# Feeding Raw Once A week ...



## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Would this hurt a dog in any way? I am concerned if this would be hard on his digestive system going with raw one day and then kibble the next? I have often given Eddee some raw meat when I am packaging meats for us humans from the grocery store for my freezer... but just as a snack. 

Feed him one raw meal a week? .........


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## kathylcsw (Jul 4, 2011)

I don't think it will hurt him at all. When Lola was 4 months old I started giving her a turkey neck on Saturdays. After a month or so I went to all raw on the weekends with kibble on weekday mornings and raw for dinner. After another month I went all raw. I believe that feeding any amount of raw meat is beneficial.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

kathylcsw said:


> I don't think it will hurt him at all. When Lola was 4 months old I started giving her a turkey neck on Saturdays. After a month or so I went to all raw on the weekends with kibble on weekday mornings and raw for dinner. After another month I went all raw. I believe that feeding any amount of raw meat is beneficial.


I bet once I start ... he will not want to go back to kibble.  He is only 13 pounds and would probably be easy to transition. What would you suggest for his weight for one meal? I would like to make it a different one each week for variety.

Unfortunately his Wellness was a recall yesterday (excess moisture/mold factor ... nothing too major) ... he was out of kibble ... and I bought a bag of TOTW Bison and Venison to try for his rotation ... he won't touch it! Lol!


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## kathylcsw (Jul 4, 2011)

I answered in the raw thread. Do you know any hunters? Deer is an awesome meat to feed and if you know any hunters or processors you can get a lot of free meat. If you transition him totally you need to start with boney chicken like thighs, wings, legs. Once his stool is solid on boney chicken you slowly add in boneless chicken. Once he does well on chicken then turkey is a good 2nd protein. All in all it takes 2-3 months to successfully transition an adult dog. Both of mine were super easy but then Lola was almost 7 months old and Buster 8 weeks old when they went all raw. By the way he would start with about 4 oz per day. So if it is 1/2 kibble and 1/2 raw use 2 oz raw.

My dogs are small and both need more than 2% of their body weight. Lola gets 3.5% and Buster 5%. You just go by body condition once you get into it. If they are too heavy feed less, too light feed more. In the beginning less is better than more.


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## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Abbylynn, most as a rule of thumb start out with 2 - 2.5% of the body weight, and then adjust accordingly. For both of my dogs sticking within 2 - 3 % has worked, someday's its more, somedays it's less. I never feed the EXACT same amount each day. If I notice a dog is getting a little thick, I cut back.

My 7 year old ~20lb Shiba eats anywhere between 4 - 6 oz/day. My 1.5 year old ~45lb Kelpie/BC eats between 15 - 17 oz/day. Here's a raw feeding calculater I used.. http://www.carnivora.ca/html/featured_products/feeding_instructions/index.cfm

As far as the raw feeding interval.. IMO, any raw meal is better than none. I started out similar way as kathylcsw.. My Shiba his whole life until the last 9 months was fed kibble in the AM, raw in the PM, with some raw meaty bones once a week or so. Thumper started out the same way. Eventually I started feeding Prey model raw meals on the weekends, and back to kibble/premade raw during the weeks, and in March 2012 I dropped kibble for good and went to PMR on weekends and weeknights, and premade raw on weekday mornings/travelling. Pretty much what I'm still doing now, except I'm slowly phasing out purchasing premade ground raw, and making my own ground raw meals for those convenient 'on the go' meals. Just the other week I had a bunch of free moose meat that I scored from a hunter friend, and among the 30lbs or so I got some of it was ground meat, so I mixed some ground moose meat, ground sheep w/bone mix, and ground pork organs with bison tripe and made my own little 'premade patties' lol.

What kind of raw meals are you thinking of introducing to start? Chicken necks or something to that extent would be good to start with I think. But in all my years experience feeding combination raw/kibble I didn't have issue's, other than I noticed stools were usually more gross after kibble meals compared to after raw.. I could easily tell which stools in the yard were from a kibble meal and which were from the raw.. because the raw stools were gone in less than 2 days lol..turned to dust and blew away lol. So I definitely don't think you would have a problem giving a few raw meals per week if you find that works for you. Just be prepared that he may turn his nose up to kibble for good... mine eventually started doing that when I began introducing PMR, it was hard to get them to eat kibble they would wait for their raw meals because they knew they were coming, so I had to switch to full raw lol.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Thank you for the replies! 

I just know that Eddee will probably want raw forever. Lol! But he is small enough that I do not foresee this being an issue. I would really like for him to lose a pound anyways. All those junk snacks need to go bye-byes! I would like for him to just maybe live a little longer than 5 years ... given he has good genes!


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## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Abbylynn said:


> Thank you for the replies!
> 
> I just know that Eddee will probably want raw forever. Lol! But he is small enough that I do not foresee this being an issue. I would really like for him to lose a pound anyways. All those junk snacks need to go bye-byes! I would like for him to just maybe live a little longer than 5 years ... given he has good genes!


Definitely not much of an issue for a small dog, as far as freezer space and the amount of food you need. Depending on your area and what is available to you makes a difference as well. 

Saw your post in the Raw Feeding Picture thread as well. I prefer to freeze everything first, especially pork and wild game. I have bought fresh turkey necks, beef etc and fed because I as in a hurry and forgot to take food out to thaw, but generally I do like to freeze everything first. 

First thing is to find out what is easily and readily available to you, but I would try to start with chicken, duck or turkey necks. He's small enough that chicken wings, backs, thighs might work too. Introduce everything slowly. Once he's gone through chicken/turkey you can intro pork, beef, fish, etc one at a time, and once he seems to do well with those you can intro organs should you continue to want to feed raw. Some dogs need slower intro periods than others or take a longer time to get used to it. Mucousy, loose or bloody stool can be common, as long as he's still eating and drinking water he's fine. From what I've heard, the longer a dog has been on a commercial kibble diet, the longer it takes to transition to raw, or get used to it. But since my dogs were always partially kibble and raw fed, I switched them cold turkey onto PMR with absolutely no issue's, I introduced all proteins within a week and then started organs the next and had zero issues. Every dog is different.

Haha I hear you about the junk food.. honestly, I can't remember the last time I bought my dogs any commercial treats, other than bully sticks every now and then. The only treats they get are table scraps, veggies, fruit or cheese lol.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Thank you!

I was concerned about the freezing. I have been giving Eddee a raw meaty marrow beef bone on a weekly basis. He does not tend to try and chomp the bone enough to damage his teeth. He works on the outer layers of the meat and the tendons first. Then he will work at the marrow for hours. I cut off the excess fat and leave just a small amount for good measure. I have also given him some raw gizzards and a tad of raw ground chuck ... after freezing all of the above mentioned. He has really hard poos after the meaty bones and the marrow. The rest does not seem to effect him.

My only real issue is that he is still a tad bit of a resource guarder ... it makes it hard if I have to get him out of his crate. I always feed him in the crate so I can clean up easily. Lol! I am liable to get my hands bit off!


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