Hey all,

So after much talk and buying of chicken I switch my guy to raw starting today. He had a drumstick for breakfast and he really enjoyed it, tried licking a whole through the crate to see if there would be more I hope that he does well on it. After the science diet bland kibble disaster, I hope he likes raw! I will update his progress.

I'm going to start out feeding 2.5 percent of his expected weight, which I'm expecting to be 55 pounds. So about 1.38 pounds a day. Do you all use scales? Or did when you started out?

Thanks!

Natalie

Good luck with it, we look forward to updates!

I almost always use a scale. Not so much to get an exact amount at each feeding but to give me an idea of what he's eating on average. With my chi girls I use the scale more because their portions are so small it's easy to go way over if I don't weigh it out. With my sibe I use the scale to know how much he's getting and mainly to ensure he's not eating less than his minimum 1 lb per day, I don't care if it's over but I will add extras if it's under.

I got a kitchen scale, just to measure it out for now. He has loved eating raw chicken. And no problems so far, he hasn't had a bowl movement today. I know that they get smaller poops being on raw and stuff, he had two normal looking poops yesterday. So I'm just awaiting a poop to make sure all is good on the digestive front. I will continue feeding him chickens, they are all on sale at 99 cents a pound...I'm tempted to buy all the whole chickens I can

Hi all,

I've got a question, Rue has been doing well on chicken and the other night I accidentally gave him some gizzards. They were frozen to a chicken quarter so they kinda were concealed. Since he's been on raw for a week, i haven't introduced organs yet. He had loose stools all day yesterday and this morning, is this normal? And how long should they last after the gizzards ingestion.

Thanks!

Gizzard isn't considered an organ... It's a muscle meat like heart. Try feeding a higher bone content meal today to firm him up (Backs, necks, wings...) and if that doesn't help it may be something else causing the loose stool.

Ok, I wasn't sure if it was considered organ or more muscle...the internet seems to say both I will try that and see if it might have been something else he ate

I have some updates and questions. Lately Rue has been having loose stools and some diarrhea. I got a stool sample tested at the vet and it came back clean. We put him on a bland diet for a few days and it firmed up, this has led me to believe that it might be a food intolerance to chicken. I know that the chicken is not enhanced and he has only been eating chicken as I wanted his stools to get better before moving on to other proteins.

We are currently trying to transition him back to chicken from bland diet but his stool has become formed but soft.

So I wanted to know, if it is indeed a chicken intolerance that just took a week or so to show up, what other cheap sources of bones could I provide to him?

A lot of people do pork because it's cheap. Turkey as well.

Thanks Heather, I have a bunch of pork so I will probably do that and it's ok if I just give him pork and any bones from pork work right? I imagine he will probably take a bit of time adjusting to that protein but there shouldn't be any problems in transitioning him to straight up pork right?

Chicken is my main meat but second to that I use a lot of turkey and pork too because they are generally the next cheapest for me to obtain, like Heather said.

Hi all,

I have been moving forward on feeding raw to my guy but have been experiencing nothing but loose stool. He primarily eats pork, I don't want to add anything else until he gets better. We got a fecal exam done this weekend and it came back clean. So I was wondering if it could be the raw food that has not been agreeing with him? I don't think it is enhanced and I trim a lot of the fat off. We switched him to carrots and eggs because he was having accidents in the house (never happened before) and his poop is slowly firming up.

I want to feed him a raw diet but I'm wondering if that could be somehow irritating his colon and causing his loose stools?

It could be the food. How much bone is he getting?

He's getting bone about 3 times a week, I decreased if from every day because he was getting hard yellow poops or just plain undigested bones in the stool. However even with bones his poop was diarrhea-esq with small hard yellow stools.

I don't feed pork at all - It gave mine the runs.

We switched to turkey and now feed beef, chicken(Cato), Quail, Duck, Lamb and many others. Pork just didn't work for us.

hmm...Ok I will skip the pork and try other proteins, I suspect that chicken sits fine with him unlike what the vet told me. He had some loose stools on chicken but I think that might have been when we started mixing in pork. If other proteins don't work, what would you all suggest as a different diet alternative to raw? I don't really want to go back to kibble, I was thinking maybe cooked meat might work?

Thanks for the help

I'd really exhaust all possibilities on raw first if you can. If you can't manage it then homecooked diets as well as freeze-dried/dehydrated raw are good alternatives.

Turkey, lamb, beef, fish, duck, rabbit, venison, quail, mice, etc are other options for different protein sources but some of them can get pretty pricey.

Ya, I will definitely try as many other proteins as my wallet will allow before I have to move to a different option. I really like the idea of raw and I really want to keep him on it. I've switched him to carrots and eggs bland diet until his poop becomes solid again and then I will find some other proteins to go after.

Sounds like a good plan.

How long should I give the new protein before I judge if its working or not? About 2 weeks right?

How long I'd stick it out would depend on his reaction to the meat. But on average I'd keep trying for about that length of time.

Hey Natalie and All, Have you guys heard of Darwin's?
Check out www.darwinspet.com
It's based out of Seattle so anyone in the main Seattle/Portland area gets free home delivery of their raw diets and they deliver to the rest of the country as well. They are significantly cheaper than any raw option purchased at a pet store because they source, process, and sell their food themselves directly to you. The other benefit is that instead of having a long shelf life frozen like all the food in pet stores, their raw has a turn over of being butchered, frozen and sold within a week or so. You can really tell the difference when you feed it to your pets, the meat has great color and texture. I can't speak highly enough of their food and service. My sibe and cat love it.

I'm bringing this up because I have heard a lot of advice against providing raw, human-store bought meat for your pets. The stuff sold to us is not fresh enough or high enough quality to be eaten raw, even for animals. The meat in raw pet food is actually frozen fresher and supposedly higher quality than what we buy at the supermarket. And it is really hard to create a balanced diet for a dog using whole parts of an animal. The stuff pet companies make is mixed with controlled ratios of muscle, ground bone, organs, oils, some natural supplements etc. I'm sure you have done way more research on this than I have, since I haven't attempted creating my own diet, but I just wanted to share the warning that I have heard/read.

Darwin's also sells well priced green tripe, duck necks, and raw bones you can add to your order for treats and supplements to their diet. Their food for dogs comes in duck, chicken, turkey, beef, and bison. Their food is 70% meat, 30% veggies and nutrients. I was looking for something a little higher in meat for Sita, but they have so many good reviews, and I feel sure that the meat she is getting is far higher quality/freshness than any of the other raw diets I have tried with her, that I am really happy with it. Even my vet, who is really cautious about supporting raw because they consider it high risk for infection, reacted really positively when I told her we switched to Darwin's. She said the vet's in Seattle know it well and love it.

Well, that's my experience about raw. I'm going to post about Darwin's in a new topic, I want to get the word out about them, I am so impressed with them. I think that if anyone is already willing to spend the money on raw then Darwin's makes so much sense because of the convenience and high quality. Out of curiosity, how much do you think it costs per pound to feed home-made raw? Do you buy the meet at the supermarket or from a butcher? I'd love to find a butcher in Seattle where I could just get some scraps to slow-oven bake into treats. Good treats are SO expensive!

Hey! I have been meaning to email you since Rue has gotten a lot better on his diet and is disease free to roam around and play with Sita!

On Darwin's I have heard about them, however they are a little pricey for me. Also they offer ground mixes which from what I've read don't offer as much stimulation and cleaning as would raw meaty bones. I know that ground mixed with not ground and bones is fine. I typically have gotten my meat either from the reduced section of supermarkets, super sale chickens (89 cents a pound), international district, or Cash and Carry has some good prices on big cuts of meat.

I haven't seen much about store bought food being that bad for them, I understand that having grain fed meats all the time is ok and you can supplement what they are missing from grass fed, high quality. I'm part of a raw fed co-op group on Yahoo for WA and OR that I plan to put some orders in but I don't have a spare freezer yet so can't order too much. I can send you their info, I think its great that you are thinking of putting Sita on raw I'm sure she will love it!

I still am not sure what was the matter with Rue aside from I think his tummy was upset or I put too much variety in at once (noob mistake I know) but I reset him and now he is doing just fine on home raw foods.

We would love to play! Just let me know when works for you. Sita got spayed on Tuesday so she's still healing and can't go out yet, but she should be ready to play in about a week from now.

Sita is on raw, the breeders put her on raw as soon as she was off milk and she's been on raw ever since. She gets some of her raw in kongs or other similar toys for stimulation and she gets a raw bone or neck every day for her teeth. That's great that you can get raw more affordable with strong results! I guess my comparison is just between the price for darwin's and the price for raw from mudbay/ all the best (which is ridiculous). She's been on Darwin's for about a month now. We were talking about starting to incorporate half kibble into her diet since she is growing and needing more and more food and it was getting so expensive, but then I found Darwin's and it is working out for us now to keep her 100% on raw.

I also wish we had an extra freezer! Darwin's packages in a way that fits perfectly with the delivery every 2 weeks in our bottom two drawers, but it would be nice to have more room! Please do send me the info for the co-op group. Maybe we could split an order if they are too big for 1 freezer! I know someone else in cap hill that would maybe be interested in sharing an order too if they are huge.