I've been feeding my dogs a raw diet for the past 3 years with great success. We do the prey model that was mentioned earlier, or as some call it franken-prey - meaning that it's not whole animals but rather various parts from different ones. This may include beef heart, chicken feet, fish head, pork shoulder, etc. The most important thing is to feed the key elements: meat, bone, and organs. I follow the general guideline of 70-80% meat, 10-20% bone, and about 10% organs. Of course I don't calculate it that precisely, I just eyeball and monitor my dogs stools. I don't feed veggies, but if you feel you must, keep it small. There are a number of veggies that shouldn't be fed also, such as those with a lot of sugar or nightshades for dogs with joint/arthritis problems. Care also must be taken with the typical BARF supplements - for example the iodine in kelp can interfere with thyroid function. My dogs just get meat/bone/organs as well as a fish oil supplement for their skin & coat (unless they get fish that day). They do get some biscuits and commercial treats though, but very little. The other very important thing is to feed a variety - just chicken is NOT a good raw diet! (unless your dog has some very severe allergies) Different meats vary in their nutritional profiles and by feeding many of them over time you will make sure your dog has all the things s/he needs. I say dog, but it also applies to cats and ferrets, which I personally don't have so I can't share my experience on. On a regular basis my dogs get chicken, turkey, pork, beef, lamb, and a couple of different kinds of fish. They don't get all of these every day or even every week, but they do get a variety over the long term. We have seen great results from feeding raw, including nice clean teeth (one of my dogs has bad teeth and this has avoided the annual dentals that are typical in the breed). Also, my sensitive tummy dog now has solid stools, which was very rare before! People not familiar with raw think it's weird that raw is easier to digest, but it's really true. And knowing my dogs aren't affected by all those food recalls has been just priceless. In my opinion ground raw diets aren't worth much. They don't have the carbs but many have veggies and some even add supplements. If your dog has any food sensitivities they can be difficult to figure out with this type of food. Also, they tend to be too high in bone (which is the cheaper ingredient) and can cause constipation. Your pet won't get any dental cleaning benefits like they would if they had to chew their food. And finally there is the price - I get most of my food from grocery stores and ethnic markets for an average $1/lb; the premade foods are much, much higher than that. My favourite raw feeding resource is the Yahoo group called "rawfeeding" (linking to Yahoo groups is not allowed here so you'll have to do a search for it). Plus here are some other good links: http://www.rawfed.com/ http://www.rawfeddogs.net/ http://www.rawlearning.com/ http://www.geocities.com/havens_home/feedraw.htm I guess that's sort of the condensed version of our story (although it did get kind of long). If you have any questions, I'd be glad to help!

I just switched my dogs to Wysong Anergen dry food along with raw chicken and supplemental feedings of fish. The Wysong is sold in 4 and 8lb. bags. You can buy 4 8lb. bags, totalling 32 lbs. from Wysong for $42.00, but the shipping is $21.00 (for me anyway). Still that may be cheaper than what you are paying now. You could check retailers, pet stores, etc. in your area to see if anyone carries the Wysong products. I was fortunate enough to have the feed store in my area order me 10 cases, so I could get a better price on it. This particular food can also be fed to cats which works out great for me since I have cats who also need an allergen diet. This food is not classified as a "prescription diet" but only has a limited ingredient diet. It has lamb and brown rice, flax seed, oatmeal and some other good things. It's free from preservatives, corn, wheat, beef, by products, etc. So I don't know if it would work for your dog, you would have to be the judge of that. Like you, I couldn't afford the price of the prescription food. I was feeding the cats the Royal Canine and at Petsmart that was $36 for an 8 lb. bag. To me, that's totally insane and a rip off.

We stick with the same food. Mainly, this has a lot to do with our one dog having a sensitive stomach and it takes him a while to "adapt" to new foods. Our other dog could care less. Also, with all the problems with foods lately I think I would prefer to stay with one food. I believe I would be able to see problems quicker if there was something wrong with the food because it wouldn't come and go (if you were switching foods this could happen) and if BOTH of our dogs were acting ill we would assume the food and bring them to the vet pronto. I guess I feel if we switched foods we may miss the signs of this. I am not sure if this it true or not. We also switched to canidea after the most recent food recalls and now that we have had our dogs on it for about 6 months I can see a difference in their coats and I am very happy with the food. It is also less smelly and greasy than our other "premium" food we used to buy. This food has a couple different meats in it and then we can supplement with veggies so I think our dogs get a complete nutrition. They do not seem to be lacking. Our one boy used to get allergy problems every fall and spring and (crossing my fingers) we haven't seen them yet this year although it has been a bad allergy season, so maybe the new food is helping with this also?

I wasn't going to post the recipe since the thread seemed to be discussing commercial pet foods. But since DebbieP already is cooking chicken and rice, and someone else also asked, I thought the recipe might be helpful. I cook double batches in 2 big steel enameled pots. The downside is time and cost. The upside is my terriers are very healthy on it. Also, I thought it would be interesting if others respond about the nutritional content if they notice something amiss. 2 1/2 lbs ground beef (or other meat) 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 C rice, dry 1 T garlic paste 1 T wheat germ 1 T cider vinegar 1 T brewer's or nutritional yeast 1 t dried kelp 1 t bone meal 3 large carrots, grated 1/2 can green peas, mashed 1 small crown of broccoli, finely chopped 4 eggs, beaten 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk 1/2 t iodized salt 1 T flaxseed oil (add to mixture after it has cooled) Begin by boiling the ground beef in a large pot. Add garlic. As it cooks grate and add the carrot (A salad shooter is perfect for this job), chop and add the broccoli. Add water as needed to prevent sticking or burning. Stir often throughout the recipe, and add water as needed. Soak and rinse the rice several times. Add the rice and add more water. Continue to boil. Mash and add the peas. Beat and add the eggs. Add the other ingredients. Add dry milk when cooking is nearly finished. Add flaxseed oil when mixture is fairly cool and ready to be refrigerated. For variation use different meat, cottage cheese, well cooked lentils, garbanzos, lima beans. Vary the vegetable, use sweet potato, yam, spinach. Rice can be varied by using oatmeal, other grains, etc. Feed 2 times a day. --------------------------------- The Vet, Dr. Fox, recommends giving a human vitamin at the rate of 1/8th tablet per 30 lbs of body weight. I also supplement one of my dogs 125 tab of vitamin c and find it clears her runny eyes, and seems to have healed wart-like growths on her back that my vet said were common and not something to worry about. I suspect due to her age her liver is not producing enough vitamin c. My 2 other terriers appear very healthy on this diet. As I said in an earlier post, the dogs get lots of dog biscuits to keep their teeth clean. A word about poop - Since I walk my dogs nearly every day and pick up after them (I use paper lunch bags and pages torn from old telephone books), the diet makes their poop somewhat soft but still firm, and moist. It doesn't smell bad, relatively speaking. A word about breath - This diet has given my dogs a really nice breath scent. When I analysed the recipe using Dietpower and compared it with RDA's for dogs and humans, I only found problems with human RDA's. These were easily made up by adding spinach. Alas, my terriers have told me they do not like spinach...