Beef as Main Diet?

Ok, so I'm in a position now to soon be feeding beef as the main source of food in Traveler (and Didgie's diet) and if all works out in Kaylee and Hannah's too.

So as of right now I mainly feed chicken and supplement in red meat when I can. So I guess my question is, does anyone feed primarily red meat to their dogs? Do they eat more or less than when they are on chicken? Do your dogs do well on mainly beef?

Super excited though, it's cheap, organ inclusive and Sizzle's friend lives in Chicago so she, Emily and Emily's roommate and I are all going to split gas and Sizzle's friend is going to pick it up in Wisc. Totally awesome.

Also, thanks so much to Sizzle again for hooking me up with the place!!!

ETA: I can't think of any but is there any reason to not raise a puppy on primarily beef? I still plan on rotating other meat sources in of course but I do plan on this being the main part of the diet.

Abe's diet is very high in red meat. He does much better on a mainly beef diet now than he did on a mainly chicken and turkey diet.

In talking to my family they say that's the way they have always done it. My gramps had cows so I can see why but they insist it has always worked better for the dogs this way.

My only advice would be to raise the red meat content of his diet slowly.

Mine eat mostly red meat and do very well on it. Mostly our own natural beef and grass fed lamb that we raise and deer/elk my bro got. I will randomly buy pork roast, chicken quarters, and turkey necks for varieties sake, but it seems like the commercially farmed poultry/pork doesn't sit as well with their systems.

It seems to be a debate amongst raw feeders, but I personally saw quite a lot of benefit when I had a case of grass fed beef green tripe I was feeding through. They got 3 meals a week of it. That was from gt.com.

Most dogs I know do better on red meats. I know that is what most PMR feeders strive for, as much red meat as possible.


Does this mean you are going to have an awesome stand like Sara to hack meat up? :rofl1:
Also, I thought the beef didn't have any bone in it? Or it was lacking something at least? If this is the same place that Sara gets her meat from, which I'm assuming it is, because I think that is also where Leah gets hers from, lol!

I am feeding mostly red meat right now and so far so good. Can I ask though, how are you planning on getting them their bone? Do you plan to continue with regular chicken for their bone requirements?

That's what I was wondering. My usual routine is to feed chicken/turkey for RMBs and beef/venison for muscle meat.

Good to know all your dogs do so well on it! Just what I wanted to hear

It's bone and organ inclusive ground. But I do plan on doing regular chicken.

Nope! It's a different place. Leah just got a test sample from them I believe so this is gonna be her new place I'm thinking.

Ahhhh, I see! Carry on then LOL

Dance has eaten primarily red meats (beef, elk and bison) for the last month and a half and has done great on it. She likes it better than poultry, so that's why I feed it more often, but she'll eat anything.

Jealous of your elk and bison! But yeah, that's a big big bonus, Traveler loves red meat and he's been so weird about poultry lately.

Red meats are the most nutritious, but are also the richest. So as long as you go slow it should be fine.

The main argument against beef as a primary is that few beef bones are usable as RMBs. They're simply too big and too dense to be consumed easily by most dogs. Most have to balance them to a rmb from chicken like wings, or backs - which isn't bad. Variety is good.

The main thing I like about beef as a primary is that it's really easy to have an idea/control of your fat content and food amounts in cheap ground beef.

I would encourage you to not use bison as a "variety" item. Most bison meat on the market is at best 75% beefalo and at worst fraudulently labeled beef-meaning you'd be paying so much more for essentially the same protein. Instead I would encourage something unmistakable as the animal labeled like whole smelt or herring, pork, mutton, venison, rabbit, chicken, or goat.

There is so much fraud in butchering and fish sales even from what should be reputable sources.

I wish I could feed more red meat, but I can't seem to find a good, reasonably priced source. Sawyer definitely does better on a beef/rabbit rotation, but boy howdy does he love his chicken and turkey!

Now about Tripe, how do you all feed it? As a meal? How many times a week?

The mixture I'm getting comes with Tripe but I'm also going to get a 30 pound box of pure Tripe and was thinking of maybe having a meal a week of it.

Abe gets tripe twice a week as a meal. He LOVES it but I HATE the smell.

I feed it frozen sometimes if I forget to take any from the freezer other wise it just tip it out the bag into the bowl.

Is it a 30lb box of green tripe or food grade tripe?

Thanks!

My plan is to feed it frozen, it should get here partially defrosted and I'm going to portion it out so I don't have to deal with it later.

Green Tripe

where in WI? I know of a few places and can let you know how the people like it

This is wrong on so many levels... If I knew you weren't a spammer I would tell you to spend 5 minutes searching google about raw food for dogs but since you are there really is no point.