New, have Q's!

[rdobbie23]

No I honestly don't think it's a reaction to the chicken, it would be quite odd if all 3 boys were to have a reaction?!

Ok I will go 100% raw with some rice cooked in chicken broth. Thanks for the advice!

Here we go, it's all or nothing!

[mummummum]

Originally Posted by rdobbie23

No I honestly don't think it's a reaction to the chicken, it would be quite odd if all 3 boys were to have a reaction?!

Use either homemade or low-sodium broth though!

As for the reaction, I've bought meat that I thought was just fine and apparently wasn't when even my iron -guts grrrrl reacted. The other thing is, if their tummies are already upset and they've still got slow-to-digest kibble in their GI tract somewhere it's slowing down digestion for the raw which will start to "forment" in there further upsetting their bowels.

[rdobbie23]

Ok so the man got a hold of some pork and fed it to the boys, (this was Sunday) so far the rottie is the only one that is having some issues (diarrhea and vomit) He has thrown up foam twice. But the other two boys are doing just fine. I have switched to 100% meat diet, they are still adjusting, but I hope hope hope I have made the right decision as far at the rottweiler's tummy goes. He's not to happy about this stuff. But I figured it's only been two weeks, and he loves the meat, his poo just has hardly any form to no form at all. Other wise, he is his normal self.

[MerlinsHope]

diarrhea with a little bit of white rice cooked in chicken broth

Please never give a dog bread. It's possibly one of the worse things you can give to any canine.

It's normal that your dog might have a mucousy reaction to having raw food in his gut. It's a new food source, his gut is sloppy from digesting kibble and not yet used to digesting this amount of bulk and his teeth not yet used to properly pulverizing bone properly.
This will come in time. Don't worry about it. It's essentially normal to a great degree.

Cooking rice in chicken broth isn't necessarily going to help you either. If your dog is showing signs of the 'runs', simply UP the meat and lower the bone, that will keep you in fine tune with a raw diet. To try to hop over to a raw diet by giving your dog kibble, then raw and now cooked rice is recipe enough to give your dogs the runs.

It takes different enzymes to digest different foods and by offering all three odd mixes together, you are actually making it more difficult for your dog to adapt over to a raw regime.

There is no detox and no break in period. If you are seriously planning to stick with the raw, please do by offering it regularly. Again, if you find that bowels are irritated, simply lower the amount of bone.

Best of luck
Cheers
MM

[MerlinsHope]

(diarrhea and vomit)

Robbie, again, this is an enzyme thing. The work around is to introduce raw food outside of the normal times that you would normally feed him, because his stomach has become conditioned to produce enzymes to digest kibble.

Start to stagger your feeding times at different intervals of the day for now. Think of it this way.
If your dog were out hunting, he certainly would not catch his prey at the same time everyday. He'd catch it, whenever he'd get lucky enough, so he'd be eating at different times, some days not at all.

Give it a try. It will help tremendously.

Ref:
http://rawchow.merlinshope.com/index.php?topic=6.0

[rdobbie23]

Actually the rice has helped a ton! I give chicken in the am and then chicken with a plate of rice in the pm. They love it! No more runs and the poop is def. less frequent and small amounts and solid! We've got this now....that is until something new is introduced

[cassiek]

rdobbie,

WTG on starting to get the hang of raw and firm poops! I remember when I started on raw about 6 months ago, it seemed really complicated and confusing. But you'll get the hang of it!

Feel free to try different meats. Depending on what is readily available and cheap in your area will likely dictate what the main staple of the diet is.

For ex. I get chicken/turkey here very cheap, so poultry makes up a good portion of my dogs raw diet. However, I mix it up frequently with beef, bison, elk, rabbit, lamb, etc. whatever I can find to give them variety. Sometimes I add vegs, sometimes not. Once in awhile I will give a can of Tripett or a patty of the green tripe. In general I try to balance their diet over a week or so. Organ can be heart, liver, gizzards, kidneys etc. I actually have a entire chicken (head, feet and all - pretty much just featherless) sitting in my freezer I can't wait to give B! Haha!

Good luck!!

P.S. I should mention to avoid the stomach upsets/vomiting/loose stools etc. just make sure you add the meat gradually over time and introduce it slowly. I try to avoid mixing different meats in the same meal and often if I am giving organs + meat in the same meal I will try to get them from the same species.

[Marcha]

Foamy mucousy vomit could also be a sign of an empty tummy that is working hard. It could well be that your dog's tummy was used to doing overtime, and is not yet adjusted to having easily digested food. Hence, emtpy tummy, and tummy fills with bile and mucous in anticipation of food that isn't there. The mucous/foam in this case would be yellowish mustardy in colour.

Are you giving your dogs food twice a day? A Rottie is a large breed dog and would do well with two meals per day for that reason, while a smaller breed dog might not have that need.

[Marcha]

Ah, I see that Merlin's Hope has already said it much more eloquently, along with some great additional suggestions!

[snorklepuss]

Originally Posted by rdobbie23

OK, so now my boys have been on 1/2 kibble and 1/2 raw diet (kibble in the AM and raw in the PM) Two of the 3 dogs has diarrhea. Should I just switch 100% to raw and get it all over with?! I mean IDK.

Also someone posted that they though that the leg bone was harder to digest and more prone to splinter???? Is this so, cause I give my boys chicken quarters for thier dinners and that includes the leg bone

Rdobbie, we own a Lab kennel and handle about 5-10 rescues a year along with the business, my dogs are all on raw 100% even the rescues, and immediatly, its really tough to mix kibble and raw because of the grain. I buy frozen blocks of beef with varing %'s of fat beef tripe and organ. They also get a raw UNCOOKED bone some with marrow some without once every two days again until there is no only bone left. The only issue we find is keeping an eye on there weight they can disgest at different rates and some require less food. My pooh's have went from 3 per day per dog to one per dog maybe every three days. I suppose if you have any further questions pm me.

regards
Cory & Sonya