Monday, November 20, 2006

Going Raw?



I'm thinking of going raw with Abby. I have to say that I really didn't think I'd ever be making this decision. Before the summer, I had never heard much about raw, other than seeing people wearing shirts that said "barf" on them. I thought it was some crazy fad. As I started hearing more about it, I think I thought of every question that is answered (very well) on this site: http://rawfed.com/myths/
I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to things like this. I like to see studies that have been done, and actual proof other than people saying that it's great. Unfortunately, there haven't been many studies done about raw diets vs. kibble. So, in this case, I think I'm going to have to go with my gut feeling..and strangely enough that feeling is to go with raw. My main reason right now is that Abby really does not like kibble. I've tried Innova (Evo and Chicken), California Natural, Wellness, and a couple of the vet diets (when I got free bags in the summer). Some of the foods I didn't like the ingredients/protein levels of, and Abby didn't like the taste of any of them. She will eat if there are other dogs threatening to steal her food, or if she is really hungry...but it's no fun feeding your dog something that she doesn't like!
So, that's reason (1) - Abby would love raw. Reason (2) is that I like trying everything out myself to see if I like it, especially when it relates to dogs. For collars, for example - I've tried choke chains, prong collars, haltis, sense-ation harnesses, gentle leaders, flat collars, martingales. Reason (3) is kind of an exclusion criteria reason: Why do I feed her kibble anyway?
-cheap? nope, definitely not cheap for the high end kibble. If I deal hunt, cheap raw is a possibility. I should do a price comparison though to check.
-easy? not really, since Abby won't eat it. I have to add can, mix types of kibble, try to "train" her to eat...definitely not as easy as feeding a food she'd like.
-easy to buy? yes, easy to buy especially since a big bag lasts months.
-healthy? yeah, high quality kibble has everything dogs need...but then I really thought dogs 'needed' more than I'm now learning. I was picturing all the supplements you'd have to add to a raw diet, but now I'm learning that dogs just need meat and bones, basically (raw meaty bones, meat, and organ meat). In other words, I'd be going with the prey model of raw diets instead of the barf model (which is apparently outdated now).
-no risk of salmonella? ok so this is something that is pretty gross about raw food. I don't really like the idea of having raw meat all over Abby's face and feet, and possibly dragged around the house if I don't watch her carefully. I do think I can train her easily to stay in one spot to eat, though, so at least there wouldn't be chicken carcasses dragged through the roommates' beds. As far as her feet being covered in germs goes...well...we're all pretty healthy in this house, so a couple of germs can't hurt..right? Besides, salmonella is everywhere outside, so it's not like I'm letting some rare pathogen into our house.

Ok so I just did a quick price comparison. I'm pretty sure I feed Abby a 30 lb bag of kibble in a little over 2 months, and that the bag that I bought last was about $50-60, so that's a bit less than $25-30/month for kibble.
Abby is 28 lbs, so going by the 3% rule for raw diets, she should get between 0.6-0.9 lbs of meat/day. This means that in a month Abby needs b/w 18-27 lbs of meat. Somebody told me you can get chicken really cheap in Chinatown, for about 20 cents/lb (maybe only if you buy tons at a time though, and I have no freezer space). I went to the petstore today and saw that their cheapest meat (ground with the bone, but not with organs - I need to check out the organs price) is about $1.50/0.4 lbs. Soo here's where I get confused because I'm not really sure how much of the ground meat I should be giving her compared to the meaty bones. Say I were to give her a chicken 'part' every day (back and leg or something) and then half a package of meat every day, that would end up being $1/day...so about $30/month. I guess if I decide to actually go through with this I'll see if that ends up being the real price. It would really help to have a deep freezer to stop up on a lot of meat at once...hmmm.

Here's Abby last night eating a chicken leg attached to back - her first time ever eating raw!
All of the websites and everything say to just switch cold turkey, but I'm too chicken to do that (oh so many possible puns in that sentence it's not even funny). So Abby had kibble yesterday morning, then that chicken last night, kibble this morning (didn't eat it though) and another chicken thingy tonight. She was still really hungry though so she then had 2 cups of kibble...more than she usually eats all day. Very strange... Maybe there isn't enough meat on those chicken bones? They looked pretty meaty to me.
If I do switch completely to raw, it will be after xmas break - when I actually have time to go look for deals on meat. I definitely should not be driving around Chinatown during finals trying to find cheap chicken bits.
Abby really REALLY loves those chicken legs/backs though...after finishing she rolls around, licks her lips and does these huge happy looking yawns.

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