Hi All -

I just started my young male on a mixture of Honest Kitchen and some RMB to see how he does on it. Cindy has been a fantastic help and I hate to keep bothering her so I am bothering you all

I am a rank novice at this and would love some feedback on the below issues:

The dog in question is a 19 month old intact ACD (21.5 inches tall and approx. 62 pounds) who has been fed Canidae since he was 7 weeks old. He was currently on 2 cups per day before I started the switch Monday evening to THK's Embark.

Since Monday I have transitioning him by giving him a cup of Canidae in the morning and a half a cup of THK with two chicken wings in the evening. THK suggests that if I was feeding their product solely I would give Sinjin approximately 2 cups of their food. So my rationalization was that since I was transitioning, half his food was the Canidae and than I was splitting the second meal between RMB and THK.

However, last night Sinjin had a couple episodes of throwing up yellow bile so I am guessing my rationalization is off and I need to up the food....

Here are a couple questions:

1) If I am going to split between RMB and THK (for a 65 pound dog), what should be the ratio? 1 cup THK and 4 chicken wings? 6 wings?

I feed 2 to 3% of my dogs body weight for maintenance and adjust for losing or gaining.

2) I live in MT and have found NO ONE who can order/supply me with chicken backs/necks, hence my continued reference to chicken wings. Any other types of readily available RMB that I could feed? I found some turkey wings, are they kosher?

Can you purchase whole chickens? I do that and then we eat the breasts and thighs and the dogs get the necks, backs and wings. Turkeys are the same, we eat the bird and the dogs get the necks and organs. I go to the meat locker/butcher twice a week and they have packages of bones for me, big knuckles, hips, leg bones (cut into doggie size snacks for me)

3) Transition period. How long would you all do this. I tend to be impatient by nature so am ready to just do the big switcheroo tomorrow.

I fasted all of my dogs except the bloodhound (whom I switched over in four days) for 24 hours and then just started RAW.

4) Meat grinders. Anyone use them?

Yep, I use a meat grinder for the "gulpers" or I hand feed them. Depends on what you want to do. I also use a food processor for my veggie/supplement glop. I feed meat in the morning and glop in the evening and sometimes switch it around. Recreational bones are a daytime treat and the bloodhound loves a raw carrot or celery stick for a bedtime snack. (If I forget to take glop out of the freezer I supplement with THK)

I have read the threads on chicken wings crunched by dogs rarely kill them but I still cringe when he eats them. The one time he threw up bile there were tiny pieces of bone in it. I read on one of the RAW FAQs that this is not unusual for a dog new to the diet but I tend to be fatalistic and worry that he has a punctured intestine

I know these are pretty novice questions and I appreciate any and all help as I venture into this unknown territory (for me).

Thanks!