[briteday]

This is all part of the "knowing what to do." You need to read the label on the calcium jar and see what they state as the "elemental calcium" amount per tablet. 600 mg means nothing. Is that calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, or elemental calcium?

You are aiming for 1000 mg of elemental calcium per pound of meat.

[Love's_Sophie]

I guess I wouldn't have said what I wanted the chicken for...Lol...most people just have not a clue about feeding raw to dogs!

[Kathyy]

I leave the mexican market with 20 pounds of assorted animal bits. They have to know I a white woman am not cooking it for myself. Pork liver and chicken feet, yum? I do tell the checker at the local market the 10 pounds of ground beef is for my sick old dog. Most of them have been there, done that and understand trying to keep the old guys going and happy.

[DobManiac]

Originally Posted by briteday

This is all part of the "knowing what to do." You need to read the label on the calcium jar and see what they state as the "elemental calcium" amount per tablet. 600 mg means nothing. Is that calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, or elemental calcium?

You are aiming for 1000 mg of elemental calcium per pound of meat.

Your right. I looked on the back of the bottle and it's 1200mg of elemental calcium. The 600mg is for calcium carbonate.

There poops were a little yellow today, so I shouldn't need to add anything more than the egg shells. I measured it out and saved the remaining shells for later.

Is there anything else I can give them besides the ground beef? They butcher did have beef hearts and I believe heart is a muscle meat. Would that be a problem?

[Kathyy]

Heart is terrific. Buy now, feed later. Don't make any changes to the diet until they have been stable for a while.

[DobManiac]

Originally Posted by Kathyy

Heart is terrific. Buy now, feed later. Don't make any changes to the diet until they have been stable for a while.

OK, I'll just keep them on this for two solid weeks then. After that we can try small portions of beef liver and maybe add heart.

[stuart9682]

Originally Posted by briteday

The reason most of us start with chicken is because it is one of the easiest proteins to digest , AND...has almost a near perfect calcium : phosphorus ratio range if you feed the entire bird over time. So by far, chicken is the easiest for the dog as well as the new raw feeding owner.

I second the motion on egg shells. If not finely ground they will pass through without much calcium being absorbed. 1/2 teaspoon of finely ground egg shell provides ~1000 mg of elemental calcium and that should balance about one pound of raw meat. Also, 2 Tums (any brand will do, even Wally World generic) per pound of meat will do as well. (Just a brief lesson in calcium...there is a difference in calcium carbonate vs elemental calcium...only the elemental calcium portion counts for our purposes as raw feeders... just in case you're inclined to read labels or find info about calcium in your research).

And I second the motion that you shouldn't worry, unless you have a puppy in the crowd, that they will be eating a less than well-balanced diet for a month or two. You should take things very slowly in the beginning, easier on you and the dogs. Some people take a month or so just to get chicken meat / bones and add in chicken organs. Most dogs can tolerate a short period of time to properly adjust their digestive enzymes for the switch to raw.

Ground beef typically is 20-30% fat. In the beginning that may be too much fat for your dogs. But remember later on, this rule will change once your dogs are established on raw. If you will be relying on the grocery or butcher for most of their eat diet, most meat for human consumption is bred, raised, and cut to be very lean. Once your dogs are estblished you will want to add in some fat to the meals, for energy reserves / skin-coat / caloric intake. But yoiur dogs will get acclimated to higher fat through the introduction of the chicken starter diet. Various parts of the chicken have more skin and other fat (think dark meat) than say, lean chicken breasts. So fat digestion comes with time, if done correctly.

I found this post VERY helpful, and wanted to throw a couple images up to append what you are talking about. See attached.