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Old September 22nd, 2006, 04:31 PM
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les les is offline
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RAW Feeders ... little advice needed =)

So ... I'm also going RAW. Monday is my start day because I run out of muffins Sunday night so it was an easy choice!

So I'm going to start with chicken as my (their) protein for 1-2 weeks depending how we (they) do. So I think I'll start with chicken legs - that sound okay? I also saw some whole chickens at the store so maybe those too - I don't know if that would be too crazy to start with.

My only other question right now is do you measure the amount and cut it off or give them say, a whole chicken and take it back before they eat the whole thing? Will they eventually learn to stop when they've had enough?

I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions soon =)

Leslie
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Old September 22nd, 2006, 05:31 PM
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leslie, congratulations

the only advice i can give you after reading your post is...

-are you home on monday?... some dogs *can* get cannon-butt for the first few days or weeks on raw, so weekends are the normally suggested times to switch... just to be there in case doggy asks for the door more often than usual. also make sure to fast your dog for a day before feeding raw for the first time, a cleared-out system is better equipped to digest new stuff.

-at first i would monitor the amount of food, as over-eating can and does cause diarrhea (some dogs love the raw sooo much, they go nuts and gorge themselves senseless!). whole chickens are great, as the back & ribcage bones are the softest & easiest to digest at first. legs are great but the bones are thicker, so make sure doggy chews well. you can serve the meat half-frozen to slow down gulpers, and give pieces that are bigger than the dog's mouth to encourage crunching and munching.

-lop off any thick, hanging pieces of skin, the fat can cause gastric upsets to dogs who don't have an iron stomach.

that's about it... we're here to answer all the questions you have!
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Old September 22nd, 2006, 05:46 PM
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YAY!!!!


Hmm what tips can I think of? I agree with TD in regards to the back vs the leg. Layla has a low tolerance for bone as it is, so I found, especially when I first started, that the softer the bone, the better. Necks are great, and you can get them for free or near to that, at a butcher.
I never put out more than I wanted my girl to eat. I wouldn't put out a whole chicken, let her eat half of it, and then take it away. Get yourself a good butcher knife, or a meat cleaver, and quarter the chicken up (but don't remove the bones).
I'm not a fan of the wings (too much skin for too little meat and bone), so I only give one as part of a meal, never a whole bunch of wings or anything.
If you go into other meats, you may find that some cuts have too much fat, so I would trim some off the edges. (If she gets to much fat, the girl's poops look like she's back on nutro )
I would say invest in some of those boot mats.. they will save your carpets and floors (thanks to TD for that one)
Oh, and watch the poops! I have never learned so much from Layla's poops until she started raw. Now I can tell when I'm lacking a component in her diet just by what her poops are like.
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Old September 22nd, 2006, 05:48 PM
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Thanks Techno!!

Lucky for me I work from home so I'll be here all day with them.

A few months ago I tried to feed them each a piece of raw liver and they wouldn't touch it, so stupidly, I thought .. well my dogs won't eat raw - I didn't realize that many won't eat raw organ meat.

So about a week ago I was doing something with ground beef and I thought .. well .. I'll try and see and I gave them each a bite. They loved it.

A few days ago I tried the same with a few pieces of stewing beef and again, it was about the best thing they'd ever tried! They wouldn't leave the kitchen after that! LOL

So from those little bits they had there were no issues. - I realize a full meal is a little different but I hope it shouldn't be too bad =)
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Old September 22nd, 2006, 05:53 PM
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LOL I was just going to go back and look for your old posts about what you feed Layla on - I'll have to get a few of those this weekend!

Ohhh good .. I can't wait to monitor poops Okay, so I'm already used to doing that to make sure they're both doing okay! Who else besides a dog owner can talk about poop so freely??

Thanks again for the tips!
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Old September 22nd, 2006, 07:21 PM
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oh we love to talk about poop here, LOL! well our dog's poops, that is!

feeding raw is so much fun. i love scouting for sales, shopping for new meats, finding cool butchers and yeah sometimes it's a pain in the butt to haul 50 lbs of meat home and package it all up for the freezer (thank you Dollarstore plastic baggies, LOL), but then for weeks all i have to do is reach in for some goodies, let thaw and there you go

can't wait to hear how it goes for you N'the furkids!
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