Raw diet, bones and poop.

[Wild Wolf]

Hey everyone,

Hunter has been on raw since he got home almost a week ago. I just wanted to confirm that having pieces of bone in the poop is okay. He was whimpering around the house so I took him downstairs to poop, and it was at first liquidy then turned soft/formed with some bone fragments in it. He wasn't making a noise, just straining a little bit. Is this normal for a pup on raw?

I forgot to ask if the bone is supposed to be 100% digested or if some is supposed to come out in his poop.

Thanks!

[Jax08]

How old is he? What are you feeding him?

The only time Jax had bone in her poop, with diarhea, it was from pork ribs that she couldn't digest. I haven't had any problem with any poultry bones.

[Wild Wolf]

Originally Posted by Jax08

How old is he? What are you feeding him?

The only time Jax had bone in her poop, with diarhea, it was from pork ribs that she couldn't digest. I haven't had any problem with any poultry bones.

He is nine weeks old as of yesterday. Just chicken bones he has been eating this entire week. He gets neck bones and chicken backs.

[Castlemaid]

That is too much bone. You need to round it out with more MM. Since this is his first week on raw, his system is adjusting. My dogs will occasionally poop out a piece of bone, normal and no biggy.

[Wild Wolf]

Originally Posted by Castlemaid

That is too much bone. You need to round it out with more MM. Since this is his first week on raw, his system is adjusting. My dogs will occasionally poop out a piece of bone, normal and no biggy.

Oh, okay! I will reduce the amount of bone he is eating. I noticed he goes right for his RMB and will eat that first and always leave some MM. Usually he gets almost equal portions of ground beef based on his 2% adult weight calculation (11.8 oz, I think). This morning he ate all his MM - chicken hearts, gizzards and ground beef.

Thank you!

[Wild Wolf]

This is his current plan:

12.8 oz RMB
11.5 MM
1.2 OM

For the past week he has been getting chicken backs/necks and ground beef, some turkey wings and a turkey neck were in there as well. He just started on chicken hearts/gizzards this morning. Had that and ground beef to make up his MM.

[Castlemaid]

I think that is too much variety to start - that may be the cause of his liquid poo - usually when starting on a raw diet, you start with ONE protein source, keep at it for a week or two, and if no problems, you add another source, and so on. The ratios look good - I'm not a stickler for exact ratios, I eyeball things, but others feel better if they measure and calculate exactly.

I say try chicken only for a week, then do chicken and something else for another week or two, and so on. You have to give his system a chance to adjust to new protein/food sources, and the system will have a much harder time to do so if too much variety is introduced too fast. Another reason to do it that way is to see if your dog has any food sensitivities - for example, a lot of dogs will get sick on raw turkey for some reason. If he is on chicken only and is doing fine, and you add turkey and he getst sick, well, you know the turkey is the culprit.

Also introduce organ meats in small amounts too. Stick to the organ meats from protein sources you know his body can handle. So if he is eating chicken, he only gets chicken livers as OM. Then when he is also eating beef and doing well, you can introduce beef organs, a little at a time, and so on.