After a lot of research, I have decided to feed my puppy Honest Kitchen. But I have a couple questions:

1. I noticed that among the ingredients are flaxseed and kelp as well as vitamins. Do I still need to supplement? If so, what should I supplement? The puppy is a GSD and she will be 8 weeks old when she arrives.

2. I plan to mix the Honest Kitchen with raw. According to their website, it is okay and recommended, especially with the Embark, which I plan to use for the puppy. Does everyone agree with that?

3. I also noticed that fish is good for the puppy also. Should I cook the fish or feed it raw?

4. Can I give a puppy a raw bone? If so, what is the best type for a young puppy?

5. The breeder feeds the puppy Eukanuba. When should I start switching the puppy to Honest Kitchen? Right away or should I wait awhile?

Thank you in advance for all of your help.

Linda Duhon

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After a lot of research, I have decided to feed my puppy Honest Kitchen. But I have a couple questions:

1. I noticed that among the ingredients are flaxseed and kelp as well as vitamins. Do I still need to supplement? If so, what should I supplement? The puppy is a GSD and she will be 8 weeks old when she arrives.

2. I plan to mix the Honest Kitchen with raw. According to their website, it is okay and recommended, especially with the Embark, which I plan to use for the puppy. Does everyone agree with that?

3. I also noticed that fish is good for the puppy also. Should I cook the fish or feed it raw?

4. Can I give a puppy a raw bone? If so, what is the best type for a young puppy?

5. The breeder feeds the puppy Eukanuba. When should I start switching the puppy to Honest Kitchen? Right away or should I wait awhile?

Thank you in advance for all of your help.

Linda Duhon

I always supplement with salmon oil and Vitamin E. (Long-chain Omega 3 EFAs are not found in flax, but short-chain are.)

I agree with RMB added to THK foods. Their site will halp you with puppy amounts (email and phone) or maybe Cindy will see this. I don't have puppies and the package doesn't give the puppy instructions.

I use cooked fish (or canned salmon) because of parasites.

Do you mean recreational bones or the RMBs to add? Chicken backs or the like are nice soft RMBs to start out on.

I'd switch right away. Here's a chart about questionable ingredients, and Eukenuba has a few.
http://www.feedmypet.com/dog-food-comparison.html

All JMO!

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2. I plan to mix the Honest Kitchen with raw. According to their website, it is okay and recommended, especially with the Embark, which I plan to use for the puppy. Does everyone agree with that?

Embark is the best choice for puppies IMO. Definately add raw!! Especially while the dog is young so they won't develop any issues later on with not wanting to eat certain things. My older male won't touch raw chicken products, he doesn't like the texture or something.

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3. I also noticed that fish is good for the puppy also. Should I cook the fish or feed it raw?

I feed Sardines in Olive Oil and Mackrel - straight out of the cans, nothing done to it.

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4. Can I give a puppy a raw bone? If so, what is the best type for a young puppy?

I feed my 12 week old pup something like this (and someone please tell me if you think I'm feeding too much or too little because I haven't found any info on how much THK to feed pups!! My pup will eat till she pops if given the chance, so I just feed what I feel is reasonable)...

Breakfast: 1/2 cup Embark, a palm full of ground turkey or beef, a raw chicken wing and 2 chicken gizzards

Lunch: 1/2 cup Embark, a small amount of ground beef/turkey, a chicken gizard

Dinner: 1/2 cup Embark, some ground beef/turkey

She's a 12 week old dutch shepherd that weighs 12lbs today. She was 6.6lbs when I got her 2 weeks ago so has gained weight and size well, doesn't look fat to me so I figure I'm feeding a reasonable amount.

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5. The breeder feeds the puppy Eukanuba. When should I start switching the puppy to Honest Kitchen? Right away or should I wait awhile?

I don't know what my breeder fed my pup, I just started on THK immediately and didn't have any problems at all. Even when switching my adult who usually has loose stools from switching foods didn't have any instant-transition issues.

Connie and Mike- Thanks for your help.

Connie – Do you use human supplements? Do you know where I can find how much to give? I was wondering about bones in general, but is it okay to give recreational bones to puppies?

Mike- How is the new puppy doing? If you look on the honest kitchen site, they give feeding guidelines. Maybe that will help. http://thehonestkitchen.com/feeding.htm

How does the puppy do with the chicken? Does she eat the entire wing? How long do you give her to eat? I fed my Lab completely raw, but she would not touch chicken – only beef and vegetables, so I am not sure about chicken.

I am not sure how much weight puppies should gain. I was actually wondering if there was a guideline- I want to make sure that I feed her the right amount as she grows.

BTW- did you have any problems with her eating when she first arrived? I am just wondering if I should expect any feeding problems.

Thanks again
Linda

"Do you use human supplements? Do you know where I can find how much to give? "

Yes, I do. Since I think we all (dogs and me) benefit from fish muscle oil, I get one of the best brands and we all take it. Theirs is on their dish of food, along with the Vitamin E, and my own is added to my salad dressing. (You don't heat it or cook with it.)

I use the label, adjusting for weight, and assume that the "serving" on the label means a 150-pound person. Fish oil is not something that's toxic in large amounts, though, so I eyeball it.

Here's a list of some of the top fish oil companies:
http://www.crnusa.org/o3group.html

You want it distilled (to leave behind the heavy metals) human quality.

I don't mean fish LIVER oil, btw.

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Mike- How is the new puppy doing?

She's doing awesome, thankyou for asking! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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How does the puppy do with the chicken? Does she eat the entire wing?

She eats it up with no problem, the entire thing. I throw it into her crate n let her have at it as long as it takes, she is getting more efficient with her eating, so the wing doesn't last very long anymore.

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How long do you give her to eat?

About 30 seconds... then she starts screaming at me because she wants more food. I feed THK/ground beef first, then when she's done, which is amazingly quickly, I'll throw in the chicken wing. The chicken gizzards get thrown in with the THK. Her crate gets to be a lil mess but wipes right up. My GSD gets 15 minutes to eat his food... but if he walks away from his food bowl I can guarantee you he's not coming back for more, so I usually just pick it up whenever he walks away from it.

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I fed my Lab completely raw, but she would not touch chicken – only beef and vegetables, so I am not sure about chicken.

My GSD won't touch chicken, only ground beef or ground turkey mixed with THK. THK is balanced so you don't need the chicken bones to have a healthy dog, which is why I started feeding it, because I like raw diets but my boy wouldn't eat most of the things he should, THK offers the right balance without having to worry about eating bones or chicken etc. However I do think it's important to give a dog something hard to chew on, so I buy alotta "beef straps", they last about 15-20 minutes with him, n he loves em... he's not big on bones, but he'll eat a beef strap, they're very hard n crunchy so good for his teeth.

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I am not sure how much weight puppies should gain.

Me either... my pup was 6.6lbs when she was shipped, 7lbs the day after I picked her up, 9.5lbs a week later, and now another week later she's 12lbs, so about 2-2.5lbs a week seems to be her growth rate... is this about average for a <13wk old pup?

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BTW- did you have any problems with her eating when she first arrived? I am just wondering if I should expect any feeding problems.

Well she has a crazy high food drive... she goes nuts if she even thinks I'm going to make her food, so getting her to eat isn't a problem. The first day I had her she warmed up to me quickly, she didn't wanna eat much the first night, but by breakfast time she was eating like normal. Cujo on the other hand was a pain in the ass to get him to eat, he won't eat dry kibble, n I've been battling to get him to eat since day 1, but finally got him to enjoy THK which is why I now swear by it... if he'll eat his own poop, but not touch any of the food PetSmart sells, but will eat THK, then lets go with THK lol.

Mike - what are these "beef straps" you mentioned? Where do you get them?

Nevermind...I found them online!

Hmmm,

My 5Mo, 45lb Rottweiler pup eats 2/3 cup embark (plus supplements like fish oil) and 3 chicken wings or 1 hind-quarter twice a day. He also gets maybe 1/4 cup liver or gizzards and hearts or an egg several times a week. He also gets a few hot-dogs for tracking and several treats (mostly Liver Biscotti) for training bait. He is very energetic for a rot, has a great coat and is growing like crazy. I would say lean and mean, but he certainly isn't remotely mean. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

That seems to be quite a bit less food pound for pound.

Comments?

I have a little Maltipoo puppy who thinks he is a big, tough guy. Anyway I have been feeding Honest Kitchen and Raw since I got him home. He loves chicken, especially wings and pork necks too. I supplement with some cut up chicken, hearts and gizzards in his food. I use steak as training treats. He seems to be doing well. When I got him 3 weeks ago (at 8 weeks) he was 3 1/2 pounds. He is about 6 now. Today however, he scarfed the chicken wing. It disappeared very quickly. There has always been a small piece left over, but this time nothing. Later in the day, I took him out for a walk and he puked up the chicken wing, with one section practically whole. Then before I could move him away from it, he ate it again. Can this hurt him? Should I be breaking up the bones more?