Raw feeders- how many times/day do you feed?

How many times a day do you feed your dogs? I just finished another of Tom Lonsdale's books and he recommends feeding once a day? How many times do you feed? And if you only feed once what time of day do you feed?

Going through the lists of what TL says is okay to feed large dogs, this is what I have:

Carcasses: rabbit, chickens, hens, fish, calf, goat, pig and lamb

RMB's: chicken/turkey backs & frames, whole fish, rib bones, tail bones, lamb neck (he doesn't mention turkey necks for large dogs, but we've always fed these to our crew and have never had a problem- any advice here?)

Offal: liver, lungs, trachea, hearts, omasums, tripe, tongues, pancreas, spleen

We're going to be starting with chicken or turkey. Might be turkey as we have some of that already.

Any last minute advice? I'm shaking in my boots... lol.

Oh and what kind of fish do you feed?

I feed twice a day...one meal of raw and one of kibble, but even if I fed 100% raw I would still feed twice a day. Riley is not quite 10 months, and I feel he needs to eat twice a day to keep up his energy and also so he does not have such a large amount of food at once. Also, with us feeding half raw/half kibble, this is really the only way to do it. I have gotten whole frozen tilapia from Wal Mart's seafood section. I leave the eyes, fins, everything inside and it is the perfect meal. However, it is one of the messiest meals I feed and it STINKS. He typically gets this outside. I also feed canned mackeral when I can't get whole fish.

Thanks.

I was thinking my dogs would think we were starving them if we didn't feed them their usual two meals/day.

I find when feeding raw my dogs seem to be less hungry, so once a day is no biggy. They only eat once a day anyway unless it is a trial day.

Rah, the only 100% raw fed dog in the house, is fed once a day.
Tyler is my foster and is partially raw fed - half his diet is raw and half is Honest Kitchen with a bit of Innova Kibble thrown in. He eats twice a day to hide his pills in.

Rah eats whenever I have time to feed him his meal Work days that is typically evenings at 9-10 pm or so, but occassionally he will eat before work (7 am), or even at work. On days off, its anytime during the day.

SOme of those are harder for people to find as whole carcasses, but yup, if I had a healthy source I would feed them. My sole source of calves, for instance, are typically calves that die for some reason due to health - and I personally don't feel comfortable feeding an animal that was too sick to live, to my dog.
It depends on what works best. For me, I have to feed everything frozen to get rah to chew, and when I feed chicken backs (Rarely) they are frozen in one big lump! But he does eat duck frames, whole fish, whole sides of ribs, buffalo tails, whole lamb and beef necks, and duck and turkey necks. One of my dogs (the older one, tyler) cannot eat necks, he swallows them whole).

twice per day seems to work far better for me

often they get a rmb meal in the am (chicken backs or necks)

and a ground meat, bone and veg meal at suppertime.

I've finally gone to raw....almost.

I feed raw in the a.m and Kibble at night, that will change shortly.

One thing that seems to be a consistent NO NO according to people who specialize in Canine Nutrition is that you should never mix raw with kibble.

Because kibble digests more slowly than raw, mixing the two allows the raw to sit longer and increases the risk of illness from microb over growth.

See, and I wonder if there is any truth to that. A dog's intestinal tract is very short, typical for carnivore-type animals. A horse, and humans for that matter, have very long intestinal tracts that is designed for digestion of fibrous foods such as veggies. The shorter tract is designed for meat eaters, longer tract for plant eaters.

I'm not a biologist, but I wonder if there is truly a difference in how long different foods digest, particularly same base foods (as in meat type for dogs). Most dog kibbles are meat based. Raw is definitely meat based. Veggies in a raw diet that don't get digested don't stay in the intestinal tract longer to digest than the meat does, the excess is pooped out. Same with kibble. That's why poorer quality kibble produces larger poops. Too much of it is not processed by the body.

A human's intestinal tract is designed to process plant based foods (due to the length of the intestines). The meat we eat stays in the intestinal tract just as long as the plant based foods do. Some vegetarians/health people use this to justify the fact that people are not meant to eat meat, and maybe our bodies aren't designed to. But we still eat it, mixed with starches and veggies.

I had to back down to once a day with my bunch. Charlie's on a doggy diet, and Maddie puts on weight so quickly... There was NO way I was going to feed them such tiny bones (I was afraid Charlie would gulp) to squeeze it into two meals. So, I feed once a day - and I've found that they're doing really well on it. I try to feed them in the morning or lunch at the latest, and surprisingly none of them bugged me when 5 o clock rolled around (5 was dinner time when they were on kibble. They would get pushy at 4:59 like clockwork, I swear LOL) Maddie doesn't seem to have that 'starving-cocker' act as badly since I've switching to raw :hail: whew

My adult dogs eat once per day. Puppies and at certain other times adults as well, eat more than once per day.

The only real advice I would offer is be sure to balance any meat fed without bone with a decent mineral supp that will account for the missing bone.

I use one from Nature's Farmacy called KA Calcium. It has the right balance of minerals, and also contains digestive enzymes.

I'm not a biologist either but I've been feeding Dante Primal mixed with Canidae in one meal for months now.
No GI tract issues what so ever.

Thanks everyone.

Buddy will be the first to go raw as he may be the most to benefit from it with all his health problems.

I do believe that Mordy pretty much squashed the whole "don't feed raw and kibble together because its bad for dogs" myth. We've talked about it here in this forum.

Once a day for their raw meals, and they get the equivalent of a kibble meal for training treats throughout the day.

You are right, Mordy did squash that myth.

It's just fine to mix raw with kibble as long as your dog tolerates it.

I have mixed raw with kibble many, many meals and no problems what-so-ever.

My adults get one meal a day, Daisy gets 2 for now.

Thanks.

What ever happened to Mordy anyway???