Hi everyone, well I have been feeding Sam raw for about three weeks now and just have a couple of questions,

So far he is eating chicken, turkey, beef, pork, lamb, liver and a bit of triple. Is there anything else I should give him?

Do I need to feed fish and if so what would you recommend?

He sometimes has v runny poo and other times v hard..... is this normal?

He has some bone with his meat most days too.

Thanks in advance

Tracy

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Are you including vegetables as well? Are you feeding minces? There are a few methods of feeding raw and giving more information may help us provide better information.

A lot of dogs would have run into problems feeding so much variety so quickly. Some people aren't off chicken by the third week. I would take note of what you are feeding when he has runny poop. At a guess I would say it was liver. Once you know what is causing hard poop you could mix the two together to hopefully get a mid range poop

You should include fish at some point as this contains omega-3 which is an essential part of the diet. Omega-3 is actually split into 3 three main types of fatty acids. EPA, DHA and ALA. For dogs and cats EPA and DHA are essential, ALA is not. Plant omega-3 is ALA so there is no benefit in feeding it. Many people give canned fish although our dogs are happy to munch on complete fish. Sardines for example. Other people give cod liver oil capsules instead.

It's important to note other things which you need to feed. At present you are missing other types of organs. If you are using the prey model (no veg) the ratio is 80% meat, 10% bone, 5% liver and 5% other organs. This is things like pancreas/kidney etc. Things like heart are counted as meat/muscle.

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You are going too quick if you've only been feeding raw for 3 weeks. It's normal to start with just chicken for the first couple of weeks then introduce one new food per week. That way you will find out if your dog has any reactions to a particular food and you can identify it.

A bit further down the line you can introduce heart and kidney.

A lot of us feed sardines or mackerel, tinned in oil (drain it off) or tomato sauce. Some feed fresh fish. Not sure if you need to freeze it for a while first to kill off any parasites, I don't feed that so I'm not sure.

Poo should be nicely formed and reasonably firm so it's easy to pick up, it's not normal for runny one day and hard another. Go back to just chicken for a week then introduce the others slowly as mentioned above. It could be one of the other meats making the runny poo. Too much liver can cause runny poo. Too much bone can cause constipation or hard to pass stools.

Have you read the two stickies at the top - Everything You Need to Know About Raw Feeding (or something) and LexiLou's Raw Feeding Diary. It really is worth taking the time to read them.

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Poppy's blog: Poppy's Puppy Tales

Ooops, cross posted with Goblin, but saying pretty much similar stuff .

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Poppy's blog: Poppy's Puppy Tales

Ok, I will go back to basics so I can identify what agrees with Sam and what doesn't.

Yes I do feed minces that I have minced myself, is his ok?

Thanks tracy

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As the others have said, probably too much, too soon but that's easily fixed. It may help you to keep a simple diary of what you feed so that you can correlate any adverse reactions, I am guessing that the runny stuff follows a liver meal and the hard stuff follows a bone meal (inc chicken wings/carcass).

Liver is usually the first stumbling block for most people because it is such a rich meat it takes dogs a while to get used to processing it and with the relatively small amounts needed, it is often overfed. Remember that liver should make up no more than 5% of your total diet. A 30kg dog, for example, who requires 750g of food per day, would only need 40g of that as liver. Even if you feed this as a weekly amount all in one go it is still only 280g per week, less than half a normal days food.

My dog would never take to raw liver, so I used to take his weekly allowance and make it into treats (simply baked in the microwave and cut up into 5mm cubes) which were then used for training. This way I made sure he he got his weekly allowance of the stinky stuff without any tummy troubles.

With regards to fish yes it is great to feed, but again, it should be balanced with everything else. One or two fishy meals per week should be more than enough. Tinned fish is great for smaller dogs but I usually give a whole sardine or mackeral.

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No real problem with minces. The main disadvantage is you miss out on the teeth cleaning which chewing provides.

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You need to add in kidney or another secreting organ.

Once you have solid poos add different proteins a small
Bit at a time and work up to a full meal.

Remember 80% meat 10% bone 5%'liver 5% other organ

Some dogs need more bone than others f yor dog gets a sloppy poo give more bone

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Cheers guys, I am going to keep a diary so I can keep a check on what he is eating and also as a reminder for me re the amount of bone, offal ect he has had that week, thanks again.

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