How much

[Angela Clarke]

Sofie who will be 6 next month loves raw, she is the fussy eater out of my three, I want to put her on raw but I have no idea how much she should have, or if I should then give her supplements as she does not like veggy`s. I donn`t want her to put on weight as she is just right. She is a 10 mile a day dog. Thanks

[Trish Haill]

As an adult she should be on 1% to 2% of her body weight.  80% should be muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% offal (both liver and kidney).  Heart is classed as a muscle meat.  The % should balance out over a week or so, don't worry about getting a good balance every day. 

To begin with just introduce one protein source - chicken is best.  They do not need offal until after 3 or 4 weeks, so just give her wings, legs, carcass, minced chicken, chicken necks etc.  After the first week introduce another protein source alongside the chicken, lamb for example.  That way she can adjust better, and you'll be able to see if anything doesn't agree with her.  Bess cannot eat raw pork, for example.  Oily fish should be fed once a week.

I don't feed any supplements to Bess - some people do, some don't.  Bess doesn't get vegetables at all (except what she steals when I'm cooking). 

Feeding raw you learn to read their body.  You should be getting very small compact stools.  If they are too hard and crumbly you are feeding too much bone, so up the offal and muscle to balance.  Too loose and more bone is needed.  Some dogs need/tolerate a lot more bone than others.  If she starts putting on weight then cut back on the food, if she starts losing it, up the food levels again.  You'll notice she'll drink a lot less as she doesn't need water to bulk up the dry food, and raw contains a lot of their daily water intake in itself.

It really is not difficult to feed raw, although it seems alarming to start with, and I was always worrying about getting the balance right. 

You'll notice that the coat gets lovely and soft, and teeth white! 

[Fran Griffin]

Good reply Trish :-)  Daisy my red&white has veggies because she loves them so much.  I was cutting up veggies for my crok pot this evening, so I gave her the broccoli stems which she loves.  My reds wouldn't dream of having those. They don't like veggies.

[Dianne cook]

Thank you Trish that's all helped me as well.
Goodluck Angela and I hope your Sofie enjoys her new food.

[Dianne cook]

Flame steals the broccoli and carrots, there favourites.

[Trish Haill]

Bess likes Savoy cabbage and Brussels!

[Dianne cook]

By the way Trish, you so right about the coat. Flame has never ever had a nice coat I always put it down to been neutered, I'm sure he's new diet has contributed to the lovely coat he now has.

[Rita Wilson]

For puppies 2-3% of their adult body weight is recommended. I feed Bracken 3% of his adult body weight as he was very active.  

Trish we don't feed vegetables either, we make sure we have the right balance between meat, organ meat and bone. As long as you feed raw meaty bones and organs from a variety of animals then you shouldn't need to supplement a healthy dog. I do use this supplement however http://hpp.ie/product_info.php?products_id=508

[Angela Clarke]

Thank you all very much, this is soooooo helpful. Now I have this information I shall start Sofie on raw next week, Abbie is on a fish diet and doing so well I shall not change her but mini pup I shall try to change over slowly. ( just get myself another freezer first ) thanks again <:0)