I'm also fairly new to raw feeding my dog. I did a little research and found Urban Wolf, which seemed like a good supplment to mix with raw and bonus she actually likes to eat it. Before I switched to raw, I was lucky if she finished her food and would quite often not eat more than 1 meal a day. I like to feed am and pm. now I hear about raw meaty bones, so I got some nice ones, I gave her one and she carried it around a bit but other than that showed no interest in it. Someone told me it has to 'age' a bit so I left it for her for a few days. After about 3 days of it being in her crate, I threw it out but she didn't bother with it at all. I'm just concerned she may not be getting enough calcium.

What kind of 'raw meaty bones' did you get for her?

Also, I don't want my dog's food 'aged' at all - they get 15 minutes to start eating and if they don't, it's picked up and put away for the next meal. (I rarely have that problem. )

It was a beef bone, nice size with a good amount of meat on it.

 Quote: Patty Macleod

I'm just concerned she may not be getting enough calcium.

Another easy way to supplement more calcium is giving your dog a raw egg w/shell. My dog loves them.

 Quote: Patty Macleod

It was a beef bone, nice size with a good amount of meat on it.

Was it a bone that the dog could totally consume (raw meaty bone), or just one that the meat came off and then the bone was thrown away (a recreational bone)? Calcium comes from the bones, so you want ones that can be completely eaten - chicken backs, necks, wings, turkey necks, pork necks, ribs, etc.

Ahh, I understand now...rmbs are to be eaten completely and the others like what I gave are recreational...ok, so I'll see if I can get some chicken necks.

Post back how you make out. I'll bet your pupper won't turn her nose up at chicken bones!

I followed the advice of the Raw Dog Ranch. Getting Started on Raw

I am no raw expert, but I switched my 10 mo. old lab over using this advice, and it went well. I just fasted her for a day, then started giving her wings. I also used some plain yogurt to get the digestive enzymes going as advised by some here on the forum. I remember the first time she ate raw, she did seem a bit confused, but it didn't take long before...chomp!

I agree with giving the dog 15 minutes to start eating, and taking the bowl away after that if the dog won't eat the meal. Fast the dog for another day, it won't hurt it at all. Then the next days meal will go in about 3 seconds! I think the most painful thing about this process is letting the dog starve because the owner feels bad. Well, get over it! You are doing a good thing here!

Another thing, my dog had some pretty compact stools the first week because she was getting mostly RMBs which means she had a high bone content in her food. So, it would look like it was really tough to poo, which also concerned me. This will go away as you get the dog used to the new diet. I found the opposite problem when I added too much beef heart to the diet at first. Very runny stools. So, my advice is to slowly ween the dog to more muscle after starting with just RMBs. Too fast-runny stool. But don't worry! After about two weeks, everything is back to normal, stool wise, and you can then add variety.

P.S. The dog goes bonkers over feeding too BTW! Today, my dog went straight past the stinky trash, which is usually so alluring, to her bowl of food that is warming to room temp! She is looking at me with these "kennel eyes!"

Last night I gave Bayley chicken thighs bone and all. The 1st one I chopped in half cause I wasn't sure what she'd do. Well it took her a while to figure out that she had to actually chew rather than just lick it. the 2nd one I left whole, I got some looks that seemed to say what do I do with this!! Took her a few minutes but she lay down with the thigh and crunched away at it. I'm very happy..now I need to try to convert the cats!!