[g00dgirl]

I finally switched Delilah and Felix over to RAW 100%  they were getting kibble with raw a couple times a week for quite a while, but now- no more kibble!
The basis of their diet is chicken leg quarters ($0.47/lb.) but right now i am using some whole chickens that were on sale and saved the breasts for us!
since they have been getting raw for a while I am already adding offal in the form of chicken liver, heart, and gizzard.  Even bought a package of chicken paws- though I don't think that is much more than cartilage and bone!

They eat between 1.25-1.50 pounds per day, each.  I'll adjust if necessary later.  Right now just sticking with chicken and turkey necks for a couple weeks and then I'll move on to other types of meat.

Lunch and dinner consist of RMB in the form of whole chicken (chicken leg quarters once these whole chicks are gone) or turkey necks and a little offal.  They get a bedtime snack of a spoonful each of ground turkey, yogurt, and pumpkin so they won't have empty stomachs in the morning. I have decided not to feed any veggies or supplements. They do get some apple and frozen mango or peaches when I am making smoothies as a treat although I don't consider that necessary either  
No real questions YET- just wanted to document how things are going. I know I liked reading this type of thing when I was researching the raw diet

 

[tootsie]

Glad to hear the raw is working for you, Delilah and Felix.  

 

[sully]

I'm a raw newbie as well but it couldn't have gone any smoother.  Really my only regret is not have started it sooner.

One thing to consider about chicken legs is this piece I got from one of the raw sites in the sticky Heather posted:

My supermarket frequently has chicken leg quarters on sale.  Are these o.k. to use?

Yes - but they don't contain the proper calcium:meat ratio; plus they are load-bearing bones and are naturally harder (and  harder on your dog's teeth over the long haul). If you DO decide to use them, you will need to supplement with additional calcium (in the form of eggshells or bonemeal).

 

[g00dgirl]

I saw that website too, but from talking to other people they have said that the legs are a good staple or basis for raw.  They are not like other load bearing bones in hoofstock since chicken legs are not as dense.  The wings are actually the most dense bone.  I will keep the Ca in mind

 

[Barbs2Ks]

So happy to hear it is working out for your pups.

 

[g00dgirl]

Day 4:
Still going well.  We have now moved on to the chicken leg quarters.  I just wanted to comment on how small their poops are!  It is like 1/8 of the output from kibble, haha.  They are a little gassy (at least one of them is!) but hopefully that will go away after they get more used to it.
Now, what am I going to do with the 20lbs of kibble I have left?  Take it to the shelter I guess.

Sample meal plan for a day:
AM: 0.75 lbs. chicken leg quarter
PM: 0.50 lbs. offal and chicken leg quarter or raw egg or turkey neck (what ever I have on hand to add to offal to make .50 lbs.)
Bedtime snack: 1 spoonful each ground chicken or turkey, plain fat free yogurt, pumpkin

 

[samsonsmom]

That is awesome!!! I bet the kiddos are just loving it, they seem to really thrive on it...Lol, smaller poops are a wonderful thing  

 

[g00dgirl]

Oh, it probably sounds weird to most people, but i'm excited about the small poops! hahaha
It was really warm Monday and our yard stunk from all the kibble poo from this winter.  Guess I need to get out there and clean it up!
I hear that raw feed dogs' poop just disintegrates after a few days too, so that will be cool.

 

[DUKE01]

Sounds like everything is going well.  I have been thinking about switching to raw.  My mom said she would sell me a goat (she raises goats); she also raises chicken (she does it for the eggs and she likes them) I am trying to convince her to buy some more so she can give me some chicken.  Then it would be really fresh (I just don't want to have to kill it and skin it myself)

 

[g00dgirl]

I would totally take advantage of your mom's animals.  I am going to see how much it costs to get rabbits "processed" I don't have the guts to kill/skin them myself, (pretty sure it would freak out the neighbors too) but it would be great for my dogs.  I wonder if breeding them myself would be less expensive than buying them?
Once i'm done with school i'd love to have a small farm with goats and chickens and other animals.  I would eat the goat myself too! tastes like roast beef and I'll know that its spent its life happy and healthy until D-day, and not possibly some diseased cow crammed in a feed lot.
You could buy some fresh eggs from her too- those are good for the pups

 

[AnnArtisan]

I hear that raw feed dogs' poop just disintegrates after a few days too, so that will be cool.

We switched Atticus to raw so soon after we brought him home that I honestly don't know if his poops are smaller or if there are fewer of them, but most of them don't just disintegrate.   Probably only about one in ten or so has that white (or sometimes green!), crumbly appearance and texture, and I'm beginning to wonder if that doesn't mean that there was too much bone on those days.  

Up until a few weeks ago, we had been feeding Atticus alternating meals of chicken (sometimes leg quarters, sometimes quarters from whole fryers) and ground wild game.  He has only had VERY occasional meals of anything else, simply because he eats two pounds a day and at five bucks a pound we simply can't afford to feed him lamb or pretty much anything other than the wild game or chicken on a regular basis.  Anyway, after the snow finally melted in the back yard last month sometime, I went out to do the nasty job of picking up months worth of doggie-doo and not only were there very few crumbly ones, probably a good fifty percent of it was in the form of tarry, black, gooey, unformed messes.   From the reading I had done I figured that meant he definitely wasn't getting enough bone, so now we've been feeding two meals in a row of chicken leg quarters and the third ground game.  On that schedule, the poop has firmed up, but still only about ten to fifteen percent of them are of the crumbly, disintegrating type.  

It's hard to know exactly what proportions to feed (meat/bone/organ) because there really doesn't seem to be a consensus in the raw-feeding community, but common sense tells me that if all of the poop is white and crumbly, there must be too much bone.

AnnA

 

[g00dgirl]

thanks AnnA.  I did some more reading and found a site that said if it comes out white and crumbly that means they are eating too much bone, but if it turns white after a couple days- its okay.  Either way I'm not sure if theirs are turning white.  Felix has never had firm poo until now, he had coccidia when I got him at 12 weeks and got over the diarrhea but it was always a little soft- probably wasn't related to the coccidia at that point though.
I admit- I can't afford frequent meals of lamb or beef RMB either! I wish I had a friend with a farm.
Their basis is chick leg quarters.  now and then a whole chicken and we keep the breast for ourselves.  Can you believe you can buy a whole chicken for almost the same price as skinned/deboned packaged chicken breasts?! I call that free dog food, or free people food- whichever

AS an update: Delilah seems to have more energy- she plays more in the house with Felix and runs around more outside.  There has also been some reduction in the amount of plaque on her teeth!  Felix still has perfectly white teeth and nice gums, but he is only a year old- so not as much time to mess them up
Also- they go days without me even seeing them drinking water.  They used to drink a stainless steel mixing bowl dry everyday, now I dump it out and wash it everyday and can't tell if they drank anything or not- I think not!

 

[sully]

Oggie doesn't drink much water either, that just tells you how much water is in meat.  My biggest struggle is trying to feed him enough, he'll eat up 2 pounds a day and still look all ribs.  I give him cottage cheese and all that other fun stuff but he's just breaking even.  It's also hard to adjust to not feeding grains anymore, I can't give him leftover rice or oats or anything like that.  It really limits the treats you can feed too, I went with freeze-dried beef liver but the gas will blow you out of the room so I'm thinking I'll get some grian-free kibble and feed that as training treats.

 

[g00dgirl]

I've read that feeding red meat is better for gaining weight than chicken.  But at two pounds a day... a little pricey?  Have you seen the recipe for satin balls? I don't remember what is in it, just that it is for putting weight on dogs.  That may help as an occasional treat too.
Felix is looking good still, he lost a little weight the first two weeks, so I added another 1/4 pound. How old is Oggie now?
Honestly I hardly ever weigh out their food anymore though- the leg quarters are mostly right at .75 pounds so I give them each one of those in the morning, then split one between them at night and add some offal or ground meat, or whatever else is laying around.   If i'm feeling lazy its just a can of mackerel. Delilah lets me know when she is hungry too!
We are just using cut up hot dogs for treats- not raw, but its gotta be better than the other kinds of "dog treats" right? Thought about using some left over Canidae as treats- but the grainless kibble is a good idea too.  I can afford Evo as long as they aren't eating it for meals!
I also tried making my own dehydrated sweet potato chews but it just takes too long- bah! maybe I didn't do it right.
Hoping some stuff will be on sale after easter so I can get them some more variety.

 

[HannaBanana]

For training treat a good thing to use is beef rolls.   Nature's balance makes a good one you can cut into slices.   Also freeze dried parts like salon, chix hears, turkey hearts etc.   String cheese etc.

I gave them chick neck for the first time the other day and they seemed to enjoy it.  I am LOVING the beef ribs as recreational treats,  Nice and meaty and they take some time to eat too.    We are also on the turkey veggy mix and they are liking that because I can throw stuff like salmon oil, egg and what not into the mix.

 

[sully]

Thats a good idea, hot dogs for treats...I didn't think of that.  You might be right about red meat too, I wanted to just do chicken until he got used to it but he seems fine now so I am going to try some ground beef this weekend.  What's some good red meat with bones to feed?  Ribs?

Oggie is almost 9 months, hes been hovering around the same weight for a while now (55 lbs).  And I do think he actually lost a few pounds when I switched to raw, and maybe he's going to start gaining.  He's good about letting me know when he's hungry too, some days he eats twice but its usually 3 to 4 meals a day.  I'll give him 2 chicken quarters (like you said, weighing betwen .75 and 1lb) and then he'll get cottage cheese/offal/fish or whatever.  But I'll pretty much just give him as much as he wants, sometimes he almost seems to lose interest but other times he'll eat 3 different parts of a chicken at a time.  He really loves the chicken quarters and they are nice and cheap (.69 a pound at my store) but I worry about always feeding them, the bones are tougher on the teeth I imagine.  But yeah, its a lot of food if you weigh it out.

 

[HannaBanana]

Not sure what beef, but I do feed heart and liver.  Beef hearts are great cut up like steak tips.  If I feed beef I use the Omas beef roll that has everything in it.  Maybe a rec bone like a rib.  The rib are not that meaty to classify as a meal, but good .  I got a great deal on the rack - $2.05 per rack and the rack has like 5 ribs.   Very good deal, cheaper than my red bull this am!!

Also great for training treats is cubed stew meat.

 

[tootsie]

Here is the recipe for satin balls. They are great for putting on weight, but if your not feeding any grains, then I guess it wouldn't work for you.

Here is the recipe anyway.

10 pounds hamburger meat [the cheapest kind]
1 lg. box of Total cereal
1 lg. box oatmeal
1 jar of wheat germ
1 1/4 cup veg oil
1 1/4 cup of unsulfured molasses
10 raw eggs AND shells
10 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together, much like you would a meatloaf.

Divide into 10 quart freezer bags and freeze.

Thaw as needed and feed raw.

 

[g00dgirl]

Pork necks are another red meat RMB you could try at some point. There are about $1/lb around here.
Heather- did you get the racks from a grocery store or order them?  That is a great price!
Thanks for the recipe Tootsie!  I guess leaving the grain out- you could still get some molassas, egg, beef balls- ha.
The cheapest ground beef has the most fat so, it could still be good for gaining weight.