Andres Martin said:
My dog's exercise regimen is getting tougher...and I need suggestions regarding SPECIFIC RECIPIES for high performance raw feeding...
I need to feed energy and muscle building stuff...plus anything/everything else you expert BARFER's consider I should feed as well.
Please...
More energy and endurance for a dog comes from more RAW fat (not cooked fat of any type, which is a chemically different thing from raw fats and oils; kibble is - obviously - both cooked fat and too low in fat for a working dog, IMO). Muscle-building comes from well-balanced protein of the most efficient types (such as poultry, rabbit, and fish, and less grain-fed beef; grass-fed beef is the way to go if you feed beef).
Athlete dogs use fat the way human athletes use complex carbohydrates.
I'm a big believer in organic produce and dairy and pasture-raised slaughter animals. We eat what we fed our food. And micronutrients we haven't even discovered yet (remember Vitamin K?) will be in unprocessed food as opposed to processed foods with micronutrients "added back in."
I also think variety is king. We can't hope to cover all the bases with the same meal every day.
For dogs, simulating the produce they evolved eating (partly-digested prey contents or fallen ripe produce) is better because they aren't equipped with the digestive enzymes to break down firm cellulose walls........ so young greens, ripe low-sugar fruits, and, for other produce, either cooking or processing or both to make available all the micronutrients.
I steam a big pot of farmers market stuff every 5 days or so, and if it contains broccoli or other cellulose-loaded (hard) foods, I thrown it in the food processor or the meat grinder.
I also like to give probiotics in the form of local yogurt from small dairies, both sheep and cattle.
I like the Leerburg sample meals and also the NJ Boxer sample meals. I feed similarly to both.
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#plans
http://leerburg.com/diet2.htm
I'd use either one as a base and then increase the variety. I use more fish than either one does, but I use frozen (parasite-safe) wild fish..... no farmed fish, which we've talked about here before.
If you can get green tripe, do! 8)
And of course, plenty of water. More than we might think, so it's good always to have it readily available. Dogs are made out of water, just as we and all other mammals are. If you don't have great water, I think the filter-pitchers are probably the cheapest and least ecologically damaging solution, not to mention the question of how good the water is in those expensive bottles....
A lot of people here have raw-fed working dogs. I hope they'll see this and chime in.
P.S. For working dogs (or any athletic dogs), I agree that at least 30% of the diet should be raw fats and oils. Kibbles run about half that, and are the wrong kind entirely.
