Have you considered feeding your pet a raw diet? This typically includes organ meats, muscle meat, whole or ground bone, raw eggs, dog-safe fresh fruits and vegetables, and sometimes a dairy product like yogurt for their meals. Feeding your dog this way can promote a longer life, healthier skin and coats, alleviate allergies, and lead to an overall happier pet.
Our lives revolve around our dogs; we invest so much time caring for them because they are our babies. We want them to be healthy and happy for as long as possible, just like any other pet parent! We have a Boxer and a French Bulldog, both breeds prone to health issues and allergies. Which means there’s a lot of scratching in our house!
Why We Made The Switch To Raw Food Diet
Our Boxer, Roxy, is 8 years old and an absolute sweetheart. However, she has always struggled with constant itching—scratching her ears, rubbing her head, and trying to scratch her back. The vet prescribed Apoquel, a daily pill that helps control her itchiness, but we wanted to understand why she was so itchy in the first place. We decided to do an allergy test for Roxy. For around $150, we plucked a few hairs and sent them off. A few weeks later, we received an 8-page long report listing both mild and severe allergies, including many foods and environmental factors.
We looked at the first few ingredients in her kibble and realized she was allergic to almost all of it! After extensive research, we found only a few kibble brands that were somewhat suitable for her, and they were much more expensive than regular dog food. Even then, they weren’t perfect because she was still mildly allergic to some ingredients in them.
We considered raw diet brands but found them to be very expensive. We’d be spending more on their food than our own! So, we decided to make Roxy’s food ourselves to ensure it was free of allergens and a bit more budget-friendly.
This required a lot of research on a balanced dog diet, planning, budgeting, and, of course, time. Transitioning to this lifestyle is a big commitment, but we believe it’s worth it. Our dogs have been on a raw diet for over a month now, and it’s been so interesting to see the changes in their daily lives.
What It Includes and How to Get Started
A balanced raw diet includes muscle meat, edible bone, liver, organs, vegetables, fruit, seeds, and nuts. We researched which specific foods would best meet Roxy’s nutritional needs while avoiding her allergens. Getting all the ingredients can be challenging; for example, our local grocery store doesn’t always carry liver or organ meats, so we make special trips to the farmers market or stock up when we find them in stores.
Breakfast before we started feeding them once a day!
The preparation process is time-consuming. We typically prepare two weeks’ worth of food at a time. Initially, we used a hand-cranked meat grinder and plastic containers, but these were not ideal for long-term use. We upgraded to an automatic meat grinder, which cut the prep time significantly, and we now store the food in sturdy wide-mouth glass mason jars, which seal perfectly in our deep freezer.
What Has Changed Since The Switch
Since switching to a raw diet, we’ve noticed several positive changes in our dogs. The most noticeable is their water intake. They used to drink multiple bowls of water a day because kibble made them thirstier. Now, we refill their water bowl only once every 1-2 days. Their bathroom habits have also changed—Roxy now poops once a day, and Mozi, our French Bulldog, only 1-2 times a day, which means less cleaning up!
We’ve also noticed an increase in Roxy’s energy levels. At 8 years old, she usually preferred lounging, but now she’s constantly begging us to play and asking for our attention. Both dogs are obsessed with their food, eagerly awaiting mealtime and licking their bowls completely clean.
We decided to feed them one large meal a day instead of two smaller ones. This makes it easier to portion, store, and clean up daily. Overall, this transition has been great for our dogs, and we’re excited to see the long-term health benefits.
If you’re interested in learning more about our process and what we feed them, let us know in the comments! 😊