RAW diet.. anyone care to help me out?

[danimal]

I feed all 4 of our dogs raw. It's really not as complicated as people make it out to be. The key is getting them a wide variety of food sources over time. You don't need to feed every type of food every week. I was worried about it at first too, but once you get going, and see how much more they enjoy eating, and the change in their body composition, it's all worth it.

For an adult dog, a good target for how much to feed is 2-3% of the dog's bodyweight per day. Some dogs need more, others less. It depends on their metabolism and activity level. You can start at that level and then monitor your dog's condition. If you can see too many ribs, up the food. If the dog is getting fat and you can't easily feel ribs under the fur, and can't see maybe the last rib or 2 , cut them back some. For example, our Dane gets 3-4lbs per day, our GSD gets 1.5-2.5lbs/ day, our pug and JRT get about .5 to .75lbs/ day.

When you start, stop feeding any dog food. Use something like chicken leg quarters as a bony meat item, and feed that for 2 weeks or so. Your dog will adjust and probably have loose stools for a few days, but once they get past that part, then you are good.

After 2 weeks, introduce a muscle meat- ground turkey is good. I go for a 2/3 bony meat to 1/3 muscle meat ratio. Keep him on that for a week or so to monitor any issues he might have with your muscle meat source.

After that you can gradually introduce other foods, using the week at a time trial period.

After a month, introduce some organ meat to the diet. I like to use beef liver. I will feed my big dogs (a Great Dane and a German Shepherd) a piece about 2x2x1", and our little guys (pug and JRT) a 1x1x1" piece. They don't need it every day, and it's very rich so be careful feeding too much.

Feeding veggies is something that is choice. Some people think dogs need them, others don't. I don't feed any (but sometimes if there are leftover baked potatoes or plain rice, I'll give them that). I feed canned tripe once a week which covers any nutritional needs that veggies might provide. If you do feed veggies, you have to puree them real good. Dogs have a hard time breaking down the cell walls. Even better would be to boil them until soft and then puree. I personally don't see the need. Dogs are opportunistic feeders, and will eat anything they can, but veggies are not high on their list of preferred foods unless they are real hungry.

Here's a list of things I feed:

"raw meaty bones"
chicken leg quarters (this is our staple- cheap and easy to feed. I don't bother with wings or drumsticks or anything like that as they are too small for most of my dogs. The 2 small ones will get half a leg quarter)
pork ribs
pork necks
pork shoulder (I get big roasts, cut most of the meat off to use as muscle meat, and give a 2-4lb chunk of it with the bone as a meal)
deer ribs, shoulders, necks, backs, hips
beef neck bones for the bigger dogs
turkey wings, drumsticks, backs (I get the turkeys on sale and cut them up into appropropriatly sized pieces)

"Muscle meat"

ground beef
ground turkey
boneless pork
boneless turkey breast
beef briskit, sirloin roast, chuck roast (when it's on sale or on clearance)
deer meat
beef heart
pork heart

"organ meats"
beef liver and kidney
chicken and turkey giblets
green tripe (canned is the easiest way to get this)

Other stuff
whole chickens- I get the small fryer/broilers by the case. One will make a meal for our Dane, and the GSD can eat half and the little guys can eat part of the other half)
rabbits (expensive around here but if someone I know hunts them, I'll feed them)
fish- whole or fillets. I like to use frozen whiting, it's cheap and easy. I try to feed fish once a week.
any kind of game birds like pheasants, whole
lamb or sheep when it's convenient

Supplements
eggs- shell and all. I either mix it in with ground meat, or give a whole egg. They learn how to open it up.
fish oil supplement- I use the grizzly fish oil you get at the pet store
I also will give high end kibble like Innova Evo maybe once a week or so. It's more of a convenience thing. They might get chicken leg quarters and some evo instead of a muscle meat.

As far as chicken necks and backs- I don't mess with them. It takes too many for my big dogs to be worthwhile. Small dogs could be ok with it though. Some backs don't have a lot of meat. You have to monitor your dogs stools to see- if they are sandy/powdery looking, they are getting too much bone.