No she doesn't need carbs.
Key principles are that dogs only need less than 5% carbohydrate in their diet, and most of what they need comes from synthesising carbs from ingredients present in meat and bones anyway. So the commercial foods, with cereals, rice, potatoes in are all delivering way too much carbs and in a form which dogs don't naturally digest because they don't produce the same things (such as amylase) in their saliva and have short digestive tracts.
I moved to raw feeding to deal with my dog, Paddy's, persistent colitis.
1. You're looking to feed 2 to 3% bodyweight per day, including all treats etc (lose any treats which contain additives, preservatives etc). Flex within this percentage range depending on whether you're starting with a tubby dog (go to the 2% end), an overly skinny dog (go to the 3% range) or a healthy weight dog (go mid range) and then "play" with the amounts after a week or two, depending on your dog's response, weight wise. I've found that Paddy maintains a perfect weight/look/feel at 3%, but he gets two hours of off-lead and 30 minutes of on-lead exercise per day.
2. Of this total amount per day, 5 to15% should be bone.
3. About 70% should be protein (meat, tripe, heart, fish, eggs - all raw).
4. About 20% should be glandular organs (kidney, liver etc).
The optional bits - which is personal preference for you and your dog, based on your own research and the guidance you get from other more experienced raw feeders - are the supplements/extras. I use them as a safety net as follows:
1. I add in a dessertspoon of pulped mixed raw fruit and veg (mainly veg) to each meal as the fibre seems to help Paddy's bowels.
2. I add in a spoonful of "Keeper's Mix" a dried herb/veg blend from Dorwest Herbs (
www.dorwestherbs.co.uk - I get the 250g size, and it lasts ages - only just bought my second tub in January!) - may help, may not but doesn't do any harm. One spoon added to one meal (I feed twice a day, morning and evening - it goes in his evening meal, just cos I've got more time to faff around then!).
3. To four of his meals per week, I add in fish body oil. I buy the supplements (1000mg) in capsule form from Boots and pierce the gel capsule with a sharp knife, drain oil onto his food, stir in. Also 100 i.u. of Vit E oil - just give him the capsule and he swallows it down.
4. Finally - I also give Paddy a Sunday treat, of mackerels or sardines in sunflower oil (not sure if it's a treat - he doesn't much like it!!) followed by a raw egg for his brekkie. During the warm weather, I give him the whole egg, including shell as he can eat it all and make a mess outdoors. During the winter, he's just been getting the raw egg, no shell, in his bowl.
I don't feed in these exact proportions all the time now - sometimes if I don't have the glandular organs, Paddy may just get a couple of "organ-dominant" meals during the week, to make up the shortfall. It's all about balance overall.
Also, I've found that Paddy gets badly constipated if I give him a meal of just meaty bones, so I have had to cut back on his total bone content to the 5% end of the scale, give him a small bit with each meat/organ dominated meal and increase the number of tripe meals he gets, to keep the calcium content of his diet up. But his colitis has meant that his system is off-kilter and you probably won't have any such problems.
When I started, I was really worried about "getting it all right" so I bought all the "bits" (meaty bones, meat, organs) and spent an hour weighing everything out precisely, in proportion and then bagged it into meal sized freezer bags, froze two weeks' worth and then just defrosted what I needed as I went. I still do this, but am a bit more relaxed about the proportions. Since I work full time, I have to have the convenience of being able to reach in the freezer and pull out two bags for next day to defrost overnight.
In terms of the meats you can feed - most people start with chicken wings, chicken backs (good because you get bone and meat and some organ pieces). For various reasons to do with his colitis, I only feed Paddy on lamb, but this is really unusual. Most are feeding beef, lamb, pork, chicken and (depending on its availability) some other rarer types like rabbit. I'm sure you'll get lots of advice on this and those two books I recommended are really helpful too.
It also depends on where/how you're going to source the raw meat and bones. I was so scared when I started, of giving Paddy salmonella, E Coli etc etc (got a right rollocking off my vet for going raw) that I started buying only human-grade meat and bones for Paddy and I've ended up sticking with that - but it's more costly, for sure.
You can buy raw mixes (different meat types, some with bonemeal in, some with raw veg pulped and mixed in) from pet food stores too. I know lots of feeders on this site have far more creative and cost-effective ways of feeding so hopefully they'll come along with suggestions and I will look into those, cos Tesco lamb in infinite variety is costing me a fortune!!
In terms of what raw feeding did for Paddy - he was a sad little dog, with colitis that flared up every six to eight weeks or so from the age of ten weeks. Diarrhoea, vomiting. He had a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy, with samples taken from stomach, small intestine and bowel. No infections, no parasites just a massively inflamed bowel.
He'd go on anti-biotics and the vet-prescribed Royal Canin "easy digestion" food for two to six weeks at a time and turn into a happy,
lively little dog but as soon as the drugs finished, he'd start a gradual decline. He never got rid of his foul breath, awful wind problem, gungy, weeping eyes and scaly/dandruffy skin across his haunches.
I did everything the vet said - we went from Burns organic dry food, to Nutro dry food. We used Nature Diet (puppy, adult, Sensitive) wet food, we even (at vet's insistence) used Chappie. None of it worked.
I finally took the plunge to feed raw. I'm not joking - the change in one week was really great. End of week two - it was "Wow!". His breath became fresh, he NEVER has wind now, his eyes stopped weeping and gunking up, his skin stopped scaling and flaking and he was so lively and happy. He then plummeted for a week - detoxing - everything (breath, wind, poo) smelled like he had a rotten rat up his bum). After that week - got good. He's had a few relapses but, over time, and with input from a homeopathic vet who feeds raw too, I took him off chicken as it didn't agree with him ( some dogs struggle with one of the fats in chicken). His coat is also so glossy it's like silk.
Also, there was one huge change in his behaviour. Before switching him, because the colitis caused malabsorption of nutrients, Paddy wasn't just a greedy dog, he was manic for food, treats, scavenging - everything. It was quite distressing because HE was so distressed. At the end of two weeks on raw, he had settled. He's still a dog who "travels in hope" - just like most dogs, he's your friend if you've got food to hand - but it's not manic and if he doesn't get offered anything, he curls up quietly and happily at your feet. If this had been the ONLY noticeable change from switching to raw, I'd have continued with it.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Regards
Denise
