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I know there are tons and tons of threads on a raw diet, but it is a little bit hard to sift through all of them.
I am strongly considering switching to raw for my 12 lb. Chug (pug/chihuahua) mix. She's a year and a half and has always been on dry kibble.
Costco sells a three pack of ground turkey that I think may possibly be organic. I was thinking about starting her on that. About a cup per day.
Thoughts?
Also is it better to truly just give it to her raw? What about lightly cooked in some grape seed oil?
Thank you all for your help on a subject that has already been talked about a lot on here.
I'd stay away from ground meat, since the benefit lies in actually gnawing through bones and consuming the bones. Your dog will be deficient in minerals if she does not eat the bone.
Start with some chicken necks/backs. You can buy a single chicken neck at most supermarkets/butcher shops. After she gets used to that, you can start experimenting with other protein sources.
Also, I would not cook the food. Either go raw all the way or stick to kibble. If you only cook part of it, meaning the outside is fully cooked but the inside is raw, you can make her very sick. Cooked food takes a long time to digests and the juices from the raw will mix in her gut and possibly lead to contamination. You don't ever want to mix cooked/raw food together!
I know it was posted in the other site, but in case you missed it here is a link to an awesome site regarding raw and how to start feeding your dog a raw diet.
I think you'd want to start with a more meatier choice. Chicken breast or thigh. Necks and backs are too much bone, can constipate. Or just supplement that with meat.
If your dog isn't overweight, feed 3% of her weight.
12 x 16 = 192 ozs / .03 = 5.76 ozs to feed per day. You need less than a cup a day.
I have a 2.5 year old female pug. We've had her for a year and a half, and she's been fed the Prey Model Raw diet for almost all of that. She's currently about a pound overweight, so we've dropped to about 2.5% of her ideal body weight, one meal each day.
I would start with chicken, for a few weeks at least. Make sure you have boneless and bone in meals ready for her. Since the optimum ratio is 80 meat, 10 bone, 10 organ, we started her on lots of chicken breast and thigh. After she has settled down on the chicken, then add something else about 2 times per week for another few weeks, like pork or beef. Ground is fine, but make sure she's getting enough bone. After she's got a couple kinds of different protein in her diet, start adding small amounts of organ. We went straight for liver. She'll only eat chicken liver, not beef liver. Not sure why. But either is fine. Search around for different types of organ, but I think around half of all organ you feed should be liver.
Beyond that, over time you can add all kinds of things. I live in western NC and I hit the creek in my yard and catch her fresh trout. She loves it. Bones, head, eyes and all. Just throw it at her and after playing with it for a while she goes to town on it.
One other suggestion. Community is split on this, but I haven't heard any downside to it. I feed her everything frozen. Buy it, bring it home, cut it up in weighed out portions, bag it and freeze it. Firstly, what you buy lasts much longer of course, and it frees you up to purchase large portions when you find stuff on sale. But more importantly, I find it satisfies her more. If she downs her meal in 30 seconds, which is sometimes possible, she's left wanting. Freezing it means there is lots of licking and chewing (and regurgitating which tends to happen from time to time no matter what, especially with small breeds), and it takes her a good amount of time to eat. When she's done, she feels like she had a full satisfying meal.
Anyway, feel free to message me with any other questions. I can't promise a quick response...I'm in the mountains on dial up (ugh), so I don't check this stuff every day. But I will get back to you. Good luck, and feel comfort that you are doing the best thing you can for your pet.
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