Happy Tuesday!!!

 

Thanks for being a loyal email subscriber. I appreciate hearing from you. Let me know if you ever have any questions.  The following are a few questions that I received recently.

 

 

Although I have five dogs, only three of them were puppies when I switched them to a raw food diet.  Scout and Zoey were 6 weeks old and we transitioned them from kibble to Darwin's Natural Pet Products.  We switched them cold turkey and they did great.  By feeding commercial raw, I didn't have to worry about balance.  The only thing I did was add the following to their meals:

Last year, a 7 month old puppy joined our family and I thought of doing the same, ordering commercial raw, but he was a big boy and I was worried about the cost.  So I fed him the same meals that I fed our other dogs, except that I added Omega-3 fatty acids and seaweed calcium as noted above.

 

 

There are several ways to figure out how to feed a puppy and you.  Some people feed 10% of a puppy's current weight, weighing the puppy each week.  Pet parents switch to feeding 3-4% of the puppy's weight when growth slows significantly.

 

Some people feed 3-4% of a puppy's estimated adult weight.  The problem I have with this is that I never know how big my puppies will be because they're all mixed breeds.

 

Since I don't know how big my puppies will grow, I followed a gradual change based on recommendations from more experienced raw feeders:

I split this between three meals daily until my dogs reached four months and then I fed twice daily.  It's important to keep in mind that every dog is different, so if you notice weight gain, decrease the amount fed (or increase exercise) slightly; vice versa if you notice weight loss.

 

Do you have a question?  Let me know and I'll try to answer. Please keep in mind that I'm not a veterinarian or nutritionist.  However, I love sharing my experience and learning from others.