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Raw Food Questions

What is BARF or Raw Food Diet?

BARF or Biological Appropriate Raw Food is the natural way your dog should eat.  A dogs digestion tract is designed to eat a raw diet.

 

Why should I feed a Raw Food Diet?

Because your goal is to have a healthy happy dog.  When you have a nutritionally balanced diet, you have a strong immune system.  When your dog’s immune system is healthy, stinky dog odor goes away, bad breath, farts all disappear, no smelly ears; they will have cleaner teeth, less skin allergies and even less fleas.  In some cases, good nutrition even helps with behavior. 

 

What does it cost to feed my dog a raw diet?

At Bone Appetit we want to make your life easy and your dog’s life healthy.  With our complete Meal Deal, you will feed a 65 pound dog approximately 1 pound per day and we sell it for $3.35 pound.  Most information about raw food diets use the guide line of 2 to 3% of your dog’s ideal weight.  So a 65 pound dog would eat almost 2 pounds of food a day.  This is a combination of foods, one day meaty bones, next day vegetables and offal, etc.  Not the most appropriate way to get balanced nutrition.  We have a lot of different suggestions to help keep the costs down.    

 

Why should I feed Bone Appetit’s Meal Deal?

When feeding a raw food diet, the most important thing is to make sure that your dog is receiving the most balanced meal, and making sure that his diet has the right combination of calcium, minerals, omegas and vitamins.  Here at Bone Appetit our Meal Deal is complete, because we use chicken backs with ribs attached, one of the best sources of meat to bone ratio, and with the bone you are getting the proper and most natural source of calcium, we cover all vitamins through our vegetables (nothing underground so no carbs) offal (gut meat) which is always overlooked in a raw diet, we use kidney and heart. We cover omega 3 and 6’s through our bait fish.  Our organic alfalfa and kelp cover the needed minerals and we use organic apple cider vinegar for some nutrients, but mainly for skin and digestion.

 

How do I receive my Bone Appetit raw food?

We ship our food frozen, double boxed and insulated with newspaper.  This is the reason we are limited to a four day delivery time.  If you are unsure about our delivery to your address please contact us.

 

I received my Bone Appetit raw food and it was slightly thawed, what do I do?  If you received your shipment of food and the ends are thawed, but the food is still cool to the touch, place in freezer immediately.  It will be fine to feed your dog.  The food is very fresh, we grind in a pre-frozen state and then the food is frozen in a sub-zero environment.

 

Will my dog get e-coli or salmonella?

Your dog cannot get e-coli or salmonella.  It can get salmon poisoning.  Your dog’s intestinal tract is short so e-coli cannot grow in it like humans.  That is why your dog can eat a dead animal after a couple of days and not die, it will probably get sick and vomit, only because it gorged itself.

 

How do I feed Bone Appetit Meal Deal?

After you have decided on your amount to feed, thaw a tube in the refrigerator (DO NOT MICROWAVE BONE APPETIT RAW FOOD.  IT CONTAINS BONE AND MICROWAVING IT CAN PARTIALLY COOK THE BONES AND THAT CAN BE HARMFUL TO YOUR DOG).  Weigh out your amount for your dog and feed.  Feed raw food in a stainless bowl, crock, or glass bowl.  NO PLASTIC - IT IS POROUS AND WILL BECOME CONTAMINATED.  REMEMBER:  You are feeding with raw meat so take all the precautions that you would when feeding your family.  Clean all counters and dishes thoroughly.

 

When I thawed my Bone Appetit Meal Deal its bloody, why?

You are dealing with raw meat, so keep it in the refrigerator in a container so it doesn’t contaminate your other food, and treat it like other raw meat.  If there is blood present DO NOT drain off, give this to your dog, this is very nutritious.

 

What’s wrong with chicken breast/thighs?

Breasts and thighs have to high of a meat to bone ratio so your protein is really off.  If you want to get something at the store, watch for wings or necks as long as they are hormone free.

 

What additives do I have to add to Bone Appetit’s raw food?

None, we made it so you don’t have to worry about adding oils, vitamins or any other additives for a balance diet.

 

Can I mix dry dog food with Raw?

Bone Appetit’s suggests that you do NOT mix the two together.  They have different processing times.  It takes approximately 12 hours to digest kibble with lots of water intake to swell the food then break down to be digested.  Whereas, a raw diet only takes about 4 hours.  This process helps with young puppies learning potty issues and older dogs with incontinence issues.  If you feel you still want to feed kibble, feed the dry in the morning and your raw at night (beware though, most dogs stop eating the dry)

 

Why doesn’t my dog drink lots of water?

When feeding a raw diet your dog does not have to break down grains and fillers.  The meat and veggies have a natural source of moisture so they do not need the water amount to digest food.  You will see a decrease in water intake by a third on a raw diet.

 

Why doesn’t my dog poop huge piles?

On a balanced raw diet your dog will not have to eliminate as much or as often as it does on kibble.  The poo piles are much smaller and they don’t have the order as the kibble fed dogs does.

 

Why is my dog’s poo white sometimes and dry?

This is a digestion process and the white is the excess bone that is being eliminated.  If your dog is showing signs of dry poo, just drizzle some cold pressed olive oil on the food.  This helps with digestion and skin.

 

I feed my dog twice a day and sometimes he won’t eat the second meal, why?  Believe it or not, it usually indicates that he is not hungry!  He is nutritionally content.

 

What changes will I see in my dog on a raw diet?

When a dog goes on a raw diet from kibble it will go through a process called “detox”.  This can be very minor in some cases and in other it can be extreme.  Dogs detox just like us.  We sometimes call it the “flu”, but sometimes it’s just our bodies throwing off toxins.  Sometimes you will see vomiting, loose stools, discharge from eyes, smellier ears and itching.  These are normal “detox” issues and they can be addressed.  If your dog is continually vomiting,  and has continuing diarrhea, you need to seek professional help, but if you see some days that he has mucous in the poo, vomit small amounts of mucous, these are signs of detox.  Help him through these, with great natural and homeopathic remedies.  We have several suggestions, please contact us for suggestions.  This is a hard thing to remember, but if your dog is healthy, it will go through detox.  You want this; it means that your dog is on the road to a healthier immune system and nutritionally sound body and mind.  You will see big changes in your dog, more energy, less smell, cleaner teeth and shinier coat.