Raw Diet Question, HELP - Page 1

I recently posted with regards to a pano question,a few responded sugested a raw diet, funny because, Just prior to having this last litter of pups, All of my dogs were on raw, went to Canidae, Because I had a crew of very portly pooches.

Two eight year old neutered males, one at 119 and one at 113, both should weight about 85lbs,

two more neutered males 2years and 5years both at 96lbs, both again should weight about 85lbs

1 recently spay five year old, at 86 shold weight 75

and one now 6 month old  never on raw at very good weight.

slowly are dropping weight now very leary of putting back on raw

raw diet was 1 1/2 cups twice a day, no extras when I tried to cut back I had every thing from garbage digging to grass eating

and I dont mean a little I mean BIG bald spots in my yard and one of the eight year lods took to eating his stool never did it before, 

What am I doing wrong 

What type of diet were you following?? What was the content of the food you fed??

Adult dogs should eat 2 - 5% of their optimum body weight in raw food.. my dogs get bones inthe am,... ducknecks, chicken backs and then meat mix in the pm... I am a distributor for Oma's pride and Healthy Pet Products so those are the products I feed.

None of my dogs are fat, we actually have one that is too skinny and i have to increase his food and fat ratios.. may even have to add some carbs

AM feeding -Ground chicken backs,  broccoli, carrots, pumpkin,and green beans

PM feeding -Ground chicken backs,Beef knuckle bones, Apples, pears, and bananas

all fruits and vegs are put into blender

Ther is no organ meat in your diet and nix the knuckkle bone, they can't even eat that. Give them ribs or pork necks they can atually consume. Seems they were getting more vegies than meat.

ok whats putting the weight on them, for all you wondering yes they are all house dogs but 1-1/12 mile run 2 X a day Skipping days of real bad weather, they are over weight but very solid and very healthly  OK minus the extra weight .

I feed raw, no weight probs. I use a  calculation of 0.4% meat mix (1/2 muscle meat,1/2 vegie/fruit) I also add about 1/8 organ meat to the mix. then 0.6% of bones any kind. So the majority is raw meaty bones. I got this off the internet a few yrs ago seems to work for me. I have a puppy and feed close to 10% body wt.
 Ian Billinghurst has a good Barf book .

wt of your dog X 16 = wt. in oz.

wt. in oz X .02 ( for a mature dog)= total your dog should eat daily (then do the .4 and .6)

My old sedentary 80 lb. male eats 2X daily. (5oz meat mix) (7.5oz bones) each meal

Hope it helps.

4Pack -

You mention cutting the bones I give them ones loaded with meat and they waste no time with them. on avg. three hours a night bones because of size have to be taken away secong night .

Going to Dr Billinghurst's site.. would be a good idea.. I have all his books.. it's the BARF diet

Chicken backs have so much fat... and I would suggest more variety in your muscle meat... beef, chicken, turkey, salmon or whitefish.. not every meal has veggies or fruits or organs.. mix it up.. it's about balancing over time

Definitely organs and ground bone in the mix as well

Knuckle bones, etc are recreational for my herd....

I think you will benefit from the books, the covers are falling off mine!!

Denise

If you could find a distributor, the prepared mixes are already calculated and all the work is done... I have 7 dogs and normallythey don't even go thru 10lbs a day!! Have a nursing mom right now, she is eating a ton!!

The bones you feed your dog should be soft bone i.e non load bearing.  The dog should be able to eat them at their mealtime not be there for hours - these are recreational bones.  Nothing wrong with them if you want to entertain your dog but not as  part of their diet..

I give my dogs veggies but only once maybe twice a week, a lot of BARF feeders do not includge veggies or gains at all.  It all comes down to personal preferences. Tom Lonsdale dosen't recommend them at all.

To make my feeding easy for me I they have a meaty bone meal at night and a non bone meal in the morning.

Tracking is done for breakfast either heart or liver (no free meals).

Thank you, I want to get this right before I put little guy on Raw.

Again Thank You Everyone