Following is the diet that all Mid-South Shepherds are fed; both our own dogs as well as all the fosters that come through our program. We do encourage our adopters to contiune with the RAW diet, as we believe it is the best possible diet we can provide them. We have run the gauntlet with just about all the premium kibbles available, and have never gotten the consistent results with any of them that we have achieved with the RAW diet.
What is the RAW Diet?
Raw is what carnivores eat. Dogs are not herbivores, they are not omnivores, though the dog food industry and many diet critics would have you believe otherwise. A carnivore gets optimal and appropriate nutrition from it's species appropriate diet. The best source of this diet is a prey animal. If this is not possible, then a variety of body parts from a variety of prey-type animals works just fine. Brilliantly, in fact.
There's nothing wrong with including vegetables in a dog's diet, but there is nothing essential about them, either. And there is NO point to feeding grains, whole, cracked, ground or otherwise. Supplemental carbs are superfluous in a good species appropriate diet for our domestic wolves.
Kibble is at least 40% grain (or some other starch) simply to make the product stick together for extrusion. The vitamins and minerals are sprayed on the pellets after they've been baked, fried, roasted, toasted or whatever cooking process. There is minimal if any intrinsic nutrition remaining in the pellet itself.
Dogs evolved from wolves, wolves are wild and get their own meals from the prey they kill. They may be observed eating berries or some grasses, etc, BUT if they had a rabbit in front of them or the berries and grasses- they would choose the rabbit!
Raw feeding - this means literally RAW, bones and all - not cooked at all:
All dogs should start on nothing but chicken for the first two weeks. After that add one meat source at a time for one meal per day for one week, then a new source the third week, etc., etc.
My staple is chicken because of cost. Out of 14 meals a week they probably have chicken 5 times, fish 1 time, turkey 5 times, pork 3 times.
Formula to decide on the amount of raw food to feed:
I never give organ meat or muscle meat as a whole meal - I give it as treats 2-3 times every day. I also give them whole raw eggs with shells 4-5 times a week, as well as a tablespoon of both yogurt and pumpkin (pure pumpkin, not the pie mix!) 2 - 3 times a week.
Meat sources:
Poultry:
15 oz canned mackeral with a whole raw egg and shell in it
frozen Tilapia (fish)
Muscle Meat-MM/Organ Meat- OM & Treats:
I DO NOT give beef marrow bones, beef soup bones or beef knuckle bones for recreational use - they are bones that bare the weight of an animal weighing over 1000 lbs - a dental accident waiting to happen....