Claudia, I do have a Bed Bath and Beyond very close to me. It's actually in the same shopping center as my gym. Thanks for weighing those out! =)

Val, the package said drummettes and they do seem smaller than the normal drumsticks that we buy for ourselves. Weird! The one that Ginger was eating in her video did seem smaller than the ones I have though. Maybe it's a Miami thing. Everything is exaggerated..LOL!

For Kody I will give him the 3% ratio since he's so skinny and growing, but Mya needs to shed a few pounds still so 1lb of food for her daily sounds about right. Wow, Dakota was still "hungry" after the 3lb turkey? LOL, they're so funny! Kody is always "starving"! I call him a skinny fatty! These doggies I tell you!

Tonight, Ginger graduated to a regular drumstick with her small wing for dinner - no THK - and she ate her chicken on the towel! Whew!
(Videos coming up soon!)

....and here are her videos...she licks the chicken first to make sure it's good...



...then she takes the drumstick to eat it in her spot, and she even stayed on the towel this time!...and after she was done with the drumstick, she went back to get the wing, went to her spot, threw it in front of herself, pounced on it, then ate it!....she cracks me up! I think it took about 10 minutes to finish her dinner tonight.



Ginger paused about half way through the video because she heard the garage door opeining - Daddy's home!

LOVE IT! She looks so great eating her raw meal and on the BLANKET too! Yay Ginger!!!

JD is also now getting comfy about Ginger eating raw! I sent him that link about how to get started with raw feeding, and he says, 'When do we start!?'

Now, he'll watch her and instead of worry on his face, it's excitement and he'll say, 'Wow! She's smacking that thang down and is loving it!'

I'll keep monitoring her BMs to make sure she'll still OK with the increased amount but I think I'll start her with one raw meal and 2 THK meals to equal about 12-14 oz of food total in a day. Once she gets down a couple more pounds, she'll get the full 1 lb of food a day.

If you think that 1 raw meal a day isn't the best way to feed raw, let me know if maybe 1 raw meal every other day is better.

Thanks for all the help!!

Awww Ginger is so gentle with her chicken and so patient! Such a doggie lady Love pics and videos!

Mya chomped that thing down in a minute! I think it didn't do too well with her last night because this morning she threw up a little and it was just stomach liquid with a little piece of bone and she had a half formed BM and half diarrhea. Kody on the other hand just hasn't pooped this morning =\

That's great to hear that JD is getting more comfortable with it! Yay!

cmanding wrote:

If you think that 1 raw meal a day isn't the best way to feed raw, let me know if maybe 1 raw meal every other day is better.

Most raw feeders feed daily so you're fine doing that. Times when it would be better to skip a meal would be if she has an upset stomach or if you do a binge feeding and let them gorge themselves. Now binge feedings are fine but I wouldn't make them a "regular" thing.

MelissaI wrote:

I think it didn't do too well with her last night because this morning she threw up a little and it was just stomach liquid with a little piece of bone and she had a half formed BM and half diarrhea. Kody on the other hand just hasn't pooped this morning =\

Sorry to hear that. But I will say that it's not uncommon to experience some digestive upset when introducing or starting out on raw as the dogs stomach gets accustomed to the new style of food coming in all of a sudden. The vomiting up of the bone piece is not worrying, even my boy has done that and it's not a big deal. And I will also say that there also days that we have a half formed, half liquid BM the day after a raw meal. As long as it is not a constant or continuing thing I am not overly concerned. It could be that it just doesn't agree with Mya but I would give her stomach some time to settle and then try again at some point and see how she does.

I've also found that giving my sibe some Perfect Form on the days he eats raw helps minimize the chance of liquid in his BMs.

Ginger's BM is still nice and firm and formed even after more raw! Yay!

Thanks Val. First let me clarify that Kody apparently did poop this morning, but in our bedroom and my hubby picked it up an didn't tell me. Bad bad Kody..lol. His poop was fine! Yay!

Mya's poop was semi back to normal this evening. Softer than usual, but formed. No more vomiting...thank goodness. This morning I had given her a 1/4th cup of THK with a little bit of her kibble. This evening she had her kibble only with some green beans. I took a break on the chicken today with both of them, but I'll give it to Kody again tomorrow and Mya probably on Saturday. I am concerned about Kody swallowing a piece of the drummette every time. I'm guessing that if I give him a quarter instead he'll have to work more and not be able to swallow piece that easily? I would have to cut the quarters in half though because they seem big.

Claudia, yay for Ginger!!! That's awesome that she's doing so great!!!

Most of us give whole quarters. Because they're bigger they tend to force the dog to slow down and chew more. You know your own dogs best though, so do what you think is best for them.

I agree w/ Val. The quarters most definitely slow them down. If they're too big for Kody you can cut them and if you leave them just slightly frozen, they will eat slower.

Thanks girls! I mean big b/c of the weight and they eat twice a day so I don't want to overfeed them. Mya I could get away with just feeding her the quarter for dinner and that's it, but Kody wakes up begging for his food. He won't even go out to do his business until he's eaten..lol. He will sit in the kitchen until his THK is done re-hydrating, eat, and then go out! LOL!!!!!

here are 2 pictures

dinner, all the parts of the chicken breast i was not gonna eat.

and them waiting!

Awesome Jenn! I didn't know you were interested in feeding a little raw now and then?!

Just curious, why do they have different size bowls?

Val,
i do not do Raw as a meal, they eat the kibble for meal, the raw chicken comes as a "after dinner" snack if i am prepping to cook chicken as my dinner. maybe once a week or so. i now feed it on newspaper cause i hated having to clean the bowls when they were done.

Jack has a larger bowl cause that is what i picked up, Sierra had a cute bowl till it cracked and since she gets less food i found the larger bowl to be to big and she was pushing her food all over in it so i got her a smaller one so it looked like she had a lot of food in it!

Woo Hoo, Jenn!
I, too, didn't think you were interested in feeding raw...is it because you figured the chicken parts you weren't going to eat shouldn't go to waste when the pups could eat them?


EDIT: Oops, we posted at the same time, so you answered my question...

Last nights dinner for Dakota and Glory.

Dakota had a 13 oz turkey wing with 1/4 lb THK Preference, Glory had a 2.3 oz chicken thigh.








I know it may not look like it but I promise it's going IN not coming back out!

I haven't given up completely on turkey just yet...I have a wing that I think I'll split and see if Ginger does OK with it with her drumstick....

Glory looks so cute eating her chicken =)

I want to try the turkey wing again too Claudia (if I find them), but I'm going to take off some of the skin to see how Kody does.

I want to try something new with them other than chicken. Any suggestions? Are pork ribs no good?

MelissaI wrote:

I want to try something new with them other than chicken. Any suggestions? Are pork ribs no good?

The sky is the limit! Pork ribs are fine. There was an awesome sale on pork ribs a few weeks ago where I am, they were selling for 99 cents/lb! But I wasn't able to make it to the store before the sale ended.

Beef, pork, turkey, Cornish hen, rabbit, venison, quail, lamb, duck, etc...there are lots of options! HareToday sells a good selection of whole prey items. I will say though that when I saw they sell whole prey guinea pigs I cringed and thought my poor pet guinea pigs being eaten by my dogs...ewww!

Huskyluv wrote:

MelissaI wrote:

I want to try something new with them other than chicken. Any suggestions? Are pork ribs no good?

The sky is the limit! Pork ribs are fine. There was an awesome sale on pork ribs a few weeks ago where I am, they were selling for 99 cents/lb! But I wasn't able to make it to the store before the sale ended.

I thought about trying pork ribs as they go on sale often enough, especially the riblets. I've even thought about beef rib, cross cut into 2-cuts as they sometimes go on sale for $.99/lb too! I love those to braise! I know my holistic vet said to stay away from beek, pork, venison, bison, etc. but that was when we were still trying to figure out Ginger's dirreha issues and what kibble to feed! Now that we're way past that, and she's eating raw chicken, and beef bones, and she's her turds are as firm as they can get without her being constipated, I think I might try venturing out from chicken when it comes to raw! Heck, I already bought frozen marrow bones to try on her - just haven't given it to her just yet...

Huskyluv wrote:

....I will say though that when I saw they sell whole prey guinea pigs I cringed and thought my poor pet guinea pigs being eaten by my dogs...ewww!

Ewwww! I wouldn't be able to do that! I knew a girl that stopped eating beef because she had a pet cow....

Aww poor guinea pigs! =(

Woohooo for pork ribs! They have a sale at the grocery store in the corner of my house too! Like 15 of them for $4! I think that's pretty good! =)

I saw lamb too. I think it was like the leg or something. Maybe I should try that also! One at a time of course

cmanding wrote:

Heck, I already bought frozen marrow bones to try on her - just haven't given it to her just yet...

I looked for those and couldn't find them!! I guess I have to ask the butcher or something. My problem is that being in Miami 90% of the butchers don't speak English and I'm like ummm how do you say marrow bone in spanish..LOL! I have to ask my mom that question!

I know some Whole Foods will sell marrow bones in the freezer. But check the frozen meats at your grocery store or ask your butcher for 'soup bones'. I found my marrow bones at Chuck & Don's (a discount pet supply store) who also carry raw. And of course, the raw marrow bones were cheaper than the baked beef bones with marrow still in them.