Trying Raw for the first time

[MadMike]

Hi, I've been wanting to get my dog, Maddie, on to raw food for the last little while. She likes bones of all kinds and chows right through them. She likes ground beef and whole pieces of meat too. However, she is really picky about organ meats.

Yesterday I gave her a meal of beef soup bones with lots of meat on them and half of a pork kidney. She ate the two bones but left the kidney there all day. I threw that out, since it had been sitting out all day. Today I tried again with some ground beef mixed with finely sliced/chopped kidney. She picked out each piece and spit it on the ground.

I know that she will need offal and organ meats as part of a healthy diet but I am not sure how to sneak it in. Does anyone have any ideas of how to get her to eat kidney or other types of organ meats? I also have some liver in the freezer waiting to try.

Some background: She is a large mixed breed dog (~110lbs) with what looks like some shepherd/rottie/dane background. She is slightly overweight, about 10 lbs or so). I've never seen her turn down food before, either.

We're grateful for any answers and have sure learned a lot from reading so far. Thanks everyone!

 

[Dekka]

Try slicing it up, or dicing it and mixing with ground meat. Also you need to feed meaty bones for a meal. Generally soup bones are weight bearing bones and not good if your dog chews right through them, can cause tooth damage. Try neck bones etc that your dog can eat but that aren't as hard.

Oh and good for you!! (all my dogs eat raw)

 

[RawFedDogs]

Hi, I've been wanting to get my dog, Maddie, on to raw food for the last little while. She likes bones of all kinds and chows right through them. She likes ground beef and whole pieces of meat too. However, she is really picky about organ meats.

If you are just beginning, don't worry about organs at this point. I recommend that organs not be fed for the first couple of months of raw feeding. They are very rich and can cause digestive upset if fed too early in the transition.

Check out the link in my sig for my suggestions for beginning raw feeding.

Yesterday I gave her a meal of beef soup bones with lots of meat on them and half of a pork kidney.

There is no such thing as a soup bone with lots of meat on it. They come off the cow with little meat. :smile:

 

[MadMike]

Hey

Hey, thanks for the info! I tried with a heart and she really liked that. I know to take it easy with the organs and heart and to do that in moderation. She's still getting some kibble too.

As far as the soup bones go, she's a huge dog and powered through those bones in a very short time. I have given her chicken backs and she eats those in less than a minute, so I'm not sure if I should be too terribly worried about bigger bones. I also give her marrow bones as a treat every few nights or to keep her occupied. Not much meat on those but she licks the marrow out and doesn't break down the bone, so maybe she knows her limits for how much she can chew?

 

[ihartgonzo]

Be very careful with soup bones... they are AWESOME for teeth cleaning, but they should be fed with supervision and care. The boney center should not be eaten, as the bone isn't digestible and can easily break teeth. The bones of large ungulates, especially weight bearing bones, are really just for recreation and not meals.

My dogs eat chicken backs rather quickly too! And they aren't that big. Chicken backs have lots of soft, easily digestible bones, though. A good rule of thumb is to feed your dog meals that aren't any smaller than her head to prevent gulping.

 

[phillo]

i've been feeding my dog raw for 3 or 4 months. i tried feeding him lamb kidney right away and he wouldn't go near it.

after feeding raw for awhile he'll eat any part of the animal so the advice to skip organ meat for awhile seems to make sense, at least in my experience.

 

[PixieSticksandTricks]

I had to try alot of different methods of preparing organ meats for my Cocker Spaniel when I first switched her to raw almost a year ago. Liver was easy enough. But chicken gizzards, beef heart, kidney ect had to be chopped to tiny pieces. Because she couldn't seem to figure out how to chew up the organs in whole or sliced peices.

Frozen also worked for her. If I would slice organ meat thin and then freeze it she ate that up no problem.

Currently she can eat anything I set in front of her without my having to prep it. Yup she finally learned how to use those chompers and now downs her organs like a pro.

My Lab had no problems from day one. He took to all aspects of raw as if he had been eating it his whole life.

I also want to echo everyone else about soup bones. They can be good SUPERVISED recreational bones. But they are in no way meal bones because they are usually not RMBs.

Chicken backs and quarters are good. Really any chicken parts are great for newbies. After awhile you can start introducing beef, pork, venison, and fish. My dogs are partial to pork neck bones

 

[DanL]

One note- heart is not organ meat, it's muscle meat. Treat it like hamburger or other boneless meat you feed.