New and need advice

[Kess]

Hello All,

I really love this forum. I’ve been reading as much as I can but still have so many questions. I have a 7.5 pound Papillon. I started out by using a premade raw (Stella & Chewys frozen dinners) until I’m more comfortable doing it on my own. She loves the Stella & Chewys and is doing very well on it – normal poops and no tummy troubles. It’s very convenient as it has the meat/bone/organ/few veggies already mixed in for me. However, it’s a bit pricey so I was thinking of using the premade for one meal and then doing the second meal myself.

For the second meal I was thinking of doing a ground meat (beef, chicken or turkey), a hard boiled egg with crushed shell (she won’t eat a raw egg) for calcium as there is no bone in this meal, and then maybe adding a veggie. I know dogs don’t need veggies, but my dog loves raw carrots. I puree one baby carrot and then just chop a little bit of another one because she likes the hard crunchiness of the carrots. We are not ready to do raw bones yet. We know of a dog that choked on a raw bone so hubby refuses to do that yet. I know it’s very rare for that to happen so we probably will be adding that down the road, just not right now.

1. Does this sound like a good meal for her? Does the egg add too much protein? If so, should I just use the shell for the calcium?
2.If I crush several egg shells to make a powder can I store it for future use? How long will it be good? Does it need to be refrigerated?
3.I read you need ¼ tsp of powdered egg shell per pound of meat. My dog eats less than a pound per day. So, can I make a larger batch and freeze it or is it best to use the egg shell fresh?

Sorry for so many questions (I have many more, LOL). I would love any comments/suggestions.

Kess