I will be waiting anxiously all week for her to get home!! This is a top priority.

Okay well I thought she left this morning but turns out she doesn't leave until tonight.

How old is the dog?
2 Years

How much does she weigh?
~5lbs - Teacup

What does she feed the other dogs, out of curiousity?
RMBs – Whole rabbit, pork neck bones, chicken backs, chicken necks, duck wings, buffalo ribs MUSCLE – turkey, chicken, pork ORGAN – chicken livers, pork livers / green beef tripe

How the diet was started?
~1 ½ years ago. Vomited when they gave him chicken wings. They tried a couple of times and gave up because of the vomiting. In the beginning they gave only chicken.

Started with chicken RMB's?
Yes

Fat/excess skin removed?
No

How much food daily?
Very little but he was stealing the older dogs food.

How many meals a day?
One

What did they try feeding?
Chicken. He steals whole rabbit and vomits that.

How long has this been going on?
They have tried maybe 4 times over the past year.

When did they start the diet?
1 ½ years ago

Watery diarrhea? Pudding diarrhea? Mucousy?
They say no diarrhea, only vomiting digested food.

Was there EVER good stool?
N/A

How long has she been trying to feed him raw?
They have tried maybe 4 times over the past year.

Dog was an adult when she got him?
No, he was a puppy

She is willing to do whatever the recommendations are that I get from y’all with the raw and if we can’t get it to work out she will switch him to whichever high quality dry or canned food is recommended.

1 meal a day probably will not work for this little guy. At least 2 would be better.

She is also going to have to prevent the thievery. That way she will have complete control and knowledge of his food intake.

I don't know what amount is best for a dog that little. Whether 2%, 3%, or more. Melissa? Nora? What do y'all do?

Regardless, it is going to be tiny little meals. Probably 1.5 to 2.5 ounces a day.

Knowing that he did not have diarrhea with chicken, I'd start there again.

If it were my little guy, I'd by a cornish game hen and cut it up into meal size pieces. Making sure to get meat and bone in each portion. Then simply feed through the entire bird.

It wouldn't be as hard as it sounds to cut up the chicken to make meals that small. If she wants, I'll go buy a cornish hen and cut it up myself to give her an idea of a good way to divide it up to keep a good meat-to-bone for each meal.

To be on the safe side, she might remove the skin and fat for the first few days. Just to make sure the good poo continues.

'Til she has a good feel for how little he eats, I'd also buy a cheap digital scale to weigh out the food.

To me, since the poo was good it doesn't really sound like the dog was having that much trouble with the diet. I think it was just a management problem, and he was getting too dang much for a little guy and it came back up.

I definitely wouldn't rule him out on a raw diet. With him stealing food, and not knowing how much of what he was eating, it is very likely that was the problem. Too many variables that were out of her control that she needs to address.

Weighing out his meals, feeding more than once a day, and knowing exactly what foods he is eating will make pinpointing the problem so much easier.

I look forward to what everyone else has to say.:smile:

A few years ago I overheard my vet advising a client who had a teacup dog of some sort that it was important for her to keep a bottle of maple syrup (or something like that). I do not remember the reason, but she seemed to emphasize it was critical for teacup animals. Does anybody know or heard about this?

 Quote: Siaty Mantak

A few years ago I overheard my vet advising a client who had a teacup dog of some sort that it was important for her to keep a bottle of maple syrup (or something like that). I do not remember the reason, but she seemed to emphasize it was critical for teacup animals. Does anybody know or heard about this?

I don't know that I agree with the idea of giving maple syrup, but it's my understanding that very small dogs are prone to having problems with low blood sugar. Maybe that's it? I would think it would be better to just feed them more frequently, but I'll admit that I don't know much about small dogs.

Ditto to all of Michael's post, and I want to emphasize that a dog that size cannot be fed just one meal a day. His stomach is not large enough to hold the day's worth of food he needs, as Kristel points out, and he could indeed be vulnerable to blood sugar drops as well (the maple syrup thing).

Hypoglycemia is an emergency in a toy breed and IMHO is best avoided. Yes, I'd keep some form of liquid sugar around if I had a dog who was prone to it, of course, but I would first follow the sensible precaution of feeding three small meals a day -- wouldn't even consider one meal for a small toy breed. No wonder he stole food.

Michael is also right about stopping that stealing. It's not good pack leadership to allow any dogs to have their food in danger of snatching after it's given to them, and if it requires policing the kitchen for the few minutes it takes for the dogs to eat, then so be it. I did it for years until just recently (I now have no recently-acquired dogs and everyone knows the rules). And yes, the small dog needs his food monitored.

None of this is hard. I feel sure that the O.P.'s sister will do fine with all this if she follows the suggestions.

Michael - That is a great idea about the cornish game hen. I think she should start at 2%, see how it goes and increase until she finds a comfortable amount which apparently will be indicated by vomiting (or is this a bad idea?).

Thievery - Yeah, I knew once I reported that I'd hear back but I thought the responses would be alot worse. In another breath she told me that he eats alone but I guess they aren't paying attention to him when the others are eating. I will print everything out from this thread and send to her.

Scale - She already has one so I'll calculate the amounts per meal for her which I've done for her other dogs.

Do you think since he's been eating organ already she can include it at the beginning or do you think she should start without it as is usually recommended when folks are brand new????

Cathi,

I have a 10 lb Schipperke and she has been raw fed since she was about 6 months old and about 6 lbs. She is now almost 2 years.

I feed a lot of Cornish hens. They run about 1 pound each and I feed about 4 oz per day (give or take depending on how hungry she has been, how many treat rewards, if I have given he a bit of leftover something from my plate, yogurt, fruit, vegs, etc.

I also split the meals into two per day. This is along with training treats given out during the day.

Cornish hens make up the biggest part of her diet. Due to her size, they are affordable and cost about $3 each here.

I think a scale would be ideal, especially right now, because it is such a small amount that just guessing the amount, you may very well over feed.

I would not let the dog throw up. I would keep a log and weigh every morsel for a few weeks. I also wouldn't all any additional meats until I knew she had perfect poops and did not throw up.

Connie, Michael and some of the other expert members can guide you on what and when to add.

I basically cut the Cornish chicken into 4 pieces and that works out to about 4 oz each and then I cut the four oz peice into two pieces, and give that twice per day. As you can see that is a verrrrry small amount and my dog is twice that size.

If I am giving her ground meat of some sort, I mentally picture a quarter pounder before cooking, that is 4 oz or about two large meatballs (meaning one large meatball would be about 2 oz.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Tell her to please get the dog off the canned chicken pronto.

Wow, I'm really excited about all of this information and how simple it's going to be IF it works. It just occurred to me that if for some reason the bones are a problem for him, my co-op sells ground CGH's with and without organ (amongst many other things).

Thanks so much everyone. I'll definitely be back to let you know how it goes.

I've had a text exchange with my sister and she's ready to go!