Oh, she's actually very good at night. She holds it for at least 4-5 hours without waking us up, so I'm definitely not complaining. Just very tired.
And for some reason, when we play in the back yard (no walks around the neighborhood yet until she has all the shots), I get waaay more wiped out than she is.

Anyway, back to the diet.
She had the first poop since yesterday early afternoon, at around 8am this morning. Quite a bit, actually, considering the minuscule portions of her last two meals (raw). Shaped logs, but they look very much like her old kibble stools. Could it really be that the kibble was still in her system 24 hours after she ate it? Because there's no way 5oz of chicken backs could have produced all that stool, even if none of it was digested.

Since the first two raw half-meals went well, can I gradually increase the portions? Say, to 3-3.5oz instead of 2.5? She's a little baby, she needs to grow, and she's really hungry now. I don't want to starve her.

A: I'd wait until you have confirmed raw poop before upping the meals. Trust me, she won't starve.

B: Have you looked into vaccinosis? There is alot of info out there on Google or even here at Leerburg, Vaccinosis . Just food for thought...

Thanks, Jessica.

OK, I'll wait with the feasts.

Yes, I've read up on the vaccinosis and was very worried about it when I was looking for vets. It's the required vaccines that I need to do for her, in order to walk around the neighborhood, go to puppy kindergarten (btw, is it a good idea or a bad one?), etc.
My vet is a holistic one, and he won't over-vaccinate. For instance, he doesn't do yearly boosters. He does blood work to figure out if a dog still has anti-bodies, and if it does, then no vaccines for that dog. I liked that.

Good for you in doing your homework! That blood work is called a titer, it kind of gives you a sense of security that when the test was done, those anti-bodies are working.

Puppy class can be great or horrible. Realistically you can do all of it at home with no risk, but many prefer to let their pups play with others for "socialization." I am on the fence. At our club there are two GSD pups, siblings, that are two days older than mine. When they were very young, up until about 4 months, we let them play together while we were training. Now, at seven months, they are crated like the big dogs.

I don't know that it did anything for them one way or the other except that they were very tired at the end of the day. I felt safe because I knew the all pups temperament and health. The variables were few. They were well matched in size, strength and play styles, so there was even playing.

In a puppy class, one could find pups your size through five months and aggressive to shy. I would be very assertive when it came to what pups were allowed to play with mine, especially with his little size and age. I don't want a pup bullied or being the bully as these traits can last the lifetime of the dog.

I also don't want to try to train a pup in such a distracting environment. Think of a six year old kid being asked to learn subtraction while sitting in the food court at Disneyland. Not gonna happen. I prefer to train at home and then, much later, use a class to proof an older pup.

So I guess you need to just be realistic about what to expect and cognisant of the playmates your pup has. But I have to admit, there is nothing cuter than two compatible pups playing!

Thanks again, Jessica!

I'm also on the fence about the puppy kindergarten stuff. I don't really feel good about our pup being confined to our back yard and not learning to be neutral to other dogs (there are dogs all around our house, but they're behind fences), especially for now that it's dangerous for her (according to the breeder and vet, both). On the other hand, she's just 9 weeks old, and I don't want her bullied by bigger puppies. One of my wife's students' mom got a puppy a couple of weeks ahead of us, and she suggested getting them together for a play date. I don't know: a few weeks is a pretty significant difference for puppies of this age.
She doesn't seem to be shy of people, she's pretty outgoing. Although in the past two days she did start to get scared a little at night, of big tall menacing things quietly waiting for her, like a bag full of yard waste, or shipping boxes from Leerburg aggressively standing in the kitchen. I don't think I'm about to be concerned with that just yet, after all, she's just a baby.

Going back from hijacking my own thread, it was so much fun watching her eat her very first piece of chicken back! Initially, she was at a loss. The smell didn't resemble any kibble. What was that? Then she started licking at it. She liked it, but unlike kibble, the food being licked just refused to go into her mouth! It took her a while to figure out that she needs to pick it up, and then chew into smaller pieces, and then grind those pieces separately. But I'm very glad that she's a chewer and not a gulper. Even with kibble she always ate like a real lady, but with backs, she chews every little piece very thoroughly, even those she can definitely swallow as they are.
She definitely seems to enjoy her meals MUCH more than before, and I don't think it's just her being hungry.
So, at least for now, it's fun for us just to seat and watch her eat her meals. How silly is that?!

"She definitely seems to enjoy her meals MUCH more than before, and I don't think it's just her being hungry. ... So, at least for now, it's fun for us just to ... watch her eat her meals. How silly is that?!"

It's universal. I envy you the new experience. (I have had it lots of times, with newly acquired dogs, but not in a couple of years.)

OK, she went again after we fed her (another 2.5oz of a back), and this time it was much less in volume, but soft. It's not like puddle; it came out in kind of squishy logs, but when I poked at it with a stick (yes, I was that curious) it was mush.
I guess since it's not diarrhea, I'm not worried just yet, but I'm definitely not raising portions until the stool firms up.

4-page thread: remind us what (in pounds) the dog weighs.

P.S. Are you still removing fat/skin?

Well, according to my scale, two days ago she was 15 pounds, today it said 14. The scale is kind of flaky and only works in +/- 1/2 pound increments, so I'm not sure what her real weight is. I was going by 15 pounds, 5% of that per day (12oz) divided into 3 meals (4oz each), and ~1/2 of that portion. The pieces I gave her today came to about 2 -- 2 3/8 oz each.

I am removing fat and skin. I removed it from a few pounds worth that are sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be eaten, so all I have to do now is cut those backs into right size pieces.