Why & How We Feed Raw
Raw Recipe in a Nutshell
80% Raw Meaty Bones
10% Offal
10% Veggies
Optional Supplements (i.e. fish oil)
Optional Toppings (i.e. plain yogurt, raw eggs)
Photo Note: Goat Milk added to weaning puppy’s meals; whole plain yogurt added as topper for adult dogs servings.
Why?
I remember when my husband and I decided to get our first LGD, we wanted to provide the best biologically appropriate food for our new LGD puppy. My husband mentioned trying a raw diet which I had never heard of at the time. I decided to do my homework and research the raw diet and see if that would be a good fit for our LGD puppy & lifestyle.
I was actually quite surprised to find so many claims of how beneficial a raw diet could be. Some of them included that your pet would have: a softer coat - improved skin health - lean, strong muscles - stronger immune system - better dental health - small, firm (less smelly) stools - lower risk for allergies & health complications - improved digestion - healthy weight management. The list actually goes on and on!
Well, we decided to give it a try, however, buying it premade was not an option for us - it was just way too expensive, especially with how much a LGD needs daily. So, we decided to go the “homemade’ route and have been able to do this for about $1.25/lb. We have been feeding our LGD’s and cats raw for about five years now and will never go back. The claims of how beneficial a raw diet is, are absolutely true.
When we started the journey to feed our animals raw, there was a lot of trial and error during the process. There weren’t as many internet resources on the topic at that time. So much time and money was wasted! We decided it would be beneficial to share what we learned with other homesteaders and perhaps you can skip some of the mistakes that were made!
How?
Gather & Invest in Supplies
Having the right supplies on hand makes the task so much easier! From our experience, these are the items we need when making our raw blend:
Quality Meat Grinder (we use Cabela’s Deluxe meat Grinder, about $175)
Lard (to grease grinder parts)
Butcher Knife
Knife Sharpener
Cutting Board with drip groove
Kitchen Scale
Large Bowls
Large Spoon
And Don’t Forget!
StorageContainers! Depending on how much you are making will determine how many and what size containers you will need.
Optional Supplies
(But mandatory for us!)
Good, loud music!
Apron(s) - this job is messy!
Ingredients:
80% Meaty Bones (we use skinned chicken, its most economical & the dogs love it)
10% Offal or Organ Meat (our favorites are beef liver, chicken hearts/gizzards or chicken liver)
10% Vegetables (what vegetables will depend on your dog’s preference, we typically use carrots and kale, spinach and/or cabbage)
Optional Supplements, do some research (we use fish oil for those extra omega-3 fatty acids)
How Much Do You Need?
We feed our very active LGDs 3% of their weight daily (if they are full grown adult dogs) or 5% of their body weight (if they are still growing) and split into two meals. For young puppies, their daily ration is split into more frequent meals, about 3-4 times daily.
I’ll break it down, Aspen, our adult female LGD weighs 80 lbs. I like to convert to ounces, it makes it easier when figuring out portion sizes.
80 lbs. x 16 oz. = 1280 oz. Aspen’s weight
1280 oz. x 0.03 (3%) = 38.4 oz. raw food daily divided into two meals =
1 lb. 3 oz. each feeding
Now that you know how much is needed daily, you can determine how much you need to buy when shopping. This example would look something like this:
38.4 oz. x 14 days = 537.6 oz. divided by 16 oz. = 33.6 or basically 40 lbs. raw blend is needed for two weeks, which would break down to 32 lbs. (80%) raw meaty bones, 4 lbs. offal (10%) and 4 lbs vegetables (10%). Easy right?!
Get To Work!
Get your work station set up & turn the music up! It’s nice to have it set up somewhat like an assembly line. Also, if you have help, even better! We used to have our teens help us with this process: one person was skinning & chopping, another processing the blend and the last in line was weighing & packaging.
Calculate your ratio. We do about 200 lbs. each time we make the raw blend but split it into 10 batches of = 10 lbs. raw meaty bones, 1 lb. offal, 1 lb. veggies each time, this ensures the ratio is accurate.
Skin (if present) and chop the meat into pieces that will fit into the grinder (save any skins & add to packaged meals as a topper).
Add measured veggies to top tray.
Start processing! Alternatively add raw meaty bones, offal and veggies into the grinder.
6. Add any optional supplements and stir! ( we use about 1/4 cup fish oil at this time)
7. Weigh and package your food according to what amount you calculated. We like to package them as single servings. If you have multiple animals that require different amounts, make sure to label the containers.
Success!
This is my favorite part! When it’s all done, it’s nice just to admire how much has been prepared!
Make sure to put all the containers into the freezer, leaving out how many you need for today and tomorrow.
While it is a lot of work, it’s well worth it. Our LGDs reap the health benefits & they absolutely love their raw blend diet!
