I'm about to switch my dog to a barf diet and I'm getting a bit confused by it all. I understand that the food needs freezing to kill the bugs, but does it have to be frozen for a length of time? Also, should the food vary day to day - chicken one day, offal the next etc?

If I ran out of food, say, could I buy chicken wings (for example) from the supermarket and feed my dog them?

I'd really appreciate any help.

I freeze mine for a minimum of 24 hours. Yes, you should give a variety of foods over time, make sure you give a range over say, a week. Chicken wings from the supermarket are fine, just freeze them first.

Lots of FAQs here

Make sure you do plenty of research first, to ensure you have all the balance you need, over time. Anything by Ian Billinghurst, Tom Lonsdale, or Kymothy Scwartz should be helpful.

> Anything by Ian Billinghurst, Tom Lonsdale, or Kymothy Scwartz should be helpful.

Good point. OP, you can look at a few books on the link I posted earlier. But TBH, they're probably cheaper at Amazon.

Forgot to say that it can be useful to have a few tins of tuna or pilchards in tomato sauce in the cupboard. Can help if the memory ever fails!

Thank you! All very helpful replies.

Am I right in thinking there are two routes I could go down here..the sort of DIY route, getting fresh meat, bones, offal veg etc or getting pre-made patties?

Yes more or less. Think of it as feedingyour self you have different things on most days but two days the same doesnt hurt you are looking to achieve a mixture of all parts of the animal and fruit and veg if you wish over say amonth. You dont have to worry too much again as you dont with your self.
Start poo watching too ! too hard needs abit more meat and less bone abit soft more bone and less meat more bone.
yes tinned or fresh fish is good to mine have some tinned fish about once a week.
My lot had lamb bones with meat on them last knight so night they are having mince as although it does contain some minced bone it will babalnce out the high amount of bone last night. Tomorrow will probably be trip (green trip not buthchers tripe.)
You can buy all your meat at the supermarket if you wish but is cheaper in bulk from suppliers usually. if I just had the one toy breed I probably wouldnt bother with bulk buying because she eats so little
I find sainsburys or tesco or whoever basics frozen chicken useful to pick up quickly also you can cook a couple of bits for you when feeding them the raw lol
The other good plain speaking book is the dogs dinner by ann ridyard
Sorry dont have much info on the more ready made routes as by choice I get the meat as near as from the whole animal as possible othere prefer the ready made route and I am sure will be here soon to advise.

Just a question why do you freeze chicken first.? Beef I know there are worries about ( cant remember the name of the beastie that can lurk ) other meat i have always not been concerned about although as ost of my meat is allready frozen the problem rarley arises

And should I literally just give him the meat / bones as it come? Or will say, chicken wings need chopping up?

you can give them whole. cant remember your breed but my toy breed will happily chomp through a whole drumstick and I amsure would try and eat a whole chicken carcass. The actual chewing is good fro teeth cleaning and muscle development. If you are concerned you can hold the item for yur dog so he is forced to chew if you are worried he could be agulper of give the wings abash with a hammer to break it up slightly until you are happy that he is chewing not inhaling !

My big dogs will take perhaps 10 seconds MAX  to chomp a chicken wing or chicken carcass. Even my cats eat them although with them it takes a bit longer. Carcasses we chop in half for the cats. :)

> Just a question why do you freeze chicken first.?

I think it's because raw chicken can contain campylobacter and freezing should kill it. I always do to be on the safe side.

ok thank you esme :)

glad you asked that chris,as i was feeding chicken wings from asda unfrozen,better start bunging them in the freezer first,then!

Thank you everyone! I'm starting my dog on barf tonight.

happy feeding :)

It's going really well so far and he's loving it!

I had a bit of an issue working how long his food takes to defrost (ages) but I think i've cracked it now.

Trouble is once you have switched your dogs to raw i think you'll find it highly unlikely they'll ever go back to commercial dog food. When i have visited friends with my dogs they will look at a bowl of biscuits in disgust and walk away!

If stuck with defrosting I use the microwae or out in bowl of very hot water :)

They are not Labradors then as my girls will eat anything .

Then only thing I do freeze are beef bones or mince otherwise the girls have fresh or already bought frozen and never defrost as it takes lingers for them to eat the food which stops them swallowing things whole.

LJS..mine is a lab and would also eat anything if I let him.

Is it ok to feed them frozen food? I thought it should be fully defrosted?

>They are not Labradors then as my girls will eat anything

They always say that when a labrador stops eating you know it's been dead for a fortnight!

My dogs regularly eat turkey necks and sardines frozen - they particularly enjoy them in hot weather (remember that anyone?) and it slows them down a bit too.  Also useful when giving semi frozen chicken wings to pups (nice for when they are teething)

> They always say that when a labrador stops eating you know it's been dead for a fortnight

Yep , i always say if my lab turns her nose up at food, my hubby can dig her a hole as something is drastically wrong.

Just wondering if anyone has any help or tips (sorry to threadbutt) by Border Terriers refuse to eat chicken wings / necks is there anything i can do to tempt them?

will they eat turkey instead ? or go for chicken mince and use other types of bone

will they eat turkey instead ? or go for chicken mince and use other types of bone

Should say longer than lingers but almost same meaning !!

I will always try and feed raw (not frozen ) but have two freezers full of back up food ( frozen mince, tripe, chicken portions , kidneys, livers , bones, natures menu frozen cubes and blocks, white fish fillets and always feed straight from the freezer scattered on the drive or the patio  as again helps with slowing swallowing) and never had any issues.

It also helps keep the teeth in good condition as for example they had two frozen partridge a couple of days ago and it took
them about ten minutes to polish it off whilst giving their teeth a good workout :-)

> will they eat turkey instead ? or go for chicken mince and use other types of bone

They'll eat all mince, havent tried turkey necks, they will eat / munch knuckle bones and the mince i use does have bone in it its just they seem phased by the chicken ?

mine love  chicken but wont touch turkey thought that could be an alternative and love lamb bones ribs etc

I give my girls turkey legs occasionally  which they also enjoy ( well they enjoy anything !)

Do you cut the bones up or just give them as they are?

I get the butchers to chop into portion size for example I often get beef ribs so get the butcher to chop each run separately then with lamb ribs a few ribs per portion.

I also have a meat cleaver at home I use if I get bones that haven't come from the butcher.

But the bones in the turkey legs, chicken wings etc you'd just feed them as they are?

rubyjuice - yes feed bones just as they are, no cutting needed although when feeding smaller chicken portions to an inexperienced dog do expect him to either take a bit longer or swallow whole then regurgitate for another go!  Alarming at first but quite normal :)

My older dog took about an hour for each wing when he first started - he carried it around the garden like a trophy - showing everyone but not really sure what to do with it.  They don't last 5 seconds now

No you don't have to completely defrost their food.  I tend to feed bones straight out of the freezer and their mince is often still partially frozen as I defrost in huge batches and find it stays fresher that way.  We have cows in the back field at the moment so we suffer from flies - frozen bones minimise the chances of them landing whist the dogs are still eating. 

Thank you dogs a babe. I'm going to try some chicken wings tonight.

Does anyone feed raw eggs? Shell and all?

> Does anyone feed raw eggs? Shell and all?

Yes however if I offer them whole to the gundogs they are so gentle that they don't actually break them just carry them around!  We have to wait til they get bored and drop them to realise the egg is edible :)

We live near a chicken farm and we sometimes find 'free' eggs in the hedgerows and these get taken for a short walk before the inevitable happens, although I did once have one delivered onto my boot by my pup

The best way to feed them is for me to break the eggs and shells and mix them in with their mince.  I also use the entire egg if I make liver cake for training

Sorry to be asking this....how many poo's a day does your dog have on a raw diet? Mine is currently having 1 or 2 a day from 3 or 4 before i started feeding him raw.

One of the other big advantages of feeding raw - much less poo and much less smelly! :)

Sorry if this seems a silly question but would it be ok to use tesco chicken portions (mixed bag of frozen wings, quarters etc) rather than from a butcher?

Yes, that is fine. Just check the £ per kg price where ever you go and get the most meat for your money! Sometimes I find the fresh produce is cheaper than the frozen bags when there is an offer on.

Thanks :)

Our butchers are quite expensive at the moment, the only abbatoir on the island losts its largest contract, which was Tesco (our only large supermarket) until standards were improved, resulting prices to the butcher going up but yes i will also double check the price of fresh meat against the frozen
So excited about fully going raw (been half chappie kibble & half prize choice) get paid on Monday and having a small freezer delivered next week for the dogs items :)

Yup - it's pretty good actually from Tesco.  I buy their value chicken wings to use for breakfast (dog's, not mine!)  They work out at about 15p each - although I have a medium gundog she only has one for breakfast - so v cheap.  I also buy Tesco frozen value veg - I thaw a blender full, add a bit of oil, any veg or fruit leftovers & blitz it.  Very convenient.

my lab has 1lb of food per meal. This works out at about 6 chicken wings. Does this sound too much?

I've yet to actually feed him chicken wings, but i bought him some yesterday and he'll be having them as a meal this weekend.

sounds ok to me you will soon know if it is too much if he looks a little round then you can reduce it

He is looking a bit thin at the moment (a thin lab!!) so a few extra chicken wings will do him some good i think.

It all depends on the amount and type of excercise they do.

My girls get on average an hour to an hour and a half a day but the younger girl does about four times the distance at a fast rate compared to my older girl.
If I feed chicken wings the ratio is two to one but if I feed white fish filets or sardines they get equal portions as the later is lower in fat.

It is all down to trial and error but don't get too obsessed by it as you will find a happy medium once you get into it :-)

That made me laugh,jeangenie!My friend breeds labs and they are stomachs on legs!To her credit,they are all slim and fit,but my god,does she have to be careful when leaving anything edible unattended!

I gave my dog 6 chicken wings in one meal over the weekend and they made him really ill. Sometimes when he eats too much he become ill, so I think 6 wings is too much for one meal.

Also, he had tripe for his tea last night and that made him ill too!! He's not had a good weekend bless him.

Does anyone find that different kinds for raw foods make their dogs ill, while others are ok?

How soon after feeding is he sick ? Regurgitation sometimes does happen especially if they gulp food down.