Tomi and Joyce are Parker's fine humans. They are just starting the RAW diet and I offered this advice.


Hi Tomi,

For dogs starting off, I prefer chicken breasts, bone in. Also Rowe Farms has rolls of chicken - they grind the whole thing, bones and all. I keep some Rowe Farms pet food in my freezer, but Frida does enjoy crunching bones!

FYI - Parker will also need organ meat. You can buy green tripe from Global Foods on Bloor west of Keele. Also he needs veggies. I suggest Preference made by Honest Kitchen at the same store. We give Frida our steamed veg, but this product is excellent. Get powdered probiotics at Evergreen on Roncy and Omega 3 there as well. I also give Frida ConcenTrace from Evergreen, as well as apple cider vinegar.

Some of the info was given to me by our holistic vet who is very well
known; other stuff was research. Also stay away from pork, rawhide,
and chicken wings.

If you can, would you also pick up a bag of beef neck bones (small
size, I guess), which is what dogs love. This is a raw meaty bone
(RMB) and it;s considered to be a meal (plus the vegetables. The vet
advised staying away from the marrow bones (forget the name - the ones with the center). You can also get chicken backs from Rowe farms and long beef ribs as well. The chicken backs are inexpensive and Frida loves to pull the meat off the long beef ribs which are also
inexpensive.

I forgot to mention - I use the apple cider vinegar (1/2 tsp.), ground pumpkin seeds (I get the pumpkin seeds from our local Evergreen), and wheat bran ( 1/2 tsp., soak in the fridge the night before or make up a batch) - this may help in the fall, spring, and summer to ward off Giardia ( pumpkin seeds and wheat bran to keep the intestines flowing) and perhaps fleas (apple cider vinegar).

There is a site that has recipes for anti-flea sprays that are easy to prepare as well - earthclinic (look under "pets").

You might feed Parker 2 - 3 % of his desired weight (per day). I think this does not include the veggies, but I'll check and get back to you!

The East York Animal Hospital started us on Billington's Raw Diet and Frida is doing wonderfully! The diet we follow is really the BARF diet which includes veggies, as opposed to the Prey Diet which does not.

Best in this endeavor,
Janice