Posted by fullottermoon on March 09, 2003 at 03:42:02:
In Reply to: Re: Yeah!!!! posted by carver on March 08, 2003 at 21:23:18:
:Nancy,
:Feeding raw meat now and then sounds good. What sort of portions should we serve? He is about 55 pounds. Our dry food suggests up to 2 and 3/4 cups a day for that size dog. Since switching to the new food I think our dog would vote for a larger portion than that. When we do serve raw meat should it be as an extra treat, or served instead of the dry food?
Well, imo you cannot go by the directions on the pkg. Remember, they are trying to sell their product and really don't care what's good for your dog or not. Sad but oh so true! One of the things that you haven't mentioned (at least I don't recall- probably the case!) is the age of your pup. That can be a big contributing factor as can breed or mixes of breeds. And I really hope that if your dog is more than 4 months old (which I suspect at 55 lbs.!) that you are not feeding puppy food. All that said (whew! am I long winded!) I would not use the raw meat as a treat esp. at first. Mix it into his dry food at about 1 heaping (!) tablespoon at a tme with a gradual increase every 2-3 days depending on the dog's tolerance. Some dogs have some GI problems at first and may have some diarrhea and vomitting.
This is usually a normal reaction of the dog's body to "detoxing" from the chemicals in commercial foods. But persevere and it will be fine. In fact, I bet money that you will find that 1) your dog likes his food better with the raw and 2) he is better satiated with the raw meat as it is much more nutritious than the other. And that's part of the way that feeding raw actually becomes less expensive. So,give it a try with some cheap hamburg and see how it goes. You may become a raw feeder eventually! The improvement that I have seen in my dogs over the past couple of yrs., both mentally and physically is quite remarkable! I will never go back and they wouldn't want me to! Keep us posted!
Nancy, Sophie, Atticus and Daylia (aka Bug)
