Friday, October 3, 2008

Feeding Raw

I have fed raw to our dogs for over 9 years.  I switched when, a then, good friend had a BC diagnosed with Lymphoma.  We did a lot of research and started finding out the fillers and chemicals that were put into kibble.  A few of us switched and loved it.  Mick was my first puppy that was fed raw from 7 weeks of age.  The breeder used to tell me that I was stunting his growth because he was smaller than the rest of the litter and never went through any major growth spurts.  He just grew and a steady and even rate.  I know I didn't stunt his growth because he is 20 3/4" tall and 45 lbs of muscle.
In the past we have raised our puppies on kibble (Wellness) and some raw meat and bones.  I had never raised a litter solely on raw until this Jen x Singe litter.  These puppies have seen nothing but raw meat from the time they were 3 weeks old.  When I put the pan of ground turkey in front of them they went to town on it like they knew exactly what they were doing.  None of that stepping in the food and getting it all over the place.  They were fed 1 meal a day of ground Turkey or ground Chicken.  At 4 weeks of age they started getting ground chicken backs and ground chicken necks mixed in with the pure ground meat and yogurt.  They were also switched to 2 meals a day.  These puppies never waste time eating and there is never anything left in their bowls (poor Jen has nothing to clean up).  I remember with our kibble fed litters that there would be leftover kibble in the bowls and the puppies would eat, but not EAT like this litter.
I added a little Mackeral to the ground chicken necks this morning and they loved it.  I will give them some goat bones to chew on later this afternoon.
OK, honestly one of the HUGE rewards of raising this litter on raw is that there is no POOP smell in the puppy pen.  What a relief to get up in the morning and not gag.  They also don't poop as often as the kibble fed litters.  The poops that they do have are very formed and not squishy.
I will take some pictures of the puppies chewing on their bones later.

Brittney