my 9 mo. GSD is on the raw and so far so good. however, i'd like it if he had a little more meat on his bones. he's not thin to the point of a health concern, but plenty thin. he's more active now in his bigger yard all day, and i've kept upping his food amounts. any foods in particular that can help him stay a just a little "fatter" ? i can feel his ribs a little too much, i think...
also, where does tripe fit into the picture exactly? i picked some up the other day - it's steamed tripe. does it fall in as muscle meat, offal or...?
I do, and have taked with some others, who *do* give a very small amount of carbohydrates as without themn the dog is really definitely too thin. Others swear by zero carbs whatsoever.
I give about 1/4 cup of mashed sweet potatoes with my ground up vitamins added (and a dollop of blackstrap molasses -just a tad) every morning. That seems to be enough to help out. I just cook on the weekend, mash, portion, and freeze.
At this age, you want to keep the amount of bone in the diet high to encourage continued good bone growth. If the pup is shiny, with clear eyes and with plenty of energy, it is not a bad thing for him to be skinny.
As far as putting weight on on the raw diet, I have found fattier meats helpful, a little ground beef and my favorite, lamb ribs. Lamb ribs are usually plenty fatty and put weight on quickly. A tablespoon of olive oil added to the feed can also up the level of fats and keep weight on. Beef soup bones from the supermarket contain lots of marrow which is also fattening.
Sue Johnston recommends molasses in her book. That is about is the only thing I haven't tried. I have found that decreasing the starchy veg such as potato and carrot have improved my dogs allergies so I tend to rely on fats to keep weight on him.
As far as tripe is concerned, I have heard that green tripe is the best but it is hard to get hold of. You usually have to go through a butcher or one of the raw food suppliers.
I tend to feed tripe once a month, as a treat, it is really smelly, so I put it outside the back door to defrost, chop it up and let each dog out to have their piece. Technically it falls in the offal category.
Steamed tripe has NO nutritional value. But it can get the dog excerisiing its jaws and maybe cleaning its teeth. It is the raw tripe that you want for the dogs diet. You cannot buy this in a grocery store...have to get it from a butcher/meat packing plant or a distributor.
I use tripe basically as a vegetable or a single meal or as an enticer in a meal. It is not high in protein, so should not be counted on as a good protein source but it does have a bunch of other wonderful things in it!!
If you really want to bulk your dog up there is a product on the market that works. Forget the name of it right now...has a rotti on the front of it.....It is a powder that you can mix in the food. Full of calories/vit/minerals etc. Many body builders use a simular product to help build thier bulk and muscles. I use it with a couple of my herding dogs if they are working all day etc. Hard sometimes to feed them enough to keep up with what they are burning.
i knew the steamed wasn't THE infamous tripe often mentioned, but i wanted to be sure. it was real cheap, so it's no big deal to just toss it.
as for 'bulking up' i think he's still too young to worry about adding muscle mass, i just don't want him quite as skinny as he is. otherwise he's perfectly fine.
as for the fattier meats - i know this should work in theory (using hamburger with a higher fat content, for example) but is there any other health concerns from too much of the fattier stuff? i normally try to trim excess off the chicken necks, etc.
as for 'bulking up' i think he's still too young to worry about adding muscle mass, i just don't want him quite as skinny as he is. otherwise he's perfectly fine.
You are right on the still too young part and since he is fine......what is the worry? LOL <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Quote:
Originally posted by chris bettin:
as for the fattier meats - i know this should work in theory (using hamburger with a higher fat content, for example) but is there any other health concerns from too much of the fattier stuff? i normally try to trim excess off the chicken necks, etc.
thanks again.
You are right again. My advise, let the puppy grow up naturally and then after 14 months go to the park and do some play fetch and slowly intensify the excercise to grow some muscles and better the bond too. This is better than adding bulk on the pup which doesn't serve the purpose IMO. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
J. Cruiser
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