Do dogs love Rabbit? as RAW food?
Not sure what meats to buy to satisfy my extremely picky dog. He hates raw chicken. (I just switched him to raw)
Update:Jen... you are sadly mistaken. Raw is not a fad diet, it's been around since after Noah's ark. Animals eat other animals. That's the way it's been for thousands of years.
Actually, kibble is a fad diet. It was invented in the 40's or 50's and it's less healthy than raw.
Update 3:Jen..again, can you please show me where it is written that dogs got sick on a Raw diet? Because I've never seen that. Take a trip to the zoo and see what they feed the animals. Raw meat. It's not a fad, it's a fact.
Update 5:Animal... I know it's awful. But to me, if we would feed a chicken, or a cow, or a lamb to our dog, it's all the same as feeding a rabbit. I don't like it. I wish it was like it was meant to be, at the beginning of time, animals only ate vegetation, but for many years now they've been eating meat and they need it in their diet. Don't you feed your dog meat? I hope so... or he will soon be vitamin deficient.
Comments
Jen - feeding raw is not a fad. Kibble is the FAD since its less than 100 years old
Letters to heather - The average dog is more likely to contract a deadly salmonella load from KIBBLE.
And yes plenty of dogs enjoy rabbit. Not every dog likes chicken and there is nothing wrong with that. Other poultry and rabbit are a good starting point for the diet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx92Bk2EbPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTgChWyeWQM
Most of the other youtube videos have whole prey rabbits - fur and so forth
If you haven't already join raw Chat and Raw Feeding
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawChat
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Rawfeeding/
Animal - You know some people in the US have cows, goats, pigs and chickens as pets as well. Do you think it stops them from eating those same animals? YOUR rabbit is not the same as a wild caught rabbit or one raised for meat.
Jen - yeah MOST not ALL. Get around enough many dogs got the leftovers from farm kills and hunting. Hell the dogs my relatives down south have get more REAL food than they do kibble. Before kibble dogs got, cooked leftover, scraps from butchering and whatever the caught since MOST dogs also worked for a living.
You don't want to feed raw? FINE She wasn't asking YOUR OPINION on it. She asked if dogs liked rabbit meat. Why do you ever answer ANY raw question when you know you disagree with it?
ETA: Rabbit is only as expensive as the source you are getting it from. Your best bet are markets in your area that carry it, getting to know your local rabbit breeders and getting culls from them, AND asking reptile owners where they buy from.
People and dogs (and cats and ferrets and eagles and ...) the world over eat rabbits and for your dog a whole one would be better than one chopped up.
Some dogs don't like it at all but others love it - you can only try it and see.
I don't feed rabbit but only because my son (aged 10) has pet ones and he has asked me not to. I do feed kangaroo, chicken, beef, lamb, pork, fish,eggs and turkey though.
Jen - I am on several raw feeding forums and am the member of other groups as well with a total membership of over 20 thousand people and I have NEVER heard anything of the sort!! What hogwash!
Going off my two dogs, Max is a poor gage. He'll eat nearly everything, if Max doesn't like it, somethings wrong. Bindi used to be my issued eater, until raw.
They both LOVE rabbits. But there are dogs who don't like them. The last batch of rabbits I got was from a fellow raw feeder. They were whole rabbits and her dogs weren't sure the furry food was food. She didn't want to skin them so I bought them.
As far as not liking chicken. Chicken isn't very smelly, most raw foods aren't. Processed foods have sprayed on fats (this includes used cooking grease and bacon grease among other things) to make them smellier. So not having a food with those things on it can be a bit confusing for a newbie raw dog. You can sprinkle the chicken with a bit of parmesan or brewer's yeast, or very lightly sear the outside until he gets used to eating raw.
Also make sure you aren't feeding chicken with added solutions or broths, this can be a turn off for some dogs, and even give them diarrhea.
By the way my vet continues to be impressed with my dogs health, most notably Bindi. She looked horrid before raw, but was otherwise healthy. Now she's gained and maintained weight, her coat is thick, soft and shiny, and the vet has retracted her recommendation of yearly dentals.
Rabbit is a FANTASTIC food for dogs.
Just give it to your dog whole or cut it in half.
If your dog is picky fast him for a day or two. Once he is really hungry and thinks a meal may not be coming he will think twice about sticking his nose up at chicken.
(We usually create picky dogs!)
Im open to feeding just about anything to my dogs. I saw some live Guinea Fowl running about at work today and ofcourse I thought what a great meal that would make for my dogs!
Some other great meats are lamb, venison, kangaroo, pork and mutton. you could even try turkey.
You can also feed ostrich, emu, goat etc. I know this may seem gross, I still gag at lambs tounges and brains, I literally dry reach, so I give them to my dogs frozen! You'll get used to it though.
I feed whole fish- sardines, mullies, pilchards that I get from the frozen bait section at the supermarket. Ive also fed whole snapper and mullet.
You can also try chicken and duck livers, they seem to go down better with my dogs than ox liver and lambs fry.
I have a venison farm nearby and they make up kilo bags of heart, liver and kidney for me, lasts me around a month. My dog Rocco goes crazy over venison meat and venison bones.
Bone pieces I like are kangaroo tails (I get massive ones off a farmer), ox tails (be careful though can come in really small pieces), lamb/mutton shanks and whole necks, leg of lamb (sometimes with shank still attached) leg of mutton, pork hocks, lamb off-cuts, and whatever I can get at a good price.
Bones to avoid are large marrow bones, beef knuckle bones.
And if you can get green tripe include that also. Most dogs seem to love it and it makes a valuable addition to the raw food diet.
Good Luck.
Rabbit is very expensive to buy if you hunt then they would be free or if your dog hunts them yes dogs like rabbit I found remnants of rabbit fur the other day no wonder my dog wasn't hungry for supper. I feed raw also but it can be expensive. You have to catch things on sale. My dog has gotten too fat so I've decrease the amount and am trying to exercise more.(the dog not me lol)
Did you tested Eating for Energy (120 raw food diet recipes) technique? Visit at this place : http://stayeatingraw.com/Info . It may clearly support anybody!
I am glad I stayed up for this one... LOL Ok one thing about the food at the zoo that food has been inspected for different things and can not be compared to the raw food in the grocery store.. Not only that but I have worked in a zoo. They usually feed them frozen rats that have been thawed microwaves along with kibble. I guarantee you that your animal will not starve to death, it is impossible for a dog to starve its self. Stand up and show the dog who is boss! There is so much bacteria involved with raw food. Yea your right with the Noah's thing... I guess that is where survival of the fittest really applies. Just save yourself money and time, buy so kibble. High priced if it makes you feel better and serve....they will eat it. This is 30 years of pet training and care for talking here... LOL
You are right that animals have eaten raw meat for thousands of years but those animals killed their own meat and ate it fresh, only scavengers would eat it after it sat for a while. Giving your dog raw chicken, rabbit or any other raw meat is not the same as the dog killing his own food. Sorry to burst your bubble.
My dog loves my pet rabbits!
He snuggles with them at nap time, it's so cute.
Rabbits are pretty smart and the third most popular pet in the US - I wouldn't feed them to a dog, but that's just me
I give feeder rabbits to all my dogs live and let them go at it. Cool part is the like cats and other animals. BETTER than chicken