Switching our dog to a homemade diet

[Weeg]

Yes on bones! You reminded me of soup bones as well and something we give to the dogs often. They’re cheap healthy snacks and will keep them busy for a bit. We have a 15 year old lab/pit bull mix that has teeth of a 5 year old dog. Never has she had her teeth cleaned. Soup bones do it.

Just never heated/cooked. It changes the structure of the bones and causes them to splinter. That’s when it can cause damage to the dog. Raw bones are fine.

Got it, that makes perfect sense on the bones. What about chicken bones? We're gonna butcher out Cornish X soon, and if we save the raw bones, uncooked, are they safe then? If not we will have lots of bone opportunities after we can get a deer. I will definitely include bones in the diet for tooth heath, thats a great idea!

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Raw chicken bones are just fine. They will crunch down on them or swallow them whole. If you snap a raw chicken bone, you will find it to be a bit rubbery. Then snap a cooked chicken bone and you’ll see right away why it has killed some dogs. The broken pieces of the cooked bones are like razorblades.

 

[Weeg]

Raw chicken bones are just fine. They will crunch down on them or swallow them whole. If you snap a raw chicken bone, you will find it to be a bit rubbery. Then snap a cooked chicken bone and you’ll see right away why it has killed some dogs. The broken pieces of the cooked bones are like razorblades.

Got it, I didn't think about cooked vs. raw, that makes sense. Thank you!

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

This is what @Tycine1 was referring to

https://perfectlyrawsome.com/raw-feeding-knowledgebase/raw-meaty-bones-rmb/

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Got it, I didn't think about cooked vs. raw, that makes sense. Thank you!

You’re welcome

It looks like there are some other raw feeders on here that can help too. So nice to see!

 

[Weeg]

I also have some questions about feeding our new puppy raw. By the time we get her in a few months, I expect Comet will be on a consistent raw diet. For the puppy, I want to be sure she's getting correct vitamins and minerals for her growing body. Should I purchase a bag of Canada puppy food to mix with the raw? Or I bet I could get my parents to purchase a topper for fresh food. Spot and Tango sells a fresh food topper for kibble, but I may be able to mix that with the raw. What would you do for a new puppy @ShannonsChimkens?

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

I also have some questions about feeding our new puppy raw. By the time we get her in a few months, I expect Comet will be on a consistent raw diet. For the puppy, I want to be sure she's getting correct vitamins and minerals for her growing body. Should I purchase a bag of Canada puppy food to mix with the raw? Or I bet I could get my parents to purchase a topper for fresh food. Spot and Tango sells a fresh food topper for kibble, but I may be able to mix that with the raw. What would you do for a new puppy @ShannonsChimkens?

In all honesty, I have never fed a puppy differently. Just in the amount and frequency. There is so much more nutritional value in raw that commercial puppy food was never needed. When we got our miniature dachshund, I just fed Northwest Naturals in the frozen cubes. He would only eat 8 to 10 little cubes a few times a day. As he grew larger I added in chicken wings and organs. Since he’s such a picky little turd, he would pick the liver and heart out of the bowl and put it on the ground! So had to get clever and hide it.

Best way to think about a puppy’s diet... wild dogs don’t feed their pups different than what they consume themselves. As long as it’s balanced, they’re fine.

Same goes for raw food vs kibble. Would you, as a human being who is trying be healthy, stick your salad in an oven? Nope! Because that would deplete your salad of pretty much all the nutrition.

 

[Weeg]

In all honesty, I have never fed a puppy differently. Just in the amount and frequency. There is so much more nutritional value in raw that commercial puppy food was never needed. When we got our miniature dachshund, I just fed Northwest Naturals in the frozen cubes. He would only eat 8 to 10 little cubes a few times a day. As he grew larger I added in chicken wings and organs. Since he’s such a picky little turd, he would pick the liver and heart out of the bowl and put it on the ground! So had to get clever and hide it.

Best way to think about a puppy’s diet... wild dogs don’t feed their pups different than what they consume themselves. As long as it’s balanced, they’re fine.

Same goes for raw food vs kibble. Would you, as a human being who is trying be healthy, stick your salad in an oven? Nope! Because that would deplete your salad of pretty much all the nutrition.

Thank you! That makes perfect sense! So give her the same diet as Comet, just in smaller quantities, and with a puppy multivitamin rather then an adult dog. Or even an adult dog vitamin in a very small quantity. @TwoCrows, you have experience with this as well, what do you think?
I think bones will also be very important in her diet for her growing teeth. Thanks again!

 

[Weeg]

Does this look like a good multivitamin for the raw diet? https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Multivit...pY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1
Its made with natural ingredients, and I can use it for the puppy, can Comet. What do you think?

 

[Weeg]

Alright, so I've been reading this article, that was written by a knowledge breeder who has fed raw for 25 years to all the dogs she raises. Its very helpful, but all the numbers are confusing lol! I'm trying to take note of what percent of what is needed in the diet.
I also noticed, that a lot of organ meat is fed mostly for vitamins. So, I guess that means when we have organ meat available, we wont need to feed the multivitamin. There's only so much liver, and organ meat in a deer, so eventually we'll run out. Once we run out, I'm assuming that is were the multivitamin steps in.
Otherwise, I assume you do your 2 hour prep for 2 weeks of raw, then you eyeball 20% of this 15% of that, or 1/3 of the diet is this, etc, etc.
Also knowing that certain meats and raw pieces are more important then others, you want to be more exact there. Am I getting it about right?