Please excuse that this post is sorta all over the place...I type the way I think and sometimes speak, which is not always in order.
As many of you know, both of our huskies have tummy problems. We figured out that Kota had a very sensitive stomach very early on when we couldn't find a dog food that didn't give her horrible gas. We thought it had to do with chicken, gluten, high protein, or some sort of gross dog food additive. Eventually we finally put her on very pricey dog foods that were made to help with digestion. It was working okay, but we still we were not happy with her results.
Holly...well, she is now 8 months old, and up until 2 weeks ago, she was still having potty issues sometimes. She would be fine for weeks, then all of a sudden start pooping in her kennel everyday, as well has having pee accidents in the house, pretty much everyday sometimes. She has no bad gas at all that we have noticed, so we just kept thinking she was just naughty. Then one day, it finally clicked. Either she has worms, or her food is bothering her like Kota. So, we dropped off a fecal sample at the vet, and put them both on a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice for 2 weeks. We were ready to get rid of Holly...gone. Her sample came back clean, and since the day we starrted that diet, Holly has had absolutly NO potty accidents in her kennel or in the house. Kota has hardly had any bad gas at all. The only time we noticed it was when she had a bunch of store bought treats.
We pretty much feel that spending $80 a month on dog food is out of control, when it makes your dogs sick.
With all of this, and alot of research we decided that we would switch the dogs to a raw diet. Huskies thrive off of raw diets. A raw diet consists of raw meats, fruits and veggies...completely uncooked. The obvious origin of huskies is sled dogs. Sled dogs pretty much lived off wild animals, fruits and veggies on long sled races. Mushers did not pack food for the dogs, if they did it was just raw/frozen meats, and basically whatever food they packed for themselves, is what the dogs got. Huskies are bread to be able to consume small whole animals such as chickens, rabbits, birds, etc.
So basically, this is the most natural food for them. We chose to go with the BARF (bones and raw food) diet. Our dogs have always gotten real, uncooked bones, from the butcher, that has meat, fat, and marrow still attached. They get these 1-2 times a week. (beef raw bones, pork hock pones, whatever the commissary has available at the time, and are usually about .70 cents a pound, making a huge bone usually about $1 a piece)
Here is a list of some of the foods we have/will be giving them:
(most of these foods are very inexpensive and last more then one week when bought in a regular sized bag, such as carrots and potatos)
Ground beef
Chicken (whole entire chicken)
Beef liver
Pork Necks
Turkey Necks
various kinds of fish
steaks
potatos
red potatos
apples
sweet potatos
peas
carrots
eggs (entire egg, shell and all, 1-2 a week)
yogurt (helps with digestion)
broccoli
cauliflour
turkey
lamb
Dogs have no need for grains (turns into sugar in their body) or dairy as adult dogs.
For us there are many benefits for doing the raw food with our dogs. The main one, is so they are healthier. Every dog food we have tried makes them sick. Raw food diets have proven to improve dogs health, teeth (no need to brush the teeth on the BARF diet!), breath, skin, coat, energy, and behavior....within the first 2 weeks of starting. (We noticed all of the above, within 1 week) The 2nd main reason is cost. We were spending about $80 a month on premium dog foods. The raw diet costs about $1 a day to sometimes $2 a day, depending on the quality of meats you buy, making it never more then $60 a month to feed our dogs. AWESOME.
Yes, there is a bit more work involved, starting with grocery shopping for them everyweek. Some of the fruits and veggies you only have to buy every 3 weeks or so such as carrots, apples, potatos, and frozen veggies. They last more then one week worth of food, so then it carries into the following weeks. You do have buy fresh meat each week. Everything gets chopped up into bite sized pieces, except bones, are given whole and raw. The bones main purpose is to clean the teeth, and satisfy the chewing need. We usually give them frozen REC bones 1-2 times a week, outside. (they get large ones in the winter, that don't go bad because it's cold...smaller ones during the summer). We usulaly give them these when we will be gone all day, or they have to be outside all day when we have guests.
The food takes about an hour or so to prepare, and is done once a week. It is all thrown into a big pot, and then mixed together, and measured out into gladware containers. The containers are seperated into one day of food, so we have a total of 7 containers. They both get 1 cup, 2x a day, each. (A few times a week instead of a cup of food they get a RMB (raw meaty bone) which can consist of chicken thighs, pork necks, or any sort of meat with a soft, chewy bone still attached. A few times a week they also get a REC bone (recreational chewing bone). These are usually beef femurs, or other hard bones that do not get consumed completely, but are mostly for the purpose of chewing. Right now we are averaging about $5-$10 a week in food costs, which is awesome. As warmer weather approaches, they will get more variety of food. We are going to try to give them one unique food each week, that is more expensive, so they will only get it once in a while. Also, there is alot of fruits and veggies we buy for us, like say a sack of potatos, we purchase for a meal, but only use half, the other half goes into the dog's food. We also add any fruits, veggies, or meats we have that are getting close to expiring, that we do not use.
We will also being doing homemade treats from now on as well, as we figured out large amounts of store bought dog treats made kota get horrible gas. So, the other day I bought a reduced sale 2 lb steak for about $2. We are going to purchase a food dehydrator (we can make ourselves awesome jerky and dried snacks too!) and make treats that do not have to be stored in the fridge...hoping that lasts about a month or so if cut into tiny pieces).
We also purchased the most needed supplements for them today: Vitamin E, and Omega-3 Fish oil.
Supplements are not NEEDED if you chose to feed your dog fruits and veggies, but we decided to go ahead and supplement with the most needed and neccssary vitamins about 2x a week.
To sum up, yes it's more work, but it's very much worth it in cost, and our dogs no longer gassing us out of a room on a daily basis!
Photo I took a few days ago when I was working on preparing food. I did all the veggies and fruits first. This mixture contains: peas, apples, carrots, sweet potato, regular potato, and some old cauliflour that was getting ready to go bad. After this we added chicken and beef liver.
I will try to post some more photos, later on, of the whole process.
