Quote: Betty Waldron

Nick--do not try raw feeding on this pup. It will hurt him at this time.

Yeah we aren't for a while for sure. He's doing well on the kibble garbage, though after reading the raw books I don't like "dog food" anymore..

I've even been trying to eat better myself LOL..


Hopefully I can get some pictures taken today or sometime soon. He looks so much better!

Edited by Nick Logan (05/27/2011 08:06 AM)
Edit reason: add something

Nick--not all kibbles are the same. You are right that some of them are "crap in a bag"--but that's not the case with others.

Think. A book about raw feeding is going to give you only one opinion.

Now that you've read that opinion, do some reading about good kibbles--you can get recommendations from people on this board about the high-quality kibbled foods they feed their dogs and the results they have with them.

Even though I feed raw, I am the first to say that it is not the right answer for every person or every dog. And in my opinion, Gambit is not a good candidate for a raw diet. His history of GI upset, and your inexperience with feeding raw are a bad combination. Feeding raw, especially to a growing puppy is not where you should be spending your mental energies. He will be difficult enough to raise without this considerable complexity thrown in. And there is no room for error.

Please, for at least a year or two--when Gambit is full grown and fully trained--take the notion of feeding him a raw diet off the table. He has a much better chance of being healthy and growing to his full potential size if you feed him a high-quality kibble. There are kibbles that are just as good as raw. And it will be cheaper for you too.

 Quote: Nick Logan

Gambit is doing great! We are feeding him a cup of food 3 times a day. Solid log poops. He has gained a ton of weight and now weighs 21 pounds! He's slowly catching up to my 3 year old that weighs around 29 pounds LOL ..

That is great! I'd echo everyone else and keep him on kibble for now. RAW done right is great, RAW done wrong is disasterous. Not all kibble is crap, due to various issues I have fed (currently feed) a high quality kibble and my dogs do just fine :-)

Great news .....

And the brand you are using (Wellness) is one of "the good guys" !



eta
"Hopefully I can get some pictures taken today or sometime soon. He looks so much better! "

Good.

Roger will do ladies thank you for your much appreciated advice!

One question. Now that I'm feeding him 3 times a day with a cup of food. Can I use only chicken for lunch? I want to use that as my training session. My trainer the last time he came over asked me to get Gambits treats which was the chicken. Well silly me I brought out the whole bowl full of chicken, about 2 1/2 cups worth and we proceeded to feed him all of it during our training session over a 45 minute period. The trainer has a malinois of his own plus is very experienced with dogs ect. Gambit was fine the next day...

I don't feel I should train him on kibble because frankly he doesn't train well with it. The chicken is where it's at as a HV food. What would you do?

I'd take a half a cup of chicken and mix it with a half a cup of kibble in a baggie - the kibble will pick up a bit if the chicken flavor and become higher value.

Your training sessions should also be shorter on a regular basis I'd much prefer to see several 5-10 minutes session spread throughout the day with a pup. The longer one works when your trainer is there, but on an everyday basis have serveral shorter ones and split the chicken up between those.

Short frequent upbeat (short!) sessions AND M&M size treats.

But NOT M&M's!!!

 Quote: Michael_Wise

But NOT M&M's!!!

Thank you, Michael. Make them pencil eraser size.


But NOT pencil erasers!