Susie's journey to (partial)raw feeding.

[cassblonde]

I thought I would take the time to post about my experiences so far and about what let me to raw initially. Please note at this point I am very new to raw feeding but feel confident and comfortable with what I am doing and feel it's great for my puppy.

The Backstory

Just over a year ago on Christmas morning our old lab cross passed away. Sammy was 16 years old and as far as we can tell died of heart failure on the way to the emergency vets in the early am(5 - 6am). I was with him and he just whined a little, squirmed and then was gone. It was one of the saddest moments in my life. My husband and I had never had a pet die of old age.

This Year

After a year of only having a cat(Mojo is going to be 10 this fall) we stopped by our local PetSmart to see some rescue puppies that were being hosted that day with their shelter(Give a Dog a Second Chance). We ended up bring Susie home that day, she was only 6 weeks old. It was because of Susie that we started looking at pet foods more closely.

Food, food and more food.

The shelter lady had told us to switch her as she was on Old Roy puppy food, my husband picked up a bag of food from the grocery store(which is what we had always done for Sammy). Then my 4 year old daughter messed with Susie's food and water and she refused to eat or drink. Concerned, I took Susie to the vet to make sure nothing was wrong. The vet was massively unimpressed with the new food and suggested the old standards in large breed puppy formulation. When I told my husband he started looking into what was in pet foods and what a good pet food was made with. After comparing labels we switched her to Royal Canin for large puppies. Then I found a dog food analysis site and we ended up switching Susie to Orijen large puppy. At that point we felt we were doing our best for Susie and felt good about our choices.

And then ...

Yeah, then I got reading more and more and saw that there was one thing better than our wonderful grain free, high quality dry food. There was raw food. The more I read the better it sounded: natural, keeps the teeth clean, shiny coat, healthy. My husband felt I was taking this whole food thing a step too far but I kept at it - I just couldn't let it go. Sammy's death was horrible for me, I want Susie to live a very, very long time so I don't have to deal with this kind of pain again anytime soon. I want her to be happy, healthy and active right to the end. Sammy was happy but his hips were bad and he was on thyroid meds for the last 8 years of his life - we did the best we knew how to for him. I want to do better for her.

What I have done so far

After calculating how much of each thing Susie would need for 1/2 raw I went and bought some RMBs for Susie(turkey necks and wings) and the last 4 mornings I have given them to her. This morning she also got her muscle meat - some boneless chicken breast. In the evening I give her half of her normal amount of dry food and she leaves a little of it behind so I feel I am giving her just enough. She is taking to it like a pro and loves her morning feeding a lot more now than when it was just dry food(she would leave her morning feeding several hours before eating any of it and then only a little here and there - no excitement).

More details

Day 1 - turkey wing. With some prompting she took right to it and in about 40 minutes had eaten it all up.She also got a raw egg supplement.

Day 2 - turkey neck. Again needed a tiny bit of prompting but then went at it. 40 minutes of steady work polished it off. Then she went into my son's bedroom and puked and re-ate. I watched her that day but again she was fine. Saw my first raw poo and loved it!

Day 3 - turkey wing. Took about 30-40 minutes and she had to use her extra processing powers again. My son didn't find it as gross the second time She also got a raw egg later to supplement.

Day 4 - turkey neck. Must have been smaller than her first one since this time it only took her 25 minutes to polish it off, also gave her a boneless chicken breast. She is a happy puppy.

Also today I started Mojo on the wetting dry food trick I had read(thanks GideonsHope!) so maybe by fall he will be at the stage I can give him a chicken part for breakfast and kibble at night.He polished off his breakfast in record time - he normally grazes on his dry food even though we feed him morning and night.

That's it so far - just wanted to share because the hardest part of feeding (partial) raw for me is not having enough people to talk to about it

Next Steps

Finding low cost supplies! I have found green tripe and what will, hopefully, be a cheap source of chicken ... the rest I am working on.

Cass