Feeding Chicken as part of Raw Diet

From a friend:

Changed to raw food diet 16.4.16:

He was having seizures lasting up to 10 minutes at least one a month despite on maximum dosage of tablets.

Since April he has had 2 very Minor seizures lasting a few minutes and unless anyone knew that was a seizure might just have thought he was having a sit down and panting.I have reduced his medication after 3 months to 2 and a half tablets and will take it down every 3 months if still going well.

NOW...QUESTION.......

He has beef mince ( 20 % fat), chicken wings -beef or lambs hearts -lamb ribs.( about 600 g per day over 2 meals)

It seems cheaper to buy a whole chicken BUT i have not fed a whole leg or breast on bone

Has any one fed say chicken portions or had a whole chicken then maybe cut it into quarters etc ??

Any feed back much appreciated."

I know we have some raw feeders on here, any advice I can pass on?

Ok I buy chicken carcasses and feed them a they are, used to buy wings and thighs but they became quite pricey and the skin was causing issues to the small dogs. When low on food I have portioned up a whole chicken too. Even my Pugs make light work of the bones. So is partly dependent on breed, the Dobermanns and staffie made light work of everything, chomp chomp gone basically.

First of all, a big congratulations to your friend ... she has made a very wise choice.

Everything that Trouble says is fine - raw feeding is just commonsense, think what wolves eat basically and you cannot go wrong. Buying whole chickens and chopping them up is excellent ... lucky dog!!

Like has been said i too stopped buying wings etc as they have become very dear. I occasionally buy chicken quarters, babies are given half a chicken wing each at 4 weeks, by 6 weeks they have graduated to full wings after breakfast. By then they are eating all parts such as necks, drumsticks etc. They also have bones, ribs and are like little machines eating them, nothing to worry about at all. Sometimes you'll find they swallow them whole if it looks like another family member is about to snatch them, the run into a corner, bring them back up and finish them, doesn't mean they are choking which is a firmly held belief of the Feed Slop Brigade

This was asked by Bobble for me and it was she that suggested i might join- So I have.

Regarding the answers many thanks- the breed in question is a Springer X cocker ( sprocker)

Regarding his epilepsy- do not know if diet was part of the cause as it started after years of various dried food diets.
Since changing to a raw food diet i have noticed not only the seizures are dramatically reduced but also the ''other end waste'' is also much less

Having known about this i thought it would be very expensive but at present his medications cost me over £1 per tablet - he was having 3 a day now reduced to 2.5 per day since seizures reduced.

I but most of my meats when i do my on line Tesco shop and find them very reasonable and recon it is costing me about £1.50 a day. I am currently looking for local butcher ( hard to find!) who maybe slaughters and cuts his own stock to see if can buy hearts tripe chickens direct.

Since reading this he has had breakfast of half breast of chicken- bones and all -the chicken was on offer at 2.20 and legs & wings cut off for other meals recon it will do 4 meals along with a chopped up lambs heart @1.59 for 3 or sometimes a little liver but find too much makes him 'poo more'

Even when tablets are down to half a day i do not think would change the diet and any new dog will go on same diet.

This is wonderful news. I am so pleased for you. You will find plenty of experts on here re raw feeding - Tawneywolf and Trouble are very knowledgeable and sensible. I see you live in Kent - you may like to consider internet shopping for dog food if you have a large enough freezer? We use Albion - they should deliver to your area. We have a large 45 kilo Alaskan Malamute wolf cross, Ben, and he costs us less than £1 a day to feed. The company is excellent, very helpful and obliging with a good range of raw meats, some mixed with raw veg. I get bones from local butchers, although they are not always easy to come by. Whole chickens I buy from the market at the end of the day when I can get a bargain.

Smaller, firmer poos are just one of the many bonuses of raw feeding!!

Some of us have multiple dogs so it can become very expensive, I had seven at one time, especially if we feed a wide variety of foods. I dread to think what Tesco would charge for venison.
Too much liver gives them all the squits.
I use the dog food company for my dogs food, he delivers every other month and I fill a big chest freezer. They are located near Ipswich but delivers everywhere between there down to the kent and sussex coast and the whole of essex and suffolk.

Funnily enough I had a cocker spaniel back in the 80's, he was diagnosed with epilepsy but only ever had two episodes.

It could be genetic, do you have any record of the cocker side of his lines. I know that people on here have used Milk Thistle to support the liver function. Have you tried tinned tuna (wash the brine off), sardines, mackeral or pilchards to vary the diet
I think Bulmers is near to you, I have a friend in Hertfordshire who collects from them in Hayling Island, but they do deliver in the South East http://www.bulmerdogfood.co.uk/
I have my food delivered once a month, buy some stuff in thats cheap when I see it. Frozen white fish is never very dear,and you're only feeding one when it comes down to it, I have five very large dogs, the 'smallest' weighing in at 30kg

http://s245.photobucket.com/user/Awfal/library/

This SHOULD be a video of Ben running on the beach recently, but not sure!!