hi

Well, the boys have been fed raw for nearly 2 years now and are absolutely thriving on it... anyone considering switching - go for it! Beats kibble hands down 100 to 1!

Anyhow... my question is, for a few months now the dogs main diet consists of chicken... chicken legs to be precise. I get these from the local farm and each one is a huge leg with masses of meat on... they have these everyday... If the farm happens to get rabbit in then once a week they will have rabbit also... And again once a week they have some minced beef or pork with some natural yoghurt mixed in and a raw egg.

But mostly it is just a diet of chicken that they have... They seem to be absolutely fine on it and no upset stomachs, even if the chicken is the horriblest smelling thing (like when mum here forgets to defrost it in the fridge on a sunny day and it sits allday on the kitchen worktop in the sunlight ), they munch it down, never seem hungry in between a meal (they get fed just once a day), and their 'end results' are minimal and firm/chalky etc...

Oh, they also have bones too - not sure what animals they're from - but I think rib bones and small knuckle bones... and a trotter now and again to replace a chicken meal...

Is this enough do you think? I know that a lot of people feed offal, but my two hate it and it's the only thing they will leave, beef kind of upsets their tummy, but chicken just seems to suit perfectly... Just want to make sure they're not missing out on any vital vitamins, or health benefits by just having chicken, trotters, and occasional rabbit, egg, yoghurt etc etc...

Thanks!!

some people feed fish, Ruf was really fussy at first but now he chomps it down with the other two, in fact I'd say after rabbit a fish is Ollie's favourite. The other thing you might want to try but entirely up to you is a slice or two of belly pork just to even things out a little bit.

TBH I personally wouldn't like to miss out the offal. As it is very good food. What kind of offal did you try? Fipps likes offal, but esp lamb kindney and lamb liver...gourmet she is . Did you try frying it for them? And of course the fish Selina mentioned. Tinned pilchards will do.

Have you tried feeing the offal frozen? Obi doesn't like the texture of liver or kidneys fresh, but if it's frozen he'll eat it, or I cut the liver up small and mix it with tinned fish, it usually goes down then.
I can sympathise though as my Jack Russell won't eat it at all, except in the Prize Choice' Chicken and liver mince, so she gets by with some of that a couple of times a week.
XX

thanks guys

I forgot that they do have some canned fish too once a week, Arch has tuna and Sonny has sardines or tuna... I think I'm so much into a routine that I've not looked at it clearly til writing it down here today and perhaps tho all I see is masses of chicken in the freezer, their diet isn't that bad really...

The offal I tried was a bit of everything over the course of several weeks - see it's really cheap at the farm here, so tried pigs liver and kidneys, lamb liver and kidneys, lamb heart and ox heart.... Sonny would eat the lamb heart but it took him ages - lots of little licks and a few bites over a few hours, whereas normally teatime is over swiftly and with no fuss... Arch flatly refused to go anywhere near it, even when mixed with yoghurt or an egg... It's weird cos they will pretty much eat anything, except offal...!

I'll start adding in some belly pork slice each week, and will start up trying again with the offal, I didn't really want to start cooking things for them but maybe just a flash fry will make the liver etc more palatable for the little devils

Cheers again

yes, flash frying and if they eat that, reduce frying time slowly

Agree with Christine, liver is really important, and if you could get some heart for those B vitamins it woudn't hurt either.... Beef heart or lamb or turkey or even chicken and I suppose in the UK pork heart would be ok.

Maybe the problem is greater as you feed the meats more or less naked - haven't really any advice on this, except flash frying as has been mentioned. Or maybe try to mix minced portions of well liked meat with offal?

I stick liver in the blender with eggs and veg, they seem happier eating that way. Can add fish to change the flavour. Heart I just chop up small, don't think the blender could cope.

Sue

Do you feed the liver, kidney etc whole? I gave it to my GSD whole a while back and she refused to eat it, the next time i gave her some i chopped it up and it went down a treat. Just a thought