I would love to figure out the best way to put my dog and cats on a raw diet. Short of buying their food from the grocery store I’m not sure the best way to do it.
Check the diet of wolfdogs. They get raw meat blended with vegetables. Looks very delice...
Learn how to trap small critters or learn how to be johnny on the spot to scoop up fresh roadkill.
Feline Nutrition Easy Homemade Raw for Cats
https://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers
Be aware that most cats don’t naturally switch to raw food. It can take several weeks of introduction to the new food.
Feline Nutrition is one of the most respected sources on the internet.
Meow!
My brother owned a couple of retired racing Greyhounds that he fed a raw meat diet. You don't need to feed them Grade A meet. Because of their short, fast digestive system they're able to eat lower grades of meet without problems.
Racing Greyhounds are fed a raw meat diet, mainly because it's cheaper and healthier for their active lifestyle. The dogs also didn't care if the meet was frozen or thawed. One aspect of cooked meat rarely talked about is that cooking meat kills off a lot of the nutrients dogs need, such as in bone marrow.
My brother would vary their diet to include raw chicken/turkey, ox tails, etc., as well as the cheaper cuts of beef. He would also include an occasional raw egg or as a treat, canned sardines.
Keep in mind that a dog/cat is able to eat most any type of bone, including fowl as long as it's not been cooked. Cooking is what makes the bones brittle.
Another benefit to feeding the dog/cat raw meat with bones is that the bones/ligaments/tenons clean the dogs teeth while they eat, so there's no need for teeth-cleaning visits to the vet. My brother's vet was impressed with how clean his dogs' teeth were and how healthy their gums were.
The majority of the commercial dog food contains grain which does two bad things to dogs. First it makes their poop larger in volume and softer. The softer poop means that their scent gland doesn't get squeezed as it should. When the dog eats raw meat with bones, it results in small, hard poop, which squeezes their scent gland as it should. Also, the grains get metabolized into sugar which gives them a lot of extra energy, which can cause behavioral problems. Fed a raw meet diet the dogs are a lot calmer.
If your dog/cats is already eating commercial dog food, the best way is to transition them over gradually. Personally, I think your cats would transition a lot quicker because a lot of cats already eat the prey they kill. Even so, it only takes a couple of weeks.
Here's a web site that discusses the process. See: Transition to Raw Dog Food | Guide
I dont know about cats but I know that your dog will offer advice if you ask the right way.
I grew up in a house that always had bushels of food of various types in the basement. On Friday nights our family would turn out all the lights and light candles then get some popcorn and watch the monster movies. The dog hated to be left out. She would run down in the basement and pick out a giant carrot or an apple or a pear or something and bring it back upstairs so she could eat with us.
Over the years all my dogs have always eaten human food, especially the fat, trimmings, and drainings from our meat. Not a one has ever had heart problems (because those claiming that it hurts dogs are extrapolating a lie the government told to hurt you to their dogs but thats another discussion). I continue the practice of letting them get their own bonuses from bushels or right from the garden. Food scraps from the kids, whatever they pick up from my occasional butcherings, and whatever ground squirrel they catch or road pizza they find seems to keep them happy. I dont mean to mislead you, I do keep a bowl of kibble type food out for them but they hardly ever eat any of it.
Its not just carrots and apples and other things you might have already guessed. One of my dogs had a taste for beets nearly as strong as a woodchuck and she absolutely loved radishes. You could always tell the days she ate a few too many radishes because she emitted enough gas to power NYC for a week. Others learned that they liked to steal squash, acorn type in particular. One might think that the rinds are dangerous but since they are eating them raw there are no big sheets peeling off to cause blockage. Since its raw the gnawing of the ribs punches particles off the ribs about the diameter of the dogs tooth. They seem to be quite happy about it.
Sometimes it takes some time to learn. For example, I know they like spinach after theyve tried it. I had a newfoundland that discovered that he liked it so much that in his old age at our meal times he liked to start with a spinach salad with a drizzle of olive oil.
I had a St Dane that used to take a lot of long walks with me when I was younger. Raspberries grow wild here everywhere to the point that its nearly a sort of weed. She watched me enough times that she just started picking her own berries. Sometimes she would pick a few grapes too. Thats a sure way for your dog to damage their kidneys or so they say. Maybe but the small amount she ate never effected her in any way.
Despite what some people will tell you, and maybe specifically because of the fact, none of the dogs Ive owned ever over ate when they had constant access to food their entire lives. They dont eat until they puke and even the ones that are supposedly prone to stomach problems dont have those problems when they know they have no reason to gorge.
Like so many things, I think much of what we are told is fact is really a lot of BS some “expert” made up somewhere along the line and no one ever stuck their neck out to expose it as the lie it is. Youve probably heard that you can NEVER give a dog onions because they will develop skin problems and terrible itching. Never seen it, my dogs eat onions and garlic. They dont care and they dont have problems. Maybe its an early exposure thing like kids and peanuts. My dogs, like my family, drink milk all their lives and neither the people nor the dogs have had any problems.
Anyway, thats my experience. Good luck.