Question for raw feeders - Wild Rabbit

[MANDYANDALFIE]

I have been given a couple of whole wild rabbits which are dead and jointed so cleaned and no fur and on the bone. As I have been thinking about changing Alfie to a raw food diet, I am thinking of feeding them to him.  If you discount the pigeon he caught and ate a few months ago, the only other raw thing he has had is the odd chicken wing - but the look on his little face when presented with a chicken wing is so priceless, I'm pretty convinced raw would absolutely be his preference.  So what do I do - just place an appropriate amount of the rabbit in his bowl at feeding time?  And what would be an appropriate amount for an 11.5kg 1 year old cocker? He is currently on about 600g of Lily's Kitchen wet food each day and is a good weight.  And do I need to cut the rabbit up further or just let him get on with it?  And should I be looking out for any side effects given that he has been eating cooked meat (either tinned or home cooked for the last few months) since I ditched the kibble?  So many questions - hope somebody can help!

[Patp]

Hi,

What a lovely present!
 
Jinley has one chicken wing and around 250g of raw meat every day (200g if she hasnt done much).

Personally I would split it into at least 4 meals so there is not too much bone in each meal, but depends how big the rabbits are.  For instance the thighs will have some good meat but high in bone so I would do that as one meal.  Split the ribs into 2 for 2 meals to have with some of the back muscles.

If he will eat them like that than great, or you could flash fry them so the meat smells good 

[elaine.e]

I'm very jealous . William and Louis love rabbit, but it's an occasional treat for them because it's expensive to buy from a butcher's shop and I don't know anyone who shoots, which would be a cheaper option.

The general rule for the amount of food to be fed on a raw diet is between 2 and 3% of ideal bodyweight for an adult dog. Puppies need more. Riley is sort of in between at 1 year old, so it will partly depend on how much more growing you think he may do and if you think he's a good weight at the moment. Difficult to guess, but it would be a similar guessing game if you were switching from one kibble or wet food to another.

If you think he's pretty much finished growing I would start him off at 3% of current body weight, so 11500g x 3% = 390g raw food per day. As the rabbit is more of an experiment than a switch to raw it won't matter if that's a bit high or low. It sounds low in comparison to 600g Lily's Kitchen wet food, but I'm not sure how to make a comparison between that and raw.

I think the main thing to consider is the amount of bone in each meal. Is Riley a careful eater when you give him chicken wings or does he try gulping them down? If he's careful he should be fine with rabbit bones. If he's a gulper you're probably better holding onto a bony rabbit portion (pliers may help you get a better grip) while he eats it to help slow him down and crunch the bones up.

You should also think about how much bone you give per meal. He won't really be used to digesting bone, so if you give him a bony meal then I'd make the next meal bone free to help him avoid becoming constipated. Some dogs digest bone better than others. For instance I know from experience that Louis copes well with more bone than William, who had terrible constipation a couple of times before I adjusted his diet to stop it happening.

Hope he enjoys the rabbits

[MaggieR]

Only other things to be aware of is checking for where the rabbit was shot - I get it for maggie from the farmers market and its great but a couple of times its obviously caught the a leg bone and shattered it, making it a bit more splinter-like than I like to give her.  Might not be an issue at all and some people might be fine feeding it like that - I just prefer to give her whole bones so she can break them up herself.  And checking for shot - shouldn't be lead anymore, but even so, I'd rather not feed it to her.... am sure it would just pass through tho.
Hope he enjoy's it - last market I went to I was told there was a shortage  Really??

[twiceover2]

I often feed mine rabbits.  A back leg is one meal, the two front legs together make another and the body splits into three usually, depending on the size of the rabbit, so I get six meals for Pippa from one rabbit.  She weighs about 11.5kg too and has 160g of raw/day.

[JeffD]

Just an advise, shot Rabbits can contain lead shot, steel shot is only used for duck shooting where it is a legal requirement, for all other game 99%  of shooters will be using lead.

I just have  a look for entrance holes about the size of a pin head and cut down to find the shot.

[MANDYANDALFIE]

Thanks for the replies.  Alfie had rabbit leg for breakfast this morning and loved it.  I've looked over the rabbits and can't find any evidence of where they were shot so I can only assume that it may have been in the head (which is the bit I don't have).

The main reason why Alfie doesn't eat this way normally is that he travels with me a few times each year to Italy so I feel he needs to be OK eating something out of a tin for the journey and probably the first day we arrive.  Nothing would be worse than spending 2 days travelling with a dog with an upset stomach due to an abrupt change of food and obviously this would be very unfair on him!  Would it be OK to feed him raw and also give him a couple of meals each week from a good quality tin?  I've read about cooked and raw not always being advisable to feed but I'm not sure if this means don't feed them at the same meal or make a permanent choice between one and the other.

If  mixing it up a bit would work, I can luckily source wild fresh meat very locally (such things as hare, boar, pigeon, squirrel, woodcock, etc.) and I've worked out that it could be quite a bit cheaper than buying his current tins.

[JeffD]

Nothing wrong with feeding both, just not at the same time. Sounds like you have a great food supply remember to give 10% offal over the week as well and a bit of blitzed veg now and again wont do any harm.

If you are feeding small game and birds just leave in the liver, lungs, heart and kidney perfect diet 

[Patp]

Hi

I can see no problem at all.  Jinley is raw fed, but when we are on holiday I take kibble with me so that she can have a meal in the pub if we are out late. 

[elaine.e]

William and Louis are raw fed but I always have a few trays of Nature Diet in the house in case I forget to get their raw food out of the freezer and can't get anything fresh immediately. They probably have 1 meal of Nature Diet every couple of weeks or so and they're fine with it both in terms of enjoying it and no ill effects afterwards.

It sounds fantastic that you can source such good quality raw food locally for Alfie so why not go for it and maybe try 1 non raw meal or day per week and see how it goes?