My dachshund has had 14 teeth extracted - my vet bill was huge last fall & she was unable to eat! I started cooking for her and I am still cooking for her - chicken livers on the stove while I type:). I looked into the raw diet and it is overwhelming - that's why I am still cooking and mushing.
My local grocer sells ground raw diet food - frozen. I can't remember the name of it. I think it is made in Baltimore.
I will look for the name of it if you want me to.
Sorry, I am not any help, but I am interested in what you find, and decide. If you want some help with the cooked food side - I can help you there. She is healthier and happier than I have seen her for a long time-of course she also feels better getting rid of those nasty teeth. I felt horrible, because she has regular vet visits - the vet was shocked at how bad her teeth were once she put her asleep and started cleaning.

Hi Deb! Here is what I wrote to a friend's sister recently:

Raw feeding your dog is not difficult, contrary to what you may read on some web sites, where ultra-high maintenance type people act like it is rocket science.

Think about it, we feed ourselves pretty well so why can't we feed our dogs without a doctor okay or pet food company okay? It's all marketing!

To start a newbie dog out, put down an old towel or plastic mat - I use a vinyl outdoor tablecloth - and give her a chicken leg. I warm up chicken pieces in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes since Odo doesn't like it cold out of the fridge. See how she reacts. If she doesn't pick it up or looks unsure what to do, pick up one end of it and hold it up to her to sniff and encourage her to eat it.

if she is a food gulper, you might have to hold the end and get her to eat it more slowly. don't be afraid, dogs can swallow much larger things than we can. You do want to supervise any feeding of meaty bones, just in case the dog swallows too much and tries to hork it back up. �Sometimes a dog will do that. If Odo is hungry and excited, he might swallow too big a piece. He will hork it up and break it into more manageable pieces.

Ideally, the dog will crunch the bone and scissor the meat and skin into pieces they can manage to swallow. Dogs don't really chew - they don't have molars.

If she doesn't want to eat a chick leg, cut the meat off for her instead. If she is not accustomed to eating bones, you can feed her other raw food and meat-and-veg table scraps. You can also buy premade raw meat patties that contain ground bone, but this premade stuff is expensive.

You can make your own patties and freeze them. �I did that in the beginning. Now I just give Odo the stuff separately.

The ideal raw diet is mostly meat, bones, organ meats, eggs - dogs can eat egg shells too, cooked veggies, raw veggies. Don't feed garlic and absolutely no onion, which is deadly for dogs. Here is a list of food I feed Odo:

Chicken legs, wings, necks
Beef meaty bones
Ground meats
Turkey necks
Pork chop bones
Eggs - Odo doesn't like raw eggs unless they are mixed into a meat patty. i will give him scrambled egg when we eat them.
Cooked veggie scraps like squash, green beans, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, asparagus - whatever you are having.
Feed starchy vegs like sweet potato and carrots sparingly since they are high in calories.
Raw lettuces - Odo like this with salad dressing, he won't eat it plain! Dogs do have their likes and dislikes just like we do!
Organ meats like liver - this is very nutritious but very rich. Try tiny portions first.
Red meat like beef is richer than poultry, so start with small amounts.

Regarding doggy taste buds - they do appreciate tasty stuff like we do, so sometimes when Odo looks longingly at our aromatic grilled meat, I'll do something extra like rub his raw chicken in my plate juices (after dinner!) or put a little cooking juice or broth on it.

Dogs don't need grains.
Dogs don't need dairy so don't feed yogurt or cheese, even though, like us, dogs love all that.
Meat and bones should be 80 percent or more of what you feed.

Dogs notoriously get sick with the runs when introduced to new foods. So introduce one new food at a time, a small amount at a time. Keep a can of unsweetened pumpkin onhand - it helps with diarrhea.

If you give your dog bones that she gnaws on but doesn't eat up, that's okay. Some bones may be too hard for her to break. In fact, many raw feeders give their dogs bones that are too large for the purpose of gnawing on, which is good for the teeth, gums and jaw, and keeps the dog occupied in something that wild canines do. Just be sure to supervise, train her to keep bones in one place so she doesn't carry raw bones all over the house.

Don't feed any commercial treats, edible bone treats, and absolutely no rawhide products. These are bad for dogs. For treats, those dried chicken breast pieces are good, and Kong toys stuffed with ground meat/egg mixtures (maybe a touch of peanut butter), then freeze the Kong. it will take her a while to work the stuff out.

Odo is 20 lbs and he eats 2 chicken legs worth for dinner, and doesn't like to eat breakfast, just a couple of treats during the day.

Best of luck!

magothyrivergirl--thank you! I just did the whole expensive teeth cleaning thing with my dogs...wow! I don't want to go through that again!

Thank you, Gina, for your detailed explanation. I guess I'm trying to figure out when and how to start, how much food I should initially buy for the doggies, etc, etc. I read on some site to start the dogs off cold turkey switching to all raw. It sounds like you transitioned.

I keep reading it's okay to give them the chicken leg, turkey neck, whatever, bone and all. It's hard to get past the "never give a dog a chicken bone" thing...but I guess that's cooked bones.

I see how much waste we produce from the food we eat and I keep thinking some of it could go to the dogs if I knew what I was doing. Howard's not convinced yet, but your post will help!

Max is 9 1/2 lbs (about right) and Lily is about 15 lbs (vet says she's overweight, but not by much), maybe she should be about 12-13 lbs. She's a bigger dog than Max.

Thanks again! I'm going to gear up for this!

What beautiful dogs! When you do this, please come back and tell us how they're doing on their new diet. I'd like to hear how they get along.

I didn't transition. I researched and planned and Odo went cold turkey when he came home with me as a three-month old. He grabbed that chicken and knew what to do right away.

Bones are an important component of raw feeding. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, dogs and cats can eat raw bones and they are built to do so. Well maybe shihtzus aren't - LOL, with those teeny teeth.

Raw bones are soft. Poultry is a good size meat for domestic dogs. Most beef bones are too large and hard for most dogs to eat, but Odo can eat up t-bones and small rib bones no problem.

Eating bones keeps their teeth clean, gums healthy, and works their jaw, neck and body muscles. It's also a very primal thing for a dog to do. Also you can give large recreational bones for them to do what dogs love to do most - gnaw on something.

My uncle Max was married to Lily. ROFLMAO!

Cute pix of the pooches!

Thanks for clarifying, Gina! I am very excited about this...but do need to time it carefully if the doggies have tummy issues in the beginning!

Luna, I'll definitely post when I convert!

Jessy, tooooo funny!! Hahaha!

Do you see what I see in that picture? Max is on the left; Lily is on the right with her mouth open as if she is saying,

"Max, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times...."

Max's expression seems to say, "Max, blah, blah, blah...."

I laugh every time I look at this picture. Lily looks like such a nag! :) She is the sweetest, most submissive ball o'fur, EVER! Haha!

I love feeding raw. Jessie did so good on it. We had to stop for a little while, but are getting ready to start again as soon as I free up his share of the freezer again. We went cold turkey too and didn't have any digestive problems. More people have problems transitioning between dry foods. I give veggies and such but only really as more treats or while I'm prepping dinner. He loves lettuce, plain. It really doesn't have to be hard at all, like Gina said. For your size dogs I'd try chicken necks. They're a good ratio of meat to bone and your guys can probably crunch those bones up easy. You just have to see how they do with gulping. Chicken backs are great too, proportionately. It's hard at first to get rid of that no bones idea, especially with all those little rib bones and such but really, they're perfect and the dogs eat them easily. Sometimes we'd get a lot of sales on bone in chicken breasts, and that's good too. I'd just chop the breast halves in half and give the bony part one meal and the meaty part might get a pork chop bone along with it for another meal. We also use chicken legs, all kinds of pork, beef, etc. He likes fish too once in a while. If you don't get enough bone in their diet you can use egg shell for the bone/calcium part. The basic diet is 80% meat 10%bone and 10% organ meat. Remember, heart isn't an organ, it's a muscle. They can just get their organ meat a couple times a week to make it easier. Frozen liver is a common way to give it. Some dogs don't like the texture of raw liver and will readily eat the frozen. If you have freezer space you can buy cases of backs or necks from butchers or meat packing places quite cheaply. I used to bag the meat when I got in in a bag that was enough for about three days and just take a bag out and put in the fridge and feed some daily as it would thaw. It really was easy. I use a beach towel to feed him on, fold it in so it doesn't touch anything else and use the same towel for the week, then throw into the laundry. The food didn't usually spend much time on the towel. Smiles.

Major pluses of feeding raw. Much less chance of allergies to food which affect many dogs. Beautiful coat. Less poop and ... the biggie.. poop that turns to dust in just a few days. Btw, the way to tell if they're getting too much bone is the poo. If they're getting too much it will look whiteish. No biggie, cut back. The main thing is you really don't need to stress about it. I feed/fed Jessie twice a day but whatever works for you is fine. Also, to know if you're giving the right amount of food, all you need to do is watch your dogs weight. If they're gaining, cut it back, if they're losing more than you'd like, add a little. It's easy and so worth it. Jessie has the most beautiful teeth and is four years old. No tarter at all and I don't even brush his teeth. He gets some big meaty bones from time to time. I give them to him frozen and let him chew for fifteen minutes at a time, otherwise he could eat too much fat/marrow and get the runs. Then I scoop the bone into a bag and refreeze for the next night.

Oh, and don't be surprised when they drink less water, since they'll be getting it in the food itself. One of the first things I noticed when we stopped feeding raw was Jessie started drinking a lot more water again.

Sorry to yammer on so much but I really love feeding raw. Jessie misses it. Smiles. Good luck, I hope you do give it a try.

Deb, those two are just beautiful, and I had to laugh when you pointed out that Lily was "yapping" at Max, LOL.

I don't necessarily feed a raw diet, but the WonderWeiner always ate what I ate, and so does Cooper. Elery has always fed Pancho the same way and he's 13 and very healthy.

I had the added advantage of having cattle, so WW got all the rib bones which Carl would trim for me, along with sections of the femur and knuckles. He loved them, and Cooper does too, although I've never been able to make any of the dogs stay on a towel with a raw bone....

Cooper loves butternut squash, it's one of his favorite treats. Buster likes raw carrots and WW liked raw cauliflower.

Darn it, I still miss that dog.....

Annie