Woohoo! Switchin' to Raw

[babymomma]

Yup, im gonna feed mah girl some yummy raw food from now on. BUUUT, i am absolutely cluless as to hat to do??

I know you have to hav some sort of balance of Regular meat, organ meat, and bone ,right? But how in the world do i figure out the balance?

and, what kinds of meat should i feed? Do i have to switch it up or can i just stick with one mixture?
Say, Chicken heart, chicken liver, turkey neck(bones in) And that be all i feed? Like, I prefill ziploc baggies and freeze.

Another thing, how do i figure out how much to feed? I have a 7.8 lb yorkie, with a moderate-high energy/activity level, So, what do i do about that?

Ive come to the conclusion that im finally going to try it, because me and my aunt bought chickenheart/liver and we gave it to keely and her 9 week old lab puppy and they LOVED it. Plus keely despises kibble...


Please, ANY information you have, any links to websites with info, ANYTHING.. Please share if you have the time. I Both me and my dog will appreciate it.

And, What kind do you feed (IF you feed) And can i feed kibble too? And how do i switch? is it like switching kibbles?

Thanks

[Love4himies]

A really good person to PM is Merlin's Hope. She feeds her dogs and fosters raw and is very knowledgable. I think bendyfoot also feeds raw to her dogs. I know a lot about cats, but not sure about dogs.

Good luck and sweet Keely will be so much better off

[babymomma]

Thanks L4H... I cant find merlins hope's profile.. im gonna keep lookin around threads to try and find it.. Maybe i should have posted in t he raw section? (Didnt notice that there before..lol)

[bendyfoot]

Good job on the switch, Babymomma!

Ok, so here's the basic rundown. I'll say that at first, it's really really easy to overcomplicate things, because you're measuring and whatnot, but after a while you get a good visual "feel" for what/how much to feed and then it becomes a snap.

Ok, so basic rule of thumb is about 2-3% of the dog's body weight per day. So for wee Keely, using 3%, you're looking at about 1/4 lb of food total every day (OMG I WISH my guys were only eating that...we go through more like 4-5 lbs/day, crap she's going to eat less than two of my cats!!!). Remember, though, that whether you're feeding raw or kibble, every pet is different. 'Cause she's a little one, she has a naturally higher metabolism and could need more food. For example, our "little", Heidi, eats as much as Gracie, and is slim, while Gracie could actually stand to lose a lb or 5 ...and Gracie weighs twice as much as Heidi.

Then you look at the meat:bonergan/offal ratio, which is about 75%:15%:10%. Because you're dealing with such small amounts of food, measuring is going to be a PITA...but "technically" you're looking at about .20 lbs meat, .04lbs...oh crud, that's just too small.

Ok. Here's what you're going to do. Buy a chicken breast, no bone. Measure off 1/4 lb and look at it. That's the "bulk" of her daily ration. I'm guessing you've got about a cupped handful of meat there. Now visualize about 1/4 less of that chunk of meat, and replace it with a bite of liver, kidney, heart, gizzard, etc, and a bit of bone. (Then hand over half that nummy chicken chunk to that fuzzbut staring at you down there )

If it was my 10 lb cat, she would get a little pile of plain ol' meat (chicken, pork or beef), a few peices (like loonie-sized) of chicken scraps that had some bone in them (like chicken back bones or leftover drumstick bone or something like that) and either a peice of gizzard, one chicken heart or a loonie-sized bit of liver. I'd split this into two meals. One meal would probably be about 1/4-1/3 cup in volume, max.

You don't have to worry about getting the "perfect" proportions every day, it's harder (I find) to do that with the little cats' meals vs the big dog meals. As long as over the course of a week or so, they get the right amount of meat, bone and organ (i.e. some days I'll feed 100% meat and then "make up for it" another day with a boney meal), then you're fine.

OR you do this the "easy" way and get 1. premixed raw patties, we like Nature's variety here and 2. some chicken necks and chicken wings for a few day's a week of tooth-healthy chewing.

So, long story short, get the scale out and do a bit of measuring to get a "feel" for the right amount of food, and as you get comfy, put the scale away and just eyeball it.

[babymomma]

Oh Thanks so much Bendy foot! Seems to confusing for me now, but i think i can handle it

I gave her some raw liver today. She did NOT like it Maybe its the texture? how do i get her used to the whole raw meat thing. (Shes had raw steak/beef before.

[bendyfoot]

Gracie will NOT eat raw liver. Oh wait. SOMETIMES she will eat raw liver like it's candy, for oh, 3 days, then "remember" that she hates it. However, she will ALWAYS eat raw liver if it's frozen...I take small pieces of it and freeze it on a cookie sheet, and feed it to her right out of the freezer. I do this for kidney too for her (another in her opinion). Heart she'll scarf down no problem.

Liver's pretty rich, too, so start with very small amounts (like microscopic for teeny Keeley) and work up to larger portions or you're liable to get butt-splosions!!!