Feeding Raw - Page 1

I started ny pup today on chicken backs Is this how to start raw?
Dawn

backs are great but not meaty enough, leg quarters are a good meat to bone ratio, so add a bit more meat and you'll be good.  we feed lots of backs, frames, and neck but we always add some meat because these cuts aren't meaty enough.  you can add anything - beef, chicken, pork, lamb, mutton, venison, duck, cheese ...  with a pup they learn to chew really well, while older dogs sometime need to be "taught" because they can have a harder time by getting too excited and not chew enough, to get around this you can freeze it and or give very large cuts that are enough for more than one meal - both can help slow the dog down.

chewing is important, so make sure you don't feed pieces that are "that in between size" - too small to chew but too big to swallow safely - but also it's amazing what they can swallow and digest just fine - experience will help with this.  with a pup it becomes a little challenging because until they are older you have to break their food up into 3 meals. we feed (3) 1/2lb meals to our 11 wk pup.  some meals are more boney like a chicken cage then the next meal we'll give 1/2# chunk of beef or right now we have emu. and sometimes we'll feed a bit more one day and a bit less another day - pups are pretty flexible.  you can grind up meat but i find pups in particular really enjoy the work-out.  you can also give your pup a larger cut - enough for more than one meal - and pick it up after s/he starts to slow down then fed the rest for the next meal.

we do not folow the popular "barf diet" - started out using it a dozen or so years ago but found that lonsdale's diet was a better fit for us so i highly recommend dr lonsdale's books & guidelines, which you can find at www.rawmeatybones.com

hth,
susan

here are a few picts of our pup eating
1st 2 picts are of him eating his first chicken leg - he's 7 1/2 weeks old and
the last pick he's eating part of a lamb's head - he's 10 1/2 week

Hi Dawn,

Puppies have pretty specific nutritional needs, so you'll want to be careful and read up on it.  I think the easiest rule of thumb is to picture a whole animal...those are the proportions of meat, bone, and organ your dog should get.  Have you joined the Yahoo raw feeding message board group?  That's a great place to get help with raw feeding.  Here is a link to that group and some other helpful websites:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/ 
http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html
http://www.rawfeddogs.net/
http://rawfed.com/
http://www.skylarzack.com/rawfeeding.htm

Good luck!    
M