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677 Posts
Kaza u r so amazing, words fail me xxAisha, re the pics on the previous page, watch him closely he is a large dog and has the potential to be too heavy for his age, he has a lovely front on him dont be tempted to fill that very large frame in, wait for it all to come, his waist could be a little more of a waist at this age.
I do not believe in feeding some kibble and some raw, unless you are spending a week or so transitioning, simply because one requires a low pH to fully digest anf free the nutrients and the other (kibble) is carb/sugar rich, already digested (doesn't give the stomach anything to do - use it or lose it!) and kibble dog have a stomch pH of around 5+
Re Poogles comment about the cal phos thing, yes when you are feeding a complete there is a worry of creating an imbalance when you supplement the diet with food such as cottage cheese etc, even some doggy treats are heavy imbalanced in supplementary vits and mins. With Raw diets there is little chance of imabalance because the nutrients are in their natural form accompanied by other nutrients so they all work together.
Re the meat and bone ratio I tend to go with at least 25% bone probably more often aroung 30% bone. Check out the carcass ratios of whole small prey eg a whole chicken is 28%- 32% bone, 48% - 51% meat, 12%-14% skin and 7%-8% sep' fat
Chicken wings (which in the UK seems to be what a lot of people go for!) 32% meat and 46% bone and these people are often spouting to new raw feeders that the ratio they need to follow is 80% meat ! (way too much - I doubt even commercially animals are 80% meat!!) 10% Bone 10% organs.
Even a very small prey animal such as a rabbit has skeletal frame of 25%
I did some investigating to a new raw food supplier this week, very expensive appealing to a niche market, they refer to a Homeopathic vet and a chef who has worked at Kensinton Palce ???!!!. Some of their pre packed meals for example 33% Meat 33% Bone and 33% veg (lets not even go there for a while!!) Great to see the meat to bone ratio though.
So, I then sent them a few questions via email as a potential customer, first of all they told me the veg was added to boost protein ................... then the following day they changed their minds! Must have consulted the sensible vet. I think holistic vets are far more food savy.
I said I wasn't interested in the meals with the veg, what about their meat and bone food. They send me an email back saying that the bone content was only 10% which wasn't enough and that I would need to add more bone. Then I find their meat and bone food is ground up!!! I own a bloody carnivore for goodness sake!
When you think that going back to the origins of the Rottweiler who traveled from Italy to Germany with Hannible before taking its name from the German town of Rottweil its diet would have likey been scraps from heritage breed of sheep and goat, which naturally do not carry much muscle meat unlike the hybid commercial livestock of today, as well as small prey and even then its unlikey that the dogs recieved much meat at all, much like the soldiers and gladiators who travelled with them, who bones have since found to be devoid of zinc. The Gladiators were called barley men, they were fed barley to keep them fattened up hence to lack of zinc - grain is just one thing which reduces the uptake of nutrients.
