“Feed your Dogo”

RAW CHICKEN – necks, wings etc. – it is safe and very inexpensive. Raw chicken bones are harmless; it is when you cook them that they become sharp and dangerous. Salmonella and campylobacter jejuni are of no consequence to a healthy dog. You can feed the whole chicken including ribs if you prefer – any part is good which sells for a good price, always raw.

RAW MEAT - call a local butcher that does ranch slaughtering and you can get a better price. Buy frozen meat or fresh - cheap grade hamburger is fine. The best raw meat to feed is lamb/sheep meat – which we use. Dogs do not need to get any meat ground up – cut in pieces is better or attached to the bone is best. Ground up internal organs with muscle meat is far better than just muscle meat.

RAW LIVER - give 2-3 pieces 3 times a week, or any other organ meat; heart, kidney or tripe. Dogs must have organ meat weekly – lack of taurine – an amino acid abundant in hearts will cause dogs to seizure.

RAW EGG YOLK – Raw egg yolk – one or more daily. Boiled or scrambled eggs are fine too. Offer raw egg yolk to the dogs you are not feeding raw liver or other raw organ meats. Be sure you use egg yolks from chickens fed free range - it will say so on the box. I highly recommend one egg daily to all dogs.  Give 7 or more raw egg yolks and nothing else will be necessary on days you are very busy.

SARDINES (IN OLIVE OIL) – Give one can once or twice weekly, instead of raw meat/liver. Dogs love it - it’s very, very good for your dog and a nice change now and then.

RAW  or COOKED VEGETABLES (only as a filler) – cooked potatoes (great food for dogs)—carrots, or broccoli stems, or any vegetables you like or are in season like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, avocados, pumpkin, squash, peas, beans, etc. Crush raw vegetables in your Cuisinart or blender – a good way is pulp from your juicer – you drink the juice – mix pulp in dog’s food. Fruits are excellent, apples, pears etc, it’s best to steam vegetables. Then crunch and feed to dog. Raw, cooked or steamed vegetables are all ok!

FAST YOUR DOG ONE DAY WEEKLY

It is very healthy to fast your dog one day a week, after he is one year old.

LYPO-SHPERIC VITAMIN C.   Give one packet mixed into meat daily.  If you do, it is not necessary to give vegetables this is as good of an antioxidant as a big dish of vegetables. One packet mixed into meat = 1000 mg strongly recommended you give daily to prevent hip dysplasia, arthritis in older dogs, skin problems, cancer, damaged cartilage in knee caps, etc.
Any of the above foods are excellent for your dog – vary his diet so not the same every day.  Fasting your dog one day a week is good for him. Feed raw meaty bones from chicken, turkey, lamb, beef, rabbit, pork, as well as the muscle meat from these animals. Give him your table scraps, except highly spiced or salty food. An adult, active Dogo should get approximately one pound of raw meat, either chicken, lamb, sheep, deer, turkey (all are good) and/or organ meats, daily. Remember, the best way to feed is not to mix the food groups or protein sources. Best is to feed only chicken one meal or only hamburger & organ meats one meal or only vegetables for one meal with an egg yolk to make it tastier.  Any Dogo under 1 year should get all he wants to eat 2x daily while still growing. Adjust amount of food to your dog’s activity level; do not let him get fat. Dogs should eat a minimum of 75% meat, 25% vegetables and/or fruits (as a filler, boiled potatoes are fine) – easy to remember. If you like to have some dry dog food available, you can offer your dog one cup in a separate dish daily.  Use a first class dog food BUT only as a filler. Only feed if you are gone all day and cannot offer fresh food.  Check that the dog food does not contain grains of any kind, soy or dairy products (These are trigger foods for seizures in sensitive dogs, so avoid if possible).

If you cannot feed 1 lb. of raw meaty bones daily we suggest you substitute with 3 – 4 egg yolks on those days meat is not available. Be sure your dog gets red meat & organ meats at least 3 times weekly.  Any leftovers from your table are excellent and RAW KNUCKLEBONES several times weekly – important for the minerals and to clean his teeth. Bone marrow from raw bones is very important for your dog’s hips and bones.
KEEP IN MIND THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO AVOID IS PROCESSED FOOD. ANYTHING THAT HAS BEEN HEATED EVEN A MINUTE IN THE MICROWAVE HAS LOST ITS ENZYMES. That's why we are against commercial dog foods. Dogs need live food, which means raw, fresh, and uncooked.  Dogs should eat only meat, vegetables & fruits. Avoid all grains – most dogs become allergic to them. Wheat, soy and dairy are the biggest cause of allergies in dogs (seizures are a form of allergy).  Dogs are carnivores with a powerful digestive system. They have survived fourteen-thousand+ years on raw meat.  Since we have followed this diet our pups and adults NEVER have any health problems, including hip dysplasia, skin rashes, allergies etc. Dogs do not get worms from raw meat or raw liver – that’s an old wives tale.  Healthy dogs will not get Salmonella from raw chicken.
Feed all pups all they want to eat 3 times daily.  If you must be gone all day, fix up meat, vegetables, or leftovers a.m. and p.m. and leave a big meaty bone. Always leave fresh water. Clean, distilled water or electrolyzed water is best—read all the flyers to understand why.

"MUST READ"
Are You Getting The RAW DEAL?

You try to feed your family a healthy diet, but what about your dog? With the scare of recent pet deaths and pet food recalls, you may be wondering what to do. Should you trust your vet’s advice? Just how healthy is the dog food you are feeding?

According to famous animal stories author Marguerite Henry, “Some animals, like men, leave a trail of glory behind them. They give their spirit to the place where they have lived, and remain forever a part of the rocks and streams and the wind and sky.” You owe it to your dog to provide a natural, nutritious diet so it can live a glorious life. If you are feeding low quality commercially prepared dog food, your dog is not living up to its’ potential.

Nutritional Needs of Canines

Canines are carnivores. They require plentiful amounts of protein and fat. Like humans, they also need a healthy ratio of calcium and phosphorous. Canines in the wild receive all their necessary nutrients from consuming fresh prey and carrion. By consuming all or most of a prey animal, they naturally receive the optimum ratio of calcium from bines and phosphorous from muscle tissue. They receive additional nutrients from consuming the offal (organ meats).

Carbohydrates are not a necessary part of the carnivore diet. Large fangs and sharp, shredding teeth are used to kill and eat prey animals. Canines lack molars that are used for grinding plant matter. The digestive tract of canines are relatively short, giving them little time to digest. Plant matter requires more time to digest than meat and bone. Most canines, wild and domestic, eat grass, but most of the grass is expelled (in vomit or stools) undigested.

The Importance of Periodontal Health (gum) disease is the most common health problem in pets according to Tom Lonsdale, veterinarian and author of Raw Meaty Bones. As the human medical profession is discovering, periodontal disease is a much larger problem than the risk of losing teeth. In addition to the pain of cavities, the unhealthy amounts of dangerous bacteria in plaque and calculus are easily spread to the body’s organs through the bloodstream, leading to a compromised immune system. With the body’s defenses down, a number of diseases can take hold.

“Oral disease is the source of the greatest intractable pain and discomfort experienced by our companion animals. This is a great and mindless cruelty we visit upon our animals from the whelping box to the grave,” writes Lonsdale. In the wild, healthy carnivores are generally free of periodontal disease. Regular feeding on whole prey, including the crunching of bones, cleanses the teeth and massages the gums. Dogs fed low quality commercially prepared food do not receive the same benefit. Do you brush your dog’s teeth?

The Problem With Low Quality Dog Food

Compare the ingredients list on a bag of low quality dog food to a high quality dog food. The first ingredient may be some variety of meat. Maybe it is actually “meat” or “meat meal”. Perhaps you recall Charlton Heston screaming, “Soylent green is people!” “Meat” is soylent green for dogs. The ingredient, meat is a protein source that comes from rendering plants that process slaughterhouse leftovers, road kill and dead companion animals from animal shelters and veterinary offices. They then sell the rendered material to livestock feed and pet food manufacturers. Not only is it unbearable to think of our companion animals as cannibals, bear in mind that the sodium pentobarbital used in euthenization is not eliminated in the rendering process.

Another major ingredient in low quality commercial dog food is grain, such as corn, wheat or soy. These are indigestible to canines, mere filler, providing no nutritional value. They are literally the floor scrapings from mills that process these grains for human food. They can even include cardboard. At best they will pass through your dog’s system undigested in the form of large bulky stools. At worst they can cause bloat, diabetes, bowel problems, or worse.

Vitamins and minerals are added because they are not present or have been cooked out. The remaining ingredients are artificial flavors, colors and preservatives. Preservatives are added to keep the “food” from going rancid, and flavorings are added to convince your dog that this is actually something good to eat. Colors are added to make the food look good to us. Unfortunately, they may be toxic and lead to kidney and liver problems and cancer.

If you do choose to feed kibble, make sure you find a grain-free, high protein variety that does not contain animal byproducts. Also be sure to offer raw bones on a regular basis to keep your dogs teeth in tiptop shape. Pork neck bones and turkey necks are good choices.

While some veterinarians recommend a home prepared or high quality commercials diet, many veterinarians continue to recommend commercially prepared foods with inadequate nutritional value. One reason is that they can earn about 20 percent of their revenue from pet food sales and manufacturer kickbacks. But probably the main reason is that they actually believe they are offering the best of their patients. They receive about two weeks worth of training on animals nutrition in vet school.  Guess who the teacher is—a representative from a pet food manufacturer.

The pet food industry earns billions, over $17 billion annually in the United States alone. The majority of brands are owned by giant corporations such as Mars, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, etc. Huge profit margins are gained by use of the cheapest ingredients possible. If you ever buy another package of dog food, ask yourself if the pet food conglomerates cares about your dog’s well being or the bottom line.

The Prey Model Diet

Feeding your dog a wholesome diet will make you feel good about how you are caring for your dog, will make your dog healthy, probably leading to longer life, and will save you money on health care.

The Prey Model Diet, also called RMB (raw meaty bones) Diet, includes raw meat, whole bones and offal. This diet is based on how canines in the wild eat, like wolves, coyotes, dingoes, wild dogs, etc. No grains, fruits or vegetables are included.

The benefits are numerous. Stools are less frequent, smaller, firmer, less smelly and more quickly degraded. Teeth and gums are healthy. Coat is full and shiny. Considerable anecdotal evidence suggest that many health problems subside or disappear. Tens of thousands of people feed their carnivorous companion animals a raw diet. The rest have bought into the belief that pet food manufacturers know better than Nature what their animals should eat.

A common misconception about feeding raw meat and bones is that the practice will make canines vicious and more prone to kill other animals. If anything, your dog’s temperament will improve. The high-strung will calm down, and the lethargic will gain energy.

Some people are concerned about bacteria and parasites. The stomachs of canines are highly acidic, able to liquefy raw meat and bones. Canines are designed to handle parasites and large amounts of unhealthy bacteria, such as E.coli and Salmonella. Raw fed canines will have a strong immune system to be able to handle any viral, bacterial or parasitic infections that may try to take hold.

If you feed low quality commercial dog food, your dog is physically accustomed to processed “Junk food.” Transitioning to raw or high quality commercial diet, should go smoothly. The first step is to throw away the junk food. High carbohydrate dog food decreases the acidity of your dog’s digestive system, so mixing low quality dog food and raw meat is a bad idea.

Start by feeding whole chicken. Raw poultry is easy to digest. The bones are small and easy to crunch. You can feed just chicken for several week. On occasion your dog may vomit small amounts of bile and bits of bone. This is perfectly normal. He may be eating too fast (from the excitement of eating real food) or his stomach acidity may be too low to completely dissolve all the bone.

Feeding bones that are raw is critical. They must not be cooked. Cooked bones become brittle and can splinter in your dog’s digestive tract, possibly causing injury or death. Raw bones are pliable and easily digested in the highly acidic canine stomach.

Once you are comfortable feeding raw, you can start to introduce a greater variety of meats. Natural unprocessed pork, turkey, lamb, and game meat are all good foods. Raw feeders tend to avoid feeding beef because of the widespread use of growth hormones in cattle and also because beef bones are hard to chew and digest. Dogs can break teeth on them. The meat to bone ratio should be approximately 80 to 20 percent. Don’t worry about being exact. Remember that you are trying to mirror actual prey. Keep an eye on your dog’s stools. They should be small and firm, but easy to pass. If he is constipated, provide more meat. If he’s loose, more bone.

            Finally, you will want to be sure to provide some organ meat, like liver and kidney. These contain necessary nutrients not found in muscle meat and bone. You don’t need to feed this daily but organ meat should comprise about 5 percent of your dog’s diet over a period of weeks,

The amount to feed is rather arbitrary. The general rule of thumb is three to five percent of your dog’s total body weight each day. This amounts to two to four pounds for a female dog, and three to five pounds for a male dog. Wolves in the wild can “graze” on small prey or gorge themselves on large prey. For this reason some raw feeders vary when and how much food they give their dogs and include a weekly day of fasting. It would not hurt, however, to feed your dog the same amount at the same time each day or even free feed. Most canines know naturally how much they should eat. If your dog’s weight gets too high or too low, adjust your feeding accordingly. Figure out what works best for you, for your schedule and for your dog.

You can buy all your dog’s food at the same place you buy your own food—the grocery store meat department. If you are able to find a source of whole prey, such as fresh road kill or from hunters, so much the better. Some find the cost prohibitive, but you can be creative and find cheap sources such as bulk ordering. Also bear in mind what you will save in health care costs.

An excellent source for additional information on raw feeding is www.rawmeatybones.com. Here you will find many articles on a variety of subjects related to the carnivore diet and the pet food industry.

Once your dog is accustomed to the raw diet, his immune system will improve, his coat will shine, his stools will be easy to clean up, and you will love the difference a natural diet makes.

Facon Blanco Dogos Argentinos