Stella and Chewys is an awesome brand of frozen or freeze-dried raw dinners. Tiny LOVES them! Totally worth the $$. Try on line for decent discounts. :aimeeyork

I've been toying with the raw diet for months now. First, Nicky didn't like it (I would give them 'a taste' from the meat I was cooking--raw) Nini did like it. Then Nicky got Pancrititis and I decided to wait until he was better. He's better now and I'm back into looking and researching.

A couple of weeks ago I gave them a piece of chicken bone (raw) and Nicky got a bit constipated---I freaked. I tried it again with just a piece of raw chicken, nothing happened, but I'm scared. Has any of your babies had any negative reaction the first times you fed raw?

Maybe I was jumping the gun and shouldn't have given them the chicken bone? I was afraid of the pre-made thinking that I may miss a vitamin or something if I didn't feed straight raw.

My other problem is convincing hb, he's sold on what the vet tells him :( So, I've decided to start slowly with pre-made behind hb's back. I just gotta figure out how to do it :D

Apparently too much bone can cause constipation and too much meat can cause diarrhea. I had an issue because I "jumped the gun" too, but in the opposite direction that you did lol. I gave them all raw venison with no bone and Alice and my Akita had wicked diarrhea. Totally my fault, Alice wouldn't eat any of her Orijen kibble (now I realize she was just sick of getting it for every single meal:rolleyes:), so out of despiration and an 'idea' i gave the raw meat. Should have researched first or went with pre-made.

You'll have to watch with the pancreatitis too, can't give too much fat. I've read alot of pancreatitis success stories on the NV web site though;)

I've researed both (prey-model and pre-made) extensively in the past few days and I think we're mainly going the pre-made route, especially after my 'mistake'. If you're going to do it prey model, you have to get the meat/bone ratio right and also give some organs (like liver) sometimes. After I researched and learned my mistake, I bought a whole chicken (it has to be under 100mg. sodium) and cut it all up into portions - let me tell ya, that was TOO much work for me and not to mention, umm gross lol. Some people have no problem at all doing it that way and maybe if I only had large dogs and could just give them big pieces, it wouldn't be as much work. Soooo, I've decided to go mainly the pre-maid route and just give them raw meaty bones outside once a week for dental health.

I also researched the different pre-maid companies and I've decided to go with Narure's Variety - they do something called HPP, which kills any bad bacteria but leaves a majority of the good ones (one of the main reasons raw is so good for pets). The pre-made is also "complete and balanced" - well, I know the NV is and it's AFCO approved, so you know for sure you're not missing anything. I've been rotating the raw with the NV Instinct (grain-free)kibble and cans to keep the cost down, but they're all still getting raw at least 1 meal per day. This isn't the cheapest way to go, but it's definatly the easiest and cleanest and I don't have to worry about messing up. I've been feeding them all this way for a week and everyone's happily eating (including Alice, even when i give the kibble since it's not every meal:D) and no problems at all.:)

Prey model is wonderfull if you can handle it and are dedicated, but you have to reaserch first and get the ratios right. I learned a TON researching (and with some awesome help from Wyle's Mom:D), so if you have any questions, let me know:)

For anybody interested in learning more, this was VERY informative, plus you can just sit back and listen instead of reading and reading;):

Watch the Raw Webinar!

Alice, sorry if I missed it but how many dogs do you have? And do you buy the medallions or the chubs, how long does 1 package last for your yorkie

I have been feeding mine RAW for over a year now, I too went through the whole getting the balance thing correct and it was quite a challenge to get it right and it really depends a lot on just watching how your doggies react and their condition.
Now I am to the point I supplement Ziwi Peak with a small amount of meat and bones this seems to work very well as I do not have the same amount of time I had before to source all the components for a strictly RAW diet. IMO this is a good balance of nutrients and they still get to eat meat which they love, Ziwi peak does recommend feeding bones as a add on. Mine are very partial to stew meat with pork coming in 2nd, chicken (this is what they started on) they kinda push around a little now but will still eat it.

Thank you ! :thumbup: I think I will go the pre-made route too. I've seen videos of someone I befriended on FB to learn about raw feeding and I couldn't even watch most of the videos.

What I saw her baby and her other friend's babies eat, scared me lol. What if my babies start looking at my neighbors rabbit in a weird way :eek: :D
But seriously, I couldn't feed my little ones that way, not only disgusting in a sad way, but broke my heart (baby pigs, baby deer, rabbit, etc). I couldn't cut any of those up, I think I'd faint...

When I gave my little ones the chicken bone, and then the piece of chicken, they didn't want to eat their kibble at all. I think they were holding out for more of what I had given them before :rolleyes: How do you manage to give raw for breakfast and kibble (sometimes) with can for dinner?

I think once my little ones go raw, they'll never go back to kibble (???) But, then again, if they don't want to see kibble ever again, I'll cross that bridge when I get there, right?

I just talk to someone about NV and he said he'll help me out with choosing the flavors, etc when I see him on Saturday (they know me--panicky, freakout-easy furbutt parent)

:cry: I just spoke with a service team at NV because on the video they said it may not be good for dogs with Pancreatitis. The lady on the phone confirmed it, I can't feed raw to Nicky and I can't make him watch Nini eat raw while he's on kibble :(

We don't feed raw (yet) but we always give Sugar her kibble first. When her kibble is gone, she gets a spoon of canned food (yum yum). Most meals she gets both, but once in awhile she leaves some of her kibble and we just start back with the next meal: finish your kibble (dinner) and then you can have dessert (yummy canned food). Just like kids, except it's extra important to be consistent.

Ya know what's weird about doing that, Alice got to a point before I started the raw where she wouldn't touch kibble at all and was even very picky about canned. Every since I started the one raw meal a day, she gobbles the kibble right up for dinner like she never did before, staight out of her bowl even:D!. I did go raw exclusively for a few days first though where she had no kibble at all (she wouldn't eat the kibble anyway), but once I intergrated the kibble back in, she eats it wonderfully, I don't even need to mix the canned in every day (I've just been doing it to keep them from getting bored since I buy the 30# bag and it lasts a while). I did switch her from Orijen to NV kibble, but I'd offered her NV kibble before giving any raw and she didn't seem to want it.

Idk, something about it being a different "form" at the different meals of the day works perfectly for both Alice and my picky Akita. As long as they get that raw for breakfast, they're good to go with kibble and maybe some canned for dinner. I don't know why it worked but it did and beautifully, no more pickyness AT ALL. Every NV product I've offered them since adding the raw, they ate great, it's crazy, but I'm thirlled that I don't have any more "eating battles" lol.

I can't remember what you originaly said - did you only give them a small piece of raw steak or something? Maybe that's why, because they didn't get the full meal of raw? Idk, these little dogs are so funny about their food. lol

:( I thing remember reading a testimonial on there about a pancreatitis case doing well on, I think the organic chicken one? I could be wrong though. I'd imagine they wouldn't want to advise you to do anything to compromise your dog's health. You'd probably have to get the guidance and ok from a vet nutritionist to do it a certain way and only certain things.:( Would he be allowed to have on of their kibble formulas? Of course you'd have to ask your vet, but I only ask because I know all their kibble has a small amount of raw freeze dried coating on each piece of kibble, so maybe they could still get the benefits from raw that way?? Idk though, you'd have to check.

Absolutely right. I have seen no evidence to indicate that the raw diet is bad for pancreatitis. What is bad is the high fat content in most or all prepackaged raw food.

While I'm not suggesting that this is a good option, if you are set on feeding raw, prey model with extremely reduced fat may be an option (could be formulated by a veterinary nutritionist, but some of them are really against it, so it's not their favorite thing to formulate...). Even then though, with raw chunks of meat, the fat may be difficult to pick off. So it could still be risky.

Besides one Yorkie, I also have a 75# Akita and a 30# Beagle plus 2 cats lol:D

I started with the medallions because they're the easiest to portion out (especially for a Yorkie or other small dog or a cat). Now that I'm getting used to each of what their individual amounts looks like, I can get the more economical chubs. (I may even get a little kitchen scale to help me)

The medallions are 1 oz. each and there's 48 in a bag for around $20. The chubs are 32 oz. for about $8. So, the chubs are less $ per oz., but it's a little trickier to figure out the portions without a scale. The only other thing about getting the chubs, you have to be sure you'll use it all within 3-4 days of thawing the whole thing (I will with my little zoo here:)) unless you can figure out a way to cut it while frozen, but good luck with that lol.

I'll just use Alice for an example to give you idea - Alice weighs 5 lbs. and is still growing so she gets 2 oz. (or 2 medallions) in the AM and aprox. 1/4 cup of the grain-free kibble PM.

Sooo, for a 5 lb. Yorkie, if you fed ONLY the raw, 1 bag of medallions would last about 12 days at aprox. $20.

You can imagine this would get $$$$ feeding my crew, especially the Akita, so that's why I use the kibble for one meal, it's cuts the cost greatly (the kibble is actually cheaper than the Orijen I was using and they seem to like it better). Cost is also why I was originaly going to go with prey-model, but for right now, that's too much work, I'd rather pay the extra $ for it to be easy:D

LOL, I feel like a NV sales rep LOL, they should really give me a job. hahaha

:thumbup: I think the story I read only used the organic chicken formula and was directed by their personal vet to do so. I guess that formula is significantly lower in fat?? It's also MUCH more expensive though.

I didn't read all the testimonials, I'll have to go back and search for it. The lady at the NV said that I could use Prairy kibble, but to check with my vet first :( Will do, but with a nutritionist vet. I made the appointment for the 14th. Hopefully, she'll help me with this.

I don't think that I'll risk it with the prey model, it's too scary for me that I could make Nicky's condition worse :( I\'ll wait to see what the nutritionist-vet tells me, hopefully there\'s a way around it.