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Raw Diet / Protein Level

2K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  lovemytb 
#1 ·
Hi Guys,

I have a question. I feed my 9 months old GSD raw with combination of Embark honest kitchen. I basically add raw meat to his honest kitchen and based on how much raw he gets or what exactly I change the amount of honest kitchen he gets. I have some issues with my puppy nothing major at this time, however the vet said I need to watch his protein level. He said he maybe growing too fast and I maybe giving him food that's too rich in a protein. I buy all my meat from My Pet Carnivore and I rotate his protein. Here is what I usually buy and feed him: rabbit, fish, duck, beef, turkey, lamb, goat, mutant, and a little bit of chicken. I try to stay away from chicken but I give him chicken feet as a snack as I was told its good for their joints and I give him beef and lamb bones to chew maybe every other weekend. I don't make it a habit with bones but give it to him every so often. Sometimes he gets a little bit of loose stool from bones so I try to stay away from them and limit what I give him and how much. He is also on the following supplements: wholistic canine complete supplement, wholistic probiotics, wholistic salmon fish oil, and I just started him on missing link. I also give him one raw egg with the shell every other day. Please tell me what am I doing wrong and/or what do I need to do to control protein? I look at all the packages and the protein level is not that much although I found that the salmon oil has 27% of protein. I only give him one or two pumps which equals to 1 tea spoon. I used to give him 3 pumps but someone told me I give him too much of it so I cut down. What are your thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S I feed 3 times a day.
 
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#2 ·
I believe the standard percentages are 80% muscle meat with fat, 10% organ ( not more than 1/2 liver ) and 10% meaty bones.

Are all the rabbit, fish, duck, beef, turkey, lamb, goat, mutant, and a little bit of chicken whole or have bones in them? If not, the bone content might be a bit low as you describe the diet. Yes, too much protein and too little bone is probably not the best. I wonder if the loose stool your dog gets from bones is more the cause of the marrow. If you are giving marrow bones as the bone requirement, I might find a different type of bone....usually non-weight bearing bones as they tend to be "softer" and easier for the dog to deal with and less risk to their teeth. If you are reluctant to feed the proper bones to your dog, see if you can get some minimally processed bone meal and incorporate that into his diet.

Most always, dogs develop a very solid stool when bone is part of the diet...once again...the only loose stools I have ever seen from my dog eating bones is if it marrow bones....the dog eats the marrow and leaves most all of the bone...If you are feeding your dog too much bone their stools will be whitish in color and very dry.

SuperG
 
#3 ·
Yes the bones he gets loose stool from are the marrow bones. The bones I give him that is butchered of beef or other animal he is completely fine on. Everything he gets has bones and organs in them. I buy ground meat that has bones and organs in them and I also buy chunks that have meat on the bone. I make it a point to buy beef liver, beef heart, beef kidney, turkey hearts, lamb heats, and some of the ground stuff includes tripe. The ground stuff is already well balanced to what a dog needs but I rotate between meat chunks, to ground meat, and to organs.
 
#6 ·
Switch to beef KNUCKLE bones, not the legs bone, or scoop out all the marrow from the leg bones before giving them. That should fix the loose stool issue.

The percentages are either:

  • 45% Raw Meaty Bones
  • 50% Muscle Meat
  • 5% Organ Meat

OR

  • 85% Muscle Meat
  • 10% ACTUAL bone - no meat included in this amount)
  • 5% Organ Meat

I think it's easier to calculate the Raw Meaty Bones than the ACTUAL bone so that's what I feed and recommend.

As for growing too fast - most puppies grow more slowly on a raw diet. It's the carbs that can cause problems.
 
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