Okay, I wanna start Raw today!

[Slingin'Momto4]

Do I just buy chicken thighs and start w/that? Or should I buy other meats? Does she eat the whole thigh at one time? How many times a day do I feed her? Thanks SOOO much for all your help Should I give her an egg or something?

[Raene]

A dog, right?

I don't have a dog at the moment, but I love the prefrozen stuff like this Raw Advantage for our cat. To my understanding, they need the heart and organs as well as ground bones, so it's good to get something like this. And the fact that it's organic is a plus too, though I could see that for a dog that could get very expensive.

As for eggs, when I had dogs, I used to give them whole raw eggs in the shell (outside). They would carry them around and then chomp down. The shell is good for them, too

Good luck!

[Piglet68]

You should check out a raw feeding list, like rawfeeding (yahoo group). They are chock full of info. Here's what I've learned so far:

You could feed her twice a day, or even just once a day. I'm guessing if she is used to two feedings a day you should start with that and work your way down to one if you like.

They say to start with one kind of meat for the first week, then slowly add different kinds. Chicken quarters are usually recommended. Once the dog is doing well on those you can move to other kinds of meat and then organ meats. The diet should be mostly meat, followed by bones, then organ meat. The lists will tell you the percentage ranges for these.

Once my new dog is settled into our home (she comes home Friday, fingers crossed!) I will make the switch to raw in this way.

[Ola_]

Just start with the chicken and feed that for a week or so, no organs, no eggs, no other meats. Too much new stuff at the beginning is the most common cause of loose poops in new-to-raw dogs.

Chicken thighs sound like they will be a good size for your dog. Hand her one and see how she does - she may finish it, she may not. What she doesn't finish you can pick up, stick in a bowl and put it in the fridge. Offer it to her again for the next meal. If you are currently feeding twice a day just do one thigh instead of each meal (i.e. two chicken thighs per day). Or you can mix it up and do a drumstick instead of a thigh some times.

[emc03]

you may want to be careful of the leg bone. we have a st. bernard and we find it upsets her stomach. i think it's harder to digest, so she ends up vomiting instead. otherwise, we find it's best to buy whole chickens (and cheaper too). then we chop it up and bag it. we mix in some beef tongue, kidneys, etc every now and again too depending on sales. my mom gave her pigs feet cooked in a pressure cooker last summer and said she loved it. usually you don't want to give cooked meats, but a pressure cooker kind of pulverizes smaller bones.

feel free to pm me if you have any questions