[tracyc]

Raw dog ranch site is down for a while...but the leerburg e-book linked above is also good.

Like Qyn, I feed pups (regardless of age) the same as adult dogs. 2% of their expected ideal adult weight--i.e. 100 pound dog eats 2 pounds of food a day. So a puppy that will grow up to be a 100 pound dog will also get 2 pounds of food a day. But every dog has to be fed based on that individual dog and how they burn food.

The ratio of RMB and MM is--roughly--half each. So, in the above example, that dog would get a pound of RMB and a pound of MM each day.

Here again, each dog may need a slightly different ratio---you can get a good snapshot of the ratio by the consistency of the dog's poop. But starting at half-and-half will get you in the ballpark.

Every RMB has a different amount of actual bone---chicken thighs have less bone than chicken backs, for example. So much of this you'll simply learn by doing it.

 

[tracyc]

Quote: So a sample meal might be???:
1lb chicken quarters
1lb chicken breast

That would be a whole day's worth, not just one meal...but yes. That's the idea.

You'd really only need to do "chicken only" for perhaps a week at most, not a month. The idea is just to make sure that the chicken isn't causing any digestion or allergic issues before adding a new food. You'd be able to tell in a week.

After the first week of chicken only, you could then start doing chicken quarters and ground turkey. Next week turkey necks and pork. Each week adding a new food.

When thinking of variety, different parts of the same animal don't count. Chicken is chicken. So switching from chicken legs to chicken wings isn't providing a new protein source. Switching from chicken to turkey counts.

Hope that helps.

Check out that e-book from Leerburg.

 

[tracyc]

An RMB with the bone removed is now MM.

So you can remove the bone from a chicken thigh and you have cheap muscle meat.

Your list looks pretty good. You're on the right track. Just constantly keep your eyes open to sales, and don't hesitate to shop at some different places, or call around and inquire.

One thing of note---hearts and gizzards are considered MM.

Even though they are internal organs, they are more like muscle. for the purposes of this diet, the organ meats to use are primarily liver and kidney. There are a few other strange organs, but I almost never see them in stores--pancreas, thymus, brain--those would also be OM.

Heart meat (beef or pork) as well as chicken gizzards are a staple MM at my house.

 

[tracyc]

Chicken legs will not be too big for him--it may take him a couple of minutes to chew on them, but that's the idea.

Don't worry about him swallowing hunks of boneless meat without much chewing--that's what dogs do. Their teeth aren't really made for chewing food into mush like people's teeth. They only need to rip it into hunks that can be swallowed. That chicken breast meat was dissolved to liquid within minutes of it hitting his stomach.

Sounds like you're doing great. Assuming you don't see any issues with vomiting/runny poop/obvious allergic reactions, you should be ready to add a new protein source within a few days. A red meat source might be a good next item---beef or pork heart meat is a cheap option for red meat.

 

[tracyc]

If it's just soft poop, but otherwise he shows no symptoms of being ill, you can try canned pumpkin (plain pumpkin, not pie filling). A few big tablespoonsfull will help improve poop consistency pretty quickly.

 

[tracyc]

That's the magic of pumpkin. It works to equalize the consistency of poop at either extreme.

Pumpkin is just a source of fiber that dogs like the taste of. You could accomplish the same thing with psyllium, (Metamucil is one brand). Fiber holds moisture in the stool...solidifying runny poop and moisturizing hard ones.

Don't let runny (especially watery) poops go on too long without a trip to the vet. Pups can get dehydrated pretty quickly. It could be something totally unrelated to the diet--he could have picked up a parasite drinking from a puddle--who knows. As long as you're seeing improvement in the poop, I think watching and offering some fiber is prudent.

 

[tracyc]

Glad to hear everything's back to normal.

Doesn't really matter what your next protein is--may as well go with something which, like chicken, is readily available and will hopefully be a regular part of the diet.

Some options include turkey or pork--or any kind of fish. Beef is great too, but I have a hard time finding any cut of beef that isn't outside my price range for dog food. Beef heart is usually cheapest. Venison is available to many folks, so that could be an option too.

Most of us will sometimes add in new things every now and then just as a way to add variety, but they aren't items that the dogs get too often. Lamb, mutton, rabbit, goat, quail, emu--you name it. But I don't see any reason to try any of these things early on in the diet. You may as well get through all the "staple" proteins first.

Other stuff like eggs and oils can be worked into your one-thing-at-a-time protocol too.