Raw food !!!

[karenben]

just to add if your going to try chicken wings then break the bones in them,annie loves chicken wings she is 641b and she gets 4 chicken wings foe 1 meal,if you break the bones in them the dog wont choke,not everyone is comfortable feeding chicken wings tho,karen

 

[GatorRay]

I feed chicken wings...when it is attached to a whole chicken!

 

[karenben]

i havnt given annie a whole chicken yet just quarters tho she does prefer the dark red meats so tend to stick with them and just use chicken backs,i thought maybe that they were enhanced and causing her itching but no ,shes back on them and not itching ,karen

 

[zeusmommy]

Do you feed a puppy 2% of his own weight or of that which he will weigh when he grows up? Its been a while since I fed raw, I have been sticking to high quality grain free kibble for most of the time

 

[HrsDiva]

I was so close today to seeing if the dogs would eat it or stare at it !!!!!!

 

[zeusmommy]

I was so close today to seeing if the dogs would eat it or stare at it !!!!!!

lol...what stopped you?

 

[HrsDiva]

I "chickened" out !!!

 

[GatorRay]

I "chickened" out !!!

LMAO!!! Don't be such a chicken! They might eat ya *wink*

@zeusmommy , you feed 2 to 3% of their expected adult weight, not their puppy weight. Gator only needs 2% (about 1lb 3oz) but Gypsy started losing weight so I bumped it up and she does well on about 3% (1lb 8oz). This is a DAILY amount. You split it for multiple meals. 4 months they should be on 3 meals a day and then about 6 to 8 months you can move them to 2 meals and then at a year, they can go to 1 meal but I will likely stick to 2.

 

[zeusmommy]

LMAO!!! Don't be such a chicken! They might eat ya *wink*

@zeusmommy , you feed 2 to 3% of their expected adult weight, not their puppy weight. Gator only needs 2% (about 1lb 3oz) but Gypsy started losing weight so I bumped it up and she does well on about 3% (1lb 8oz). This is a DAILY amount. You split it for multiple meals. 4 months they should be on 3 meals a day and then about 6 to 8 months you can move them to 2 meals and then at a year, they can go to 1 meal but I will likely stick to 2.

Thanks Now it dawned on me that I fed the other dog 2lbs split in 2 meals...lol That would be about just as you are saying. I would prefer 2 meals a day myself too, mostly because of the deep chest and bloat probability. I gave Zeus a chicken wing last night...lol...he made a B-line 3 times on me to hide and eat on the carpet until I blocked him from leaving the kitchen..lol...BUT I made the mistake of giving him the wing with the thicker bone and I found it this morning in his crate - whole :-(

 

[GatorRay]

Thanks Now it dawned on me that I fed the other dog 2lbs split in 2 meals...lol That would be about just as you are saying. I would prefer 2 meals a day myself too, mostly because of the deep chest and bloat probability. I gave Zeus a chicken wing last night...lol...he made a B-line 3 times on me to hide and eat on the carpet until I blocked him from leaving the kitchen..lol...BUT I made the mistake of giving him the wing with the thicker bone and I found it this morning in his crate - whole :-(

Wings are ok if they are attached to the breast. These guys have HUGE mouths and mine can get a whole bone-in breast in their mouths! You probably found it whole because he swallowed it without crunching the bone. That is why I try to give mine a half of a chicken split down the middle (breast, wing, thigh, leg, attached). Then they actually at least crunch it up before swallowing. Swallowing whole can be a choking hazzard too which is why I started giving large pieces. I made that mistake too. lol. Only I had choking! I will just give them the half chicken and then take it when it looks about half finished and put it in the fridge. At the next meal, I hand it back .

You can either keep working on teaching him to stay in the kitchen, OR you can take everything out of his crate and just put him there while he eats. That way he will stay off the carpet. lol. Easy to clean too! Just a quick wipe and voila!

I am so happy that you are feeding him raw! Congratulations!

 

[anatess]

I'm super amazed at you guys!

I've never had the courage to go raw... I mean - okay, my first dog was when I was 12 years old and in the Philippines - everybody feeds raw because dog food is super expensive (3x more expensive than raw!). So, it's not like I'm new to the idea. It's just that, I'm now a lot more "responsible" than when I was 12... I mean, my first dog was a German Shepherd and she eats anything - table scraps and all. This is how my mom feeds the dogs (she's a dog advocate - there's no animal shelter in the Phils either, so she takes in strays - and I remember one time when I was little, she had 10 dogs!) - she buys meat for the whole family including the pets and she raises chickens in the backyard for their eggs and when they get too old, she kills them for their meat (too tough for humans, so they end up as dog food). Ok, in the Philippines, we go to the market (not a grocery store) for meats. The meat doesn't come in shrink wrap packages... the entire cow is literally hanging on hooks in the market and you point to what part you want and the stall owner will carve out that piece for you. Anyway, she buys an entire carcass, takes it home, takes out the meat for the family, chops up the rest for the dogs. She then mixes that meat with whatever table scraps we have (left-overs)... yes, that's human spiced food! My German Shepherd ate like this her entire life!

Anyway, after I moved to the US, I became "westernized" on pet care and learned that spiced food is not good for pets, dogs can't get the full nutritional value of veggies (they don't have the proper teeth to mash veggies to efficiently get the nutrients out), you can't just throw any part of a carcass at the dog and wish for the best... etc. etc. So, I got kibbles. Coz, that's what everybody else does. And it's so cheap (relatively speaking).

So now... all this talk about raw food got me thinking again. And today, for the first time after I got Bullie (a month ago), I see one red rash on her chin. Ooooohhhhh....

 

[wormed]

I am soon to get my little guy from the breeder and she has been using Orijen puppy. I asked her about RAW and she says it's a good diet but to start with Orijen and change later. A part of me wants to listen to her because she has far more experience than I do and the other part of me is totally sold on RAW (especially since I try to eat organic/whole food as much as possible myself; also my brother is a raw food-ist/vegan) and I wanna do it from the start.

What to doooooo!??!

 

[GatorRay]

[MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION], boy, I wish I had somewhere to butcher a cow or pig.....I would buy them whole too! The savings is great when you do it that way and part of the fun is trying to find interesting things at the best price. When there is a sale at 69 cents a lb for chicken, I actually get excited. lol.

You kind of can just throw them any part....within reason. They can manage most things except for weight bearing bones of large animals (elk, deer, cows). Very cool.

 

[anatess]

I am soon to get my little guy from the breeder and she has been using Orijen puppy. I asked her about RAW and she says it's a good diet but to start with Orijen and change later. A part of me wants to listen to her because she has far more experience than I do and the other part of me is totally sold on RAW (especially since I try to eat organic/whole food as much as possible myself; also my brother is a raw food-ist/vegan) and I wanna do it from the start.

What to doooooo!??!

Don't bother with Orijen! She's probably just anxious that her fur baby that is about to leave her breeder-mommy gets fed properly and she doesn't trust that you can do it properly. But, EBN is here to help you, right?

 

[wormed]

Don't bother with Orijen! She's probably just anxious that her fur baby that is about to leave her breeder-mommy gets fed properly and she doesn't trust that you can do it properly. But, EBN is here to help you, right?

I know I've read all about the 2-3% of bodyweight in this thread. I understand that. However, I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around being able to buy raw for my dog without thinking about how costly, for example, a steak is to buy at the store. Do you use a butcher? If not, could you simply give me an example of what you'd buy and distribute to your dog? Also, I'm reading that organs shouldn't be fed to my little guy just yet? I need to wait a couple months?

Is buying, for example, a bag of frozen bone-in chicken breasts/thighs or is there a better, more cost effective way? Money isn't the issue with me, however, I don't want to break myself feeding my little guy and myself.

Thanks!