If you're trying to put weight on her, look up satin balls. One of the guys at the dog park I go to used them for his dog...

How's she doing on the raw? Gaining weight, all better? I took Dizzy to the vet today and the vet berated me about being raw, but I let it roll off... All I wanted was his shots, so, we're good there lol.

Ah! So sorry I haven't updated. She's doing great!! We have moved on to beef and since then pork. Cause actually, I'm a dumbass haha. I bought some ribs thinking they were beef. $1.88/lb and I'm all like dude yes!! Go to ring it up and it says "pork butt" on my receipt. Turns out country style ribs are pork haha. So yeah I won the genius award that day. In my defense though, I don't eat meat so idk. And even when I did I didn't ever eat any kind of ribs, beef or not. Too much fat. Ick. But anyway, she's been eating chuck roast. I've upped her to about 1 1/4 lbs once a day. She's doing super, loves everything I put in front of her except the liver, gonna have to figure that one out. She tried though I will say that. She licked it all and nibbled on it a bit. I left her out there with it for a while and she kept going back to it and licking some more and nibbling here and there but she finally gave up. She has gained probably a pound or two so far and definitely has much more energy!

Yeah, ignore the vet. In one ear and out the other.

That's great! So glad to hear she's doing so much better!

To be honest, I didn't follow the rules. I did no transition with raw, i did it cold turkey and I fed whatever meat I could. I fed only poultry in the beginning though, taking care to have plenty of bone for no runny poops. After a month or so I added beef, but I still don't feed it that often.

Now I feed - Duck, Veal, Beef Tripe, Chicken, Turkey, Venison and Lamb.

Megan lamb was actually really cheap (compared to the $14/lb at SAM's) at publix when I was there but I literally don't have any more room in my freezer. Plus we're moving in 2 weeks so I'm gonna have to cram is all in a cooler with some ice. Hopefully I can find it just as cheap when we get there! I have yet to see duck or trpe, did see veal but it made me kinda sad haha. And it was expensive. Mila hasn't gotten chicken in a while. When I started on beef I gave her chicken for breakfast and beef for dinner but after a couple of days she just got beef at one meal. She's done fine. No runny poops lately to my knowledge. Beef is actually really expensive, I can't find it anywhere for less than $4.99/lb.

Heather, is she not eating any organ at all? Sounds like you're doing great, keep up the good work and keep trying with the liver. As an alternative though, you can feed freeze dried organ as an alternative if she absolutely refuses to take the raw liver. I feed freeze dried beef and lamb liver to my dogs since I can't tolerate handling raw organs while pregnant without getting nauseous.

And freeze dried liver only loses 3% of its nutritional value

What is the consensus of a mixed diet...kibble/raw? I have fed raw off and on and occasionally will do a raw meal with my two..but their diet is mainly kibble (TOTW right now). In a month or two I am planning to get rabbits and start breeding/raising meat rabbits. I plan to do more raw at that time. I was thinking of doing kibble in the AM and raw in the PM. Is there any concerns with doing a diet of raw and kibble together? I'm usually in a rush in the mornings so it would be much easier to throw some kibble in a bowl than to thaw out a raw meal. lol

Nothing wrong with feeding both kibble and raw, although many would advise keeping them as separate meals rather than combining them into one meal. I feed both kibble and raw, I feed them on separate days though as I only feed one main meal a day to my dogs.

I haven't tried any other organ yet, honestly I don't know where to get any. She nibbled on the liver, took it out of her bowl and licked it all. The walked away and came back and nibbled and then licked it again. She did that about 5 or 6 times and then she gave up. Where would I get freeze dried?? I did not even know about that but if I can find them we'll defintely do that instead because the liver was a bit much for me. It smelled terrible and felt like a tongue. Thank you Mila for leaving it on the ground for me to pick up.

You can buy freeze dried liver at most pet food/supply stores.

Awesome!! I'll see if I can find some here.

So I joined that raw group on facebook and not to sound whiny but they're kind of mean. It's like they expect everyone to know all the rules immediately and if they don't do it right then you're an animal abuser and a terrible terrible pet owner and a horrible person. So! I'm going to ask my question here and get some more input other than I'm an idiot and I did it wrong.


I will say I think I'm not doing something right because Mila either has cannon butt or fossil poops. I just can't find the in between. I did feed her alot of pork for a while because I bought some ribs thinking they were beef and I had to get rid of them before we moved. I was told I went too fast introducing new proteins but it's been about 2 months now and she's only had beef and pork in addition to the chicken? She also was on chicken for 10 days before 2 weeks of beef before the pork. They were saying I should start all the way over and leave her on chicken for a while and only give her one bite of a new protein at a time. I mean, how slow am I really supposed to go? By that logic it will take until Christmas to get her onto anything besides chicken. I think I figured out I may just be feeding her too much. She's getting 4% for weight gain but she may not be able to handle it. Last Friday I didn't feed her, giving her body a break (plus the movers came and packed everything so she was a little stressed about that too), Sat and Sun she got 1lb split breast, poops were fine. Mon she got 1lb boneless skinless something? Chicken. Poop was fine. Yesterday she got almost 2lbs boneless skinless thighs (trying to see if the amount was the problem, plus it was the smallest amount they had and we're in a hotel so I can't do a whole lot right now) and this morning she barely made it outside before her canon butt exploded. Twice. So I'm thinking 4% is too much for her. What does everybody think? Should we start back over all the way on chicken for weeks and add new proteins one bite at a time or go back to what she was eating and just give her 2.5%-3% (1 - 1.25lbs)?

I'd reset and start from point A again... You can feed her rice and some boiled boneless skinless chicken breast, and once her poop resets to normal, start back with the chicken.

Every dog is different - some of them will need more bone than others, so when starting out, see if you can do a chicken quarter (thigh, drumstick) for the morning and a chicken breast in the evening. A chicken drumstick is about 27% bone so her poops should be a little more firm. Stark always ALWAYS needed in and around 10% of his meal to be bone, so I started using ground patties with the 10% bone included. Once or twice a week, he'll get the actual chicken or beef pieces so he doesn't lose the mental & dental benefits, but for the most part, it's the patties... Also, if you feed your organs once a week make sure to include extra bone for that day's meal since organs can be very rich and cause loose poops.

People introduce different proteins differently - most recommend it over a week or two of phasing out the old protein while phasing into the new protein - doing a bite at a time will just make anybody go crazy, but I've found the week or two method works best for Stark (and he's got a sensitive stomach as well).

I'd scale her intake back down to 2-3% and see how she does with that. There are other things you can try if you want to make her gain weight - fattier cuts of meat, fattier meats (lamb etc), and there are also things known as satin balls that are suggested if your dog needs to put on weight. Judging from the profile pic, she looks just about right

Oh, I should also mention, even though this may not be anything, there's no chance she might have picked up worms or anything, is there? The fact that he poops goes from soft to hard sounds like it might not be an issue, but thought I'd ask to make sure anyway...

She did have worms a month or so ago and she got treated for them. Went two rounds of treatment. So i would think it wasn't worms but it could be?? I'll have to stop and find a vet though to even find out. And don't let her picture fool you! She's all hair. I'm thinking she's probably 1/4 Malamute because of all of her hair, I've never seen a full Husky with as much hair as she has. She has a mane and feathers on the back of her legs and everything. But your guess is as good as mine. She weighs 39 lbs now, that's after she gained the 5 lbs since we started raw.
In the past she's done fine on 1.25 lbs of whatever, so that may be her max. We'll stick to one pound or 1 1/4 if we have to of chicken for a while and see how she does. We just left her in the hotel room for literally not even 2 hours while we looked for houses and she left us a nice big completely liquid shit all over the floor while we were gone. So I'm thinking that might be a step further than cannon butt to diarrhea cause I took her out 3 times this morning and she pooped every time, all completely liquid. The rice and boiled chicken really isn't an option now as we're in a hotel until we find a house but I can feed chicken until she gets straightened out. May fast her for a day again, that seemed to work well last Friday.

I'm so glad to hear you say that about the one bite at a time. I wasn't going to do that anyway but seriously?! Is that how it's really supposed to be done?? I'm sorry but screw that! Aint nobody got time for that!! It would take a month to get to a 1/2 and 1/2 meal with a new protein! I'll look into the lamb and the satin balls when I'm somewhere that I can actually do that. I think the biggest thing is going to be cutting back on the amount. Sticking to 1 lb - 1.25lb at the most is probably going to be my best bet.

Also, everyone on the facebook was saying that loose/soft poops were okay but I didn't think so?

Based on the trend you posted, I would try scaling back on amounts. If she's doing good and gaining then perhaps it's just too much food for her and a slower weight gain due to feeding smaller amounts isn't a bad thing.

I have never taken a slow approach to introducing new proteins and it's never been an issue with my dogs. There are lots of different approaches one could take, you have to decide what works for you and your dog.

Val I honestly don't think it's the protein I really think it's the amount. We'll stay on chicken a few more days since I have some and we're already almost at a week of chicken anyway but I'll wait until everything calms down and she's okay and I'll head back to beef, just smaller amounts. Hopefully she'll do okay, but I truly believe I was just giving her too much. She's been doing fine with one meal a day and as soon as her cannon butt subsides we'll do 1/2 chicken 1/2 beef until she's okay with that too. The move isn't helping any, even as easy going as she is it's alot of changes so I'm sure that's contributing to her stomach issues .

She could need another deworming too, they can be pesky little buggers.

I hope not!! She's been for two rounds and I don't want to have to find another vet so soon!

Heather, you can go to a clinic for a cheap dewormer. You can tcheck if there is on near you at http://luvmypet.com/ or http://www.vetcoclinics.com/services-and-clinics/petco-vaccination-clinics/

Heather, can you post a picture? How well can you feel her ribs? I'm trying to gauge if you are feeding way too much. My 35-38lb female only get 12 oz of meat to maintain.

Megan her ribs are a tad better simce she gained the wight but I can pretty much lace my fingers between them. And her spine and hip bones stick out enough to actually hurt a person if she lays on you. A picture wouldn't help unless I shaved her :/ she really is all hair.

It would help for shape. If you took one from the top, side and rear. It would help.