Hi everyone,
Frequent reader of this forum, but this is my first time ever posting something - so bear with me.
My girlfriend and I got out GSD Rory back in September 2015. It is our first dog and we absolutely love her to death. With that being said, we wanted to feed her the best food out there (unfortunately, also the most expensive). We bought Orijen - which I will say is wonderful dog food if you are willing to dish out $85-$95 for a 28.6-lb bag.
For us, that price tag was way too high after months of feeding her. I wanted to get something different for her, but no lose all the benefits of a high-end dog food. After all my research, that just cannot be done with dry food. But I began to read about the BARF diet and fell in love with it. I already liked putting together meals for her, so the transition of the time and effort required for a BARF diet was a piece of cake.
We have been on the BARF diet for roughly a month now. I am currently feeding her once a day. At her servings, I will give her two chicken backs/thighs, a mix of either chicken liver, chicken heart, chicken gizzards, or beef liver (so far). I will also toss in a fruit or vegetable of the day (apple, banana, carrot), as well as one to two eggs. I will also occasionally mix in some peanut butter.
For the first couple of weeks, I could not be happier with her poops. As a proud dog owner now, I am fascinated with what comes out. Instead of large, smelly poops when she was eating kibble, it is now only a couple of hard, balled-up "rabbit poops" that don't smell like a thing.
However, in the past 48 hours, Rory (my GSD) has had a serious case of diarrhea - and now constipation. Being a newcomer to the BARF diet, my immediate reaction is that I totally screwed something up with her diet and that she is sick to her stomach and I'm an awful owner and the snowball keeps going, as many of you probably already know.
Now, this is certainly a loaded question. How does her diet look? I would love some help/suggestions. Am I lacking any particular vitamins, minerals? I read all the time about adding supplements to the mix, but haven't been able to find if I'm lacking any in the first place. Secondly, any idea why she all-of-the-sudden is suffering from a combination of diarrhea and constipation? She is not vomiting and is acting completely normal. It is just a cause for concern because I have not seen this issue since switching to the BARF diet and experiencing wonderful stools.
Hopefully I can get some responses (I'm definitely a fan of constructive criticism) and I also hope that this will help some newbie BARF diet owners as well. Thank you!
Frequent reader of this forum, but this is my first time ever posting something - so bear with me.
My girlfriend and I got out GSD Rory back in September 2015. It is our first dog and we absolutely love her to death. With that being said, we wanted to feed her the best food out there (unfortunately, also the most expensive). We bought Orijen - which I will say is wonderful dog food if you are willing to dish out $85-$95 for a 28.6-lb bag.
For us, that price tag was way too high after months of feeding her. I wanted to get something different for her, but no lose all the benefits of a high-end dog food. After all my research, that just cannot be done with dry food. But I began to read about the BARF diet and fell in love with it. I already liked putting together meals for her, so the transition of the time and effort required for a BARF diet was a piece of cake.
We have been on the BARF diet for roughly a month now. I am currently feeding her once a day. At her servings, I will give her two chicken backs/thighs, a mix of either chicken liver, chicken heart, chicken gizzards, or beef liver (so far). I will also toss in a fruit or vegetable of the day (apple, banana, carrot), as well as one to two eggs. I will also occasionally mix in some peanut butter.
For the first couple of weeks, I could not be happier with her poops. As a proud dog owner now, I am fascinated with what comes out. Instead of large, smelly poops when she was eating kibble, it is now only a couple of hard, balled-up "rabbit poops" that don't smell like a thing.
However, in the past 48 hours, Rory (my GSD) has had a serious case of diarrhea - and now constipation. Being a newcomer to the BARF diet, my immediate reaction is that I totally screwed something up with her diet and that she is sick to her stomach and I'm an awful owner and the snowball keeps going, as many of you probably already know.
Now, this is certainly a loaded question. How does her diet look? I would love some help/suggestions. Am I lacking any particular vitamins, minerals? I read all the time about adding supplements to the mix, but haven't been able to find if I'm lacking any in the first place. Secondly, any idea why she all-of-the-sudden is suffering from a combination of diarrhea and constipation? She is not vomiting and is acting completely normal. It is just a cause for concern because I have not seen this issue since switching to the BARF diet and experiencing wonderful stools.
Hopefully I can get some responses (I'm definitely a fan of constructive criticism) and I also hope that this will help some newbie BARF diet owners as well. Thank you!