If you cut up a cornish hen and fed that to her over a week's time or whatever then yes, that would be balanced. However, most pieces of raw meaty bones are not. We balance over a week. It would be way too hard to balance everyday, particularly for such a tiny dog! For instance, I give a bone meal probably 2-3 times a week and then give boneless the rest of the time. There is a great raw feeding spreadsheet in this thread that can help you http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...-learning.html OR you can just figure it out yourself. Convert her lbs into oz and then I would give 3-4% of that daily. Don't forget the organ!

Let me know if you have any other questions.

My Eyes Hurt
 

My yorkie doesn't like raw!
 

I know, strange isn't it? Well, we started out this past weekend and my little guy chomped down the bit of liver and the meaty ox tail the first night, so I thought all was well. But the second night he was hesitant to go at another piece of the ox tail, until the following day. The third night, he ate a piece of liver, which is the last "raw" piece of meat he's had since. I tried meaty lamb soup bones, even cutting off pieces of the meat for just a boneless meal, but my Chewy simply avoids his bowl when it's filled with raw meat, even after kicking it (empty) around for a bit, signalling he's hungry.

So since then I've had to blanch the meat, i.e. drop it in boiling water for a minute or so, in order for him to eat it. Even then he'll only eat it if I hand-feed it to him and if he's literally starving! Chewy is far from a picky eater; he was a pound or so overweight, but I'm certain he's lost some weight this week because of his lack of appetite for the raw meat (he's fine for veggies, fruit, yogurt, and cooked anything). However, I'm afraid that he's too well aware of what "cooked" meat tastes like since he gets table treats at his grandparents' house (where he stayed for three months recently when I was out of the country) and when he's overnighted at a yorkie friend's house, he and his friend get cooked pieces of chicken every night. I'm sure he'd be happy just going back to his Iams dry food, which is amazing to me, but I guess after three years he's gotten used to it.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can entice my little guy to eat raw meat with gusto? I don't want to keep blanching the meat as this defeats the purpose of the raw prey diet, no?

Thanks in advance!

Well the best way for me to get mine eating is to bring another yorkie into the room! Maybe you should get another? :D But aside from that, you could try a few different things. Sometimes it's the texture and mine really like it when the meat is a little bit frozen. I frequently serve chicken this way. I just take it out of the freezer and when it's not frozen solid, more like a popsicle, I sometimes feed it and they really seem to like the change. I have a problem getting any of mine to eat liver. They love liver just not the raw. They will eat it either frozen or cooked. So sometimes I cut up the liver into little treat size pieces and freeze and other times I cook it in water. Then for a switch when I feed them I heat up just the liver and liver water and pour a little of that over the top of their raw food - they love that. If he really does not like the texture right now and none of those suggestions work, I would just sear the meat in a pan so that it is cooked just on the outside but so the inside is still raw. Good luck!

Question.
Jemma has been on raw diet for quite awhile now. But I'm still not sure if I have the ratio right. Her coat seems a little dull to me.
This is what I feed Jemma over a week. Please tell me if I'm missing something.
I buy turkey and chicken mostly and a lttle beef. For some reason beef doesn't agree with her much (VERY lose stool) and hearts also give her very loose stools and stinky.
She is not crazy about pork at all. I cut up all the meat together and then mix all the pieces together. I then bag small portions in freezer bags and freeze them. So she gets a combination of different meats at one feeding. A couple of times a week she'll get green beans. She doesn't like raw carrots but will eat them out of a can, stubborn. She also gets sweet potato. Once every 2 weeks she gets a raw egg. 2-3 times a week a raw chicken bone. She eats the whole darn thing, lol.
Lie I said, hearts, liver, they just don't seem to agree with her digestive system. What can I give her in place of it as I know it's a important part of the meal? Tripe made her throw up, what a mess. So not all raw food agrees with every dog.
Thanks for any input!!!

I would ditch the green beans and the carrots. I would add a capsule of fish oil a day. I just squeeze it over my dogs food at the morning feeding. My advice would to just go ahead and feed a whole chicken breast, leg, whatever. Yes, liver if given in excess will cause loose stools. I would start with just one or two thumbnail size pieces added to her meal. Remember liver should only be about 5% of her meal. As for beef heart, yes I have found it to be a bit rich as well so I never feed too much of it and when I do, I always feed it with bone. I would say that since you think the coat is dry, make sure you don't remove the chicken skin or at least not all of it. Hopefully between that and the fish oil you will see a difference.
Good luck!

Yes, I buy my dogs meat from the same store I buy my own. I try to spend .99 a pound or less on their food. They eat a lot of chicken but then so do we! When starting out, I would start with a bone in chicken breast, remove most of the fat for now as too much fat in the beginning can cause a loose stools. In a week or two you shouldn't have to worry about removing the skin. I would just feed that for a couple weeks and then gradually add more things to the diet. Be careful not to over do liver and organ meat.
Here is one of my favorite links that talks about all the myths you are likely to hear.
THE MANY MYTHS ABOUT RAW FEEDING

And here is a rawfeeding site i belong to that is very helpful as well:
RawChat : Raw Chat

Good luck!

Thank you so much for the sound advice. But she LOVES raw green beans :)

Going back over the whole thing...
 

Some people put their puppies on a Prey Model diet, once they are weaned. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but I'm just saying some people start puppies on raw very young and they do well.

So, I assume you're talking Prey Model vs. pre-made since you posted in this thread, right :)? You could try a chicken drumstick. Btw, the member who started this thread had about a 2 lb. yorkie, and she ate Prey Model.

My Marcel is 3 lbs. and Pfeiffer is 2.15 (she juuuust won't cross over into the 3 territory yet :p) and they both eat pre-made raw.

More Questions...
 

I started Saphira on a prey model diet about 4 days ago and she loves it!:D She scarfs down the meat, skin and organs with no problem, eating a little more than a drumstick worth of meat. The only problem that I am having is that she will not have anything to do with the bones. I know that it is very important for her to get her calcium, especially because she is still a puppy but at this point she isn't getting any. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get her the required amount of calcium :confused:
Also, Saphira has not had a hair cut and so her beard is quite long. By the time she is done eating her face is a meaty mess :eek:! What do you use to clean their faces that doesn't dry out the hair and kills the bacteria from the meat :confused:
Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks in advance!:D

I can't help with the bones-- but if you can't find an answer here, try the yahoo raw feeding group.

When I started Isla on raw over a year ago she wouldn't eat the bones either at first. I had to smash the drumstick bone up a bit with a hammer so she could smell the marrow. Just enough so it would break open and she could see that it was indeed food. Now all I do is throw the piece at her and she goes to town!:D

I just started my cat on raw and had to do the same thing. He surprised me (since he's 13) and actually ate the smaller bones and marrow if I smashed them up. Since your pup is young still, she should figure it out soon that it's good eats!

So I've just read through 13 pages of this thread...and I'm dizzy! I'll have to read the remaining FOURTEEN later! :rolleyes:

I think I'm read to make the switch. When we got our little Oliver, he was on Purina Puppy Crap...er Chow. The vet gave us a free bag of Hill's, which after researched, also was crappy food. Now...after researching, I've decided that kibble is not food! It's just like all of the processed foods in the typical American diet...it fills you up, but NOT with nutrients! :thumbdown

I guess I'm confused on where to start. I have no idea of how many times to feed him a day, or how to balance his feedings. I read the 80/10/10 percentage, but I'm still kind of lost.

And on the kibble, he is ALWAYS hungry. I swear, he's my little porker. He's 15 weeks and weighs 3.5 pounds.

My hubby and I eat all organic...should I purchase organic meat for Oliver too? I feel like that could get realllllly expensive.

Help me get my boy healthy. :)

I would feed him 3 times a day if he's still a puppy and then 2 times per day. I recommend starting with bone in chicken breast and stay with that for a few weeks. You should aim for 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organ meat with 5% of the organ meat being liver. At first with the chicken breast, you will be feeding a little more than 10%bone but most people start with a little higher percentage and you should be fine. You will know if he is getting too much bone - stools will be white. You will be amazed within about a day, stools will be 1/2 size as kibble maybe less. He may also go poo a little less frequently too. You do not have to feed organic, that's a personal choice but obviously it would be better just as it is better for you. Also, it's not a perfect science. I typically feed a meal that is higher in bone then follow with a couple days of boneless meals. It doesn't have to be 80/10/10 each meal but try to strive for that over the long haul. Hope that makes sense and please feel free to pm me if I can help at all!

Wow
 

I didn't read this while thread, but I read the beginning, as I am thinking of starting a raw diet with my crew. ANyway, my first thought regarding the chicken was that I have always been told that chicken bones are bad for dogs - can choke them, kill them, etc. After doing just a few minutes of reading, I found this:

"Cooked bones are quite dangerous. Cooking changes the structure of the bone, making it indigestible and easily splinterable. Raw bones rarely splinter and are fully digestible, even the collagen proteins that some people claim are 'indigestible.' I...Let me repeat this for good measure: raw bones are completely digestible and are not dangerous for your animal." from Myths About Raw: Are bones safe?

Thank you so much for this thread! I think I am going to switch! :) I haven't found a kibble that all of the dogs like, and I am so sick of buying different kinds for everyone. But, my hubby is an AVID hunter, and we always have deer and turkey (that we never seem to eat) and the furbutts are going to LOVE it! :)

You are so lucky to have access to fresh, raw meat! I would kill (haha) for that!

The one thing I would suggest to you about using fresh game is to make sure you freeze it for at least 48 hours just incase there are any parasites present although I don't think that is typically a problem with deer or turkey.

You are so lucky to have access to fresh, raw meat! I would kill (haha) for that!

The one thing I would suggest to you about using fresh game is to make sure you freeze it for at least 48 hours just incase there are any parasites present although I don't think that is typically a problem with deer or turkey.

Wow, this thread is OLD! I did read all 28 pages :eek: I have a couple questions that I hope someone can help me with.

I'm picking up my puppy on Monday. He will be 12 weeks old. How old should he be before I would switch to a prey model diet? I don't know if I should start right away, or if that would be too much for him... OR, if I DON'T start right away, would that make detox too hard? I'm a little confused.

Also, on the 80/10/10 ratio... everyone says to base that ratio on a whole week. So... since I'll be starting with chicken, is it boneless chicken for breakfast and a drumstick for dinner? But a drumstick everynight would surely be more than 10% bone... so maybe just two drumsticks a week, and the rest boneless breasts? Or maybe just ground chicken, because he'll be little?

Please help. So confused!

There are a lot of breeders who wean their puppies on to PMR so you should be fine! We typically feed raw meaty bones that are more than 10% bone so we give a bone meal 2-4 (depends on the bone/week/etc.) nights out of the week. The rest are boneless meals. I wouldn't start with a drumstick... a 12 week old puppy wouldn't be able to chew that. You could start with some chicken wings or even better, bone in chicken thighs. He should be able to handle the breast okay and I would feed that over ground meat. Ground meat has a larger chance of bacterial contamination although we frequently feed our dogs ground meat, they are older and have a well developed immune system. A small puppy would be more susceptible to infection if there were bacteria present.

Thanks for the quick response! He was weaned onto Royal Canin, he's probably only been eating it for a month at most. Is there anything special that I should do to make the switch? I don't know if a kibble/prey model combo would be a good idea while I get him used to raw? I feel like it wouldn't.

It's typically not advised because kibble and raw digests at different rates. Sometimes it can cause an upset stomach so those who feed raw and kibble feed it 6 hours apart. There are some who feed it together with no problems though so it just depends on your dog and what you're comfortable with doing/trying. I switched cold turkey with no problems!

I don't think I feed Jemma a lot of bone. She gets one maybe two chicken legs a week. Sometimes that is too much because her stool gets too white and hard. She doesn't get beef because it simply doesn't agree with her stool. She does get chicken and turkey more than anything. She also gets pork, some lamb. Once in awhile she gets a raw egg, cottage cheese, cheese some yogurt and she loves raw green beans. Fruit is apple. She always has fresh water but since being on raw diet she doesn't drink as much. And Jemma does not get a lot of organs like liver. She does get it but probably not as often as most give their dogs. Jemma seems quite healthy to me so I don't really want to change anything. I do Jemma's meat shopping, come home, get the scissors out and cut up all the meat into pieces. A knife takes way to long. The right size scissors and it's done pretty quick. At times I will mix her meats all together. So in one freezer bag she might get some chicken and turkey and pork and lamb. I take the freezer bags, small ones, and put the meat into individual bags. One bag = one serving. Put them all in the freezer. Take one out, put it in micro 45 seconds. It just thaws the meat some but does NOT cook it. I usually have enough bags in the freezer to last me 3-4 weeks. It's great. Jemma is now 19 months old and has been eating this way since she was about 7 months. She loves it!! I hope this thread never ends lol

I just read through this entire thread and think it deserves a bump for new people! :-)

Thanks for bumping this, isn't it a *great* thread!!? So much info.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I didn't even know we had this! :)

I am sorry this is a stupid question. I am getting my first yorkie puppy ( her name is Lola) in the end of July, she'll be eight weeks old. I would like to get her on pmr but I feel that she will be too young for it ( or I am not comfortable doing it so young), so I am going to switch her over to RAW food ( slowly of course). My question should I still add nurical in her meals?

I apologize again if this is stupid question but I just want what's best for my baby!

Hi and welcome!

I would use the Nutrical between meals, not with the meals.

If you're nervous about PMR right now, why not just feed frozen raw....like by Primal or NV..? That's what I feed, and I love it!