When people mention DIY, you think of it being time consuming and complicated.
Keeping all information together to help you have an easier rewarding journey.
Just like feeding “ready made meals” you need to aim for a diet of 80% Meat, 10% Bone and 10% Offal (5% Liver and 5% another secreting organ). This does not have to balanced all on the same day/ every meal; but should be balanced during the week. However you wouldn’t want to feed all the bone on a Monday and then offal and boneless for the rest of the week, this will cause inconsistent poo, and your dog will become constipated/have an upset tum.
For example we feed majority of bone and offal with a little boneless at breakfast and then feed the remaining boneless at dinner time.
This information should help you to build your meals and understand what needs to go into your dogs food.
Fish and Eggs should be fed a couple of times per week too.
Within your DIY diet you need to feed 80% made up of the below. All Boneless items can be found here
Tongue
Normally available whole, so will require you to cut into smaller chunks within the daily allowance.
Gizzard
Smaller chunks which can be fed. (very little prep needed when feeding)
Trachea
Best to feed whole or cut down the middle to avoid choking (Trachea is cartilage, however some dogs may digest this as a bone, so best to poo watch). We feed this at least weekly, with high levels of natural chondroitin and glucosamine, helping to maintain joints, whilst providing a nice natural teeth cleaner.
Meaty Boneless Chunks
TDB come in nice chunky slabs, with their motto being you can always cut smaller but not bigger. MVM chunks are smaller and come in cubes.
Cheek
A nice tougher piece of meat. Ideal to feed to dogs who may struggle with whole bones, but need a chewy meal to aid teeth cleaning. Feed whole or cut smaller to your dogs feeding requirements.
Lung
A sponge like consistency. Lung can be quite rich for some dogs, so best to be fed in moderation up to 20% of the muscle meat allowance.
Heart (Mince or Chunks)
Heart is classed as a muscle meat not offal when raw feeding. Like Lung, Heart can be quite rich and therefore should be fed up to 20% of muscle meat. Ox TDB Heart are large chunks, Pork and Lamb are slightly smaller, but may still require being cut smaller. Chicken and Duck are small manageable pieces and require little prep (in most cases)
Green Tripe
Normally Lamb or Ox, although tripe contains lots of nutrients for your dog, tripe should be fed at up to 30% of the diet. Tripe is also classed as a different protein to the beef/lamb meat.
Boneless Minces
A good option for those who would rather not cut up meat, and are available in lots of different mixes too. Perfect to be added into Kong’s or Lickimats for enrichment as part of the daily feeding routine.
Bones can be fed in a couple of ways. Either whole prey, whole bone or mince form.
Some of the popular bones and their bone content are below:-
Head
Duck, Rabbit, Chicken 75% Bone
Neck
Duck 50% Bone, Chicken 75% Bone, Lamb 32% Bone.
Shoulder
Lamb Blade 24% Bone, Lamb Whole 21% Bone, Pork 20% Bone, Veal 24% Bone.
Carcass
Chicken and Duck 60% Bone.
Ribs and Spine
Lamb 45% Bone, Pork 30% Bone, Veal 35% Bone.
Wings
Chicken 45% Bone, Turkey 35% Bone, Duck 40% Bone.
Thigh
Chicken 15% Bone, Turkey 21% Bone.
Feet
Duck and Chicken 60% Bone
Tail
Pork 30% Bone
Whole Prey
Rabbit with Fur – 15% Bone
Rabbit Skinned – 28% Bone
Quail – 10% Bone
Pigeon – 23% Bone
Goose – 19% Bone
Remember when feeding whole bones to feed in the morning, to give enough time for your dog to digest throughout the day. You will also need to feed a boneless meal either side, see guide below.
When feeding offal it is important to feed 5% of liver. Liver is full of vitamins and therefore important whilst feeding a balanced diet.
The other 5% of the offal allowance should be made up of one of the following
Kidney
Spleen
Brain
Testicles
Pancreas
TDB also do a offal mix, which is already balanced ready to be added to the meal. Due to the amount of offal being fed, normally being a low amount, some of our customers find it easier to portion into silicone trays and freeze, then you can simply pop one out every day/meal (depending on how you choose to feed). We use chunks and so freeze into a daily portion for each dog when prepping, we feed in the morning with bone and then know that Barney and Dexter have the required offal per day.
If you are looking to feed a mixture of DIY and 80/10/10 mixes then the below is an example feeding guide.
Two meals per day
Monday AM: complete
Monday PM: boneless
Tuesday AM: whole bone and offal
Tuesday PM: boneless only
Wednesday AM: complete
Wednesday PM: complete
Three meals per day
Monday AM: complete
Monday lunch: complete
Monday PM: complete
Tuesday AM: boneless only
Tuesday lunch: whole bone and offal
Tuesday PM: boneless only
Wednesday AM: complete
Wednesday lunch: complete
Wednesday PM: complete
This is a guide and you should check that minces are under 8% fat content to be considered to be low fat, as you can imagine different cuts, brands and mixes can mean that the proteins are higher in fat then normal.
Chicken (If feeding the skin then this will have a higher fat than the lean meat)
Quail
Whilst majority of our brands are free range/wild meat, some brands do use farmed animals and therefore are higher in fat.
This is a guide and you should check that different cuts, brands and mixes can mean that the proteins fall as a lower fat.
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