ok, so now that i am 2 weeks removed form the wedding and honeymoon, and have just about gone through the remainder of the (expensive yet convient) nature's variety Raw diet for my dog, i have fully prepared myself for the switch.

i spent only $38 and was able to prep, bag, and freeze almost 40 days worth of food for my dog....

what i did was buy some ground turkey, ground beef, gizzards & livers, ans some chicken neck bones....i also had a handsome donation of ground deer meat, so that helped...

i portioned 4-5 gizzard hunks, 2 small neck bones, and 6-8 ounces of either the ground deer, turkey, or beef in some heavy duty zip-lok bags and froze them....

first off, i FULLY believe that raw is best for my GSD...(believing, to me, is THE biggest part of this feeding battle)

i know it is good to rotate types of meat....

i know that it is good to have a good balance b/t organ meat, bone, and protein meat...

i know that some are indifferent on the veggie option, so i am choosing for now to NOT feed any veggie, unless it is a treat....

i also plan on ordering a couple of suppliments like the salmon oil and some kelp and alfalfa to start adding next week...

does everything above seem ok...?

i know that the only bone that i am giving right now is the neck, dont have a good source on backs, and it helps that i can get it in bulk here at the restaurant...

i am still a little unsire of the other kind of bones to feed...like beef bones.....maybe whole ribs or something? just need a little more info and i will have this thing down pat....

thanks for all the info on here...

The mix you describe is light on bones. I do not think that will have enough calcium. You will either need to add more bones, or you need to add egg shells.

There are many many menus and resources on this site and many others.

Don't forget that you need to give Vitamin E when you give salmon Oil.

Corinne

cool...was looking for suggestions on which suppliments NOT to skip...i want my dog getting the best ones...

also, i have read here and in the natural nutrition book and seen on the wag yout tail video about the eggs....not sure about the shell...

what good really does the shell do, if any?

also, i personally went light on the bones for this first batch of feeding b/c i want to make sure that he gets used to them before i start putting a larger amount of them in there...i have a case of 1st and 2nd joint chicken drummettes in the freezer, and plan on adding them in to the diet in a couple of weeks.....

Good catch, Corinne.

Scroll down here
http://www.leerburg.com/diet2.htm
to the 65 pound female to see the correct proportions for the chicken necks.

Necks are fine, IMO, but they (or any RMBs) need to be a major component. You'll see, in that 7-day menu.

 Quote: Louis LaRose

cool...was looking for suggestions on which suppliments NOT to skip...i want my dog getting the best ones...

also, i have read here and in the natural nutrition book and seen on the wag yout tail video about the eggs....not sure about the shell...

what good really does the shell do, if any?

Egg shells, just like bones, contain calcium.

I prefer to focus on bones, because that's where dogs on their own would get most (or all) of their calcium. But when I feed eggs, I certainly feed the shell, too.

I agree that you do not want to skip the salmon oil (plus E), and I personally consider it the big must-have supplement. There is no other practical way to feed long-chain Omega 3s to most dogs with modern grain-fed poultry and other slaughter meats.

ok...

(charlie) seems to be taking to this new found food pretty well...

he is chopping the chicken necks pretty good...i'd say that he is crunching them into about 1" pieces...pretty gnarly sounding while he is breaking the cartilage and bone....

i have been adding an egg with the shell 1x daily....

my question is this...

he seems to be digesting his food more slowly...or so it seems....on sunday, i fed him around 8:45 am. i took him with me in the truck @ around 1pm and we did some errands and runnning around....

pulled back home at around 3pm, and as soon as he stepped out of the truck he threw up...not just a little...a HUGE pile...it even had large chunks of te chix necks in it....

am i wrong in thinking that he should have already had a settled stomach?

i have not had an issue with him getting car sick for over 2 months now....and was just wondering...

any one have any insight to this?

could it still be that he is somewhat sensitive b/c of the new diet (~1.5 weeks old)? his stools have been similar to those he had when on the Nature's Variety raw food...but slightly larger...and has had 1 or 2 VERY soft stools preceeded by a slight water dribble....

please let me know if there is anything i should do with the diet...

Hi Louis,

How much raw food are you feeding the dog (lbs per day) and how much does he weight?

It sounds like your dog isn't completely chewing up the necks to me, because those sound like some pretty big chunks.

Also, the one thing I have noticed with dogs that get car sick is that they never completely grow out of it. This is only from my own personal experience with dogs that get car sick and ones that never did before. At least he waited till he got out of the vehicle


PS - With my older gsd that does get car sick, if I know she is going to be in a vehicle that day I don't feed her till after we come home.

Kimberly

Edited by Kimberly Bunk (05/30/2007 03:20 PM)
Edit reason: Forgot my PS

Yes, I'm with Kimberly regarding asking about the amount he's getting, because I've noticed that switching from one food to another, we sometimes overfeed at first until we have the amount right.

About the digestion..... my understanding is that a dog who is new to digesting bones can take a while for the system to get up to the normal production of digestive enzymes. I think I'd probably cut back a little on the amount and watch the dog's "figure," and I'd also consider adding probiotics to the diet for now.

i am feeding a ~6oz ball of ground meat (deer, lamb, beef, or turkey-depending on the ziplok that i pull randomly) coupled with about 5-7 gizzard/liver pieces and 2 smallish chicken neck bones....and @ nite i add in one whole egg with the shell, as per above posts....

i am going to start adding in some salmon oil, kelp, and alfalfa next week when i get them in....

yogurt is good for the digestive enzymes, right? 1TBSP or so once a day will work? what yogurt-plain, right? and is there any particular brand that you recommend?

tia