discouraged and unsure

The first recipe for a raw diet is very simple. Remove 1 to 2 chicken leg quarters from packaging, place in bowl or hand to dog, wash hands, watch dog enjoy meal.

Repeat daily for 1 to 2 weeks. Add another protein source and repeat the above steps.

Eventually you will work up to lots of variety over time and tweek the bone to meat ratio (chicken quaters are fairly balanced for my guys). Some RMB like wings and necks you will want to add more meat to. Things like necks (duck, turkey, chicken or pork) this I like to add straight meat (beef heart, venny, pork, turkey or canned fish like Mackerel, Salmon or Sardines).

The most "difficult" thing about feeding raw is tweeking the RMB, muscle meat and organ meat ratios but that will come with time and the best way to judge it is in da poop.

Poop reports:

dry/constipation- too much bone.... add more meat
dark and runny- more than likly too much organ meat- just cut it back
med and runny/loose- too much meat add more bone

Poop reports are general and may vary from dog to dog.

Congratulations, Betsy! Isn't it cool to see how much they enjoy their food when they eat raw?

One thing I would caution you on is not to feed kibble at the same meal as raw. Dogs digest meat very quickly, which protects their bodies from getting sick from bacteria, etc from the raw meat like people do. If you mix kibble in with the raw, they digest the kibble much more slowly, which holds up the process of eliminating whatever meat was mixed in their stomach with the kibble. (Hope I'm explaining this clearly). Supposedly, this can result in the dog getting sick from the bacteria in the meat, when he/she normally would not.

This is just what I've read during my extensive research on feeding raw...take it for what it's worth.

P.S. I meant to add that you can still feed kibble, of course, just not at the same meal. Kodee eats 2x/daily, and he gets grain-free kibble every a.m., and about 2-3 evenings a week he gets raw, and kibble on the other 4-5 evenings.

Thanks, She seems fine this evening, but I will make sure I dont mix in the future. She sure was a happy girl

From my understanding, there isn't any real solid proof that mixing kibble and raw together is bad. Some here on the board feed raw and kibble together and have no problems. Others will feed only raw MM with kibble but save the RMB's for a seperate meal and others won't feed that two in the same meal or same day. I would say do your own reserach and see how your dog reacts to your feeding.

I initially started my pup on raw and kibble mixed, but have since switched to an all raw diet. Lily looked at me like I was crazy when I put a bowl of kibble in front of her instead of her raw meals! She'd eat it, but only after realizing that nothing else was coming.