When thawing raw meat I take the same precautions that anyone takes with raw frozen meat regardless of who is going to eat it, there is a risk of bone splinter damage but the benefits outweigh the risk, and my dog eats his food in the garden, no one in my family has been ill because I feed raw food to my dog.

I have fed raw for 15yrs, commercial food as been around since 1850 a biscuit based on cereal and meat, canned meat arrived in the 1920, complete foods much later in the UK it didnt take off untill the late 70's early 80's when more companies started to export to the UK from abroad. It was at this point that illnesses that had not been previously reported became more common in dogs. In the nineties this increased to alarming proportions. How many illnesses are auto immune related? how many of these are connected to diet? the same as humans as our lifestyles became more busy we came to rely more on processed food- take a look at Health Stats in particular ones related to diets Type2Diabetes, Obesity etc.
Heat destroys many vitamins particular from the B group and Vit C. Enzymes are destroyed by heat, enzymes aid the digestive process and slow the aging process, the destruction of these cause the pancreas to work harder. There is a poor availability of Zinc in processed food. Cooking causes the loss of 2 essential amino acids, Lysine and Methionine (that is why Dog Food Manufacturors add it), the loss of these can result in growth,bone,skin problems and reduce the resistance to disease. If you research the various nutritional content of varying types of muscle and organ meat it is easy to provide all vits, mins, correct protien, fat etc ratios to enable a healthy long life. I will let you all make your own mind up but I will be sticking to a raw diet based on research and knowledge from varying sources including vets who advocate this type of feeding.

milk is a natural product snowpawz, and it's also goats milk which is highly digestable and has desirable properties, making it a good 'food' if you will. Plus the dogs love it, and it makes a nice breakfast without too much effort.

Mini. Dogs gut's contain, naturally, salmonella, but we let dogs lick children (we shouldn't but we do). I also hate the fact people think that as the food is for a dog it is somehow dripped all over the fridge and sink and where-ever. I am a very very clean person, and hate dog hair. Yet I have 3 dogs, and 3 others that come during the day = i am forever cleaning up. Do you think i would let them drip meat all over the place? Again, it's common sense. When they have their meals, it is in seperate corners (or outside) and they are not allowed to walk about with it, i guess a certain amount of training might have to be done with a new dog/owner, but i haven't had a problem. Laminate flooring also helps alot. There are worse bacteria on the soles of your shoes, than there are on a piece of meat that i feed to my dog. I think our society is a bit hyper-reactive when it comes to germs. It is all relative.
Certainly the amount of effort and work it is to feed our dogs raw or natural must make non-believers stop and think that there must be something in it? And it's not that we are defending our choice, more like trying to convince others to hop on the band wagon... there are many many benefits that we see... oh i thought of another FACT
the white, bullet shaped poo that comes out, is GOOD for the grass, as opposed to the dog food poo that kills all living things (including the cells of my nostrils!) honestly if you had my dogs and the dogs i look after (kibble fed, no changing their minds, they look at me as if i am half mad!) and compare the two, boy do they stink!!! There's just all these little things that makes me proud i am where I am.

Being up in Scotland , I had no access to BARF apart from the local pet store. I tried the packets of mince, lamb for a while but was so unsure of what to give my dog that I went back to their normal Arden Grange Kibble. My dogs did enjoy it.
I then read "Billinghursts" book but found it far too complicated. I joined a BARF group on the Internet but also found it too complicated it was 60% of Raw Meaty Bones, 40% muscle meat ..etc
Some nice person on here did organise a Landywoods delivery and I am giving my dogs Chicken Carcasses (1) each in the morning . They do enjoy. In the evening I am totally unsure of what quantities to give so I still give them Kibbkle with a little raw mince added and twice a week some cooked veg. I do worry a lot as to "am I doing it right"
They tried Liver...no like...Turkey necks ..no like. So at the end of the day I am still unsure. If someone were to tell me it was Ok then I would stop worrying

wow wildmoor, welcome to the rawfeeding team, I think you might be worse than me - dishing out all the facts!!! hope no one tells you they 'don't believe you'

scottish mags, it's ok...

lol. i take it that was louise, i 'met' her recently, maybe i will be seeing you at the forth road bridge soon?!?

My jaz hated chicken raw, so i was cooking it slightly on the outside only and then gradually only pouring boiling water on it (still have to) it took me a year or so but we got there in the end!
It was easy with the pup, 5 weeks old and chewing away. Most natural thing in the world, honestly i was almost in tears watching her...

Thanks Jess . Yes it was Louise at the Bridge. It is a small world. My main prob is , in reading that you should not feed Kibble and Raw together . Well I am doing that at night ..well with just a little mince . Thanks for the encouragement Jess

i don't think you shouldn't be feeding it together, you can if you want, but here is the reasoning....

raw food takes approx 4 hours to be digested, and commercial kibble takes up to 14 (because of all the filler and cereals the dogs have a hard time digesting- inviting parasites, but that's another story).
Instead of using the the kibble to fill up their meals, why not use rice? boil up some rice, grate up some cucumber/carrot or something and add your mince, hey presto a patty meal for a happy healthy dog! You could use bonemeal powder sprinkled on top to firm up the poos.

If you were going to feed kibble i would feed it at a different meal time (in the morning or so) and give some cottage cheese with it to aid digestion. I think once you get your confidence up you will wean yourself off the commercial food, but if you are giving 'live' foods just now, they are getting the nutritional benefits they need. I don't get alot of bones, maybe once, twice a week. I use the blocks of meat from pets at home (from AMP) natures menu or whatever. I just feed a real, meaty patty with the bonemeal powder and they scoff it. Looking forward to getting the meat from landywoods, seems cheap!?
How is your beauty of a dog? Akela is a year on sunday already, but she is not as long haired as yours, and not as big either...

Thanks for your reply Jess . I have taken a note of the above , and yes I do need to be more confident at a complete switching. My little Dharma is 6 months now and with her I have the least probs...she will eat liver , tripe , anything . After 2 years of being on Kibble with the 2 older dogs aged 2.6Years and 2,3 Years they are more set in their ways.
Landywoods food is great and very cheap compared to AMP and they do a nice follow up service to see if you are happy with the food . Ill get minced liver next time instead of "chunked" as I spent all night rtying to cut it up into little bits ,,hard when its frozen

That's why I have a cleaver....watch out !..........lol lol