[Mrdrinkle]

My two gsd girls are 5months old and 49 and 50lbs in weight. I read that a good start is 10% their current weight, but their desired intake has dropped to only 2lbs per day. One of my girls, Kuma, only eats 3-6ounces in the morning and a little over a lb at night.

My question is if this is normal at this age and if I'm going about their diet correctly? They seem to be getting sick of chicken And I wonder if I should move to beef or some other meat. I live in southern California so im stuck with buying meat found at the grocery store.

Background: I started them on raw when they were about 8 weeks with chicken quarter (chopped up). Then moved to whole small chicken with giblets, neck, kidney,livers and heart. For the last month they have been eating whole chicken with beef liver every other day. I've tried the pork but they has some slightly runny stools during that period so I went back to chicken. They have regular activity since I work from home so they get a nice hour walk in the mornings and night. Plus they run around and play with each during the day outside. I spend 30 min to an hour each day playing tug or throwing the ball around.

Thanks for the advice in advance

 

[Las Presitas]

I might be mistaken, but I dont think you are supposed to feed dogs pork at all. Do u mix in veggies and pastas and fruits? Eggs?


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[Clyde]

Puppies typically 5-10% of their body weight. Adults typically 2 %. Most don't need to go as high as 10%. I think there was a very short period when my guy was about 3 months old that he was eating as high as 10% of his body weight.

That would be 5lbs for a 50 pound puppy.

Instead of constantly recalculating the 5% I feed my puppy about 2% of his expected adult weight. So dad was 87 lb I started at 2lb and went from there depending on his body condition. Between the age of 3 months up to 1.5 years his intake varied between 2 and 3 lbs (3 lbs was when he was around the year mark I believe) but now he is eating about about 2 lbs a day and he is 3 years and about 87lbs.

Say you expect your females to reach about 75 lbs. 2% of that is 1.5 lbs. See how that goes and increase or decrease as necessary.

Their desire for food decreased because you were over feeding them.

If they are doing well on the beef organ you can try adding in beef muscle meat. Turkey necks could also be something good to try at this point.

 

[Clyde]

I might be mistaken, but I dont think you are supposed to feed dogs pork at all. Do u mix in veggies and pastas and fruits? Eggs?


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Raw pork is fine in North America.

I feed quite a bit of pork actually my guy just happens to do very well on it. For an example of variety he gets pork (organ, muscle meat, piglets), chicken (organs, whole or leg/backs), turkey (necks) and rabbit (whole with fur). I have always felt he never did so good on beef. You have to find what is right for your dog.

I do hear lots of people say their dogs get runny poop on pork so it doesn't work for all dogs.

 

[Mrs.P]

You need much more variety. What about pork, turkey, goat, beef, duck, rabbit, venison, herring, salmon, catfish ect ect. And Offal from each of those. You're better off with kibble if you can't provide enough variety and balance of ratio from meat muscle to organ to raw meaty bones over time. Call up local butchers ask for scraps, search for local co-ops nearby, do you have a butchery training school nearby? Hope you can find variety!


With that said, those percentages of amounts are just guidelines you have to tailor them to your pup's activity level, metabolism, age, current weight ect example if we have had a really active day planned for tomorrow I will up my pup's food or if he's looking a little chunky I'll cut down by 1/2 a lb

 

[lhczth]

Some dogs can not handle the pork bone, but handle pork heart or meat OK. I feed quite a bit of pork because it is easily available in my area.

Other RMB to look into are turkey (I tend to not feed the legs, but feed everything else) with necks being the easiest to find. Also lamb, mutton (cheaper than lamb), goat, rabbit, duck, quail and some fish.

I feed chicken, turkey, pork, mutton (or lamb) and occasionally rabbit and venison. My main meat source is beef heart or pork heart. Organ meat is beef liver or kidney or chicken livers. On very rare occasions I am able to get lamb heart/liver/kidneys.

 

[Lauri & The Gang]

My two gsd girls are 5months old and 49 and 50lbs in weight. I read that a good start is 10% their current weight, but their desired intake has dropped to only 2lbs per day. One of my girls, Kuma, only eats 3-6ounces in the morning and a little over a lb at night.

I prefer to tell people to do around 5-7% of the puppy's daily weight until they hit about 8-9 moths of age when you can start backing them down to around 2-3%.

Puppies, just like children, go through growth spurts and plateaus. You want to do alot of hands-on judging of their weight and if they are getting the right amount of food.

If you run your hand lightly along their sides and you can feel every rib - they are too thin and need more food. If you have to really press down to feel their ribs - they are too fat and need less food.

Doing this every week will help you determine how much they need. Every dog is different and there's no SET amount to feed.

I live in southern California so im stuck with buying meat found at the grocery store.

Try this Yahoo group to help you find sources: cityofbarfingangels : Resource list for L.A. area raw feeders


You'll want to get more variety in their diet. Fish - canned Jack Mackerel, Cod, any whitefish. Turkey - necks, backs, livers, hearts. Beef - necks, hearts. Rabbit, goat, lamb, etc.

I recommend people aim for 3-5 different protein sources per week.

 

[Lauri & The Gang]

I might be mistaken, but I dont think you are supposed to feed dogs pork at all. Do u mix in veggies and pastas and fruits? Eggs?


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Commercial pork in the US is safe to feed. My guys get pork hearts, liver and neck bones.

Veggies and pasta are not necessary for a dog to eat. Unless the veggies are cooked or juiced (processed to break down the cell walls) dogs won't get many nutrients from them.

Green Tripe is the only 'green/vegetable' I've fed my dogs for the past 10+ years.

Pasta is carbohydrates. Dogs do not need carbohydrates.

 

[Mrdrinkle]

I read the posts and went out to buy different varieties to stock my fridge. Picked some chicken hearts, beef liver, more chicken, ground beef turkey necks, chicken hearts, and some cheap cuts of other beef.

I saw some lamb, but I'll wait for it to go on sale since it's $5 a lb from any markets near me. Rabbit, venison, goat, and green tripe are hard to find. Fish would be a good one too to add to my list the next time I go shopping.

The pups had dinner and had some appetites. Our pup,Kuma, that was not eating as much, left 1/2 of the chicken I fed, however, she was very happy with the livers, hearts, and ground beef.

I stayed away from pork since I don't want them to have runny stools. I feed them twice a day, but they used to eat three times since they were vomiting bile in middle of the night. Is there an advantage to feeding more or less a day other than preference?

 

[doggiedad]

i thought tripe was stomach meat (offal)?

Commercial pork in the US is safe to feed. My guys get pork hearts, liver and neck bones.

Veggies and pasta are not necessary for a dog to eat. Unless the veggies are cooked or juiced (processed to break down the cell walls) dogs won't get many nutrients from them.

>>>>>> Green Tripe is the only 'green/vegetable' <<<<<

I've fed my dogs for the past 10+ years.

Pasta is carbohydrates. Dogs do not need carbohydrates.

 

[Clyde]

i thought tripe was stomach meat (offal)?

Yes but if the cows are grass feed the dog gets the greens

 

[Shikobasmith]

Though I am a vegetarian so I feed green leafy vegetables and fruits to my puppies. These help them be healthy all the time.

 

[Mrs.P]

Though I am a vegetarian so I feed green leafy vegetables and fruits to my puppies. These help them be healthy all the time.

Dogs aren't vegetarians -where are their flat molars? Unless you're thoroughly processing the veggies/fruits they won't have access to the nutrients -all waste.

 

[Lauri & The Gang]

While dogs aren't designed to process leafy veggies or fruits (unless they are extremely overripe or pre-processed), it doesn't hurt to offer them once in awhile.

My gang is currently snacking on the wild blackberries I pick from our bushes. Heck, even my rats like them!

 

[Lauri & The Gang]

i thought tripe was stomach meat (offal)?

Green tripe is the stomach WITH the contents (usually extremely processed green stuff).

That's why it's called green tripe.

Tripe itself is the stomach of the animal and if you see it at a grocery store it will be very white. They empty it of the contents and bleach it in order to make it suitable for human consumption.

Doing that removes all the stuff that makes it wonderful for dogs.