Weaning to raw

Shalva · 06-14-2007, 01:28 PM

I weaned my last litter to raw with no problems, I used a premade raw diet .... Steves.... as I wanted to use a premade that would help and encourage my puppy folks to keep the pups on a raw diet and it worked all the pups except one has stayed on raw.....

I have started weaning these pups last week onto raw... and ended up with a puppy that has had a rough week with constipation and digestive upset....

right now I have the pups on kibble (Innova) which I am really not happy about.... I want them over on raw as soon as I get this little girl sorted out as right now she is eating gerber baby food Chicken..... so the question is.... how do you guys wean your pups.... something I did this time clearly didn't work for this litter so brainstorming with you guys would be really helpful to me.

thanks a bunch
s

Snowshoe · 06-14-2007, 01:33 PM

Wow Shalva, what a great question. I really hope you get lots of good answers on this, as I'm always interested to learn such new things. Especially because in the next two years I'm going to be adding another puppy to my house hold, and I'll want to start and keep that little one on a pre-made RAW diet as well.

Again, good post! If this thread turns out well, it should be made a sitcky!

dansamy · 06-14-2007, 01:37 PM

They make pre-made RAW diets?!? Where's this again?

Sorry, Shalva, no experience weaning pups to anything other than kibble. The only litters I've ever been around were of the "accidental" sort as a kid. (My parents "couldn't afford" to spay/neuter our animals.)

Ginny01OT · 06-14-2007, 01:49 PM

www.naturesvariety.com raw patties and medallions
I know Omas pride does as well and as Shalva said, Steve's, which I have not heard of. I use NV it is great.

borzoimom · 06-14-2007, 02:22 PM

I use "k9 kravings" ( link attached at the bottom of this post) and grind up chicken in a processor with vitamins, raw egg ( one for each 3 pups) and put together.
At 12 weeks I use k9 kravings, chopped up chicken ( blender) and a puppy vitamin.. http://www.k-9kraving.com/ This is the best stuff I have found! And after teething stage of front teeth at about 20 weeks- its regular raw in a processor.

luv4gsds · 06-14-2007, 03:58 PM

I have never fed a premade diet to any of my dogs when they were pups before so I cannot say. But I do know of a couple of breeders who feeds Oma's Pride chicken mix.

If you want to make your own this recipe comes from one of the breeders I got one of my working line females from.

Mix together a can of goats milk, two cans of water, half cup green beans, half cup carrots, half cup peas, cup of organic rice cereal (baby cereal), one whole egg, half pound meat and bone, and 1/4 tsp cod liver oil. Add all these into a food processor.

Ceph · 06-14-2007, 04:17 PM

I am starting my pup out on K-9 cravings with a supplement of kibble (same diet my breeder fed)..then I am moving to a grocery bought raw diet after that I think...alternating with kibble as well....these premade diets are expensive out the wazoo but probably worth it at first.

~Cate

Ginny01OT · 06-14-2007, 04:27 PM

They are definitely pricey but I am hoping that I will save on vet bills in the future. I found another place that is rather reasonable, less than two dollars a pound and they ship (unsure of the price, I can actually drive to the facility and pick it up). I get the beef and tripe mix and the beef and liver mix, Riley loves it. Good quality. It is available thru their online store (their raw meaty bones are also great).

www.martinsk9formula.com

Ceph · 06-14-2007, 05:48 PM

I did a little math on it also - these are about the right price per pound

K-9 Cravings = $1.83 p. Pound (Beef)
Nature's Vareity = $3.83 p. Pound (Chicken)
Steve's Real Food = $2.75 p. Pound (Turkducken)
Oma's Pride = $3.24 p. Pound (Chicken Patty)
Martin's K9 Formula = $1.93 p. Pount (Beef/Tripe)

These are kind of rough estimates and I imagine it changes a little from store to store.

Kind of looking at things I am glad I am going with K-9 Cravings but I think Martin's looks really good also.

B-mom - I just looked this up - let me know what you think between Martin's and Cravings :
A good product begins with top shelf raw materials. Nutritional percentages mean nothing if the raw materials are inferior.

Martin's : (Meat is Beef, tripe, liver, heart and any combination)

Ingredients List:
Meat meal, brewers rice, brown rice, rolled oatmeal, poultry fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and vitamin E), poultry meal, menhaden fish meal, alfalfa, flax meal, dried egg product, natural flavors, tomato pomace, cheese meal, lecithin salt, potassium chloride, choline chloride, Vitamin A supplement, D-activated animal sterol (source of Vitamin D3), Vitamin E supplement, copper proteintate, zinc proteintate, manganese proteintate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, zinc sulfate, niacin, calcium pantothenate, cobalt carbonate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), biotin, folic acid, sodium selenite, Vitamin B12 supplement.

Now with Omega Three!
This product contains a three to one ratio of omega three to omega six essential fatty acids.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude protein, not less than 22.0%
Crude fat, not less than 19.0% (12.0 % for lower fat blend)
Crude fiber, not more than 4.0%
Moisture, not more than 10.0%

Cravings : Beef chicken and veggie
INGREDIENTS: Chicken, Beef, Beef Liver, Sweet Potato, Broccoli, Flax (Linseed) Meal, Rice Bran, Tomato Pomace, Salt, Sunflower Meal, Egg Powder, Carrot Powder, Dried Kelp, Choline Chloride, Manganese Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, natural Vitamin E, Copper Sulfate, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Biotin, Folic Acid, Pyridoxine HCL, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Sulfate, Vitamin B12 supplement.

Guaranteed Analysis, As Fed
Crude Protein (Min.) 16% Crude Fiber (Max.) 2%
Crude Fat (Min.) 12% Moisture (Max.) 65%

And here are the other ones in case you were interested :

Natures Vareity : chicken and turkey
Fresh & Healthy Ingredients
Chicken, Ground Chicken Bone, Turkey, Turkey Liver, Turkey Hearts, Apples, Carrots, Butternut Squash, Ground Flaxseeds, Chicken Eggs, Montmorillonite Clay, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Kelp, Salmon Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Parsley, Honey, Blueberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Persimmons, Olive Oil, Duck Eggs, Pheasant Eggs, Quail Eggs, Inulin, Rosemary Extract, Sage, Clove, Mixed Tocopherols, Citric Acid

Crude Protein (min) 13.0%
Crude Fat (min) 6.0%
Crude Fiber (max) 2.0%
Moisture (max) 68.0%

Oma's Pride Chicken Patty
Poultry: 70% meat/bone
10% organ meats (liver/hearts/gizzards)
20% vegetables chicken-(butternut squash/broccoli/kale) turkey- (green been, yellow squash ,okra)

And I cant for the life of me find their guarteed analysis

Steve's Turckducken

Ground duck, chicken and turkey (including backs, necks, frames & hearts), turkey lives, broccoli, apples, carrots, sardine oil, anchovy oil, flaxseed oil, egg shell powder, dried kelp, sea salt, dicalcium phosphate, extract of chicory, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, copper proteinate, rosemary extract, rice bran, and vitamin E.

Protein:11% minimum
Fat:9% minimum
Fiber: 1% maximum
Moisture: 69% minim

You get the most bang fir the buck out of Martin's it looks like, followed by Cravins.

Now here is those put up against two types kinds of Solid Gold Kibbles (I feed solid Gold so that where I looked first

Ginny01OT · 06-14-2007, 06:32 PM

I think the ingredient list below Martins is for Martin's kibble because there is nothing else in the meat besides the meat and tripe or whatever the combo is. I use Martins and they use pure meat, there is nothing else in it, ----with the meat and tripe combo it is 2/3 meat and 1/3 tripe and same for the beef and liver--I am not sure about the others because that are the two products I use right now. If you go back to their website and look up the raw food in their online store you will see that it says 100% pure beef--

I also know that NV is 95% beef, organs and ground bone (excellent)---all the other "stuff" is 5%

borzoimom · 06-14-2007, 06:33 PM

Very Good Cate!!!!!

luv4gsds · 06-14-2007, 07:30 PM

The mixes I was talking about are the ground not the patties.
This is OMA'S PRIDE Product Description and Pricing

http://www.omaspride.com/products.htm

Oma's Pride™ is a division of Miller Foods
http://www.millerfoodsonline.com/

You can contact them and they will tell you the guaranteed analysis of they products.

h2odog · 06-17-2007, 08:53 PM

You may want to try pre-made raw frozen from A Place For Paws, a wonderful company making many varieties of ground raw frozen meats and meat and veggie combos, as well as raw green tripe. The food is packaged really well in plastic containers and shipped in styofoam coolers. The site is www.aplaceforpaws.com