|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
Diet
Our dogs eat raw meat with bones, with some additives like raw eggs, fruit, occasional vegetables. Puppies are weaned on this diet too. We did not switch to this diet because it's "something new". We had been feeding our dogs home cooked food along with raw meat and bones for decades, in fact dry dog food did not make it to Russia until about 20 years ago. The only thing that we changed in years was stopping to feed oatmeal (and dairy since we don't have goats any more). In my experience feeding grains along with proper amount of meat does not benefit our dogs but sure creates much more waste to pick up (and necessitates washing the beard after each feeding). Of course, feeding a lot of grains with just a bit of meat is cheaper but it's not what dogs were designed to eat. You pay more on the long run at the vet. Our dogs get occasional oatmeal cooked with goat milk but as a treat not regular part of the diet. They get fruit and vegetables as a treat, not substantial part of diet. Meat and bones. We feed any kind of meat, from chicken to emus and from pork and beef to goat meat and fish. Except for some canned mackerel or salmon, everything else is raw. We don't feed beef bones as most are very dense (especially weight-bearing ones) and we don't have access to softer ones, like rib tips. Adult dogs get 1.5 - 2.5 lb of meat with bones per day in general (young dogs get more and nursing mothers eat as much as they want in 3-4 feedings, up to 10 lb of meat a day) . I don't weigh each portion and keep an eye on condition. If dog picks up unnecessary weight, I decrease portions, if looses some - gets more. Of course fatty chicken parts provide more calories than young goat, so portions are smaller. In my experience BRTs need more red meat that other breeds, so feeding beef and beef/pork heat is important, especially for young puppies or brood bitches. Liver is fed several times a week, half of the time it's beef liver, other organs - occasionally. Heart is both muscle and organ. Usually we feed once a day unless we have youngsters who eat twice a day, then everybody gets a snack in the morning.
Vegetables/fruit. You can feed vegetables if your dog is very hungry but needs to loose weight. We did not notice any benefit from feeding them but some dogs love them (our senior Vasya is one of them). Every dog gets a piece of whatever fruit we are eating, except Blyss does not like oranges (still takes her piece and starts playing with it), so Darja is happy to "help". If you don't want to wash dogs' beards after each meal, make the veggie mush rather thick and feed dogs from the spoon (one day I'll take picture of several Blackies sitting in the kitchen in line and opening their mouths like baby birds :). Spoon feeding also works for canned pumpkin (plain, not pie mix, is good treatment for loose stool) or yogurt when you need to give dog a medication.
We do not try to convert people but will gladly help with genuine questions. Some dogs (not BRT) live to be 16 on kibble, like some people do fine on junk food, it's personal preferences. The only thing I have to add, we never saw that many health problems in the breed prior to introduction of kibble and our dogs were out there working and jumping at 10 years of age, while now average life expectancy of BRT is 8-10 years.
There are several Internet groups on raw diet, you can start with www.rawfeeders.com and follow links.
|
|
|
| Copyright 2000-2008 Russian Guard Designed by Volon |
e-mail: RusGuard@aol.com |