Ok i have seen a couple of posts in general about this but not specifically answering my question. I usually pick up a bag of dog bones from the butcher for my dog as it is healthy for her as well as keeps her entertained for hours. Except usually those ones are red meat and this time they only had bags of pork bones.

I am particularly concerned because i know that white meats generally cause more harmful bacteria, at least to humans right? like if I were to leave raw pork out for a day and eat it, i am much more likely to get food poisoning. If my dog was to have a pork bone and she was still chewing on it for several days would this make her sick?

As well as this, the bones stuck together in the bag in the freezer, if I were to defrost them enough to separate them and refreeze them afterwards would this be safe for a dog to consume?

I never give her ribs or any bones small enough that she would try to swallow it.

Edit: thank you everyone :)

Our 2 year old Shiba Inu had blood taken last week. Our vet noted elevated creatine levels, so they decided to take an ultrasound to check his kidneys for any damage or signs of kidney disease. The results showed no kidney damage.

Of course, the vet is not interested in asking about our dog's lifestyle or what he eats... I have low trust in not just this vet, but many vets in our area, and don't feel I have a better in-person vet option, unfortunately.

About 1 year ago I started cooking homemade food for my dog. As a puppy, he ate kibble but had terrible allergies and digestive issues, so I now only give him dry kibble that he tolerates well 25% of the time. I realized that beef and chicken do not sit well with him, so the other 75% he eats cooked rabbit and some fish and not only has it solved his digestive issues but he loves it.

Now I'm really worked up about this and want to make sure I'm feeding him balanced meals. Does anybody have a virtual vet based in the USA that they can recommend? Or, does anybody else have similar experience with elevated creative levels? How did you address?

Hi, I just purchased a few bags of frozen Primal Turkey and Sardine nuggets, which my dog has been eating for almost a year. He ate the beef previously but developed an allergy.

The bag I just opened is very dark in color - it looks and smells more like the beef. I opened another and same thing. One of the two bags doesn’t have a lot number or a best by date stamped on it. Is anyone else noticing this? Thanks!

Hi everyone! I feed my dogs raw premade (vital essentials). I will be driving two days and will bring an ice chest but won’t have a freezer until I get to where we are going. Has anyone just temporarily fed the freeze dried food just for convinence? Anyone have any good raw travel tips?:) thank you!

So basically, today I gave my dog a raw bone. It was pretty large, too big to fit into the mouth well I was relaxing, watching a movie while she chewed her bone, and apparently, sometime when I wasn’t paying attention, she broke some off and got it stuck in the back of the roof of her mouth. She started freaking out. I tried getting it out a few times, but it was just making the panic worse, and she started trying to snap and started gagging, so I stopped because I didn’t want her throwing up and choking or panicking anymore than she already was. We got to the ER vet about an hour later, and they removed it, and luckily, no damage. But this is just a fair warning that even raw bones are not safe, and if you do take the risk, never take your eyes off of them. She is all good now and resting at home. She got some McDonald’s nuggets after because I felt so bad.

I sell rabbit and quail whole and parted for pet consumption.

People are telling me I need to grind it so it sells better.

I'm asking the community for input.

I don't grind it because it reduces bacterial growth, increases shelf life, provides better mental stimulation for animals eating it, and is healthier for teeth.

I understand though that ground is more storage space friendly and it's easier to measure and regulate the nutritional components within it. Feeding ground means the bones and organ meat can be worked into the mix.

I know ground also means people don't have to acknowledge that they are actually feeding another animal to their animal.

I'd love to hear your input.

I am considering slowly introducing a raw food diet to my two wonderful cats. However, because I am immunocompromised, I am concerned about the warnings I have read regarding the risks of raw pet food for individuals with weakened immune systems. Any advice or recommendations on how to stay safe? TIA!

What’s everyone’s thoughts on feeding dog once every 2 days occasionally. I have a 35kg (77lbs) 14 month old. On a day he has had heavy exercise, I feed him 2x the weight he’s supposed to be eating. And maybe just give him a bone on the 2nd day or nothing at all.

I’ve heard that they’d spend the energy used for digesting food into growing muscles and recovery. Although this should be just a theory and no way proven.

Sometimes I find good deals on whole chicken or pork shoulders in bulk. And instead of cutting it up, I’d feed him whole. I know this isn’t balanced as it lacks organs ect, but this is an occasional treat.

My two maine coons have eaten exclusively raw food since they were born. The breeder I bought them from makes her own mix and since I brought them home I’ve always used My Natural Cat Plus Chicken Liver from Feline Instincts, mixed with ground turkey, salmon oil, and water. Unfortunately, the company is going out of business, so I need to find a replacement premix.

The most important factors for me are:

• Reasonable cost
• No need to purchase, grind, or add organ meat separately
• Can be used with ground turkey

So far, I’ve seen Know Better for Cats, EZComplete, and TCfeline PLUS. For anyone who has used these, which would you recommend and/or why? Or if you have some other recommendations that meet those requests I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks!

FYI Repost because I linked the mix I was using? I wasn't trying to sell just wanted to show for any comparison.. but yeah I suppose google it if you'd like more clarity. Thanks in advance!

Hi all- my tortie cat, Snickers, has eaten commercial raw her whole life- everything from Rad Cat to Stella and Chewy's to Primal. She likes rabbit and venison the most. She's done well with it, enjoys it, and her bloodwork is always perfect.

She has dental resorptive lesions, and has lost most of her teeth to extraction surgeries over the past 7 years. Poor boo. But she always comes through and heals up very nicely. I wish we could have figured that out without putting her through all those surgeries, but I was unable to find a holistic solution that worked, and was told it was autoimmune.

She just turned 10, and she has begun vomiting consistently. We moved to a new house about 4 months ago, and that's when it started. She's always been a "vomit once every few months" cat, and suddenly it's happening all the time. She's throwing up everything from bile with stones to hairballs, and now this week, a kind of food and hair slurry. I can't tell if it's stress from the move, a recent dental extraction surgery (she's had a ton of these and seems to do fine, so I don't know why that would be bothering her now), or what.

We feed her rabbit nuggets from Primal, and we microfeed so she's always got something in her stomach. She seems to vomit mostly at night between 12am and 3am. We can't tell if it's the new house, stress from the new environment, the food, age...? We've tried pepcid every night, some digestive enzymes, egg yolks, sunflower lecithin, and nothing seems to help over more than a few days.

Do we need to switch her food? I don't want to put her on Hill's or sometihng crappy. Aside from the vomiting, she does well. Eating, peeing, pooping normally, no diarrhea, appetite is good aside from right after throwing up.

Has anyone out there dealt with a cat who's been eating raw for years and suddenly starts vomiting? I'm thinking we're headed for an ultrasound...

Has anyone ever fed wild bear meat ? Or is it just too fatty? Thanks

Hey all, I have a ~20 lb 6-year-old dog, and I was wondering if I could get some advice. He's at an age where he's starting to get some supplements as a preventive for his joints. He's on a prescription kibble diet, but we have the ok from our vet to add a few supplements/options as long as it's run past her. So he gets fish oil with dinner, homemade beef bone broth (no additives with the exception of a carrot sometimes) at both meals, and green-lipped mussel at breakfast (~300 mg) and pumpkin with dinner (~2 teaspoons). I was wondering if anyone had any organ meat suggestions or raw meaty bones (besides chicken feet; he doesn't like the texture/will hide them). He's picky, but loves fish, and doesn't like large bones; however, he's a fiend for rawhide (he only gets a small bone once a month, and its ok with the vet) but not bully sticks, beef cheek rolls, or collagen sticks. He gets offered salmon or sardines (whole in water) 1x a week in lieu of fish oil.

TIA

Also, my cats get 1/2 a teaspoon of pumpkin and salmon/sardines 1x a week too. They also get a little bit of green-lipped mussel and bone broth too (~50mg); they're 1 and 2.

Today’s meal she got beef tongue, quail egg, ground chicken, Beef Tripe, Beef Heart, Lung, Beef Kidney m, Beef Liver, fish oil, chicken foot and wing tip.

Since I prep her meals for the week I spread out her weekly needs throughout the week so I don’t know what exact supplements are in this.

For the week she gets for protein she rotates between beef, bison, duck, chicken, turkey,, along with edible bones such as chicken necks, chicken feet, chicken heads, and rabbit feet with fur. Her weekly extras and supplements include hemp seeds, bone broth, mussels, egg, pumpkin seeds, fish oil, green-lipped mussel powder, kelp, collagen, vitamin E, and Carna4 flora seed mix with probiotics. She gets a fish once a week I rotate monthly between herring, sardines and salmon. She gets veg mix with her meals a couple times a week.

I have to add the above in because whenever I post her with just her food people get concerned that I’m just feeding meat and bone and not properly feeding her.

Leaving my dog with my parents for a few days and I’m trying to figure out how to make the feeding part easy for them. I’m comfortable with the routine but it feels harder to explain to family or a sitter without making it sound complicated. Do you pre portion everything, leave written instructions, use freeze-dried raw for those days or just keep the normal setup?

TLDR: how big of bone size is too big for cats, and am I being too careful or should I be giving the brand feedback? (See photo - pencil eraser for size compare)

I have been making the rounds on food brands and raw vs canned vs freeze dried etc. for our food allergic cat.

Recently we’re newly on rebel raw ordering the plain rabbit grind and adding vitamins.

I’m not familiar with “safe” bone size since this is the first brand I’ve used where the bones were big enough to see and need outside advice.

From what I’ve read online I think many bones I keep finding in the raw rabbit grind are too large, sharp, and hard for kitties.

I attached a photo of this mornings latest bone and it was incredibly sharp like it could pierce skin and about 1/2 inch long.
I was sleepy and missed it and thankfully my cat spit it out on her plate.

Trying to understand if I’m just being overly cautious, is this bone size too large so I should be providing feedback to the company, just keep digging for bones everyday, switch brands, etc?

(Just not feasible right now for me to make the raw food myself.)

I’ve run this through multiple different search engines and various tools but it seems like every AI is giving me a different answer, and this seems the most accurate based on what I know. I’m basing it off of 2.75 pounds a day total with no kibble and no vitamin or extra supplements only what is listed below

I keep getting freaked out from the calcium levels and I wanna make sure that they’re accurate so he doesn’t have hip issues

The evening bowl is basically just a hodgepodge mix of everything else he needs because he’s super picky about his organs, but he’ll eat them if they’re all stuffed together.

Morning Bowl (14.8 oz total)
• 14.8 oz Boneless Chicken Thighs

Evening Bowl (19.2 oz total)
• 10.8 oz Ground Beef
• 2.2 oz Beef Liver
• 2.2 oz Beef Kidney
• 2.0 oz Raw Sardines
• 1 Whole Raw Egg (approx. 2.0 oz)
• 1/2 teaspoon Shelled Hemp Seeds

Separately Fed Chew Session (since he likes to chew them up)
• 10.0 oz Raw Chicken Wings (roughly 4 to 5 standard wings)

Hello friends! I have one cat who is 9 years old that I transitioned to raw wet food a long time ago. He's one of those cats that will eat anything, and the transition was super easy. We got a new cat about a year ago, and he'll eat any dry food, so I have him on Stella and Chewy's raw coated kibble. It's okay, I mean, he's healthy, but S&C is pretty expensive, and I'd love to get him on the same diet as my other cat. The problem is, he won't touch wet food. At all. And I mean, he won't even eat the dry food if it's a touch soggy. I tried supplementing with freeze dried raw, but I can't feed it to him exclusively because he refuses it wet, and eating too much dry makes him puke (which is reasonable tbh). Anyways I'm trying to figure out any way I can get him to eat wet food, and I'm out of ideas. Does anyone have tips for me?

I’ve just picked up a 6 month old Bernese mountain dog, the previous owner fed raw (Durham animal feeds chicken mixed with frozen vegetables) he also said that he sometimes mixed in kibble but said the dog often has Diarrhoea. I’m debating feeding him a mix of kibble and raw to try and settle his stomach. Would I be better off just moving him back to kibble ? Or was he not being fed a complete raw diet?

Darwin's will be discontinuing their Rabbit line for cats due to supply "challenges". Brutal news for my cat that eats rabbit pretty exclusively due to her IBD. Honestly it's the abruptness that's more tough to deal with but if they had tried to ease into this, I'm sure everyone would have tried to stock up making it even more difficult to fulfill orders.

Tried Viva a few months ago to no luck and have done Koha in past. Might have to be a homemade item now.

It is wild how they remove anything vaguely anti-kibble in all the big dog and cat subreddits. Astroturfing (paid posting on behalf of corporations) is already really bad on this site. I am a mod under a different username and I see reports all the time about mods being offered money to promote certain content in their subreddits (this is a violation of Reddit’s Mod Code of Conduct.)

Personally I don’t judge anyone for feeding kibble. Everyone is doing the best they can for their pets. I fed kibble to my first dog and I don’t know that I could have afforded to do homemade with her. But my chihuahua that recently passed had terrible allergies and I started feeding homemade food as a last resort and it helped him a lot. I tried feeding kibble and canned food to my newly adopted chihuahua but he hated the kibble and the wet food just gave him gross loose poops. So I started making his food and his poops are so much healthier.

Anyway I just cannot fathom why people would be so militantly pro-kibble that they would delete any post that suggests a homemade diet 🙄 Feed your dog whatever you want but stop trying to force your pro-kibble views on others! In what universe would processed pellets made from literal BY-PRODUCTS be healthier than real, whole human-grade foods?! All of the WSAVA-recommended foods these subreddits swear are the best contain animal by-products! 🤮

And people will say if your dog doesn’t like kibble, just starve them until they eat it 💔

I don’t feed raw, I do lightly cooked and some raw and I do add a supplement, but I appreciate this community for offering an alternative to the kibble evangelists.

The mods of those subs are so insistent that kibble is superior, I really would not be at all surprised if they were not incentivized to push that narrative. 😒

Hi!

I have a 13 week old golden retriever puppy who currently weighs 10.5kg fed solely on Nutriment puppy. He’s stalled in his weight gain over the last two weeks (only gained 100g) but looks fantastic and poos are great.. ribs are not visible but can be felt easily!

I’m unsure whether I should be increasing his food (he’s currently on 600g)