I switched him completely to raw about a month ago. My dog is dropping weight. Common sense says he needs more. Do you think this is a growing slower because of better food or do I need to get another job and start feeding him more?

I think when feeding a raw diet, you feed how much the dog requires to maintain proper growth and body condition. Many dogs who were kibble fed lose some weight at first, almost like people who remove carbs from their diet. They will have a more muscular appearance and appear more toned, even without increased or changed exercise.

I don’t know what resources you have available for help with your feeding plan, but many times growing puppies eat a huge amount of food when going through a growth spurt. Sometimes this can be as much as 10% of their body weight. The amount of food you are feeding is not really that much, depending on the size of the leg quarters. I don’t go by how many I go by overall weight. I would also make sure you are feeding more than just chicken. They need variety. For increasing the caloric value of the meals, I would be feeding lamb, pork or fatty cuts of beef as well as poultry.

The 2 best books for learning about the raw diet are Raw Dog Food and Natural Nutrition for Dogs & Cats. We give both these books to our puppy customers and rarely have questions about the diet. We also have a great section on feeding dogs, I think you’ll find a lot of helpful information there.

At a year old, your dog has a lot of growing left to do. My Malinois typically grow until 2 ½ to 3 years old and the larger the breed the slower the maturity. I’d start weighing his food, and add more variety.

Cindy