Hi . can anyone advise me yet again . i started my dogs (icluding Ronnie 8 wk gsd) on part raw diet (chicken drum sticks, mince,raw eggs,ox heart so far . now all Ronnie had yesterday was chicken drum sticks through the day 3 in total , tuna with cottage cheese ( small amount of cc) . and her kibble ( vitalin puppy plus ) . woke up this morning with her needing the loo 3am and since then she has had the runs . i feel so guilty could it be the raw food i am feeding her ? she does love it though. Now as i feel guilty today i am oly feeding her cooked chicen breast and brown rice ? to setle her tummy at least ( is this right ) . but now having second thoughts about the raw diet all together now . . i have read the giver your dog a bone and to be honest hasnt helped me one bit, just goes ona about how bad commercial dog food is ( which i think we all know that anyway ) . what i wanted to know is what to feed, how to feed , and how much to feed. does not say weather to bye fresh then freeze , or do you freeze all your meat first then how long do you freeze before you defrsot and give to your dog . i could do with a book that tells me exactly how to give and what . ( is there a book out there that does this ? ) does anyone know which book would best suit me ? . more confused than ever ow .


thanks all ( hope your all having a brill sunday ( lovely and sunny here )

I hope this doesnt come across as being patronising cos I'm honestly not trying to be - I think you would be best buying the best quality complete that you can afford. A bad, unbalanced raw diet is just as bad as a poor quality commercial kibble. Go buy some Burns, James Wellbeloved or Royal Canin for Ronnie and I'm sure he'll be just fine.
If he had been mine I would have starved him for 24 hours and just made sure he had plenty of clean water available - then started him on cooked chicken/rice or cooked chicken/pasta. I hope he's much better tomorrow

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Forgot to say Ox hearts are well known to cause squits in pups - I always used lamb hearts when my boy was a pup and moved him on to ox as he got older If you continue with the ox just give him a small amount and build it up

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Hi,

Have you had them checked for bacteria/Parasites, such as Coccidia (Coccidiosis), which they can get from the Mother~

I just recently (a few days ago) had someone who contacted me and thought it was the food. She had her 11 wk old pups tested and the vet said they were clean from all these things and then took them back for a second look, because the medication for Diarrhea was not working, and did more tests and they found that all the pups had Coccidia.

COCCIDIOSIS

Just a thought !

PS: Forgot to mention ..I have heard that when one starts raw, pups can sometimes get the runs, so it should be introduced slowly!
Also, when I started Lil-Lea on human foods, I had to back off and go slower than I was because it caused her to get really weird stools~
Now, she can eat a lot of different things and not get stomach and/or bowl issues.

ALMOST FORGOT! AND THOSE PUPPIES ARE ADORABLE

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Pamela Stoker Brander Myers
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Lil-Lea Diva Myers http://tinyurl.com/2xce5q

Hi Jo thank you for your advise im not offended in the least , thats what advise is for . Ronnie stil has the runs ( but muct admit avn't starved her for 24 hours ) its hard when they are a pup to starve. her kibble is vitalin ? is this any good its what the breeder fed her on and also she fed her on ox heart ?????. to be honest i am not going to bother with the raw diet now , this has upset me too much to think i have prob caused this . would you say burns is better than vitalin food ?. i feed my jrt on nutro choice ,would i be better off slowly introducing this to Ronnie (when she is better of course ) . i am just boiling some chicken and white rice for her at the mo . thanks again all for your advise i do appriciate it .

sorry to jump in, but Jo may not be on at the moment, Burns is a far better food than vitalin, you will feed a lot less, so make sure you follow the guidelines, if you overfed anything it will give the pup the runs. Any change of food needs to be introduced slowly, especially with a GSD as they can have funny tummies, I'm lucky my two have cast Iron stomachs, but lots don't.

Same here Milo can eat anything and be fine but I have to say putting him on a raw food diet was the best thing we ever did.

Dogs often see side affects of detoxification from changing to a raw diet, diahorrea being one of them. One of our pups had diahorrea for two days after going on the raw diet but now she has perfect stools everytime and not many of them either! Makes toilet training a hell of a lot easier!!!

In my opinion the best way to introduce it is just to feed muscle meat and bones for a few days and then introduce organ meat a bit later as its very rich in nutrients and can cause diahorrea if fed too early or in too large amounts. Some say its a good idea to introduce it slowly with dried commercial food but I can't really see the benefit of doing that, your making the transition period longer and putting crap into their bodies still.

We try to feed meat fresh as often as possible as its the best way to feed raw but to be honest most of it has been frozen as its just not practical to go to get fresh every day.

Personally I would never go back to commercial foods now, we even gave the free sample you get with your puppy pack to charity.

Lastly, I'm sorry to hear you've had a bad start to raw feeding but I hope it's not totally put you off. Any questions you have I'd be more than happy to answer and I have a couple of good books that do tell you what to feed which I can give you the name of if you want?

Thank you Jenny i shall go and get some burns . do you feed a raw diet atall ? ( if im honest i think i may have over doe it with the raw meat ) got abit excited . thanks for advise .

ajshep thank you for your advise and offer to help . to be honest yes i have been put off by this , i just feel so guilty that i have caused Ronnie to be sick . i shall pm you know for some advise thank you

No problem. Theres really no need to feel guilty fo trying to do the best by your dog!