Tucker's raw

[Susan, Schuester and Olive]

Has anyone heard of Tucker's raw food? I started feeding it to Schuester and Olive about a month ago. They have 3 types, all with pork and pumpkin. The other ingredient is either bison, beef or lamb.
The babies seem to like it, but I was hoping for any input you may have.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I was not familiar with this brand, but what I see on the website looks good. I especially appreciate that they only use American and Canadian sources. I also notice that they sell bones, including bison femurs, which is a nice option for those whose dogs are sensitive to beef.

[Susan, Schuester and Olive]

Thanks for the input!

[Christine & Camus]

Thanks for the post, the bison and/or lamb bones may be an option for Camus.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm not certain, but I think the lamb bones may be edible bones, which means they can actually eat them, as opposed to recreational bones, which they can gnaw on but not really consume. With Camus' sensitive stomach, and given that he has not eaten a raw meat & bones diet, I'd be careful.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Should we add to our Raw list?  I am happy to.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks, Allyson, that would be great.

[Susan, Schuester and Olive]

Olive and Schuester have been on Tucker's raw food for about 2 months. They like all three products, beef, bison, or lamb equally well.
The package for the lamb says it is made from 95%pork muscle meat, lamb heart, bone and marrow. 5% is natural pumpkin. The frozen patties, which are individually vacuum sealed, look like any ground meat, so lamb bones would be very fine. The bison has pork, pumpkin and bison heart. The beef has pork, pumpkin annd beef heart. The retailer told me she thought that only the heart is used from the beef, bison, and lamb but it's hard to tell from the label. At any rate, I had multiple problems with Olive and loose stools over several months. No more problems. They do get a little kibble also in the evening. I was initially apprehensive about the pork, but I learned that pork is used in many zoos. Also, since the dogs have very short digestive tracts compared to ours, the pork would not be in their system long enough to do harm, like raw pork would be for us. Each batch is tested for E-Coli, salmonella, and Trichina. I think I found a keeper!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The info about dogs having very short digestive tracts compared to ours is not quite true. I know that's what you read on a lot of raw feeding websites, but in fact, dog's digestive tracts are not much shorter than ours. Cats, which are obligate carnivores, have much shorter digestive tracts, and even wolves' GI tracts are shorter than dogs. The fact that pork is used in zoos is not necessarily relevant, since most of the animals being fed raw meat in zoos are not dogs or even wolves, but usually cats and bears. However, we have to trust that the product is tested for bacteria and kept properly stored.

It takes a minimum of 6 hours for a dog to digest any type of food, so it isn't as if the food goes right through them so fast that they can't get sick from it. Otherwise, we would never hear of a dog getting salmonella or other GI tract infections from contaminated foods.  

My comment about the lamb bones was referring to the bones the company sells and not the bone content of the patties.