I have been feeding my male GSD the raw diet (2% of his weight) for 1 and a half month. He's had anemia in the past, so I recently tested his blood to see if there was an improvement after the switch from commercial to raw. Incredibly, he is cured of his anemia, from 30 something % to 58%. Can you believe it?!!!! He has more energy, f.e. today after the speech of my daughter about GSDs, we gave a little show at her school with our dog, and he shone! I even got an offer to train the dog of the teacher but I am just an beginner, you see, a dog with a lot of drive and on a natural diet makes even an amateur trainer look good.

Today I bought a chihuahua of 9 weeks old (for my little daughter) , which I want to start on the all-natural diet also. What should I feed the little rat (-like dog)? Please, keep in mind that we do not have chicken necks or backs here (I have searched everywhere)

What RMBs are you feeding the GSD?

I know we can give better answers than "wings," which are a lot of fat (skin) and bones and not that much meat (and so, IMO, are best given only as part of the whole bird, and not as a basic diet item).

It is a challenge here to get everything on the sample diet mentioned in the article, but I feed him chicken thighs, chicken legs, beef liver, chicken livers, mackarel, chicken gizzards and sometimes lean ground beef and ground turkey, and 3x per week and egg with shell. I rarely feed him mashed vegetables, because I am not sure what vegetables would be best.

You can feed him ground beef, turkey or pork with bone meal added, along with organ meats, Salmon oil and Vit E. You can use a meat cleaver on part of a leg quarter to break up the bones when he is a little bigger. Sardines, Mackerel, eggs, yogurt and tripe are great too.
Because of the hypoglycemia concerns I would make sure that there was fat with the meat to help maintain his energy. Keep some honey or NutriCal on hand to put in his mouth in case he has a sugar crash. Feed him as much as he wants at each meal. You can limit his food when he is an adolescent when there is no danger of hypoglycemia.
When he's bigger he probably will be able to chew up a chicken leg bone with out any help.
Make sure he gets plenty of rest time in his crate every day so he doesn't use up all his energy reserves playing and have a sugar crash.

 Quote: maria van den ham

It is a challenge here to get everything on the sample diet mentioned in the article, but I feed him chicken thighs, chicken legs, beef liver, chicken livers, mackarel, chicken gizzards and sometimes lean ground beef and ground turkey, and 3x per week and egg with shell. I rarely feed him mashed vegetables, because I am not sure what vegetables would be best.

A little low-sugar non-root green vegetables with thin cell walls are good (summer squash, processed green beans, green tripe,celery tops, etc.).

I'm not a big fan of feeding all muscle meat and supplementing with calcium for a couple of reasons: the way the bones "come with" the RMBs is ideal, and the chewing on RMBs is as important for a small dog as it is for a big one. However, you certainly can do that if you decide to. That would be at about 900 mg. of calcium to a pound of meat.

I'd lean more towards ground weight-bearing bones and as-is poultry rib cages with a chunk of the breast meat cut off for another use (like for humans).

You can watch him at first and figure out what he can and can't manage. You might be surprised. The only modification I make for two small dogs as opposed to a GSD is the ground leg-thigh quarters.

Also like the big dog, the small one will be better off with fish oil and E added to his diet.

Everything else you are giving the big dog is food for the small one, IMO.

And I'm with Debbie on sardines, mackerel, eggs, and plain live-culture yogurt, as well as the variety added in the form of muscle meat that isn't poultry (lamb, beef, etc.).

Thank you very much Debbie, I will print your reply and put it in my kitchen cabinet. I already have salmon oil and Vitamin E that I use for my GSD and myself, so I can include this in the diet of the miniature doggie also.

Thank to you, too, Connie, I will keep the advice in mind

my grown chi will readily eat whole ck thighs,as did my 4 week old pit puppy. what if you took a hammer and mashed up a thigh, and let the pup gnaw on that? Or ground beef/turkey. There are websites that will ship things like backs and necks, and ground rabbit, etc.

Maria
If there is anybody on the island who raises and butchers goats that would be excellent dog food. You can also get the tripe and organs that way.

Maria, my Chi eats everything the big dogs do-just less of it . It is only harder to balance each meal with a very tiny dog, but balancing every meal is not important; balance overall is.

He has no problem w/chicken drumsticks at all, or poultry necks. I do NOT break them in any way b/c of choking. He does just fine on his own. Hammering is better for bigger dogs, IMO, but the pieces are still big enough to choke a Chi. Let's say I give the brat a drumstick one morning (depending on size, he may not eat again that day). I would then give veggies(or THK) & supplements in the evening. Instead of feeding wings, which I'm not a huge fan of for several reasons, I will give him a larger RMB or poultry piece and take it away after a little while and then give him the rest of his meal. Another great easy thing for a little dog is pre-made raw mixes like Bravo or Nature's Variety. I prefer Bravo b/c it has fewer ingredients. I don't like giving meat w/out bone, and I don't use bone meal either, so, if the dog has problems w/bones, ground pre-made raw mixes are your answer. You could also give THK Embark plus whatever kind of boney meat you can feed him/her, so you're covered on balance.

I would go this route for a while since your dog is so young. I would still feed RMBs but at this point, more for teaching what to do with them than relying on them for sustinence. The THK or mixes will give him/her all that's necessary until s/he's big enough to really consume a RMB properly.