal for some dogs is not the best for others?

Anyway, seeing these new added nutrient meals, it would be good to know how Otto fares with them as I was reluctant to move from PR as we could get it locally too.

[Oscar 12345]

Leigh, thanks for that. That's really interesting and glad I posted this now. The Paleo original range did concern me a little because of the lack of veg and nutrients, I shall certainly watch for any changes with the Plus range, could be the reduced fat content as you say, it is quite a bit less fat than the brand Otto is on at the moment and the Paleo food calculator suggests feeding more than the Cotswold Raw so that would make sense. They seem to use top quality standards which I like too.

[Oscar 12345]

Leigh you might be interested in this article from the nutritionist/Dr who created the Paleo Plus range. https://dogsfirst.ie/what-i-learned-for ... aleo-plus/

[zeta1454]

Leigh you might be interested in this article from the nutritionist/Dr who created the Paleo Plus range. https://dogsfirst.ie/what-i-learned-for ... aleo-plus/

Thank you Julie.
That is a very interesting article with lots of good information generally on food for dogs. It may be an opportunity for me to try PR again for our gang with this enhanced version of their food. I did wonder whether the fact that the people behind the PR company have large breed hunting dogs had meant that the diet as originally prepared suited that kind of breed in comparison with our small/toy breed dogs who are not hunting or running breeds in origin. Not that I believe that different breeds all need different formulations or types of food but that some may suit a certain body type / metabolism / breed origin than others.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing how Otto gets on with the food and may give it a try too. Thanks again for the link

[Oscar 12345]

Leigh, just an update for you on PR. It hasn't gone down very well really. Many of the varieties in the new plus range have tripe in them and whilst Otto has had beef and tripe as one of several varieties it hasn't had the same effect. So it caused soft poop and a stained bottom I'm afraid so I think it is to rich. So back to my previous brand which is fine but was wanting to increase the variety by introducing a new brand. They do a non tripe variety but it is in 1kg qty's and I don't really want to split and refreeze and then add the additional nutrient bit. I will do a bit more research.

[zeta1454]

Leigh, just an update for you on PR. It hasn't gone down very well really. Many of the varieties in the new plus range have tripe in them and whilst Otto has had beef and tripe as one of several varieties it hasn't had the same effect. So it caused soft poop and a stained bottom I'm afraid so I think it is to rich. So back to my previous brand which is fine but was wanting to increase the variety by introducing a new brand. They do a non tripe variety but it is in 1kg qty's and I don't really want to split and refreeze and then add the additional nutrient bit. I will do a bit more research.

Thank you for that, Julie. It is strange that some dogs clearly do very well on PR but there are a number of people with smaller breed dogs that don't seem to cope with it at all. I was the same as you trying a different brand for variety but think I will stick with the Wolf Tucker for now as it seems to suit all our dogs fine