Raw Feeding Advice

Firstly, well done for considering a raw food diet for your dog. It is the only species appropriate diet for them and the changes you will see are amazing. Raw food goes completely back to basics. In the wild a dog would have caught and eaten a rabbit for example. They would utilise the fur was a natural wormer, the bone provides them with calcium, the brain and eyeballs are highly nutritious and the meat and offal will provide all the nutrients they require, together with the contents of the rabbit's stomach.

The best place to start is to order from the 'Completes' section on our website http://www.theyloveit.co.uk/completes.html as this gives your dog everything they need in their meal and it's a really good place to start. They are suitable to feed from 8 weeks old. Your dog will also require raw meaty bones to chew on 2 to 3 times per week as this essential to healthy teeth and gums. Chewing raw meaty bones not only cleans their teeth but it release endorphins that make your dog happy and they are less likely to chew the things they are not supposed to.

The treats in a raw food diet also play an important part. For example, dried furry rabbit ears are used as a natural wormer, as are raw organic pumpkin seeds. We use garlic powder or fresh crushed garlic to treat fleas. You will read that garlic is poisonous to dogs and this is true if they were to eat a bulb of garlic for example it may cause them some harm, but a clove of garlic crushed in their food when suffering with fleas usually gets rid of the fleas within a few days and that small amount of garlic will not harm your dog. However, using chemicals to treat fleas can cause all sorts of issues. 

To make the switch to raw, finish feeding their current food the day before and then start on raw the next morning. Never mix dry food with raw as this affects the way the raw is digested. Do not include dry food in their diet when feeding raw, even if it is fed separately or at a different time of the day. They do not require the dry food, raw gives them everything they need. 

If you find that their stools are hard or they struggle to go to the toilet, reduce the bone content by replacing part of the meal with boneless meat to dilute the bone content for the first week or so.

We have a feeding calculator on our website which will give you a guide as to how much you need to feed

http://www.theyloveit.co.uk/feeding.html

If you need raw feeding advice then we can highly recommend the following sites for  information:

Raw Feeding UK on Facebook with over 40,000 members https://www.facebook.com/groups/rawfeedinguk/

The Dog's Dinner by Anne Ridyard https://dogsdinner2.webs.com/

Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raw-Meaty-Bones-Promote-Health-ebook/dp/B004XOZ928

If you have access Amazon Prime or Youtube there is a fantastic documentary called 'Pet Fooled' which is a very informative watch.