Lady P will hopefully be along to answer this as this is how her and Cam feed their dogs.

I used to do it and my answers are as follows

A.  Probably  --  if done properly
B. Meats - any and all - all animals, all the parts. Especially the squidgy, gunky bits - heart, liver, etc. Fish too.   Vegs - again, most of them, but you need to juice them to break down the cellulose to ensure the dogs get the benefits. I vaguely recall there are a couple of vegs that are not recommended - and cabbage has the same effect on dogs as it does on people 
C.  Depends on how many dogs you are feeding.  I used to do it for 7, I shudder to think of the time and storage space I'd use for my 20. Travelling away fro any length of time with your dogs also presents additional problems.
D. You need to get the mix right with regard to nutrients and vitamins and all the other good stuff. The balance is essential, the advantage of the dog diet is it doesn't have to be balanced daily - so provided you get everything right over a week or so, you should be ok.

There a couple of very comprehensive books out there that you should get a hold of (Ian Billinghurts is probably the best known) .

hi john,

as peter has said, i would get a hold of 'give your dog a bone' by billinghurst.  its very good but do read it with an open mind.  i dont think kibble is as bad as he makes it out to be.  that said, i do think our dogs are healthier and happier on raw food. 

to try and answer your questions,

1. . Is it better for the dogs than kibble.

some will say it is.  i would.  i dont think kibble is neccesarily bad for dogs, but i do think a good raw diet is better.  some say its taking your dogs life in your own hands and its dangerous.  you just have to read up and make an informed choice.  feeding raw does have risks.



2. . What raw meets or veg can you use.

any.  we feed lamb, chicken, pork, deer if we can get it cheap enough, lots of fish, small amount of beef, including liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, tripe, bones etc.  basically anything.  if i could get a hold of rabbits i would feed them too, with fur on, but have to stick with minced stuff that is mostly chicken anyway  .   veg - as peter said, dogs cant digest cellulose very well so you need to try and start the break down for them by pulping the veg.  (they would eat the contents of animals stomachs in the which already has the green stuff broken down)  amounts of veg vary depending on who you talk to or what you read.  mine will get about 3-4 frozen cubes of veg per week. (allowed to defrost unless they are getting it as a treat on a hot day)
some feed more than this and some feed practically no veg at all.   we also suppliment, but not so much in the summer.  in the winter they have a very structured, routine diet becuase they are working. in the summer, its a bit more relaxed. we mainly suppliment with vit e, vit c, flaxseed oil, sea kelp, zinc and occasionally an all round miltivitamin amongst other things.


3 . Is it easy to prepare and store.

hhmm, well once you get into a routine and as long as you have enough space its relativley easy.  i buy a bag of ckn bones a week (wings and carcasses) and bag them into individual meals for each dog them freeze them.  they also get lamb ribs or pork ribs and sometimes whole chickens with all the meat on.   at the moment i am using already minced, packaged meat for the meat content.  i buy tinned sardines and mackeral (which is cheating a bit but some of them wont eat raw fish) and they get fish straight from the river when cameron goes fishing.  any cheap meat in the supermarket gets put in the freezer for the dogs.  we just deforst each meal, but in the summer they often get their chk bones frozen.


4 . Do you have to get the mix rite between carbs and protein.

we dont really feed any carbs.  its pretty much all protein and fat.  variety is the key.  we aim to balance the diet over a week when they are working but are a bit more relaxed about in the summer. by balance, i meant the ratio of raw meaty bones to meat.  the offal and veg only make up a very small % of the diet.


have a read at some of these articles.  http://members.aol.com/Brushbow/src/speciesmenu.htm  there is loads of info out there about raw, but i would start with the billinghurst book.

hope that helps.

Hi  lady p

if you decide to feed your dogs raw they will probably have a healthier diet than you! 

ours certainly do!  they eat better than us! 

good luck with the reading

Thanks lady p,once i get my little brain round all the info,I think il give it a shot and see how they are with it,one more wee
question,you say that you can feed them a whole chicken carcass does that ever cause any trouble between the dogs
think if i done that just now they would have a few scraps,or do you stay with them until they are finished.


                                            Cheers j

ours are all fed in close proximity to each other and we do not tolerate food fighting, so they don't do it.  they have been brought up like that. 
we have one cheeky monkey who will try and steal bits off other dogs (only dogs below him in the pack though) and for this he gets a row and is made to give up whatever he has knicked.  he doesn't do this in an aggresive way, more of an oportunist  
he quite often sticks a paw in to try and get things off other dogs.

that said, i would never leave them unattended eating just in case.   if yours are liable to scrap i certainly would be watching them like hawks, as some dogs take a lot longer than others to eat, especially bones.  perhaps you could seperate them slightly???  how many dogs do you have???   would it be feasable to put them in seperate areas to eat???
do they fight over food just now???

I have 4 boys and like you we have an opportunist too, little blade he is only 9 months hes nuts but think they are all like that at that age,they don't fight over food and if they do have a wee growl at each other they are told straight away NO.

The reason i asked was that i give them a big bone from butchers every sat morning and sometimes it causes a bit of aggro
between them,so i just sit with them the whole time and try to wrestle with them to get bone back when they are done,that can be fun  .

                                                 Cheers j

We get oxtails dead cheap and they are the only thing we have to sit and watch them eat as some of the greedy little blighters try and swallow them whole which is not a good idea.  Sumo especially we have to make sure we give a piece which is too big to swallow in a oner otherwise down it goes.  Chicken wings are just like crisps!  Gone in two bites.    One thing for sure if you go down the natural feeding route you spend a lot less time at  the vets!!!!!  We also don't feed ours pork bones - it gives them the runs and is not a pleasant experience!

If you don't want to go down that route Land of Holistic Pets does a great dry kibble and rehydration food which has loads of veg and herbs in it as well as meat.  Great for the oldies especially.

Liz