Quote: Lisa Joncas

i've just had a hard time trying to find stuff around here, i'm in the tampa bay area. i have a costco membership & looked at the frozen fish there but i thought it was expensive expensive & i was looking at salmon, i'll have to see what other's they might have. can i ask you how much do you pay for your frozen fish? do you feed any other beef besides ground beef to your guys? do you feed chicken & turkey as the bones or do you give other bones?

In a city the size of Tampa, I would seek out the smaller grocery stores in Latino or African-American neighborhoods. These small mom-and-pop stores are much more likely to work with you--to special order cases of oddball meat, or to save you scraps--than big chain grocers.

I use all these resources--Sam's Club, regular grocery stores--but my go-to place is a small neighborhood grocery store on the other side of town where they know me, are glad to have my business, and will special order things like chicken backs, beef hearts, etc. for me in bulk. Win-win.

I pay about $1.79 a pound for whole frozen sardines or mackerel--these again from a small mom-and-pop Asian market that has a decent selection of fish. They sell me a 50# case.

Beef heart is what I feed most in the beef category. Then ground beef. As well as beef organs. Chicken and turkey, along with duck necks are my staples for raw meaty bones. The only other bones they get are fish bones. I don't feed beef or pork bones.

 Quote: Lisa Joncas

beautiful puppy you have!
I was just at the whole foods over the weekend. do you ask the manager or the meat section about saving the parts for you? if it's organic meat that is a big plus. can you give me examples of pork meat that you give him? do you give actual chicken breast/meat besides what you've mentioned? since your guy is also 85 lb's can i ask you how much are you feeding him daily? i am trying to stay at 1.70 lb's but he always acts like he's hungry & when i'm trying a new meat i am giving him 3 smaller meals a day & last night at around 1am i gave him some steak, just a small pc but he's still up at 4 wanting to eat again. the other day i gave him a whole celery stick w/ a little bit of almond butter on it for a snack at 9:30 pm & again he wants to eat really early in the am again & i make him wait a little bit but he will keep trying to wake me up & then i don't want him to throw up so i'll give him something to eat or just feed him his breakfast then. i think he's getting a lot of bone now & not enough meat & that was why i am looking for suggestions on what else to start with & i am getting good advice, thanks to all.

#1 The Whole Foods here usually has some chicken backs in the meat case. But because I get a lot of them at a time, I call the manager a day ahead and ask him to save me however many he has and I just go in and pick them up.

#2 Kasey is 4 yrs old and not a high energy dog, so the amount I feed may be different than what your dog needs. I feed a chicken back (which weighs about 3/4lb) and about 1/4lb ground meat for breakfast. For dinner (about 5pm) I feed a chicken wing, the yogurt, a few spoonfuls of the veggie/organ glop, and maybe a few spoonfuls of muscle meat. Kasey started that morning vomit thing when he was young, so I save about 1/4lb of muscle meat out of his dinner and give it to him right before I go to bed. The day I started that, he stopped the vomiting. I give a smaller dinner, and the rest before bed because if I just add more in for the bedtime snack, he gains weight.

#3 As far as pork goes, I buy those pork loin chops at Costco for us, and we never eat them all before a couple of them gets freezer burn, so he gets those - yes, he eats our rejects. No sure I'd buy him his own pork cause it's expensive!

#4 I don't feed eggs because he just doesn't need the extra calories and I don't consider them necessary. I'd rather use the calories for muscle meat.

What's wotking well these days for Brodie (65lbs) is:

- Packaged cut up whole chicken, large and bone-in
- Whole chicken that I butcher myself.
- Ground chuck
- Ground dark turkey
- Mackerel or other white fish
- Chicken backs and necks
- Leerburg nutritional cocktail (kelp, alfalfa, super-c, vita-e)
- Occasional raw egg w/shell, beef or chik livers, gizzards, toes, unsalted green beens, raw pumpkin

Typical meal is about 1 to 1.5 lbs:

- giant bone-in chicken breast --or-- wing+thigh+drumstick
- 1/4 to 1/3 lb ground chuck or dark turkey or fish
- periodically egg, livers, gizzards, necks, backs, veggies...
- Leerburg nutritional cocktail

Giant bone-in chicken breasts are good for scraping action on front teeth. It takes Brodie a bit to gnaw and grind through one of these.

Planning to rotate in pork and other type of muscle meat at some point.

Thank you Tim.

I wonder how I should calculate Jethro's adult weight? He looks good now, at 10 months, but every month I have to adjust his collar and now his rain coat is looking a little short. I don't know if any of you have a weight calculator, but here is his growth chart:

4 months 45 lb
10 months 75 lb

At present he is eating 2.5 lb of food per day + peanut butter in a kong, and misc. kibble treats for training and toy rewards (maybe 1/2 c. total per day).

I am guessing now his breed is Anatolian Shepherd x Lab (webbed feet, loves water, loves to fish things out of the bottom of a bucket, pond, puddle, etc.).

I think he could eat more and not suffer, but he is beautifully proportioned right now.

I do want to add in a wider variety of meats. I will start that research ASAP.

This is a very helpful thread. You guys have an amazing breadth and depth of knowledge.

With a mixed breed, it's probably tough to guess what his ultimate adult weight would be with any accuracy. Just keep monitoring his weight as he grows and adjust the size of the meal as necessary.

2.5 pounds of food a day would be right for a moderately active dog that will end up weighing at adulthood 90 to 100 pounds.

For big dogs, especially while they are growing, keep him lean. Better to be too skinny than too fat. Extra weight is hard on bones and joints. If he is beautifully proportioned, then the amount you're feeding is right--for now, at least. Just keep watching and feeling him.

This is a pretty amazing site for info on raw feeding.

http://rawfeddogs.net

All the food prep and dog-eating-meat photos are under the Recipe link.

http://rawfeddogs.net/Recipe/Chicken

 Quote: Tim Curtis

This is a pretty amazing site for info on raw feeding.

http://rawfeddogs.net

All the food prep and dog-eating-meat photos are under the Recipe link.

http://rawfeddogs.net/Recipe/Chicken

What I love are the recipes on that site.



Another excellent raw-feeding site:

http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm

http://leerburg.com/diet2.htm

http://leerburg.com/feedpups.htm

 Quote: jenny arntzen

Here is what I make for them on a daily basis:

1 whole raw egg
1 dollop of cod liver oil

a combination of vegetables that amount to 25% of the whole
- carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, green beans, kale, brocolli, chard, spinach, and apples (whatever is in the fridge)...

also (sorry I didn't see this before when I replied about the egg)...I think your dog would get more benefit from a fish body oil, rather than liver oil. (Salmon oil, krill oil, regular old "fish oil") And I would add vitamin E to your recipe too. That helps the fish oil do its job better. Those two things--fish oil and vitamin E are, in my opinion, the most important supplements of all. They greatly reduce inflammation, reduce symptoms often associated with "allergies," and produce awesome skin and haircoat.

 Quote: Tracy Collins

Raw egg white contains a chemical (avidin) that can inhibit the absorption of B vitamins. The chemical is neutralized by cooking. .... My dogs love eggs and eat lots of them (I keep chickens in the backyard). They get a couple a week raw, shells and all, because they love them--and the rest they get scrambled or boiled.

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=134&Number=261438&Searchpage=1&Main=24986&Words=avidin+Connie+Sutherland&topic=0&Search=true#Post261438

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=12&Number=289518&Searchpage=1&Main=27038&Words=avidin+Connie+Sutherland&topic=0&Search=true#Post289518


Jenny, the calcium in the shells was what was firming their poop. If the poop is soft without the eggshells, then the amount of bone is probably a little too low for the times when they aren't getting the shells.

1/2 teaspoon of crushed shell (about half an eggshell) will supply enough calcium for a pound of boneless meat.

I'm just pointing this out so you can see how significant the difference in calcium intake is with and without the eggshells they were getting.