Started Feeding Raw… Need Some Help Please!?
My best friend recently started feeding her dogs raw. We have both done a lot of research on feeding raw over the last couple years and have wanted to try it. Finally, 5 days ago my best friend decided to see how her dogs do on a raw dog food diet. She was feeding them mostly chicken (chicken leg quarters). The first couple days she had mixed the chicken with some of the Natural Balance that she use to feed her dogs, that way she could kind of change them over gradually. After that, she was just feeding them the raw chicken (with the bones) with some carrots and apples (not much, just a little bit) and a raw egg each (with the shell), and today she added some liver (but some of the dogs didn’t eat the liver). She was also going to give them each 1 whole fish a week and she was going to start adding in some organ meat.
So, today when she woke up, the dogs were all sick (except 1). They aren’t acting sick really, they still have energy and all that, but they all have the runs and the younger ones are throwing up as well. Their stool smells horrible, is really slimy, and it’s almost like a reddish color but she says that it’s doesn’t look bloody. Like I said, this is the 5th day or so that she’s been feeding them raw, and she didn’t have any problems until now. And again, all but 1 dog is sick (all 5 dogs were being fed raw, including the 1 that’s not sick). Obviously this is really worrying her, but because they aren’t acting sick and because 1 of the dogs isn’t sick at all, we are thinking that this might just be because they are adjusting to eating raw. She was thinking about getting them some organic yogurt and seeing if that helps them some. I use to always give my dogs this organic vanilla yogurt when they had upset stomachs and it always seemed to help, not to mention, they loved it! She was going to start adding the yogurt to their meals anyway.
So, what do you think? Do you think that the dogs are just getting adjusted? Do you think the yogurt would help? Should she give them the yogurt and wait a day or two to see if they get better or worse? Or do you think this sounds like they all need to be taken to the vet?
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Sounds like a case of to much to soon, and possibly some enhanced meats. Those huge bags of cheap chicken quarters are especially notorious for this, but you have to watch poultry in general. Much of it does contain enhancements to make the meat more tender during cooking. These enhancements can wreak havoc for some dogs.
Make sure she’s not feeding chicken that says things like “Up to a % of solution has been added” contains broth, self basting etc. The only thing that’s ok to be in that fine print on the package is Contains x% of water. Some water is retained in the butchering process and that’s fine.
Chicken quarters do have a nice meat to bone ratio. Make sure they aren’t enhanced and feed just those for a couple weeks. When the dogs are pooping normally slowly add in organs and other meats.
Chicken and fish are great in a raw diet, liver is essential, but she needs more variety. Not right away but eventually she needs to feed a wide variety of meats to make the diet balanced. Different meats contain different nutrients. Feeding more red meats (includes pork) is preferable to feeding alot of white meats. I only feed poultry a couple times a week since I use it for the dogs edible bone. The rest of the week they get red meats.
When she does add liver back in try feeding it frozen. Some dogs don’t like the “squidgy” nature of liver and prefer liver-sicles instead.
Too much too soon and possibly not enough bone. How much liver was given? too much will run right through a dog if they are not used to it
Adults should be getting 2-3% of their current body weight more if trying to gain or 2-3% of their ideal weight if over weight.
Pups should be getting around the same for their ideal ADULT weight.
3 meals a day for pups 2 for adults
Ditch the fruit and veggies, no organs and no eggs.
Two if not three weeks of chicken only. THEN slowly introduce organs and THEN slowly introduce other meat sources.
She may have to try a different liver source. Some dogs won’t eat chicken liver but will go nuts for beef or pork or vice versa.
Both of you should join RawFeeding on yahoo http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Rawfe…
She should stick with chicken, necks, backs, thighs. After a week or two then add some liver or kidney. Yogurt is going to fix what exactly? Just another unnatural food product. Just keep on truckin’!
Know why people who try diets never lose weight?
Because you don’t try a diet, you stick to it!!!
It is probably because they are still adjusting. It is usually recommended to feed just chicken the first 3 weeks before adding anything else. The 4th week they will add a little organ meat and Kidney. Later the fish is added. It seems like your friend is giving too much variety before letting the dogs adjust to a new diet. Also dogs are carnivores they don’t needs fruits or vegetables in their food it is a waste of time, effort, and money. I would just put the dogs back onto just chicken for longer then later add more variety very slowly.