My 8 week old puppy doesn't seem to be able to digest the bones that are in his diet. I am feeding raw and grinding the meat and bones. The poor little guy keep vomitting up the bones that are ground up with the meat. The meat is staying down but the bones are coming up. I give him ProBios every day also. Any help would be appreciated.

What type of meat are you grinding up? Have you tried backs and necks whole?

I noticed that my dogs would not digest the bigger bones (wings, legs and such) at first either. Once they went to the softer boned meat they did fine. Breasts are good too except I take off a lot of the meat to make the ratio better.
I usually cook chicken strips for supper with what I take off or feed it at a later meal for the dogs.

I also add live cultured yogurt to almost every meal.

I am just trying to decide on what probiotic to use so it is yogurt for now.

Thanks Carol, I am grinding up chicken wings for them. I was trying to follow the BARF diet as closely as I could but my little guy is having such a hard time with it.

If you can, I would find some backs and necks (restaurant supply stores will usually order them and they are fairly cheap) and try those. They are easy to grind as well if you like. I order mine through SYSCO foods and they get them in usually the next day if I order in the am.

You can also add the yogurt or kefir along with your other probiotic as well.

 Quote: Jacquie Mason

Thanks Carol, I am grinding up chicken wings for them. I was trying to follow the BARF diet as closely as I could but my little guy is having such a hard time with it.

What else are they getting besides wings?

Wings are very boney. Might try getting a little more meat in there.

 Quote: Michael_Wise

What else are they getting besides wings? Wings are very boney. Might try getting a little more meat in there.

I agree - I think the wings alone are on the bony side. I look for the market specials on whole chickens for around $.50/lb. and grind up the whole thing, which is what I'd do getting a puppy started. After he seems to be o.k. with this, I'd introduce chicken backs cut into halves or thirds (depending on his size) to get him started on the straight stuff.

In my case, instead of grinding everything, I give the backs and wings whole to get a little tooth-cleaning action going , and grind up the rest.

What %-age of his weight is he getting per day?

Mike

If you're only feeding chicken wings, that's too much bone. Not enough meat. There should be more meat than bone. Protein should come from a variety of sources, not just poultry, like prey animal meats with some organ meat included, fish, eggs. See the diet for puppies on Ed's site, which is a great model for raw:
http://leerburg.com/feedpups.htm

Also, you can get prepackaged frozen raw patties from several sources that include the meat, organs, bones, and vegies, all ground up which would be easier for your pup to digest - at least for now while he's getting his digestive system back in order. Nature's Variety is a good brand, and is one I use. Lots of variety (venison, beef, chicken, rabbit, lamb).
http://naturesvariety.com/content.lasso?page=1483&-session=naturesvariety:440272FD07d08006ADXgp3E73857
There's a store locater at the top of the page.

I am feeding ground up wings, ground turkey without bone, ground chicken without bone, and ground lean beef without bone, plus pulverized vegis/fruit, organ meat, oils and probiotics. All of these are mixed up into patties according to the BARF Diet book. I am giving between 8 and 10% of body weight. Oh also and egg once in a while, but he doesn't like the egg very much at all. The only thing that is coming up out of these are the bones that are a portion of what he is taking in.

What breed of dog again? 8-10% seems like a lot. I feed 5% of Embers (pup) ideal adult estimated body weight (55lbs) and she does great. She is right where I want my dogs to be, a hint of rib showing when at a walk or just playing around and then you can see ribs when she runs and plays hard.

It might be that the pup is getting too much food, which in that case they will vomit too.

PS, How much organ meat are you feeding? What oils? and if you are giving salmon oil are you giving Vitamin E as well?

I did not start Ember on supplements until she was about 4 to 5 months old and I gradually added just salmon oil and vitamin E.
All her food was introduced slowly as well so I could make sure she could handle it and I could also figure out if any one food did not agree with her. So far she has an iron stomach.

Did you start out by mixing all the food together at first, or did you add things one at a time? I just noticed that the pup is 8 weeks, so it does not seem that there would be enough time for you to do one thing at a time.

Ember is at 5% of ideal adult weight so she gets 44oz of food and 2.2 oz of organ meat a day which breaks down into 30.8 oz of meat and 11 oz of veggies (if I feed veggie that day, otherwise it is all meat). I usually go by a 70% meat 25% veggie and 5% organ per day and this gets split out over 2 meals a day.
With a pup that young I would do three meals a day.

 Quote: jacquie mason

. . .I was trying to follow the BARF diet as closely as I could. . .I am feeding ground up wings, ground turkey without bone, ground chicken without bone, and ground lean beef without bone, plus pulverized vegis/fruit, organ meat, oils and probiotics. All of these are mixed up into patties according to the BARF Diet book.

I'd be a lot less concerned right now about variety and being so "balanced" at the start of this process. Let the pup adjust and get used to a diet of very limited ingredients and gradually add as you go along. Looking at your ingredient list, I wouldn't even attempt to single out what may be contributing to the vomiting, but the huge variety is not necessarily helping. I don't think the vomiting is because of the bone, but rather what happens to be coming up. They're there to be regurgitated as they take longer to digest anyway.

When I started raw feeding 8-9 yrs. ago, there were fewer helpful books and web sites and I fed an "unbalanced" diet for many months with no ill effects and very noticeable health improvements. In almost any reasonable form, raw is still a great alternative to com'l kibble.

If I were starting out with a pup, I go with one protein source and minimal supplements for a few weeks, find the right amount to be feeding, and then over an extended period introduce variety in bits and spurts. I personally don't believe in the importance of or even try to achieve any semblance of a daily balanced diet, but see it as something to strive for over the long haul.

Mike