Well, in an attempt to ween him off the kibble and try to make the transition easier on him (he was already starting to have really soft poos on the kibble), we started mixing a little kibble with some raw ground beef, to see how he'd take it. Things seemed to be ok (he ended up scarfing it down and becoming houdini, making it disappear before our very eyes lol)
Raw and kibble digest at very different rates, its never a great idea to mix the two together.
so we started separating it a bit, feeding him kibble in the morning and his raw ground beef in the evening. After a few days, his poos were starting to get a bit weird, soft one time and a bit runny later on... After reading up some and getting advice from a few others with the same problem, everything suggested not feeding him the kibble, to just start him cold turkey and starting with chicken, as that would be the easiest.
A cold turkey start is the best way to do it, however had anyone suggested giving a broad spectrum digestive enzyme prior to feeding in the beginning to aid in digestion of the new diet? If not, I would recommend picking some up at your local pharmacy. I will touch on the runny poops a bit later on.
Well it's been about a week now and from our calculations (8% of his body weight, or 2% of his adult ideal weight) he gets about 1.5lbs of food a day, 75% meat, 15% bone, and 10% liver/organs. We started on chicken as suggested and his meals are usually comprised like this, with a few variations:
Here is where I suspect your runny poops are coming from, the beauty of a raw diet is it is not an exact science and it is so easy to adjust to your dogs specific needs.
Firstly, I would lower the meat amount to approx 60% and then increse your bone to 30%, runny poops mean not enough bone, solid "cement looking " poops means too much, if cement poops start, increase your offal and lower your bone. It takes a bit of tinkering around but it will work out
For the first day or 2 he seemed fine with it, chewing everything properly and his bowel movements were normal. Still soft like from the kibble though, so we weren't sure if that was normal or not. After the first 2 days he seemed to have a bit of a tummy upset and vomited one morning first some of his meal, then the butt end of the chicken leg bone.
Its not really due to stomach upset, it IS normal for them to purge and re chew their foods. Mine do it frequently, we let them re try it.
In the meantime this weekend, his poos have been going from soft to runny... with him having a bout of constipation from Saturday night until last night (sunday, we think from the part of bone/whole bone he swallowed) then having a slightly runnier soft poo when he did finally go. This morning he just flat out had runny diarrhea. :\
I also forgot to mention that throughout his runny/soft poo switches he's had some horrific gas throught the end of the week/weekend.
Gas is definately a "new to raw" side effect some dogs get, again the broad spectrum digestive enzymes will help with this.
The runny poops- constipation could be many things, imbalance in the amount of each part of the raw diet, or simply detox. Again though, with the aid of digestive enzymes this could easily clear up. But for the time being I would suggest adding a bit of canned pumpkin ( pure not pie filling) to the diet to keep bowel movements "normal"
Are we doing right by this puppy or is there something that should be changed? I'm starting to get a bit worried that we shouldn't be giving him chicken bones after all and that we're doing some horrible things to his stomach and bowels. I hate seeing his tummy so upset. :\
I would say that after reading and commenting on what is going on with your puppy, you are doing fine by your pup, just tinker around with the ratio a bit, help out with digestive abilities and keep at it. What you are experiencing is not any different from what i have experienced with my rescue cocker spaniel who had lived his entire life until arriving with us on a commercial kibble ( low low end at that) It can take several weeks for them to "get used to" a raw diet, especially with out digestive enzymes ( I really am pushing them but I think they would be very helpful for your pup)
Edit:: I also again forgot to mention... last Wednesday when he was at the vet we had him started on his vaccinations and de-worm/worm prevention. That night he seemed to get a bit of a fever (which the vet said he might get) but got more comfortable when he could sleep by our air conditioner on low. The next day he seemed his normal energetic self. That was a day before the tummy problems started. Could this all be detox? Or bone not digesting well? Or just from his first vaccine?