When can i Start feeding my puppy raw? - Page 2

goat's milk fat globules are about a fifth of the size of dairy cow milk equivalents. it has also a much higher concentration of small/medium fatty acids. all that, and a few other differences, make goat's milk a much better choice for most, if not all, mammals and especially for the little ones, including puppies. e.g., http://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(80)83125-0/references, http://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(80)83126-2/abstract
also see Olav T. Oftedal. Lactation in the Dog: Milk Composition and Intake by Puppies. J. Nutrition. 1984. 114, 803-812 and Y.W. Park. Hypo-Allergenic and Therapeutic Significance of Goat Milk. Small Ruminant Research. 1994. 14, 151-159

I start feeding my puppies at 3 weeks old and only raw, no kibble.

This is a special puppy blended mix

 

 30% beef organ mix

45% ground chicken

10% green tripe

10% ground turkey necks

5 % ground salmon

Chantelcler eggs with shell

ground hemp seed

Kind of a side subject to this topic, as alluded to by bubbabooboo. I recently learned that kibble and processed dog food was not really a common thing here in the US until the great depression and after. Before the depression, it was common practice to feed dogs meat scraps such as chicken & turkey necks, the backs of the chickens ect.... During the depression peoples diets changed to now include these 'cheaper' less meaty parts of the animal and dogs where given more grains and fillers and livestock feed. The modern dog food industry was born out of the depression era... Because of the influence of members of this board and people in the dog sport world and even bubbabooboo (lol) I cautiously switched my dogs off of kibble and became open to the idea that dogs were probably not genetically engineered to live off of something that was not found in nature.

I have fed off the shelf 3.5% cows milk, evaporated milk (not condensed) and goat's milk. Goat's milk and evaporated milk are equivalent nutritionally and I have seen no difference other than the pups like the evaporated milk better because goat's milk has an odor and a taste to it. Warm evaporated milk is great .. just add probiotic to insure the pups can digest the milk especially if they have had antibiotics. Even my grown and mature dogs like a bowl of milk from time to time as a treat or a break in their everyday food. As soon as the pups can drink milk without making a huge mess and standing in the flying saucer dish I start adding cooked ground meat or prepared finely ground raw meat. Cooked meat without bones is good for puppies as well as the little ones have a hard time chewing the raw meat up and digesting it until they have stronger jaws and teeth. Mother wolves and mother dogs will regurgitate chewed raw meat that they have eaten for their pups. Mouth licking of the mother dog's mouth by puppies is an instinct driven behavior that puppies use to beg the mother for food and is left over from the wolf ancestor's behavior.

I know dairy farmers that have only fed their working dogs cows milk for the dogs entire life and the occasional table scraps.

Healthier longer lived dogs you won't find, go figure.

I was reared and worked on my family's large commercial dairy farm and we fed milk to our animals and pets. The waste milk on a dairy farm is not 3.5% .. it is likely higher in butter fat as the dairy is paid for hundred weights of milk and a minimum butter fat content. Also the waste milk comes from two sources that can not be sold and that is milk from newly calved cows which are giving their heavy first milk called colostrum ( may have some blood, higher fat content as well as antibodies in it ) and also from animals receiving antibiotics which require a waiting period before the milk can be sold for commercial use. Farm milk is not pasteurized and can have a very low level of bacteria in it at the time of sale. Milk in the store is both pasteurized and homogenized so it is slightly different from farm milk ... more uniform in butter fat content (3.5%) and without some bacteria and microbes both beneficial and harmful potentially. In my experience raw farm milk fresh from the cow is better and easier to digest than processed milk. My comments were for off the grocery shelf or canned evaporated milk or canned goats milk. Fresh raw goats milk or cows milk would likely be better than anything you can buy in a store. Milk is as good as it ever will be when it comes from the animal and every time it is handled, hauled, processed or bottled it deteriorates. In my area finding fresh goats milk is difficult and it is expensive ( $8-12 / gallon US ). Feeding raw milk to dogs is legal but the US government has tried to stamp out sales of fresh raw milk from any animal for human consumption. Probiotics can help human's and animal's digestive tracks adjust to processed milk. I drank raw cow's milk from a 1000 gal cooling and holding tank on our family farm until I was 14 years old and the switch from raw to processed was very unpleasant as raw was much better tasting and was higher quality.

The big craze around here ATM among the boutique hobby farmers is unprocessed camel milk. Supposed to be super mega good for you, illegal to sell. The city folk can't get enough of it, anything exotic is assumed wonderful.