Raw Diet and "Legend"

Raw Diet and “Legend”
By Leah Morse

This is a part of a series of blogs that I want to share my experience with learning to feed raw diet to my dogs. It is a controversial way of providing nutrition for your dogs. I am not suggesting that anyone follow these guidelines that I have chosen to do for my own dogs. I am just simply sharing the information that I have found and where I found it. I am simply sharing my experiences. I am not a veterinarian; I am also not a health care professional. This theory of feeding raw species appropriate diet can have serious health risks associated with incorrect handling, preparing and feeding. NEVER EVER FEED COOKED BONES! Cooking bones changes the molecular structure, they become brittle and may splinter which would injure or kill your dog! Do not feed bones that are frozen either, as they can and will ruin your pet’s teeth. All bones must be thoroughly thawed before feeding as frozen bones can severely damage teeth. Mixing raw meat with cooked meat can cause digestive problems. If feeding raw diet is your goal read as many books and literature as possible. Find people who are already feeding and have experience to have as mentors. Use your own good judgment, when in doubt, don’t do it. The ideas and opinions in this blog are my own and come from feeding my dogs this way since 2008, unless otherwise credited. I am by no means an expert, just sharing my own acquisition of information and observations from my own dogs. Take any ideas that I present here at your own risk and discretion. I, for one, have found it worth it.

November 13th, 2010 we received our most recent boxer, Legend. He was eight weeks old and delivered from Georgia after much research. This would be my first little puppy on raw diet; Story was almost a year old when I made the switch to raw. I could not imagine the puppy teeth and still developing jaws of an eight week old getting through bones. I am very lucky to have access to a good friend that could get large quantities of chicken necks ground up. We asked for about 20-pounds that we divided into half pound baggies and froze. The small portions were easy to handle on a daily basis. Though the breeder did her due diligence and sent the Eukanuba puppy food he had been eating we switched him onto raw immediately. There would not be any gradual change as I had read that it was not good to combine cooked with raw (except vegetables). Processed dog food is most definitely cooked.

The first day we offered the ground chicken necks to Legend. He was not sure what to do with it. We doctored it with a little bit of plain Horizon yogurt and just a sprinkle of the mixed supplement powder. I literally had to spoon feed him in the beginning, which I liked to do to help him want hands near his food bowl. Lots of encouragement from us with the spoon feeding (he had never had mushy food like this before) and he ate a decent small amount for his first feeding. Out to the potty area and Legend eliminated normal stool, even after the trauma of being taken from home and brought to a strange new house, strange new people and even weirder food.

We continued to feed the ground chicken necks to him through the next few days. He started to anticipate and get excited about it. Again, normal stool with white specks of digested bone with no sign of diarrhea was all that was found. We would give him raw hamburger meat periodically but thankfully (as beef is so much more expensive) Legend really preferred his ground chicken.

We started to see him grow and put on a little weight (a little weight is key as you do not want to grow puppies too fast!) At 11-weeks, it was time for another vaccination and a de-wormer. Ok now we had some diarrhea after the de-wormer but only for a day or so then back to normal stool.

I had never had a young puppy that had such consistent normal stool. Usually they would have episodes here and there but not Legend. His puppy hair started to become extremely shiny, His eyes were bright and he had the typical puppy energy.
At about 16-weeks I started to cut up chicken wings (separate into 3 sections) for Legend. I was amazed at how easily I could cut through them with kitchen scissors. Legend had no problem eating the wing pieces. I stayed with him and watched for several days to be sure he did not choke on them. Again, normal stool no problems.

Legend is now seven months old and getting ready for his first conformation show. He has developed nicely on raw diet. He has the silky high gloss coat that my adults have. He sheds very little and his red fawn coat has taken to a deep shiny red. As with my adults, he is a pleasure to touch as his fur is so silky.

I am very pleased with the results and have absolutely no regrets of starting a very young puppy on a Raw Diet.

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Leah Morse is the owner of Rocky Mountain Classic Canine and a certified canine trainer. Leah writes a weekly blog for Denver Dog Works.