Don’t try to feed your dog like you are running a restaurant. This is a dog you are feeding and even though you want them to have a healthy diet you do not need to devote all your time and money to provide this.
The first questions I usually get are what do I feed and how much.
Let’s talk about how much. this will depend on several factors such as age and activity level, the basic place to start is two percent of the dog’s adult weight. Puppies are weaned to a raw diet of fresh goat’s milk and ground beef as much as they can eat three times a day with Mom cleaning up any leftovers. By the time they go home at 12 weeks, they are eating about 2 lbs.
usually broken up into two meals. The puppies are growing very fast at this point and it is important they are getting enough so if they seem like they are still hungry they get more. By the time they are six months old mine only want one meal a day.
Adult males depending on their weight will eat between 2 and 3 lbs. a day. Females eat between 1.5 and 2 lbs. a day. These are general guidelines and the only way to know if you are feeding too much or too little is to put your hands on the dog. You should be able to feel your dog’s ribs but not their backbone or their hips.
What to feed is the next question. When you research a raw diet it can make your head spin, there are so many opinions out there. We feed only meat, bones, and eggs. We do not add vegetables or grains of any kind.
We start with chicken leg and thigh quarters. These are easily accessible at the grocery store and reasonably priced. At our store, they run about $5.00 for 10 lbs. We do add liver occasionally but not every day, we find that our dogs find it too rich and if we feed too much they will get diarrhea. Ground beef is a good way to put weight on because it is high in fat. Eggs are great because they are the perfect food that delivers the best and most usable protein.
We add several supplements.
- Dogzymes Ultimate – Organic vitamin and mineral supplement
- Dogzymes Cran Tri C – Organic Vitamin C
- Dogzymes Probiotic Max – Organic probiotics and prebiotics
- Wild Alaskan Fish Oil – 100% Natural cold-water fish oil
- Bug Off Garlic – Natural Flea and Tick protection
You can click on the links above for more information about these products and where to purchase them.