RIGHT!!!

[scotty3968 0]

HELLO AGAIN SORRY FOR BLEETING ON ABOUT THIS SUBJECT,,BUT IM CHANGING MY DOGS DIET TO A RAW/COMPLETE MIX(RED MILLS TRACKER,,

CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME A DIET TO HAVE A GO AT AND WHAT MEAT TO USE AND IN WHAT QUANTITY TO USE,,LAST ONE ON THIS I PROMISE

CHERS

SCOTTY

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Nothing wrong with hammering a subject as important as ye Dogs health and well being, Scotty. It's something I've beaten around for half a century and I still look for ways of improvement

 

Ok, I'll guess ye have some sort of lurcher? Well, I have here what could loosely ~ Very loosely ~ be considered a sort of bullx lurchery thing. I can describe to ye exactly how I feed her. Extrapolate ye own requirements from that, if ye wish.

 

Once a day, around 17:00 I take a Breast of Lamb out of the fridge or, if I forgot the night before, the deep freezer. It doesn't matter a fart if it's frozen hard as concrete. I look at it and see that it's made up on longish bones about as thick as a thumb. At one end there's a more solid mass of bone, size of a small girls fist. I lay the rack across my tree stump and hit it with my hatchet.

 

I'll chop off three portions, two bones wide. That's three 'chops'. Each about as thick as two of my fingers. Then, considering how she's looking that day, I may cut one of these chops across the middle. Thus I'll chuck two and a half or three of them into her bowl. Those chops are probably about 50 / 50 raw flesh with plenty of good clean fat and bone.

 

Then I take my huge, caterers spoon. Ye know the thing. Long handled steel job. Ye'd never get it in ye mouth. Not made for that. Into that I pour Flora vegetable oil. Whole spoonfull. That goes over the meat. Now and then I'll chuck in a smaller dash of Apple Cider Vinager too. And that, on average, is her daily diet.

 

On occassion, as I have it available, I might chop up some fresh cabbage for them. I chop it as fine as I can, after nipping out the thicker stalky bits. These, a couple each, I feed to all my Dogs as on the spot treats. They love it. The rest of the cabbage leaves, nicely shreded, I'll steam or, if I'm rushed, I'll put into a little water and will microwave for five to ten minutes. Idea being to break it down. Dogs guts don't break down raw vegetable matter too well. I give it a head start for them

 

One more thing: I put my Dogs bowls into buckets. Just regular, plastic buckets. The rims of their bowls fit well and the result is that the Dogs are able to stand up straight and take their meals. I've watched Dogs go through a sort of shoulder dislocating process in order to get down to a bowl on the floor and I don't like it. So for years now I've fed them out of raised bowls. Not that chunks of meat and bone stay in the bowls long. They tend to take a chunk out and go face their favoured corners, often laying down to chew it. And each Dog is fed well away from the next. One in each corner and one I even close in another room. I curse any Dog who tries to go near another, having finished his or her food first. That's how trouble breaks out.

 

Ye'll note I haven't mentioned dry feed. I won't use it. I consider it to be carcinogenic rubbish. The stuff that stops all that fat content going rank in the open sack is widely said to be carcinogenic. People will argue with me all day on this one. Let them try, if it salves their conciounces. But I watched a decade of Bull n Terriers dropping with cancer at around the eight years mark. Then my own Dog fell. There ended my experiments with that shit.

 

I, like everyone else, have a mobile phone. But I'll only ever use it on Loudspeaker and held well away from my head. Why, and what's the connection here? Same thing. I believe they cause brain cancers, when used slapped to ones head. Outrageous? Fine. But two of my friends, heavy mobile phone users, are now dead. Buried with the tops of their skulls sawn off. Brain cancer. They, like the Dogs, died far too young and terribly. Look up brain cancer on NHS Direct and it still says it only occurs in men of or so, and then extremely rarely. My mates were both around the fifty mark. So, let others do and say as they like, about mobile phones or Dry feed. I've seen enough and have my own, very strong opinions. Now you must form yours and act on ye own conciounce.

[Simoman 110]

I feed 60% chicken wings and 40% minced meat and veg. I also feed trotters occasionally.

[bill88 6]

Ditch,i am not the brown noseing,ego massaging type,but i do enjoy your thread's and i would value your opinion on this subject.First let me say my dog's, three terrier's,a colliexgrey lurcher,and a beddyxwhippet arriving shortly,are fed on dry (jame's well beloved,or burn's) mixed with either raw (what i catch or shoot,and or tripe mince) and occasionally a tin of butcher's.

Now i know you've detailed your view's on dry,and why you wont feed your dog's on it,but? why did you decide to feed barf,and where to did you get the info you needed to make this decision from?

Before i finish,i see you give your dog's apple cider vinegar,i keep hen's and i give them this,as i'm told it make's the gut too acidic for parasite's,and it also act's as a general tonic,doe's it work in a similar way on canine's?

I look forward to your reply,many thank's in advance,all the best.Bill

Edited March 22, 2007 by bill88

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Bill; 'Massage my ego' or hurl insults and abuse at me, if ye like. All ammounts to the same thing with me. Like pissing against a pane of plate glass. I'm too long in the tooth to be bothered much by either approach

 

Now then to ye questions: First of all, I'll skip the obvious, 'WHY do ye chuck that shit in with the good stuff?'. Let's stick with Your questions.

 

Why did I decide to feed raw? I've never considered it " BARF ", mate. But here's my story ..... My Dad and Uncle were both professional Greyhound Trainers all their lives. That meant I was liturally born to an enviroment where I was raised around running Dogs being treated in such a way as brought out the very best in them. My people got the best out of those Dogs or else the mortgage didn't get paid and the family would starve. And, as soon as I could be trusted not to fall over, I was helping prepare their feed. I saw everything that went into it. Start to finish.

 

What went in it was heads. Cows and sheep. Then there was what we called " Rusk ". That's like thick cut bread baked brown in the oven. We kids loved the stuff to and, considering the enviroment around those kennels back then, it's a source of wonder to me we didn't all die of Weils Disease! Cracker biscuits were also used. And there were always crates of cabbages and sacks of carrots about the place too.

 

Now, here's the twist: It all went into a massive boiler and was boiled to f*ck Bones were raked out (skulls, that is) and the whole broth poured into long, tin baths. My job, from the earliest, was to thrust my little arms into that steaming vat and crush everything I could feel. Meat. Rusk, Biscuit. What ever. I evectively liquidised it for my Dad. Then he doled out each ~ f*ck me! I smelled it there! Damn memory came right back to me! ~ he doled out each Dogs ration and sent us to feed those Dogs their bowl of very loose broth.

 

They got it as a broth because they couldn't bolt liquid and so give themselves tortion. It was also simply a more economical way, time wise. Dad couldn't have spent half a day chopping guaged portions of bits and pieces for maybe a hundred Dogs every day.

 

But There, ye see, is where I got my grounding. I saw the fittest Dogs on the planet being fed meat, veg and bread stuffs.

 

Now, bread does nothing for a Dog, truth be known. They don't derive anything from it at all. But it thickened the broth and filled their bellies and made them feel content. Contented Dogs relax and that keeps their heads in shape. Stressed out Dogs don't thrive.

 

Well, for some years since, we've been unable to aquire 'stock heads and such. The money men dreamed up 'Dry, Complete Diets' and I, like most others, swallowed the hype. I fed my Dogs on it and their coats shone over night. Everyone was doing it - this was Pit Dogs. Again, fit as f*ck Dogs - and the sun shone down on us all. Then I started hearing that He'd lost his eight year old Dog to cancer. And then He did. Then I lost mine. That's when I started the research that burst my bubble.

 

Then I had to find an alternative. I managed to get a seemingly good quality 'Pet Mince' from a butchers in Yorkshire (where Butchers still Butcher) and went back to doing a domestic form of what Dad did. Only I used a steamer on my meat. Dogs thrived on their steamed mince and veggies. Then I crossed the water and shit myself as the freezer stocks dwindled. Thankfully, here in small town, rural Leitrim, my mate the local butcher even Slaughters the 'stock he then butchers. That's how come I started buying all his lambs breasts and the odd cows heart from him.

 

But here's another catch; How in hell to cook such stuff with just a tiny micro wave and a quartz grill? I couldn't. So I slung it down and watched. Rest is history.

 

I've glanced at one or two BARF sites. I can't stand them. They make such a fuss about it. It's not rocket science. Why complicate it? What ever meat and bone ye can get. Then add what ever ye feel to add interest and those trace things and minerals which scientists would know about, but we just instinctively feel about. What can be a more Natural diet than an Instinctive one? But the most importand point here, the way I've come full circle, is that I know, see, handle and manage everything that goes into my Dogs. Protien and Amino Acids per Kg. ? How in hell should I know? I have no greasy sacks side panal to tell me that. But I know it's all fresh, human grade, off the hoof and out of the local fields stuff. Only preservative it ever sees in the inside of my freezer.

 

Apple Cider Vinager? Yeppers. Good friend of mine, excellent Dog Man, told me about that stuff. Vermafuge and generall all round tonic. It's good for my Dogs? In it goes.

 

There. Now ye know exactly where I'm coming from.

[scotty3968 0]

THANKS DITCH

I REALLY APPRECIATE THE TIME AND EFFORT YOU PUT INTO THESE THREADS, HOW MUCH DOES IT COST YOU FOR A LAMB BREAST AND HOW MUCH DO YOU GO THROUGH?

CHEERS AGAIN FELLA

SCOTTY

[bill88 6]

Cheer's ditch,i like your logic mate.Too much analysis of everything going on these day's.I see exactly where you are coming from.Thank's for taking the time to answer the question's for me,it's much appreciated.All the best,Bill