Hello! So, I've been thinking of feeding raw for a while now, but it's always been way too intimidating for me. Also, meat is not exactly cheap where I live. I've been looking into co-ops, but they cost just as much as the grocery store. I joined some raw feeding groups on Facebook and Yahoo groups, and it looks like the common theme is people go to other parts of the state for a cheap supplier. Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to do that.

My plan is to take all the pups off of kibble and get them on a freeze-dried/dehydrated food like Grandma Lucy's or The Honest Kitchen and supplement that with whatever raw I can get my hands on for cheap.

I've read the forums a bit, but there are still some questions I have.

For those of you who feed Grandma Lucy's or The Honest Kitchen, are the feeding recommendations they give pretty accurate? I've always found with my Lab mix, Baylee, that she tends to get a little chunky if I feed the recommended amounts on the kibble bags and have to dial back a bit. I'm wondering if it'll be the same with the freeze-dried/dehydrated foods.

Now, as far as feeding, for a meal would it be better to do a day of raw, then a day of GL/THK? Not necessarily doing one every other day, but more of just feeding one exclusively for the day with no mixing. Or could I mix the two in one meal? If I did a mix, would it be just simply half the usual amount of raw fed + half the amount of GL/THK? Or is it more complicated than that?

Last question. I like rotating foods and have never had problems with Vinnie or Baylee. I took Ryder off his puppy food and started him on the All Life Stages kibbles I feed the other dogs. Well, when we got to a pork-based one, he developed runny poop and "Cannon-butt" (his crate is in my living room and there was splatter art all over my walls, ewwwww). Anyways, I had read that a dog who is sensitive to a protein in kibble, may not be when it comes to raw. How would that work with GL/THK? I'd still like to rotate between the brands and protein sources. Do you think it would be okay to try ones with pork? Or should I stay away from that?

Any help is greatly appreciated! I can't wait to get them started on better food, just want to be as informed as possible before I start.

That's what we do. I can't afford all raw - and the idea of balancing is a little bit scary for me. I also do Sojos for Snickers because he's old and (was) fat. Sojos really helps drop weight on a dog so unless you really intend to add calories with meat, I wouldn't do Sojos for fit pups.

I don't really have a set schedule. Most days we have GL or THK. Raw goes in as I defrost it or get a good deal, or if I'm just feeling extra nice. I don't worry so much about balancing with meat/bone/organ ratios (namely because the only organ I can get is liver and neither pup will eat that no matter what I do to it). I do try to stick fairly close to meat and bone ratios, or at least I try not to overdo it on bone. Otherwise you get poop problems and no one wants that I mostly do chicken (quarters, boneless breast, split breast, hearts and gizzards, random chunks), turkey (necks and wings, mostly), venison and beef. Most of my beef and venison is in the form of scraps from a butcher that I've found. I mix in eggs and several herbs/supplements too.

Yesterday the pups had "mystery meat" which was just a huge chunk of frozen meat that was either beef or venison, I'm not sure which, and as they chewed it down, it turned out that it was some sort of knee/elbow bone. I watch them very closely with something like that and if anyone starts to gnaw on the bone, I redirect them to just pulling the meat off. Don't want any broken teeth - I'm too poor to fix that lol

I've found that, if I'm feeding raw and GL/THK at the same meal, I have to give the GL/THK first, otherwise Ava will only eat the meat.

Watch your calorie count with the foods too. GL has a much higher calorie count per cup than the others, so you'll have to adjust for that. I've never paid attention to the guides on the bag, so I'm useless there.

We have some home-canned venison from a buck last year and its extra fun to use the "juice" from that to rehydrate the food instead of water. I've also used bone broth a few times to rehydrate the food and its a big hit.

Hope that helps and wasn't too long!

Zelcova wrote:

Hello! Well, when we got to a pork-based one, he developed runny poop and "Cannon-butt" (his crate is in my living room and there was splatter art all over my walls, ewwwww).

Such a good description I thought we were the only one. When we first got Ami, he had a similar incident but for us, fortunately the crate was in an outbuilding and hubby keeps plastic sheeting on floors. The only thing requiring cleaning was the crate itself and the tractor. My husband was a saint - dog was all my idea and Iwas to be wholly responsible but that morning I had jury duty so he did all the cleanup

I don't feed raw so cannot help you...to complicated and expensive for me.

Myndi, thank you so much for the info! Seeing examples of what other people are doing is very helpful.

amymeme wrote:

Such a good description   I thought we were the only one.  When we first got Ami, he had a similar incident but for us, fortunately the crate was in an outbuilding and hubby keeps plastic sheeting on floors.  The only thing requiring cleaning was the crate itself and the tractor.  My husband was a saint - dog was all my idea and Iwas to be wholly responsible but that morning I had jury duty so he did all the cleanup

Honestly, I have never seen that much poo in one area, other than the backyard.

Aww, your husband sounds sweet! I was stuck cleaning up the mess, but I'm not working right now so puppy duty is now my full time job!

Zelcova wrote:

Myndi, thank you so much for the info! Seeing examples of what other people are doing is very helpful.

amymeme wrote:

Such a good description   I thought we were the only one.  When we first got Ami, he had a similar incident but for us, fortunately the crate was in an outbuilding and hubby keeps plastic sheeting on floors.  The only thing requiring cleaning was the crate itself and the tractor.  My husband was a saint - dog was all my idea and Iwas to be wholly responsible but that morning I had jury duty so he did all the cleanup

Honestly, I have never seen that much poo in one area, other than the backyard.

Aww, your husband sounds sweet! I was stuck cleaning up the mess, but I'm not working right now so puppy duty is now my full time job!

Yeah - it was pretty astounding...he must have aimed his backside out of the crate - 360° around the crate, probably 8-12" swath of liquid with splatter extend maybe 3 plus ft beyond that. I don't know if it was just because of change in environment (I think it was the 3rd or 4th day since we brought him home) or the multiple rawhides I was giving him...he loved them, I thought what's the harm? Wrong. Or that I misunderstood the feeding directions and was giving 2 cups twice a day instead of 2 cups divided twice a day Whatever, my husband was once again my hero that day

How's the feeding going?

That right there is true love Your hubby is a keeper for sure!

Myndi wrote:

That right there is true love Your hubby is a keeper for sure!

Most days...some days he is a real handful! But then, so are we all...

amymeme wrote:

How's the feeding going?

I ordered samples of Grandma Lucy's and The Honest Kitchen to try first. Since it's different from kibble, and not exactly cheap, I wanted to make sure the pups would eat it. The GL samples came yesterday, so we tried that out.

Ryder the husky and Baylee the lab gobbled it all up. So that was awesome!

Vinnie the pomeranian, who is always my odd one, wanted nothing to do with it. I tried putting it on a plate instead of his bowl, thinking that would be easier. Nope. I rolled the food up into tiny little balls for him, nope. Anytime he touched it he'd make this gagging, coughing noise, so, there was something about it he really didn't like. I thought maybe he wasn't hungry, as some nights he doesn't eat his dinner, so I gave him his kibble and he ate it right up. I'll see how he likes THK when it comes in, but he's a pain so I'm sure he won't like it either.

I haven't fed any of them meat quite yet. I've bought and froze some stuff I found on sale. I want to wait to get them switched over to GL/THK before I start with the meat. I don't want to change too much up too fast for them.

I know I am late here, I saw this when it was originally started and was short on time at that time and figured someone else would answer your questions before I had a chance to actually sit down and post a response. Since you didn't get much in the way of answers to your questions I am going to offer my perspective. Better late than never, right?

Zelcova wrote:

For those of you who feed Grandma Lucy's or The Honest Kitchen, are the feeding recommendations they give pretty accurate? I've always found with my Lab mix, Baylee, that she tends to get a little chunky if I feed the recommended amounts on the kibble bags and have to dial back a bit. I'm wondering if it'll be the same with the freeze-dried/dehydrated foods.

I find the feeding recommendations on Grandma Lucy's to be WAY over what they actually need. For Grandma Lucy's, I feed approximately half of the recommended amount on the bag for my dogs' weight range under the Adult/Senior category. For example, GL Artisan Chicken formula for a 40-50 lb Adult it recommends 2.75-3.25 cups (and Senior it recommends 2.5-3 cups). My sibe is 50 lbs and I feed about 1.25 cups...so about half the low end of the recommended feeding amount.

I find the feeding recommendations on The Honest Kitchen to be more accurate. For The Honest Kitchen, I feed the lowest recommended amount on the box for my dogs' weight range under the Average category. For example, THK Force formula for a 31-50 lb Average adult it recommends 1-2 cups. Again my sibe is 50 lbs and I feed about 1.25 cups of THK as well.

As with any food, you will have to go through a period of trial and error to find the amount that works best for each of your individual dogs. Just from seeing what people on this forum alone feed in amounts I can tell you that my individual sibe tends to require less food than most others for some reason...every dog is different.

Zelcova wrote:

Now, as far as feeding, for a meal would it be better to do a day of raw, then a day of GL/THK? Not necessarily doing one every other day, but more of just feeding one exclusively for the day with no mixing.  Or could I mix the two in one meal?

Unless your dogs have a sensitive stomach then whichever way you prefer to feed would be fine. I have fed both ways, mixing raw and GL/THK daily and the dogs did great on it. I have also fed a mix on some days and exclusively raw on other days and again the dogs did equally well. So mixing or not would be entirely up to you and your ability, preference, etc.

Zelcova wrote:

If I did a mix, would it be just simply half the usual amount of raw fed + half the amount of GL/THK? Or is it more complicated than that?

It can be as simple or complicated as you make it. Basically, when I feed a mix then I take out an amount of the GL/THK that is equal to the amount of raw I put in. For example, let's say I feed my sibe 1 and 1/4 lb of GL/THK (that is equal to 1 and 1/4 cups). If I want to add raw to their meal then I weigh the raw portion I intend to use and use that measurement to determine how much GL/THK to remove. Basically, my goal is to feed 1 and 1/4 lb of food whether it is comprised of real raw or GL/THK. So if I wanted to feed 1/4 lb of raw then I would mix that with 1 lb (or 1 cup) of GL/THK. If I wanted to feed 1/2 lb of raw then I would mix that with 3/4 lb of GL/THK. If I wanted to feed 1 lb of raw then I'd mix that with 1/4 lb of GL/THK and so on.

Zelcova wrote:

Anyways, I had read that a dog who is sensitive to a protein in kibble, may not be when it comes to raw. How would that work with GL/THK?

I find their sensitivity to a certain protein in kibble to be the SAME in dehydrated/freeze-dried raw. After all, there is some processing that goes into dehydrated/freeze-dried. Take my sibe for example, he cannot tolerate beef in kibble form. Likewise, he also cannot tolerate beef in freeze-dried or dehydrated form...that includes treats also. However he CAN tolerate beef in raw form just fine. Strangely, he can also tolerate beef in cooked form. So if I were to cook up a plain hamburger like you or I would eat it then he could tolerate that just fine. But he will get sick if he has beef in any kibble, Grandma Lucy's, The Honest Kitchen, or any treats (including single ingredient freeze-dried beef treats). That is just my experience, I cannot speak for what others have experienced with their dogs.

Zelcova wrote:

Last question. I like rotating foods and have never had problems with Vinnie or Baylee. I took Ryder off his puppy food and started him on the All Life Stages kibbles I feed the other dogs. Well, when we got to a pork-based one, he developed runny poop and "Cannon-butt" ...
I'd still like to rotate between the brands and protein sources. Do you think it would be okay to try ones with pork? Or should I stay away from that?

From what you've posted he got diarrhea from a certain food, but have you determined that the issue was in fact the pork alone? If you haven't tried pork from other sources or pork alone, can you be absolutely certain pork was the issue? I just wouldn't say that pork was absolutely, without a doubt, the problem based off a reaction to one bag of food. If you don't know with absolute certainty whether or not pork is the issue then I see no reason not to at least give freeze-dried/dehydrated pork a try.


I hope that helps and good luck!