What about feeding raw eggs with shell?

[turtle707]

I've read a lot of the raw meat forums but didn't see anything posted about eggs. I read elsewhere that feeding raw eggs with shell was very beneficial in home Made dog food. I'm feeding my new dog Diamond only because its what the Breeder fed him, but he doesn't seem to like it much and to me he looks pretty underweight. My trip to the vet in an hour will confirm this or not. But he is so boney and I'm concerned about him gaining weight so I researched reviews on Dog food and found out that anything you can buy at a grocery store of even pet store for that matter is crap. I"m not sure I buy that for all of it, but feel really sad that I was feeding my two former (past away to old age) dogs purina dog chow due to financial reasons and I thought it would be ok because it carried the purina name. I used to feed them Iams before I was a Stay at home mother. Come to find out it didn't hardly have any meat in it. Poor dogs. Well anyway I'm considering home made food for My new dog Goldendoodle medium, Max. So I tried the raw egg thing just to see if he'd even touch the stuff and he gobbled it all up along with the shells and the carrots and liver treats that I put in with it. I'm Brand new to this forum and wanted to know peoples opinion about raw eggs, and if anyone has a cost effective home made food recipe they would like to share it would be appreceated. Also looking back at the ingredient label, the Iams still doesn't look that bad..... I guess I don't really get the reviews. I got a coupon for a bogo on natures variety and found it sold in a specialty grocery store "Jungle Jims" nearby so I'm thinking of trying that. Any Ideas?

[deb9017]

Have you considered raw? It's kind of like home cooking, except without the cooking I started feeding my boy raw about two months ago, due to skin/ coat problems mainly, and it has made a huge difference!

yes, eggs and eggshells are good. I know that some dogs will eat the shell, but I have to crush the shells up and hide them in the rest of the stuff before mine will eat them!

I don't have any recipes, because all I feed is raw meat stuff!

[turtle707]

I think what I want to do for the dog food is a combination of carbs and veggies with raw meat. I was taught that Dogs are Scavangers and thrive off of more than just meat. However I decided to go ahead and make food for my cat too after viewing some of the dry food labels at the grocery store last night. What I've been feeding her doesn't have any meat. Cats are mostly carnivorous from what I've been taught so her food will be mostly meat with some veggies thrown in. I found some food in the refriderated pet section that had optimum recipes but were seriously expensive, like to feed my dog for a day would be $4 a day and my cat nearly $3. But I did make note of their ingredients and in the cat recipe which was mostly meat they also added carrots and spinach. I made a bunch of food last night and thats what I added in the cats. I haven't fed this to my cat yet but will find out later if it passes her palate test. My dog I did feed his homemade mixture this morning of Raw Chicken, Raw steak, Cooked brown rice, potatoes, carrots, Romaine, and powdered milk for calcium A & D. I don't know if that's right but the best I could come up with from my research. He devoured it in 10 seconds so I guess it passes his palate test. I'm glad too because he wont eat the diamond dog food and he really needs to put on some weight. Vet agreed he was underweight. He did not agree with the home made food idea because he thought it might be hard to feed him a balanced meal. I thought, I have 3 kids who I cook for everyday and a husband......... We all eat balanced meals, I make sure of it. So if my cooking is good enough for my family, why on earth wouldn't it be good enough for my pets? I am wandering about putting egg in the cat food or not haven't found anything to support it.

[sassymaxmom]

I don't know about cats but raw egg is great for dogs. It is rich so introduce it slowly and you probably won't be able to feed much daily.

Save the egg shells, wash and dry thoroughly. Grind into a fine powder and add 1/2 tsp of the powder per pound of food for calcium. You would have to add over a cup of dry milk for the calcium in that 1/2 tsp of egg shell plus there is the problem that dogs may not be able to tolerate all that dairy. Milk has large amounts of phosphorus so the food wouldn't be balanced anyway. It is supposed to be about 1.3 parts calcium to 1 part phosphorus and meat is very low in calcium and high in phosphorus so no way could milk provide enough calcium when it is already 283 mg calcium to 226 mg phosphorus per 1/3 cup.

Add a small amount of liver, preferably beef liver to the food for vitamin A, iron, zinc and especially copper and use some sort of fatty fish like sardine, mackerel or salmon for Omega 3.

Completely agree, raw is easier and cheaper. I hate boning raw meat, cooking then boning is much easier and my food processor cannot chop raw meat if you are doing that as well. However, any way you serve up fresh food you are doing good by your pets though, keep up the good work!