Just wanted to thank everyone for all the information i was given about switching Kao over to raw. She loves it! For the first little while i was mixing some chicken in with her kibble, just cuz we had some left over and i didnt want it to go to waste. Now ive got her only on the raw. ive got her on turkey necks for the bone and chicken hearts and chicken livers as well as other kinds of chicken to start with. Im currently looking for deals on red meat so i can start her on that. Im very happy i decided to switch her, it may be a little more work but she absolutly loves it so im happy.

The only problem i have noticed since we have switched is that she wont eat her treats any more. Ive just been giving her the bulk ones from the pet shop. Are there any suggestions on treats i can feed her while shes on the raw diet? So one gave me some commercially dehydrated duck hearts and she loved them but i havnt been able to find them any where, i tried dehydrating chicken hearts in the oven but that didnt turn out so well.....

I wouldn't feed chicken livers just yet. It's recommended to wait until at least 4 weeks into the raw diet. I am in my 5th week now and am slowly starting to incorporate the liver.
For treats I've been using Zukes minis, the peanut butter and chicken flavor. Theyre only about 3 calories each and Nikko loves em. Petsmart and Petco should carry them

Ya i havnt started giving her the livers yet, i just found them for a good price so i stocked up.
Im going to go to petsmart todayto check out all their treats, ill take a look for those ones, thanks

So kaos been on only raw for about a week now and I've got her on raw boneless chicken and chicken hearts as well as turkey necks . This morning she has really bad diarrhea. Is this normal? Should I continue feeding what I'm feeding, maybe add in a few more turkey necks?

Callie and I just started this diet 2 days ago but I've fed mainly bone just to avoid the stomach upset. How often is she getting the turkey necks? And does she do okay with that? Turkey bones are a little tougher for dogs but if she's eating them fine, no reason to switch. Of Cal's 4 raw meals so far, only one has been boneless. A lot of the reading I did said for the first week or so, don't worry about appropriate percentages, just focus on getting their bodies used to raw food. So that's why I haven't really paid much attention to how much bone Callie's been getting. I've just been watching her stools and going off that. I know the hearts are considered muscle meat but I wonder if they're still too rich for her. How have her stools been up until this morning?

I've fed her the turkey necks twice so far. It's just been the last two days that I've fed her the hearts and before this morning her stool was normal, maybe it is the hearts then......

You can try feeding more bone and see where that gets you. I haven't read up on hearts enough to know too much about them. Since it's been about a week her body should have pretty much gotten rid of any traces of kibble in her system. It makes sense to me that that's when tummy upset would strike. Hopefully someone with a little more raw experience will chime in but for me, I would think a little more bone should help and if it doesn't then you'll want to try process of elimination to see what's not agreeing with her.

While it is normal for some dogs to experience diarrhea and/or soft stools during the transition to raw, in your case I would suspect the problem is a lack of bone. Stool is a good indicator of how much bone the dog is receiving. Soft stool often results when they are not getting enough bone, overly hard stool that they might be straining to pass can indicate too much bone. Every individual will vary but my sibe is one that does better with more bone in his diet and really needs a good amount of it at almost every meal, I do not feed a boneless meal more than twice in a week.

I'd up her bone content first and then re-introduce the hearts and see how that goes.

Ok thank you! I'll give that a try

Tesla had the same treat reluctance, and I don't blame him. I, for one, wouldn't go back to eating compressed chicken flavored vegetable meal after being exposed to real chicken. One thing I would try is taking duck and chicken necks and cutting them up into single vertebra pieces. You'll probably end up with about a third of the vertebrae being small enough to use as training treats, while the rest are good for general use.

+1 for lack of bone.

If you want an insta- fix get some 100% Human grade bone meal powder, you can get it at a health food store. A spoonful is the perfect calcium:phosphorous ratio, at least in the brand I use: KAL.

Megan, would you just put that powder on a boneless meal or mix it in with water? I might have some as back up as it was hard for me to find un-enhanced bone-in chicken. Might be good to have on hand just in case there's ever a time I'm short on bone-in and Cal needs bone.

I just put the powder right on. Or I stuff it in a heart - my female has to have bone in everything, so I just stuff it in a heart or sprinkle it on top. Voila, firm poops.

Ohhk I gave her a bit of oatmeal this morning, hoping it would help settle her stomach a bit. I'll go check out that powder tho, it would probably be good to have around, I've been having a bit if a hard time finding bone in meat at a reasonable price.

Check out chicken thighs. I got a 70lb case from Costco for .95/lb

Garebear wrote:

Check out chicken thighs. I got a 70lb case from Costco for .95/lb

Did the price go up recently? I bought my 60 lb case for 85 cents/lb at Costco.

Yeah, my puppy is also one of those dogs that seems to need bone in every meal.

There's a local Mexican store here selling chicken quarters for 65 cents/lb. Going to stop by there. Looks like I have to invest in some bone meal also.

I recently bought some Sea Meal and in conjunction to being fed that a few days in a row, he was having immense diarrhea. Mucus everywhere, etc. Not too sure what caused it because once i noticed the diarrhea, I stopped the sea meal and went to drumsticks and quarters for him (he was eating pork along with some chicken necks/backs for the bone when this occurred).

Huskyluv wrote:

Garebear wrote:

Check out chicken thighs. I got a 70lb case from Costco for .95/lb

Did the price go up recently? I bought my 60 lb case for 85 cents/lb at Costco.

I have no idea what the prices have been around here on that, so I'm not sure if it went up. But they're .99/lb individually, so at least I saved .04/lb

Garebear wrote:

Huskyluv wrote:

Garebear wrote:

Check out chicken thighs. I got a 70lb case from Costco for .95/lb

Did the price go up recently? I bought my 60 lb case for 85 cents/lb at Costco.

I have no idea what the prices have been around here on that, so I'm not sure if it went up. But they're .99/lb individually, so at least I saved .04/lb

It's always been 99 cent/lb for the individual packs here too. Maybe it's just a different price on the cases where you are.

mheath0429 wrote:

+1 for lack of bone.

If you want an insta- fix get some 100% Human grade bone meal powder, you can get it at a health food store. A spoonful is the perfect calcium:phosphorous ratio, at least in the brand I use: KAL.

Ive been looking for any kinda of bone meal powder (the diahrea has not stopped yet) and i cant find it anywhere! ive looked at health food stores as well as pet food stores. i dont know if its maybe cuz im in canada and its not as popular out here, but its looking like i might have to order it online.

im wondering if i just got buy her a raw bone to chew on will that do the trick as well??

http://www.amazon.com/Kal-Bone-Meal-Powder---/dp/B000HNHQPC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354397581&sr=8-1&keywords=Kal+bone+meal

That is the one I use.

Check out Organic World in Maple Ridge cheap red meat. It is $2/lb for ground. I'm not sure what the bone-in options are like.

Club Canine in Mission sells bulk chicken backs/necks $10 for 4kg they have a good amount of bone in them.

Where'd you get your chicken livers?

My mom works at a place that sells chicken so i get chicken knecks, carcasses, liver, etc. Through her.

Surrey Meat Packers in Cloverdale has ground beef for $1.6/lb and beef bones for $1.5/lb. That is the best I've found so far for red meat.