Dehydrated Dog Food question

[ksteven813]

Hey everyone!
I have been doing alot of research lately trying to figure out what is best for titan our Bullmastiff pup.
I have been reading about frozen raw feeding but do not think that will be right for us. I want to do something better than kibble.
I am now looking at dehydrated raw food. Is this a better direction to go? How much do y'all know about it? Would the calcium phosphorus ratio be good for my 6month old?

I have read about Big Dog Natural and I am really interested in this. Is this a good company or should I go with someone else?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Brinsdad]

Wouldn't the dehydrated raw be more expensive ??
What seems to be the problem with the frozen raw ?


No love like a bully love

 

[scorning]

I fed dehydrated raw to my last adult dane who had several medical conditions, he did really well on it. I had him on Honest Kitchen Embark, but since he was an adult I didn't really look at the calcium content. I also currently feed it to my medical needs Doberman for dinner, she gets raw for breakfast. I've been really happy with it, the dogs to do well on it and love the taste. I will say its pretty expensive for large dogs though. My dane went through 2 10lbs boxes a month, and the boxes were about $90 each.

 

[ksteven813]

Right now I don't seem to have the room for frozen raw. I want to get a freezer in my garage then maybe I could do it.

I am not too worried about the price if I know the dehydrated is better than kibble. Which it sounds like it is!

Maybe a few more people can chime in if they have any experience with it?

 

[DennasMom]

Denna's raw fed, but we use freeze dried kibble occasionally - when travelling or when she's boarding. The stuff we have if from Vital Essentials. I think it's good stuff.
There are some good kibbles out there, though, too... Orijen is one I'd look at if we couldn't do raw.

 

[twood71]

I currently have not bought a months worth of raw to put in the freezer yet!

I buy it at 10 pound bags at 7 each and it's only a weeks worth at a time. So honestly I put 5 bags in the freezer but Im pulling out a bag every day to unthaw. I rotate so quick I may not need to put that many bags in the freezer. I feed 3 dogs a day on raw so I easily go thru a 10 pound bag a day.

Might consider buying weekly amounts, may not put so much back in the freezer. What would be your amount a day 5 pounds?

As for the dehydrate, My dogs treated it like a chewy treat, they would munch on it then leave it and come back to it later, so I don't know?

 

[ksteven813]

We don't really have the time to feed completely raw. I think i am going to do orijen 6 fish kibble and Stella and chewy frozen raw patties. Kibble in the am and raw in the evening. Does that sound like a pretty good way to feed?

 

[twood71]

We don't really have the time to feed completely raw. I think i am going to do orijen 6 fish kibble and Stella and chewy frozen raw patties. Kibble in the am and raw in the evening. Does that sound like a pretty good way to feed?

No experience with that style of feeding, but I have read that there are people that do it that way and I have always seen responses saying that isn't a good way to feed. They talk about the digestive system being screwy. There is way more experience people on here that might give you an exact answer, so keep watching for a reply here.

I thought the same way on the raw diet and I even thought you cooked it. Now of course i feed raw but after from reading on it.

I had many concerns and even Time was one of them but I kept my miND open to it.

One responder wrote something like this, "why would you think it takes more time, just open up your fridge and pull out your chicken pieces from your container and put them on a plate to eat?" Just throw another frozen bag in the fridge when you see your getting low so it can unthaw in time for the dogs to eat."

He was right, it hasn't taken much of any more time than normal to feed them, plus I was paying $55 a week for a 28 pound bag of earthborNE and now I pay around $32 for 40pounds of chicken a week. That was a serious plus for me and the dogs cause that left 20 bucks to get them an additional other meet a week.

Just consider it.

 

[ksteven813]

I was under the impression that even one raw meal a week is better than none. I would also make sure there was 12 hours in between to make sure everything digested.
I am just trying to get my feet wet with the raw food. Now I am using orijen as a staple with raw Stella and chewy patties to supplement a few times a week.
We don't have a butcher near us either. But we are taking baby steps lol.

Just want to make sure that this is atleast better then no raw?

 

[twood71]

I was under the impression that even one raw meal a week is better than none. I would also make sure there was 12 hours in between to make sure everything digested.
I am just trying to get my feet wet with the raw food. Now I am using orijen as a staple with raw Stella and chewy patties to supplement a few times a week.
We don't have a butcher near us either. But we are taking baby steps lol.

Just want to make sure that this is atleast better then no raw?

Totally understand and agree with you, again thats kinda how I was gonna go at it.

As I said I read some things that said not to mix a whole raw feeding then a whole kibble feeding in one day, now as for raw toppings, that seems fine but they do warn you that the dogs may grow fond of the raw and could possibly stop touching the kibble. In the begining I was topping with cocunut oil and if I would not top thier kibbel with it, they would not touch the kibble.

Again back at raw feed then kibble feed, I just know it made me question it and we certainly don't wanna harm (as wee all do)our fur babies, so it kept me to continue with Kibble.

Now this last month with Bosco and his allergies made me to approach this raw thingy again, after all I was still seeing the "help my dog" posts and a lot of raw feeders would post how their dog is doing 100% better now since they started it. I'm like desperate at this point as before I was questioning the honesty in the raw results. Again I read the "new raw feeder and how to start" post's on here/ plus some you tube videos on it and after a week I was convinced. I'm seeing results already in all 3 dogs and have saved money, but I have put that same money right back in their food purchases. I really can't wait to see how well they should be from 6 months from now!

Here's a simple you tube video [video=youtube;1mY_gmW6fiQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mY_gmW6fiQ[/video]

This was just a small part in getting me to consider going all raw, so far no regrets.

 

[ksteven813]

Very interesting!!! Thank you! How do you feel about the frozen raw foods like Stella and chewy's patties?

 

[twood71]

Never tried it, BUT Seems to be good, they have a very informational web site. I don't know the expense or the size of bags they have. Knowing what I know of raw at this point, I would not hesitate to try their frozen patties depending on our Budget.

Now you got me curious about them again lol.

 

[ksteven813]

Lol! I think for right now I am getting my dogs transfered over to orijen first from Kirkland nature domain. So far both are doing well on it. Then I am going to throw some raw food patties in once or twice a week. Then I will go from there. I will post how they do on orijen too. Having a hard time finding a good food that won't cause runny poop lol. But so far orijen seems like a winner

 

[twood71]

Lol! I think for right now I am getting my dogs transfered over to orijen first from Kirkland nature domain. So far both are doing well on it. Then I am going to throw some raw food patties in once or twice a week. Then I will go from there. I will post how they do on orijen too. Having a hard time finding a good food that won't cause runny poop lol. But so far orijen seems like a winner

yep, keep us posted. Orijen is good.

The kibble I tried was TOTW and Erathborne- my 2 other dogs seemed good on it, Bosco was the one that consistently always had loose stool. I've been on raw 3 weeks now for them and I'm anxious to post results that I have seen, but I'm wanting for some more time with it before I do.

Good luck

 

[Brinsdad]

When I looked into it Origen and gentle are ment to be best kibble to mix with raw
We now fed just raw , we order of the Internet 2-3 weeks at a time and it takes a couple of hours to bag it in meal size bags so we just go to freezer and take a bag days food out to defrost
We have two bullmastiffs


No love like a bully love

 

[ksteven813]

That is good to know that the orijen is good to mix with raw brinsdad, thank you. What type of food is gentle?
What website do you order from?

 

[Brinsdad]

We was told in the pet store that this was the best if u wanted to mix raw and kibble
Is a good pet store and the lady I was speaking to have known her a while and knows we feed just raw so don't think it was just a sales pitch
They promote it by putting it in a bowl of water , it breaks down and crumbles to the bottom but a lot of other kibbles just swell and float on top


No love like a bully love

 

[ksteven813]

That food does look good. Unfortunately they are not in the US

 

[Brinsdad]

That's a shame
Sorry Origen it is then


No love like a bully love

 

[ksteven813]

Yes it is lol. I'm making sure my dogs are completely used to the orijen before I introduce Stella and chewy's.