Feeding your dog raw food

[Dace]

My little fatty weighs in at 28#...less than I estimated, yet still FAT.

How much should I feed him to slim him down a bit?

Edited to add....he is 14 inches tall at the shoulder and about 23 inches from tail to head.

 

[tortoise]

You should feed him for his healthy weight. A moderately active, altered, adult dog weighing 25 pounds (or that should weigh 25 lb) needs 692 calories per day.

The amount to feed depends on calorie density. If you know what you are going to feed, I can get you the calorie density and how much to feed. Make sure you say if it is skin-on or not because that makes a huge difference!

 

[Dace]

I guess I would feed chicken wings and back with skin, occasional hearts and other icky parts, along with twice weekly kefir and veggies.

 

[tortoise]

If you feed wings and backs an equal number of days, then you can figure 1/2 pound per day. 1/2 lb wings are about 100 cals short of what your dog needs, 1/2 lb backs is about 100 cals more than what your dog needs.

Remember to reduce the meaty bones when you add calorie-rich extras. once he is down to a healthy weight, no need to worry about it.

The true test is to watch your dog's weight. If he looks too thin, feed a little more. Too thick, feed a little less.

 

[freemotion]

Gunnar is nine and weighs 28 lbs and gets one small back, trimmed, once a day plus the equivilent of a small handful of healthy snacks per day (all from the diet list.) He gets his supplements (glucosamine, OPC's, and multi) and his Rimadyl in a glob of natural (peanuts, salt) peanut butter each night.

Biscuit is about two and about 20-22 lbs (haven't weighed him lately because his weight is PERFECT) and gets a large back, not trimmed, and the trimmings from Gunnar's back, along with the same snacks.

That might give you an idea of where to start, then adjust for your pooch. It also shows that each dog is an individual, as my bigger dog gets significantly less food than my smaller dog.

 

[Dace]

Thanks ladies, very helpful info as always

No one more question (does it ever end? )

I went to my local asian market and they also have pig parts....ears, feet (sliced and unsliced), snouts sick), chicken feet, goat bones (looked sort of meaty and large) as well as meaty beef bones and beef tendon.

Is there anything there that I should consider adding on occasion?

 

[tortoise]

All of it sounds good, Dace. I cannot tell you how much my dogs LOVED raw pig ears and raw pig noses!

Careful on the pig feet - they are not meaty - more of a recreational chew than a meal. I would freeze them and give them frozen to the dogs in hot weather or in crates in winter when they were cooped up too much. I gave some pumpkin on the same day to prevent constipation.

Some dogs will get some digestive upset from pig. It doesn't seem very common - I've only heard of a small handful of cases and I know A LOT of raw feeders. Mostly it is from pork hearts if they are fed in excess. The digestive upset shows up as mucousy poop. Gross, but not a big deal. It never stopped me from feeding and I never had a dog have a problem.

Variety is truly the heart of raw diet. If you get your meat/bone porportion right (think meaty chicken back (high) to chicken leg quarter (low)) and provide variety, it's hard to cause permanent damage.

 

[Dace]

Variety is truly the heart of raw diet. If you get your meat/bone porportion right (think meaty chicken back (high) to chicken leg quarter (low)) and provide variety, it's hard to cause permanent damage.

Do you mean I should try to maintain a balance of high to low meat/bone proportion....like 50/50? A few days higher and a few days lower?

 

[tortoise]

Should you? It just tends to work out that way. If you feed anything in that range, you'll be fine. ETA: you could feed chicken backs all of the time and that would be fine. You could feed chicken leg quarters all the time and that would be fine. -- I'm talking about the meat/bone porportion only here. Variety, organ meats, and "supplements" like eggs, yogurt, plant matter are important.

It's outside of that range that you need to think about. For instance you could feed that pig foot with a chunk of boneless meat. That would work out to somewhere in the range of chicken leg to chicken back as far as the porportion of meat to bone.

Thinking of it this way gives you more freedom to feed boneless meat ("meaty meat") or "boney bone", for example. Fed together, those can be equivalent to the "meaty bone" that is the base of all raw diet.

 

[Dace]

OK, I get it.

Thanks!