Switching a puppy to a raw diet?

Question

My older dog already eats raw. He gets a variety of meat, mostly red, veggies and I add a few vitamins and fish oil

I'm looking for info on the switch. How to avoid stomach upsets, what to start with, what to avoid at first, ect...

She will be 8 weeks when I get her and has been eating a high quality kibble

Answer 1

start with ONLY chicken, NECKS,backs and thighs are best (wings work well for toy breeds but are too small for larger breeds) necks are usually the choice for puppies!

strip the skin off and as much of the fat as possible...
this should be the first 2 weeks (feed raw exclusivly)
once the stomach has adusted (for some its almost imediate for some theres a detox) then leave some of the fat/skin on the chicken (the fat and skin is richer hence adding it later)

once the chicken is good you can start intoroducing more protein sources, do ground beef with eggs one day then back to chicken for the rest of the week...if it doesnt upset the tummy next week do ground beef one day then chicken then fish then back to chicken...
by doing it this way and only adding one protein source at a time, if your dog is sensitive to a certain portein source you will know exactly which one and can easily remove it from the roster, whereas if you started giving her beef and fish for the first time in the same week and she got sick you woulnt know which made her sick.

puppies tend to do well with the switch especially if they have ben raised on high quality kibble.

that being said, some puppies take to the switch easy others dont have a clue, for those that think meat is more of a toy than a meal you can warm it up a little. dont cook it through but put it in a hot pan and just whiten the outside for a few seconds...cooking it brings out the flavor even more and many dogs will then eat it...next time seer it less and less and less untill its eating just raw.

good look, just take it SLOW and dont get discouraged, many dogs go through a detox in the first 2 weeks on raw so expect spots and diahrreaa but stick with it be strong and persistent it WILL clear up, just stay with the chicken only diet untill the detox stops.

i usually dont do veggies (i do green tripe instead) but i wouldnt do veggies untill youve added in all the different protein sources you think your going to use and as you likely know with most veggies cook them a little first because dogs cannot properly digest plant matter (the veggie matter they eat in the whild is predigested)

Answer 2

start with chicken. Legs, wings, backs and necks. Do this for about 2 weeks. If she is fine with, you can start adding other protein sources, one at a time, about a week part. If she gets diarrhea, back up one protein source. Make sure she gets bones, everyday. If you feed necks and backs, that won't be a problem. They are very soft, my 10 week pups have been eating raw bones since they were 6 weeks, one of them since 4 weeks. Also, once they are accepting new meats with no problem, add organ meats. This should make up 10% of your dogs diet.
I would seriously consider not feeding veggies. Dogs, contrary to popular belief, are NOT omnivores, they are carnivores. Feeding veggies can be tricky anyway, for many have to be cooked to be digested, and others have to be raw to be digested. Plus, they metabolize into sugar in the dog's system. Dogs are designed do that every single vitamin and nutrient they need is found in abundance in meat, bones and organ meat.

my claim is based of the fact that wild dogs, and wolves do not eat any kind of plant matter. They kill their prey, they eat the meat, bones and organs, and that's it. They actually go through the trouble to spill the stomach contents out all over the ground, so they can eat the lining without all the digested grass. They don't graze, they don't go pick berries, they don't go grind up grains..... hello, this means carnivore.
Just because a dog will eat veggies and grains doesn't mean that is what a dog should eat. By your logic, dogs should eat anything they can swallow. Why don't i leave antifreeze and cholocate on the floor, my dogs will eat it all. This means they should be eating that, why don't i put it in theri food.......
Have you ever compared poop of a raw fed dog to kibble fed dog? The kibble fed dogs poop is nothing but UNDIGESTED GRAINS! Dogs cannot digest grain. They can't digest corn, they can't digest rice(no, not even the precious brown rice), they simply aren't meant to eat it.

Answer 3

Actually switching right off is fine. Never mix your kibble and raw. If you do want to continue the kibble for a feeding, do it as a small snack in the middle of the day, but i would say just drop it. You may want to stay from chicken till she is about 10 weeks old as the extra bacteria in the chicken can cause gas... but once she is a little older, she should be able to handle it well.

Glad to see another "raw family"

Answer 4

You can start immediately. I know some mushers who start feeding their puppies meat as soon as they are eating solid food. In my experience when switching a dog's diet to a higher quality food no transition time is needed.

Answer 5

What is wrong with the high quality kibble?
I have friends who've put their dogs on the "raw" diet & they ALWAYS have switched back.
It's too much of a pain & it's dangerous. You do not know that you're giving your dog the right balance of fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, etc.
Dog food companies have done a LOT of research making dog foods properly balanced & nutritious. Why waste your time & money & risk your dogs health with these FAD diets?
By the way - I have a friend whose dog choked to death on a raw diet cuz he was so anxious to swallow the meat whole.
Majestic Moose - On what do your base your claim that dogs are solely carnivores? That is SO not true!
Put a bunch of food on the floor - the dog will eat ALL of it. Pasta, veggies, meats, ALL of it. They, and their ancestral wild dogs & wolves ARE omnivores. They eat what they can find to survive.