newbie raw feeder

[mocket1]

hi everyone,

i have been feeding Guinness raw for one week.
He gets fed about 2 prize choice chicken blocks (400g each) plus some chicken leg/thighs per day. Is this ok? Im worried that im not feeding enough as he is underweight.

also whan can i add different meats/veggies?

thanks

 

[Jan]

You should feed the same meat source for about 3 weeks, then you can add new things one at a time. You should feed 2-3% of their body weight as long as they are an adult. Young boxers often look on the thin side and even as an adult you should be able to see 3 ribs or so. If they look thin, feed more and if they are a little heavy you cut back. It's that simple.

Good luck!

 

[gmacleod]

How old is Guinness and how much does he weigh? I think that the average boxer probably eats around 450-500 grams of raw food per meal, so depending on Guinness' age and size, 400 grams may not be enough for him.

If he needs more, it is better that it is more meat not vegetables. Vegetables and grains are filler - which is very useful if you've got a dog that needs to lose weight, but not so great if you've got one that is underweight

 

[mocket1]

not sure exactly how much he weighs, think he is about 21/22Kg, 14 months old and 23 inches at the withers.

 

[gmacleod]

21-22kg at that height sounds rather light. Granted, boxers at that age often tend to be quite ribby - and that's normal enough. But 22 kg still sounds very lightweight to me. Just as a comparison - my guy is 24" and 30kg. Now he's not a puppy or adolescent, so we'd expect him to weight more - but an 8kg differential is rather a lot.

As a rough guide, your pup should eat around 2-3% of his anticipated ideal adult weight in food each day. If he's 23" tall now, he's not likely to be very much taller than that by maturity (though he might possibly sneak another inch in there). But we'd expect a (mature) dog of that height to weigh in the region of about 28-30 kg. That would indicate that he should be eating around 850-900 grams of food per day. That means you're not far off with the 400 grams per meal but he could use a little more. And if he's really just 22kg presently, then he does sound a bit too light for his frame. IMO it's worth increasing his food intake to between 900 grams - 1kg of food daily.

 

[mocket1]

hi again, i managed to weigh Guinness, he is 23Kg. I dont need scales to know he is underweight, his spine and hips are visable.
I think he has put a little weight on in the week we have been feeding him raw. A reason why i switched to raw was he had terrible diarrhoea/loose stools on every brand of dry food i could get. He has had no problems since the change, if only i could get some weight on him

What more should i feed?more prize choice chicken meat? when i think about it he must be getting 900g of food/day because he gets 2-3 chicken leg/thighs every day too.

thanks for your help

 

[gmacleod]

LOL - yes, if he's getting two or three chicken legs per day then he's probably getting quite a lot more than the 800 grams indicated. Three chicken legs (whole legs, not thighs) is about what my guy consumes in a day.

That being the case, I don't think you need to worry that you're underfeeding. It's probably a good idea to up his intake to around 1kg per day (which you may be at already even). And perhaps look at giving him a higher amount of red meat and offal in the diet (green tripe too, would be a nice addition). You can get things like heart, kidney and liver at reasonable prices from butchers - so that's a pretty good place to look (and they're extremely nutritious). Offal in total can make up up to around 20% of his diet.

Beyond that though, I think you just need to give him time. If he did so poorly on kibble, then you're starting from a low point. Now that he's eating raw food and apparently digesting that well, he should begin to increase in weight - but it's better that that happens gradually and naturally, rather than trying to pile the weight on as fast as possible.

 

[mocket1]

thanks for that, i will continue what im feeding and start adding some red meat/offal. Will give him a chicken/liver dinner tomorrow and maybe some beef at the end of the week.

im amazed how well he has took to the diet, i was expecting loose stools which have never happened (except this morning but thats because he ate a cream egg yesterday!), im sooo pleased im gonna feed my girl, Sydney, this way too once her bag of kibble is finished. I feel sorry for her at meal times when clearly she wants what Guinness is eating!