Feeding Raw

[Rick Andrews]

We have been feeding our dog the BARF Diet with additions for many years. Presently, as a base food,we are using Bravo Dog Food (meat and bone veg mix).  Simon (our Goldendoodle) is having good results. Comments/Questions?. My wife can help you with questions if you are interested

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Simon is beautiful! He almost glows!!

I started Tara out on a BARF diet and then switched to Natures Variety frozen patties and then to Stella and Chewies frozen.  She never seemed very excited about eating any of these foods and now she is eating homecooked. Which she isn't all that excited about eating EITHER!! What she gets excited about is Origen Kibble!! This is frustrating. Our cat is the same way. She finally refused to eat her raw food and will only eat Origen kibble and Wellness canned. I do not feed them grain or commercial food with grain.

 

But as you know, with raw food you can't just leave it sit out all day until they decide to eat it like you can with kibble.

 

 Tara will not chew bones of any kind. If I give her marrow bones she just licks out the marrow and leaves the rest. Have you had any problems motivating Simon to eat the raw food? Or know anyone who has and what they did to overcome it?

[Rick Andrews]

Hi Riki and Tara,  I also did the home cooked diet for our last dog Andy Boy who unfortunately developed cancer at a very young age.  I started him on Oma's Pride and he just didn't like it (so I started grinding and cooking for him).  It was a lot of work since we both worked long hours... I decided to try Bravo and never looked back.  He was on that diet for 5 more years and did well.  We rescued a small poodle who was a puppy mill dog and had a lot of issues, he also did amazing on Bravo.. So that brings us to Simon... as a pup we decided to start him on Bravo and he licks his bowl clean.  We make sure we rotate his sources of protein between, chicken, turkey, beef and other meats.. It is blended well with bone (bravo) and we also grind added veggies and yogurt with his food.  As I said this form of prepared food has worked well for us with all 3 of our dogs.. I never did have success with the cats eating raw.. the only one they would eat was the ground rabbit.

 

We don't feed raw meaty bones tho since it's mixed in with the meat.. The marrow bones I scoop out some of the marrow before I give them to him but as you know the hard weight bearing bones are harder on their teeth, so I do limit them. (Simon is an agressive chewer).  He gets whole turkey or chicken necks too.

 

Hope that helps...  Teri (simon's mom)

 

 

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Thanks for your reply Teri.

I notice that the Bravo has limited ingredients which I like. The two brands we have tried both had MANY ingredients and it could be some of the other ingredients besides the meat/bone that Tara doesn't like.  Several times with Stella and Chewies patties I found bone shards large enough that I thought could cause damage if Tara ate them. She vomited one up one morning that had been in her stomach all night and was still not digested!  Just rounded on the edges. That was pretty much the last straw and when I stopped feeding her the premade raw.

 

What is the fat content of the Bravo? So, it just contains the meat, bone and some veggies? Or is it just the meat and bone? Why do you add more veggies?