Hi, yes to the egg shells.... not heard that about sardines, although it could well be the case.

For the egg shells, for calcium benefits they need to be ground to a very fine powder. The recommended amount is 1/2tsp of ground eggshell per one pound of food. This then provides some 900mg-1000mg of calcium.

Bones don't just provide calcium however, they provide lots of trace minerals and vitamins aswell. The analysis of the raw chicken above included the bone. I do understand your reservation about the bones..... try a bone-in chicken breast to start - it's just the ribs which are so soft you or I could eat them!

LOL on the protein ..... it's a common mistaken belief that it is a high protein diet and is one of the reasons people get hot under the collar about it and warn against it!

On raw fed dog studies, I've never seen one, and those I've spoken to about it say that no one seems keen to do one as it would mean having a control group of dogs on commercial and no raw feeder would be prepared to do that! LOL

The closest I've gotten is a small study done on home made diets versus commercial; not raw although I think the data could apply to raw diets .....

First is a summary of the study and then the full report:

http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/images/LippertSapySummary.pdf
http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/images/LippertSapyFullReport.pdf

I liked all your points above - especially about how we manage to feed ourselves and our kids yet we are "apparently incapable" of doing the same for our dogs!! LOL

Feeding a dog is no different to feeding yourself or your kids as you mentioned. Manufacturers and vets do put the myth about that it is "complicated" and an exact science and shouldn't be attempted as "they have done all the complicated research and analysis for you". It's pure poppycock IMO.... designed to baffle, bamboozle, scare and "guilt-trip" owners into feeding their produce. It's a massive billion pound business and these manufacturers will claim all sorts to stop the little person from even thinking about doing it themselves.

Take a look here for what an established and well-respected raw-feeder has to say about vets giving out nutritional advice: http://rawfed.com/myths/vets.html

If you look at the statistics on the "world's oldest dogs" most of them are home-made food fed, one was even a vegetarian on a diet of lentils!

Regarding different foods for different dog lifestyles such as the greyhound - I really don't know the answer to that. As I think Ben mentioned, there is a yahoo rawfeeders group with around 11,000 members which you could join - someone on there would know the answer to that I'm sure!

Its scary to start out giving dogs bones but once you watch a happy dog figuring out how to attack the meal, using paws and neck and jaw muscles to turn and pull and gnaw and the happy quiet you get from them munching a bone
Its what dogs are designed to do
I would say give it a try - with you there watching like a hawk and see how it goes

Yup sardenes are good, just watch what they are tinned in - I went for olive oil when I was feeding them, then I moved onto fresh fish raw (now he has gone off all but salmon!!) there are bones in them - and if you get them whole there is brains and guts and things - a whole prey

I'm a vegetarian, but I so believe that raw meat is the way to go when feeding my dogs that I am prepared to handle meat, which personally I do not like doing, and when I started feeding them fresh meat I had to go into a butchers shop for the first time ever, and look at the meat in supermarkets, when I would have walked past it before, I've been a vegetarian since I was 4 years old so buying and handling meat is alien to me,and I wouldn't do it if i didn't think I was doing the right thing for my dogs.

I'm still very unsure about bones. But today she's been happily munching on a lamb neck bone for about 3 hours. She's loving it. She's mostly just scraping all of the bits off it, but she's nibbled away at what I assume is cartledge - the shiny surface?

Her menu so far includes: chopped turkey thigh, chopped beef, tripe, whole raw sardines (headless), white fish, chicken breast, salmon and lambs liver.

Bearing in mind that she's on a half kibble/half raw diet, would the bones from the sardines along with perhaps 2 lamb neck bones a week give her enough calcium?

I have heard what some of you are saying about small, soft bones being safer and I'm sure you know what you're talking about. But for some reason it's those little bones that bother me. I need to wait quite a while before I'm ready to try that.

I would say so yes; if it were my pup I would be happy with that.

One question - why are the sardines headless? Do they come like that or are you 'beheading' them!

If poss, feed with heads on, alot of nutrients in the head, plus a little more bone content!

Lamb necks are a great workout - mine love them. I do favour this type of meal for my dogs as I prefer to give them a meal that gives them both a mental and physical workout; no longer is the food literally handed to them on a plate, they have to work for it, as they would have to in the wild!

They came without heads. I don't think I'm ready to watch her eat anything with a head on yet

You have to understand that we're very much 'fast food' people. The only unprocessed meat I've ever cooked for us is mince and skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Even venturing into a butchers shop is scary for me!!!

I asked the butcher what kind of meat is cheap and he suggested ox cheek. He says he could get some in for me if I wanted. Is this any good?

Anyway, I've just finnished chopping up beef, liver, turkey tripe and pureeing vegetables. It's all packaged up into little portions and in the freezer. And I've ordered a little freezer just for Beanie's food.

And now that you know that I'm OK with her eating lambs neck bones is there anything similar that you can suggest?

And I do agree - it's lovely to watch her eating a bone. She was at it for most of the day.

LOL you sound like me before I went raw for the dogs ..... I couldn't prepare anything that looked like it used to, so whole chicken was a big no but chicken breasts were ok!!

It's really odd, but I found I got right into it - I think the more bizarre the meal, the more the dogs enjoyed it, which I in turn enjoyed and made more effort etc etc .... to the point now where I've just literally carved up a whole old sheep in my kitchen!

I've gone from being squeamish to positively macabre in 2 years, and after speaking to alot of rawfeeders they tell me similar stories!!

Yes, Ox cheeks are great - I've not fed myself, so I'm not sure how dense or fine the bone is. If it's dense, remove the bone once all meat is removed just to be on the safe side as bovine bones can sometimes be too hard on the teeth.

Any part of the sheep is absolutely great. Mine adore the leg - shins especially. If your butcher can source mutton it is a better/richer meat and is usually cheaper.

It is said that red meat is theoretically better than white meat, however it is also said that smaller prey animals are better than larger ones, because the bones are more suitable I guess, and also more likely to be hunted if in the wild - it would take a lot of dogs to bring down a cow!! LOL

Alot of game birds are popular with rawfeeders - not had the opportunity personally so have no idea as to cost!

You really can feed any animal actually (other than dog for anyone in a bizarre country!)