# 5 month GSD Raw Diet - Am I doing ok? (Long Read)



## BraGGin Rights (Jul 7, 2012)

5 1/2 month old male GSD, non fixed. Weighs approx 40lbs.

This is my first GSD, and first dog I've owned on my own (with wife and kids). I'm in the military and stationed in Germany (where I got Rudy).
I've had Rudy on the BARF diet since I've received him at 8wks. Being in a country where it's hard to order foods from companies in bulk, or even shop on the economy because I don't know where I could find a variety of foods that fit the BARF diet. I mainly just shop at our commissary on base.

His diet consists of mainly talapia, ground beef/turkey, beef tips, boneless skinless chicken breast, chicken breast with bone, chicken drums and legs, turkey wings, raw eggs, and sometimes duck, pork ribs, and turkey neck bones. I very rarely ever find any organ meats. He's had liver once.

I feed him 3x a day, and lately i've been doing about 3 lbs a day.

I'm kind of unsure how much to feed him. I've read on other sites that they typically get 5-10% of their weight for growing puppies, and adults do 2-3% of their goal weight. Am i right about this? I typically do about 10% for Rudy because he's stayed pretty skinny where I could see his ribs pretty well, but lately he's starting to fill out a little better to where his ribs arent very visible but you can still feel them well when I gently press...so i may go down to around 7%.

How am I doing so far? I know he needs more balanced food, like organ meats and such, but its hard to find that. I've been asking co workers and locals about a good meat store off base, but haven't really heard anything yet.


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## BraGGin Rights (Jul 7, 2012)

I forgot to add, and was unable to edit my orginal post, but Rudy is slightly active. We try to train him about 20 minutes a day (sit, stay, come), and walk for about 1-2 miles a day (more if my wife has time to take him out for a walk while I'm at work), where we mix it up with some sprints for about 1/4 mile...or we play with a rope, frisbee, tennis ball in a field (still have trouble with that because he likes to play keep away with the toys)


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## rshkr (Feb 9, 2012)

i get most of my meat from the commissary. you might be surprise that the commissary is cheaper compared to wholesale/butcher/bulk stores.
i only get chicken necks/backs from the butcher the rest i get from the commissary.

i feed my pup 2% of his sire's body weight, that's his supposed adult weight.


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## BraGGin Rights (Jul 7, 2012)

yeah the commissary isn't bad as far as price, but i have a hard time finding organ meats.


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## wyoung2153 (Feb 28, 2010)

For organ meats, I would talk to a local butcher, when I was stationed in Germany they had a good amount of them. You can probably ask the commisary meat department where you can find one or if you are comfortable asking your neighbors (not sure if you live on or off base) They generally are pretty helpful when you start buying on their economy. Sounds liek the rest of the diet is pretty good. When I fed raw, I did 2-3% of the projected Adult weight, I think someone used the Sire's weight as a guideline. Some ratios differ but the one I used was 5-10% OM, 30-40% MM, and the rest RMB. It worked awesome for my Boerboel, but not for my GSD. Titan was too active for this diet.. insane drive, very very active, super high metabloism. check out the BARF forum if you haven't people know a lot about this stuff on that thing.. lol.


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