Yes, he is a five year old Doberman, around 65 pounds.

 Quote: Steph Schneider

Yes, he is a five year old Doberman, around 65 pounds.

OK, then, we have no worries about a growing puppy, which makes it easier to take your time.

I would check on whether you can get chicken backs. (These are probably not going to be displayed with other cuts; I'd ask the butcher.) These would be a good start-over RMB.


The other issue, of him inhaling ("almost choking") .... yes, you can freeze the leg quarters (and don't separate the leg from the thigh ... the bigger the piece, the less likely he is to try to swallow it whole), but backs are even better.

So step one: Can you get chicken backs?



For right now .... how loose was that loose poop? If just softish (not liquid), then I'd go back to nothing but the RMBs until you have a log-poop history of several days.

Or was it very soft (no shape) or liquid?

PS
Don't be discouraged. We've talked lots of new raw feeders through it, with nary a failure.

It's the gradual start, one item at a time, with special care for organ meat, heart, and other rich items, that works for dogs who have a picky G.I. system.

Ditto everything Connie's advised.

Somebody in your town sells chicken backs, or is willing to order a 40-pound case for you. They are, without any exaggeration, the ideal dog food. And I bet when you find them they'll be even cheaper than leg quarters. Call every grocery store and speak to a meat department manager and ask them. If they don't stock backs, ask if they will order for you. (and tell them this will be a regular monthly order...) If they won't ask them if they know who you should call.

How much are you feeding? Over-feeding is another trigger for loose poop.

Until you get this down pat, I'd recommend weighing every meal. For a 65 pound dog, a ballpark amount for feeding is 26 ounces of raw food per day. If you feed twice a day, then 13 ounces each meal.

Don't get discouraged.

BTW, my dogs are raw fed (twice daily) and most of them poop once a day. Sometimes twice a day.

A good raw-dog poop is log-shaped, very firm, and smaller than you'd think. Not dry, pelletized, crumbly or causes the dog any obvious difficulty to produce. And obviously not anywhere on the soft scale. An occasional very small piece of undigested bone isn't cause for alarm, but if the dog is consistently pooping hunks of bone, that's not good. (Have you noticed any undigested bone in your dog's poop?)

If you have any asian markets by you, I've bought chicken carcass's from them. The leg quarters are gone, and most of the meat is gone so you add muscle meat when you feed them, but my dogs did real well with those.

They usually label them chicken bone and they have a lot of them on certain days when they've done a lot of butchering.

sometimes chicken leg quarters will come with the backs attached, im not sure how cost effective it would be to buy the whole leg quarter just for the backs, but it might be a place to start.

Steph, to find chicken backs you have to go to place where they cut their own chickens usually. I go to Whole Foods for them, and it looks like there are 5 Whole Foods in Michigan
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/list/state?page=9

Are any of them near you? They will save you all the backs you want if you call and ask them to. My dog gets the runs on leg quarters every time I feed them, but backs firm him right up!

Also, some butcher shops will order you a case of chicken backs.

Also look into wholesale restarunt suppliers. I have a business lisence, but some suppiers will sell to the public. My suppier will. I purchase most of my dog's food from them. I get 40# cases of fresh backs, fresh necks & fresh leg qtrs...also ground meats in 10# rolls as well as other meats & organs. Since they are an hour away, I pickup 200 lbs at a time, that way I only have to go about every 3 months. Obviously you need to have the ability to store cases of food.

Call around. Even if you have to travel a couple of hours to a supplier the prices are worth it. I pay $12 for cases of backs & necks & $14 for Qtrs. $8.90 for rolls of gr turkey as examples.

O.k., I will look for somewhere to get backs. I know there are a couple Whole Foods near me actually. He didn't poop yesterday and then today it was a solid log. When he had the loose poops it was mostly liquid with some chunks. (Sorry for the mental image... dog people are probably used to poop discussions though right?)

The leg quarters I get do have some back attached. Feeding totally frozen did slow him down quite a bit but he ended up taking off too big of a piece and trying to just swallow it. He threw it up and then ate it again. Will he start to learn what the right way to eat is?

Steph, do you mind sharing what part of Michigan you are in? There is a member of this board who is a raw feeder who lives in southeastern Michigan and I know she has multiple sources. She was helping me when I was thinking of doing raw. PM me if you're more comfortable with that.