Bulldogs World

copied from your earlier post:

I've started researching   GOOD! Keep reading! There is a LOT of information available. The main thing you want to make sure of is that you understand the physiology of animal you are feeding. For most of us the furthest we ever went with understanding our dog's digestive system is to open a bag of kibble and put it in a bowl. We just assumed the contents were appropriate and healthy. Good for you for challenging that and deciding to LOOK at what you are feeding your dog. Now you just need to be ceratin you understand what your dog needs.Many also make the mistake of applying human nutritional guidelines to their dogs. Most dog food ads deliberatley lead you in that direction. They are banking on the fact that so many consider their dog a part of the family and hope you'll fall for their ploy that they are providing a balanced diet for them, just like YOU eat. Wrong Wrong Wrong!!  A carnivorous diet is a fairly simple one. ALL their nutrients come from animals, and that is the SIMPLEST way too feed your dog. You can certainly add plants into it, but now you've complicated things. To make certain your dog is getting all she needs from animals, consider an animal body. It has a LOT of muscle meat, a bit of organs, and bones. So feed your dog LOTS of muscle meat, a bit of organ and bones. :-) The ratio is roughly 80% muscle, 10% organ 10% bone. It is not an exact thing, you will have to adjust it to suit your dog. It will be pretty close to that though. It will also take an adjustment period for your dog's kibble-trained digestive system to switch to raw digesting. Kibble changes their stomach pH.

So here is my question, tonight I made my dog a raw meal and after reading your advice I was easy on the veggies/fruits. I kept them in though thinking maybe they'd add a little flavor that Stella might like better than the regular meat.   I really don't think you are going to have much trouble with your dog liking raw meat. It is possible, but give it a try.

I put 1/2 a lb of ground beef, 8 slices of beef heart, 5 blue berries and 10 spinach leafs and 1 dog vitamin. This completely filled up my blender so it was a lot of meat for sure. I blended it and then gave it to both my bulldog and Lab and they thought that was the greatest thing on earth. - I wonder if the veggies/fruits made me any difference in flavor or if maybe they just like beef heart or ground beef more than liver. I doubt that 5 little blueberries altered the taste signifigantly. All my dogs devour ground beef, so my guess would be it was that they loved so much.

So you normally feed bone too? I've not read a whole lot about that. Are there certain bones that will be dangerous? I've heard of bones spintering and killing dogs. Is that just cooked bones? Bones are vital and necessary. Minerals, vitamins, fiber, you have to add bone. Yes it is true that COOKED bones are brittle and should never be fed. Most feed chicken bones because they are easily chopped with a meat cleaver, or pounded or ground. Bulldogs do have a unique bite that needs to be considered. Your bulldog may not have any problems at all crunching chicken bones, your lab certainly won't. MY bulldog does have a problem crunching bone, her adult teeth never showed up, so she only has 2 upper and 2 lower crunching teeth. Not efferctive at all for bone crunching. So my husband chops them into smaller pieces for her. Bones also keep their teeth clean, beautifully clean. Judy is an awesome source of info for that. I think she feeds lamb ribs? Like I said, Audrey's teeth, or lack therof, are a problem for her, so we have to be careful with what we give her to chew.

Also, since I'm trying to stay away from salt, I read that beef and pork are the least salty meats. Is there a reason you prefer chicken or is there a reason you don't like beef  You do not need to be concerned about the natural sodium level in meat. You just need to make sure the meat you buy has not been enhanced. If it has a sodium content higher than 80, it has probably been enhanced. My dog has been eating raw long enough now that the very rich, higher fat beef does not bother her. For a dog that is just starting raw, beef can cause impressive diarrhea. It is very rich, and ground meat, even the leaner kinds, do have a lot of fat. That's why chicken is a good meat to start with. Chicken has a fairly high bone content, so it helps new raw eaters have firmer poops. It's lower fat is easier to digest. As your dog's stomach pH gets to it's natural, intended level, you can start to add to her diet. Switch her meat, add the organs. Just give her body a chance to adjust. Many dogs go through a detox also. My bulldog Audrey had the NASTIEST BLACK gunky gooey nose rope for close to 6 months. Now it only needs routine washing.

I also highly recommend you give probiotics. Audrey is super sensitive, so I do not give her any dairy, but some do give yogurt. Audrey gets powdered probiotics/enzymes. Even when my dogs were kibble fed I gave them probiotics.

Keep reading!