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Originally Posted by sweet_tikka  Going raw I read another thread that you have to supplement them with vitamins?
So you can't just feed them the raw meat, occassional egg, etc... is there a good thread about going raw?
Little Pooter LOVES raw steak, but with his sensitive stomach I've been to scared to try him on an all raw diet. I know Tikka would just love it though she's got the stomach of a 200lb man at a hotdog eating contest lol!! |
You don't have to give any suppliments as long as you have the meat/bone/organ ratio (80%,10%,10%) right. You can't only feed raw meat and not give the bones or organs. If they don't get the bone they won't get enough calcium to balance out the phosphorus in the raw meat which would be bad for their kindeys and they will get loose stools. The organs have a lot of the other vitamins in it they need (that's why you usually see liver as an ingredient in high quality kibble). If you use pre-packaged frozen raw dog food, it has the right amount of ground bones and organs in it. I read that if you are feeding raw meat only with out any bones, you have to suppliment with ground egg shells for the calcium but that won't help with the loose poops. It's also good to have about 5% veggies and certain fruits in the diet because "prey" would have that in their intestinal tract that the wolf would eat. The veggies have to be very finely ground though for the dog to be able to extract the nutrients from it, otherwise it'll just come out the same way it went in
and be useless.