As a zoologist, I have always been interested in feeding my dogs a more species appropriate diet. My dogs have been introduced to a variety of foods and had 'stomachs of steel', but I used kibble as the base. I use meat, eggs, cheese, fruit and veggies as training rewards. In march 2010, Jessie was tested for thyroid and adrenal fucntion and both were on the low side. I thought I would start with food (the building blocks of the body) to rule out allergies and other possible causes of the low thyroid. I also started my new dog Lucy on raw the day after we got her. She transitioned easily as she too had been fed all sortsof different foods first. Both dogs are hihgly motivated as I now use their raw food as training rewards. Some basic info to remember: It's not rocket science! And a wide margin for error is allowed! Each dog is different. 80:10:10 (follows the 'prey model' of raw food diets) 80% muscle meat, 10% organ meat, 10% bone Watch the amount of fat in the meat source (10-40% depending on how active your dog is) Use unenhanced meat (no flavoring, coloring, antibiotics, salt etc) . Organic meat is ideal! Feed 2-3% of your dog's body weight daily (2%x30 lb dog= 0.6lb of food, 3%x30lb dog=0.9lb of food) When feeding puppies, feed 3-4% of adult weight. Can also feed upto 15% of fruit/vegetable matter (pumpkin, squash, spinach, celery, yam, berries, apples etc) Supplementing with vitamins/minerals is optional Some people use salmon oil for Omega 3's Tips: *start with 1 ...
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