Twister was eating cooked chicken and rice because of an intestinal infection for 5 days, from there he went right into raw and did just fine

I cant do the whole stuff either BTW ! This is super super EASY and not gross at all ! Since you asked "how" you feed the prepackaged stuff ...Here is what I do :

I have a disposable ziploc container ( that I reuse a zillion times ) that I keep in my fridge . I take out a few patties from the freezer and put in that ziploc container in the fridge . They thaw out in about 24 hrs in the fridge. I just break up a patty in their bowl and they GOBBLE it up ! thats it ! After I feed them I then put the next days frozen patties in the ziploc container and they are ready for the next day




Roxanne & Layla

and I am not really concerned about the recall .I am a NV retailer and spoke with NV and my rep in depth . Its more for humans than for dogs . Their stomachs can handle bacteria , humans cant . Like Jen siad, its a voluntary recall and they are now using HPP which is a new process used to pasteurize (sp?) the raw food so that its safe for humans to handle .

Layla is 10 months old and 37 lbs and she gets 2 and 1/4 patties per day (thats about 18 oz/day ) . Every brand will have a feeding guide and each brand is different in the amounts to feed


Roxanne & Layla

n/m

I feed Twister 1/2 a Nature's Variety patty morning & night along with my own raw...which can be any other meat (venison, pheasant, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, salmon, sardines, tripe, etc.) but I do all ground, no whole bones, the bone & organ is ground in some of it

plus I also add veggies, fruits, cottage cheese, yogurt, egg, or a holistic grain free canned food to keep things interesting (and for my own satisfaction, the dog obviously doesn't need it)LOL

and both Dixie & Twister get Nupro joint supplement that has vitamins, minerals and pribiotics

so I can respect a company that can step up to the plate and voluntarily recall a product on a "better safe than sorry circumstance"....the 2nd recall was the company saying - "you know, in 2nd thought, we'd rather just take all chicken product off the market and start fresh with our new processing" just to be safe...

you should not feed both at the same time. The kibble takes a VERY long time to digest, and that would force the raw to sit there for an extended period, and that would have the potential for the bacteria to be an issue.
I do feed mine uncooked ground beef, as long as there's nothing added to it. Maybe once a week or so.
There are some differences in wild wolves, the ancestors of our domestic dogs, and our domestic dogs, but not so much that bacteria is a concern. A lot of the differences are in how they evoloved to GET the food. Wolves have had to fend for themselves, so they have bigger skulls for advanced intelligence in coordinated hunting, bigger muzzles, bigger teeth, and much stronger bite strength, longer legs, and they have receptor cells in their stomachs that prevent overeating and bloat that domestic dogs do not. Domestic dogs formed partnerships with humans who provided them food already killed and cut for them. The commercial dog food industry is relatively new, when you consider humans have had domesticated dogs for 14,000 years!
Food moves through a dog's digestive system very fast, much faster than a human's, and their stomach pH is much lower, very acidic. Bacteria doesn't get a chance to grow. When you feed food in a very easily digestible form, they are able to get the maximum nutrition out of it, which strengthens their whole immune system, which makes them even further able to have enough 'good' bacteria that the bad kind cant' take hold. Plus if you eliminate all the stuff their digestive system was not designed to digest(like plant material and chemicals), it is able to perform at an optimal level, without adding extra stress on their pancreas, liver, and kidneys. Which makes it even harder for things like bad bacteria and even parasites to take hold. It is a win-win situation!


Cathy
when she first came home

and I actually did try it once, and it was not pretty. Won't be doing that again anytime soon.(you can read about it on the med board)
The pre-made frozen worked very well for us, but it does have un-necessary veggies in it that I just didn't want to pay for. The Primal is $5 a pound, I can get meat from the grocery store WAY cheaper than that.
We used the grinder until it broke, then we started cutting it. That actually works very well. My husband takes the meat cleaver and chops the bone-in breasts and the dogs eat the chunks. We put it in their bowl just like any other food, so there is no mess at all. The boneless meat is even easier, just cut it. If you were going to cook it, you'd cut it anyways, we just eliminate the cooking part.
Tonight we all had boneless pork, the dogs got theirs raw and ours was cooked on the grill.
The guideline no matter where you read it seems to all say feed between 2-3% of their ideal adult bodweight. For Audrey, at 15 months old and spayed, 2% is plenty. For my 13 year old lady dogs, they get a bit less than 2%, and the perpetually skinny one looks great and the one that puts on weight so fast looks great too. The perpetually skinny one won't eat much more than that, and the puts on weight one gains it quickly if she gets more than that. They both have way more energy now, and their arthritis has greatly improved.
All 3 dogs LOVE it. Go crazy over it. The skinny one has terrible teeth, so hers has to be super chopped, or ground. She actually LOVES the Primal, but like I said at $5 a pound, and some of it veggies, it is just too much as the only thing they eat. I still plan to keep Primal grind, which is meat,organ, bone only, in my freezer. I just haven't gotten to the store yet to get it. It's 40 mins away and I have been very occupied with my pregnant daughter, she's been sick and in the hospital once a week for 3 weeks now.
I do give glucosime, omega 3 supplements alternating between cod liver oil and norwegian fish oil, and powdered probiotics. I just ordered some kelp powder too.
I can't see ever feeding my dogs anything else. The improvement in them was profound.


Cathy
when she first came home

also, do you feed uncooked ground beef?? Is it considered safe to do so? When it comes to raw food of any kind, I worry about bacteria. I know wild dogs eat raw meat, but their GI systems have evolved over a zillion years for doing so. I worry that domesticated dogs have de-evolved in that respect, and don't have immune systems that are as strong.





ALL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY ME ARE MY PROPERTY, ARE COPYRIGHTED UNDER FEDERAL LAW, AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT MY WRITTEN PERMISSION. ANY INCOME MADE OFF OF MY PHOTOS AT ANY TIME MUST BE IMMEDIATELY REMITTED TO ME.






And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

than with any other kind of food. If you feed you own meat, you will just have to pay attention to the recalls on meat intended for humans.

Cathy
when she first came home

about 1 inch thick. I usually cut it up into chucks (using a knife and fork) and put it in their dog dish. My husband just chunks it up using his fingers. I always feed my dogs seperate. The consistency is different depending on the protein you are feeding. I feed Beef, Venison, Chicken and just got Bison to try. They also have lamb, rabbit and I can't remember what else. The rabbit is more expensive. Sometimes you will find small chunks of carrot or bone.

n/m

So they get 1/2 pattie 2 x a day (each) and right now they are also getting 1/2 c green beans each 2 x day. There are 12 patties per pkg so I go through a pkg every 6 days and they average $25 a pkg.

I can't do a hunk of meat either....yuck....and I still can't do bones like that and probably never will. I do give them raw beef and bison bones to chew on.

The recall didn't worry me at all, but I haven't fed the chicken since and it was all pulled. My store doesn't even have chicken back in yet. They (Natures Variety) are evidently going to do a different machine to process the chicken.

Dogs don't have the same digestive system as a human (much shorter) what goes in comes out much faster, so my understanding is that ecoli is not a concern like it would be in humans.

Bravo has one. I don't know how it compares to Bravo exactly though...

Gretl eats a pound of ground chicken each meal. She burns it all off... technically, I should be feeding her a little less, but she was looking scrawny!


Website ::: Blog ::: It's Not Over 'Til It's Grover
All photos and designs above copyright Salty Grapes Photography.

what flavors do you feed and is this recall something that is a regular concern with raw food? It would seem so, being that it's raw...