# I Hope I Am Doing This Right



## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

So, I just adopted a 9 year old girl from the breeder that retired her. She has been fed a raw/kibble diet for many years.

The previous owner sent a small bag of the kibble home with me. It is Natural Balance.

I was told when we picked Fenna up that she was fed a couple of cups of the kibble in the morning, and then given two chicken pieces in the evening. She showed me the bag of frozen chicken that she buys. I *think* she said that she gave her two chicken legs, but that seems like a fairly small meal for such a big dog, and I could easily be remembering wrong.

So, when we got home I went down to the bulk store and bought a lot of chicken thighs, bone in. I have been giving her two cups of moistened kibble in the a.m. and two cups of moistened kibble in the p.m. with two chicken thighs tossed in the bowl on top of the kibble. 
She is cleaning her plate every meal (she refused the first two meals we offered her, but once my husband hand fed her once she has eaten really well on her own).

I would like to see more meat on her bones before I get her spayed. I don't think my vet will do the surgery before she puts on some weight. You can see her ribs, and feel all the knobby protuberances of her spine. She has some stringy muscles on her shoulders and hindquarters, but you can feel her shoulder blades and hip bones. Her previous owner told me that she has been hard to keep weight on, despite having a good appetite.

Am I doing this right? Is there anything special I need to do to the meat before I give it to her? She eats in her crate. How much chicken should she be getting? And what other raw meats can I offer her?

I am very intrigued by this. I am pondering starting to offer my other dogs a chicken thigh with their dinner.
Sheilah


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## Tbarrios333 (May 31, 2009)

I'll leave this to the experts but I think that just because she has two thighs in her dinner doesn't mean she's getting enough food.
Should try to figure out how many pounds of food she needs to be eating based on her ideal weight.


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

That sounds like about the right amount of food, it's more than I feed my 55-60 pounds dogs, but every dog has different needs.

For example, I might feed 1.5 cups of kibble in the morning, they would get 2-3 (depending on size) chicken thighs for dinner. 

For other meats, stick to meat with bones. You could get turkey thighs, chicken breasts with ribs attached or chicken quarters (really cheap at Walmart). I've also fed pork chops with bone in. Watch with the fatty meats though. Some dogs don't tolerate them as well as others, those would be the pork and the dark poultry meats. 

One thing I won't do is feed meaty bones in the same meal as kibble. I might add ground meat only to kibble, but not with the bones. You can also put a raw egg and some yogurt in the morning kibble.


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## Mandalay (Apr 21, 2008)

Mandalay is between 85-90 lbs, (did not eat as much when we first moved, plus we have a bigger yard in the new house and dogs surrounding us that she has been running with so she lost a few pounds the 1st few weeks we were here) 26.5 inches high.

She gets 2.5 cups of kibble in the morning. I give her raw at the same time because she wont eat it all in the same sitting anyway...either chicken quarter or a sandwich baggie of a satin ball kind of mixture, beef and bones -whatever. 3 times a week I toss a raw egg in with it. She will eat the raw food right away. The kibble she munches on as the day goes on. Usually it is gone by 6 or so at night. If I notice her looming around the food bowl, looking in, I'll give her another cup or so. Sometimes she'll eat that and sometimes she won't...depends on her activity that day. If it was too hot to spend much time outside, she does not eat as much. If she worked up an appetite playing in the pool or running along the fence, she eats a little more.

I think one of the best ways to determine if your dog is eating enough is to weigh her. In a few weeks weigh her again. If she lost weight or seems hungry all the time, feed her a little more.

Also, (Lauri I hope you dont mind me linking,) Lauri has a great site with lots of raw feeding information. http://www.rawdogranch.com/index.htm


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## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

I think that, if you're going to feed raw, you need to feed a proper amount based on the dogs weight. You cannot just throw a few legs in there and expect that to be sufficient because the legs will weight a different amount every time and her day-to-day weight of food will be different every time.

If you're serious about raw, I personally think you should just feed her an actual raw meal for dinner and keep the kibble for breakfast. I just don't think that throwing some legs on top of her kibble will cut it. What is especially important is that, with raw diets, a dog _needs_ (yes, _needs_) variety and chicken day in and day out is not the variety a raw diet would require.

Read Lauri's website (in the comment above) and start to form a foundation of raw knowledge. It seems as though your dog isn't eating enough to begin with. In contrast with that Mandalay says, I don't think that weight is important so much as the way the dog actually _looks_ and _feels_. You described your newest addition as having ribs and hips bones that show. That's too thin (as you've already assumed.) Many people would ideal like to be able to feel a dogs ribs but not actually be able to see them. Once you reach that look, your dog will be at an ideal weight. Weight alone isn't a good indicator because who is to say how much your dog should ideally weigh? You've got to wait until she gets to that weight first, then weight her and you'll know how much she should weight.

You can feed kibble and raw mixed in the same meal. Some people believe that the raw and kibble digest at different weights and thus try to feed them in separate meals. Although there is no real evidence to this either way. Some dogs simply do not do well with meals mixed (although your dog probably does since that's how she's been eating.) I like to separate the meals because it's easier to know how much to feed, in my opinion. You're only supposed to supplement 30% of the kibble with fresh foods. Then you have to subtract 30% and add only enough fresh meat to equal the total calories you subtracted in kibble. It's confusing.

I would really recommend getting rid of one kibble meal and feed 1-1.5% (probably 1.5% because you want your girl to gain weight) of your dogs _IDEAL_ weight. (Notice that "ideal" is not "current!") 

Keep reading up and decide what you think would be best for your girl; all kibble, half and half (which is what I do, personally) or all raw. Keep reading, keep asking questions and let us know if you need any more help!


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## Mandalay (Apr 21, 2008)

> Originally Posted By: JerzeyGSD In contrast with that Mandalay says, I don't think that weight is important so much as the way the dog actually _looks_ and _feels_.


I do agree with this. I suppose I was not specific enough. I was intending it to come out as weighing to maintain weight. I weigh Mandi every month, but also pay attention to how she looks along the back, sides, legs, etc. I should have been more specific in saying that weighing the dog is a guideline and a place to start. Sometimes since we see our dogs everyday, we may not notice a few pounds here and there (just as we dont notice on ourselves until we see a picture someone else has taken) and weighing is a good way to pay attention.


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## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

> Originally Posted By: Mandalay Sometimes since we see our dogs everyday, we may not notice a few pounds here and there (just as we dont notice on ourselves until we see a picture someone else has taken) and weighing is a good way to pay attention.


That's a really good point.







I should probably weight Jerzey more, I just need a bigger scale!


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## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

Yep, the breeder I got her from fed kibble in the morning and only the raw chicken in the evening. I added kibble to her evening meal simply based on how thin she was.

A friend of mine locally feeds raw and she put me in touch with the woman that she gets her meats from. I would very much like to add some variety to her diet, so this might be a good way of getting some different types of meat.

I'll go check out the website you all have mentioned.
Sheilah


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## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

You should figure out the weight your vet thinks the dog should be and feed her 1.5% of her weight (in oz) of raw food. I have a spreadsheet that will calculate how much you should feed her (in oz) that makes the math work a bit less daunting. 

You could try adding a fatter meat, such as ground beef, to her meals to act as her MM (Muscle meat) since the dog shouldn't just be eating RMB (Raw Meaty bones), which is what chicken legs would count as. Plus, legs don't really have much meat on them to begin with...

I just don't think that two chicken legs is enough for a grown dog. (Well, obviously it's not because your dog is currently underweight.) She also really should eat more than just chicken, as I said before. Keep reading around Lauri's site as well as the forum to get more ideas on how people who have just started raw go about it. I think a correctly done raw diet would be great for your girl!


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## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

I'm taking her into the vet tomorrow and will get a weight on her then. I am going to follow her weight with keen interest. 

I checked out Lauri's website and found it very interesting. What a fantastic resource.
Sheilah


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## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

Jerzey gained nearly 10 pounds (of muscle, I'm assuming) when she started raw; even the vet couldn't believe that she was carrying that much weight... she just doesn't look that heavy/big. I bet your girl will put on healthy weight pretty quickly.


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