Hello everyone ,hoping someone can give some advice.I have been feeding raw for about six weeks now alls going well except that neither of my dogs seem keen on the chicken wings or chicken in any other form,they will eat it grudgingly after starving for hours and realising theres nothing else on offer.my question is how important to the diet is chicken and can it be replced with something else.Best wishes to all from tracey

I use turkey necks and carcasses for my guys instead of chicken

Theresa

I dont use chicken wings or anything like that, I use the raw tripe and raw minced chicken mixed together, with a cod liver oil tablet, odourless garlic tablet, and sea kelp, mine are loving their new diet.

Hi, I feed my labs on Barf and use as well as chicken wings, chicken necks & backs, turkey necks, rabbit, ox-tail. I found that at first my lot would'nt eat the chicken wings but they liked the chicken necks straight away. Hope that helps
Tracy.

Thanks everyone for all your replies i think I"ll give the turkey necks a try,should theres plenty around at this time of year

rabbit is also a good inexpensive food source.especially if you know people with ferrets and lurchers that hunt them.

Hi,I feed the barf diet, but I have found that my shepherds love the chicken wings too much and they gobble them up in seconds, I was terrified especially at 6pm in the morning when I had to leave for work, so now I use a new diet, made by anglian meats, called the barf diet, which does contaIN ground up bone. safer when u have greedy pigs like mine, but saying that they do get a hugh marrowbone 2 weekly, they cant eat that as fast, I did find that they didn,t gobble the turkey necks up quite so fast, your dogs will probably accept them in time and love them, by the way the barf diet that I mentioned is available in chicken it contains veg, seaweed, brown rice etc, so it might be worth trying that, they also do a cooked one as well, which my dogs love as well, that is called NATURES MENU, if u go to www.prizechoice.co.uk, you will find details on there, hope this helps, do they eat everything thing else eg other meats etc

Hi all if you go to the site www.prizechoice.co.uk

Have a nosey around and then give them a call they will send you a sample box of food free, just say a freind recommended it and that you were interested in sampling it. I reckon the sample box is between £15-£20 worth.

It was well over a year ago I got one but I am sure Irene on the site got one recently.

BFN

Pam

They do eat other rmbs ,lamb,pork and beef,and they absolutly adore tripe,i have found the only way to get them to eat liver is to cook it on its own or make up liver cake,they love it everything else is fed raw,includung veg,as i said before its only chicken they don"t seem to keen on,I have received a delivery of mixed minced meats from prizechoice,which i am giving mixed with veg as their evening meal,rmbs for breakfast,so i hope they are getting enough variety now even without the chicken,thanks to every for all your advice.I can already see a big change in both dogs , no more smelly breath and they are both a lot more energetic.

Hi Tradel,

Glad you are on the diet, 6 weeks really is not that long so don't give up. My bitch was 6 months before I changed her and she was a bit fussy for a couple months whist my pup has been on it since 8 weeks he is now 10 months, no problem at all. Necks are a good variation but to be honest dogs do not need taste variation and the only possible variation is sometime needed if you feel they are getting too much of one thing or lacking something.

The key thing to the barf is the bones are this is certainly important to them, however I do know some who have went to a more natural diet but not the " Barf" as we know it.

Some feed just tripe etc. this is all fine. Just remember their teeth.

Good luck.

Pam

My tribe are on the BARF diet and my boy wouldnt touch chicken wings for months NOW he only eats them and nothing else.
I feed the others pretty much anything except pork and beef, but when I do give turkey I found they poed a little more then when they had chicken wings.

Hi Emma,

Ditto

I don't feed Turkey or Pork.. I don;t like the stuff, my doggies don't like it and alot of people I know say the same. My lot love chicken wings.. I can get then to break dance for a chicken wing..

Pam

Hi Pamela,

Our 14 week old Goldie is moving away from processed food - he never enjoyed it anyway. He love chicken wings and I've got some raw stuff from Prize Choice.
I'm a bit concerned about the amounts he's supposed to eat. he'd eat all day!
I read various theories on the board...any ideas?

Ruth

For anyone considering giving a Barf diet i would suggest joining this group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BritBarf/
You dont have to feed this way already or even decide to feed totally Barf but its a good group with plenty of advice.

Hi, Carolyn,
I've joined Britbarf which looks great although I'm a bit confused by that as well!...must be my age!
It's probably trial and error with Sunny. I knew that I'd overfed her when she was up all night re-eating her previous two meals!...yuk!!

We'll persevere and get there in the end.

Ruth

Hi Ruth,
I saw your post on BritBarf, it is confusing to begin with, I have the opposite problem to you as I don't think I was feeding my 19 month old boy enough so have increased amounts. It is easy to get quite confused and intimidated to begin with but keep asking questions and it will get clearer. You should join some of the American lists where they casually fling a deer or squirrel to the dogs or Australian where the feed kangaroo!! it can be quite amusing.
I have some sites for pictorial Barf diet preparation I found these very good, if you like I can do some links.
Anne

HI Ruth,

As a rule of thumb it is recommended that you feed 3% of their body wieght per day.. I do think though it can very from dog to dog.. watch your dog week to week if he is putting on weight you will soon see, then just drop his food amount by a little.

The groups are great but they can be a bit heavy and some also seem a bit fanatical about sticking to the book which is daft as dogs in the wild eat what they can get not what it said in the book.

The simplest book for advice is Kymythy R. Schultze book called Natural Nutrition for dogs and cats. It is simple and the book in inexpensive also.

If you fancy getting it let me know, I know a lady who sells the books quite reasonable.

Just start off slowly add a bit as you get confident, it only has to be as crazy as you make it.

Good luck..

Pam

Hi Tracy, just caught up with this. My lot are fed the raw diet as well & I canT add much to what the others have suggested except I give mine all types of meat, rabbit & game raw fish as well. Sardines, trout, mackeral & just recently I`ve started to buy whole salmon when its on offer, cut it up & both us & the dogs have it for dinner. Thats one of the advantages of feeding raw, whatevers in season or on offer you can buy then thats ok. Go for a balanced diet over the dogs lifetime not every day.
Christine, Spain

Christine will you email me please.I lost all my stuff on the upgrade . Mari