Opinion On Pomeranian's Diet

[koalablue]

My little Pom is 4 months old. The meat for her evening meal at present is either raw chicken thighs, raw minced lamb and occasionally cooked chicken mince. She's not too keen on ground beef but will eat it. To this I add an equivalent weight of pureed cooked vegetables. This veggie mix is made up of 1/2 butternut pumpkin, 1 sweet potato, 1 head of broccoli, 1 bunch of baby carrots, peas together with any other suitable greens that I have on hand. I also add a bit of cooked rice and a slurp of olive oil. This mixture is frozen in ice cube trays for convenience as she's very tiny and servings are small. She also has 2 brisket bones a week. The vet says the ratio should be 40% meat, 30% vegetable and 40% rice or pasta. What do you think?

I'm considering adding liver, brains and heart but I'm not too sure how often offal should be offered, and do you cook it or serve it raw, and do I freeze it before or after cooking.

I've read on the forum of people adding fruit but I haven't reached this stage yet because the portion sizes at the moment are really quite small and I want to make sure she's getting plenty of meat and veg while she's growing quickly. Maybe I should be starting sooner rather than later.

I'd appreciate any comments on the above.

[Sandra777]

My little Pom is 4 months old. The meat for her evening meal at present is either raw chicken thighs, raw minced lamb and occasionally cooked chicken mince. She's not too keen on ground beef but will eat it. To this I add an equivalent weight of pureed cooked vegetables. This veggie mix is made up of 1/2 butternut pumpkin, 1 sweet potato, 1 head of broccoli, 1 bunch of baby carrots, peas together with any other suitable greens that I have on hand. I also add a bit of cooked rice and a slurp of olive oil. This mixture is frozen in ice cube trays for convenience as she's very tiny and servings are small. She also has 2 brisket bones a week. The vet says the ratio should be 40% meat, 30% vegetable and 40% rice or pasta. What do you think?

I'm considering adding liver, brains and heart but I'm not too sure how often offal should be offered, and do you cook it or serve it raw, and do I freeze it before or after cooking.

I've read on the forum of people adding fruit but I haven't reached this stage yet because the portion sizes at the moment are really quite small and I want to make sure she's getting plenty of meat and veg while she's growing quickly. Maybe I should be starting sooner rather than later.

I'd appreciate any comments on the above.

Personally....

--- 60% meat 30% edible bone 10% offal. Offal includes tripe so if you feed vege instead of tripe then that should be included in that 10%.

---- There doesn't appear to be any edible bone?

---- Meat and vege is food for a growing child, not a growing dog

Edited February 21, 2010 by Sandra777

[poodlefan]

My initial reaction is that the diet, if that's all she's getting, is seriously deficient in calcium. That can spell disaster for a growing dog. If she was a large breed, my guess is that you'd be seeing problems already. If she isn't getting digestible bone or getting a balanced puppy food, I think you're heading for trouble.

What other meals does she get?

Given that dogs derive little nutritional benefit from rice or pasta, I don't care for your vet's advice at all. ;) That advice sees very little calcium available.

If you want to feed home prepared meals, feed them RAW and she needs a good balanced source of calcium. Chicken necks would be one - again fed raw.

Failing that, feed a good quality kibble one meal in two.

Edited February 21, 2010 by poodlefan

[puggy_puggy]

The vet says the ratio should be 40% meat, 30% vegetable and 40% rice or pasta. What do you think?

;) ;) I think your vet might need to take a look at their knowledge on canine nutrition.

Try 70% to 80% of raw meaty bones and the other 20% to 30% of muscle meat, offal, dairy, fruit & veggies.

Puppies eat a massive amount of food compared to adult dogs. Your dogs should still be getting 10% of it's actual body weight daily. If it is 5kg then it should be getting 500 grams of food a day split up into three meals.

Stop cooking everything. Serve it raw. The veggies should be mainly green leafy ones.

[koalablue]

Thanks poodlefan. The rice/pasta was meant to be 30%, not 40%. That aside, the above isn't all she has. She has puppy milk with egg yolk for breakfast every morning plus cottage cheese or yoghurt and ground up chicken bones. I've offered her sardines and tuna but she's not showing any interest in them. I also leave some moistened kibble.

Edited February 21, 2010 by koalablue

[puggy_puggy]

Puppy milk really is a waste of money. Dogs do not need grains and many can be allergic to them so the rice again is no good.

Below is an example of a raw puppy diet. If your pup is fine with chicken necks or wings then youc an subsitute the minced chicken carcuss for them.

PUPPY BARF DIET

- Approximately 10% of their actual body weight daily 70 to 80% of which should be Raw Meaty Bones and 20 to 30% vegies, offal & dairy, divided up into 3 meals a day.

Breakfast & Dinner Puppy mince(minced chicken carcasses) & veggie slops (small amounts of fish, kangaroo, beef, offal, youghurt etc can be mixed in on alternating days)

Lunch raw meaty bone

BARF SLOPS INGREDIENTS & METHOD

The key to the BARF slops are lots of raw green leafy vegtables and making sure they are food processed. Dogs are not able to naturally break down the cellulose walls that veggies and fruit contain so we have to do it for them.

Things to always include:

- container of alfala spouts - bunch of spinach (roots cut off) - bag of carrots - bunch of celary

- 4 zuccinis - 3 to 4 oranges (peeled) - 1 pumpkin - 2 to 4 apples (pips taken out)

- 2 to 4 bannanas (peeled) - bunch of silverbeat - 4 oranges - 8 to 10 eggs (whole including shell)

- flaxseed oil (approx 250mL) (some people choose to not include this and add to the food daily)

- kelp (approx 100g)

What else you can include:

- 1 to 2 green capsicums (stalk cut off & seeds out) - 1 to 2 red caspsicums (stalk cut off & seeds removed) - turnip - squash - 2 to 4 pears - half to 1 pinapple - brussel sprouts - brocoli - cauliflower - bag of beans - Apple Cider Vinegar - Vitamin C - Garlic

Chop up then process up in blender/food processor so that things turn to slops. Put each blender batch into a big bucket. Usually leave the eggs & flaxseed oil for things that don't blend very well like the pumpkin and carrots. Ingredients should fill up a bucket. Mix bucket with big ladel till all mixed through then put into take away containers & freeze untill needed.

Edited February 21, 2010 by puggy_puggy

[koalablue]

Thank you so much puggy puggy for your excellent response. I'll start making subtle changes tomorrow.

[poodlefan]

Flaxseed oil should not be the only oil supplement a dog receives. It should be fed in rotation with other oils or in a blend.

[Prydenjoy]

I think you'd enjoy a book called "Give Your Dog a Bone" by Dr Ian Billinghurst, alternatively "The BARF Book" (same author) is a much lighter read.

Good info Puggy, you'd probably want a big dog to be making up such large portions! Good suggestions for the veggies though. I personally use fish oil rather than flax seed oil, from what I've read not all dogs can break down the EFA's in flax oil so that they are available to them.