Hello everyone. I have a 2 year old black lab named Ruger. Ruger has been on PEDIGREE® Chicken and Rice for just over a year now. I hear alot about a Raw food diet and that it is the best. I was wondering if it is too late to switch him and if now how do I go about it without making him sick. Thanks
ChrisSask
Nope never to late. I switched a 13 year old dog over last year and he got a new lease on life.
Make sure you research it well before you do anything.
Make sure you research it well before you do anything.
Max switched to raw when he was nearly 8 years old, you can do it. Read through the sticky at the top of this forum and take notes and bookmark sites.
For at least the first week you feed chicken only, after that slowly switch to other proteins, turkey/pork/beef/lamb/fish are the usual suspects. It is like introducing a human baby to solid foods, go slow and bland and add in new stuff gradually. If chicken goes fine but pork sets him back go back to the chicken until things are okay and either work on a different protein or retry the pork going even slower. I substituted 1 ounce of pork/beef/lamb/turkey for 1 ounce of chicken meat at a time, if Max was having trouble I would go to 1/2 ounce at a time instead. And some different cuts of meat are richer and need to be introduced too, hearts and gizzards and tongue maybe. After all the usual meats are good, feeding half chicken and half beef/pork/lamb/turkey then you start with organs. I cut the organ into daily bits and froze all on a sheet of plastic wrap then took one out and slivered it as small as I could. I gave one sliver the first day, 2 the next and so on as long as he was tolerating the rich organ.
For amount to feed, start by multiplying your dog's IDEAL weight by 2%. If your dog weighs 83 pounds and ideal weight is 75 then start by feeding the dog 24 ounces of food a day. First couple days you might want to make the food super bland by pulling the skin off the bits. If poop is good then try leaving more skin on until poop is good with all the skin belonging to that chicken left on.
Loose and weird looking stool is common starting out but blow out urgent diarrhea isn't. If diarrhea happens then fast the dog [skip at least one meal] and start up with super bony backs that have been skinned and all the fat removed. If poop is odd, you can switch to bony and lean but you don't need to fast the dog. Often times poop will be delayed. This diet is extremely low in waste and the gut often has trouble switching gears and moving things along for a few days. Poop will be tiny and firm and probably yellow from the chicken. Weighing the meal carefully really helps, loose stool is often caused by over feeding. Max would have soft large poop and I would feed more bone and it stayed large. I weighed the meal, I was giving him 120-150% his usual daily. Oops.
You can see buying a number of chickens ready for all situations is a good idea. Observing the poop is a good idea too! This isn't done by rote but by observation and adjustment.
For at least the first week you feed chicken only, after that slowly switch to other proteins, turkey/pork/beef/lamb/fish are the usual suspects. It is like introducing a human baby to solid foods, go slow and bland and add in new stuff gradually. If chicken goes fine but pork sets him back go back to the chicken until things are okay and either work on a different protein or retry the pork going even slower. I substituted 1 ounce of pork/beef/lamb/turkey for 1 ounce of chicken meat at a time, if Max was having trouble I would go to 1/2 ounce at a time instead. And some different cuts of meat are richer and need to be introduced too, hearts and gizzards and tongue maybe. After all the usual meats are good, feeding half chicken and half beef/pork/lamb/turkey then you start with organs. I cut the organ into daily bits and froze all on a sheet of plastic wrap then took one out and slivered it as small as I could. I gave one sliver the first day, 2 the next and so on as long as he was tolerating the rich organ.
For amount to feed, start by multiplying your dog's IDEAL weight by 2%. If your dog weighs 83 pounds and ideal weight is 75 then start by feeding the dog 24 ounces of food a day. First couple days you might want to make the food super bland by pulling the skin off the bits. If poop is good then try leaving more skin on until poop is good with all the skin belonging to that chicken left on.
Loose and weird looking stool is common starting out but blow out urgent diarrhea isn't. If diarrhea happens then fast the dog [skip at least one meal] and start up with super bony backs that have been skinned and all the fat removed. If poop is odd, you can switch to bony and lean but you don't need to fast the dog. Often times poop will be delayed. This diet is extremely low in waste and the gut often has trouble switching gears and moving things along for a few days. Poop will be tiny and firm and probably yellow from the chicken. Weighing the meal carefully really helps, loose stool is often caused by over feeding. Max would have soft large poop and I would feed more bone and it stayed large. I weighed the meal, I was giving him 120-150% his usual daily. Oops.
You can see buying a number of chickens ready for all situations is a good idea. Observing the poop is a good idea too! This isn't done by rote but by observation and adjustment.
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
