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Weaning Onto Raw


becks
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I asked in the April topic but got no answers.

This is my first litter to wean onto raw (I normally start with kibble and then bring in meat at 6 weeks or so).

Is it OK to start with mince with bone in (I have a supply of minced chicken carcasses) or is it best to start bone free mince.

Does anyone have a preference for meat type to start with?

I have some goats milk to make it more slushy

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I use chicken mince which is minced carcass and skins...I also mix in a bit of fresh goats milk...and I find babies dont eat the bones I find them sitting in the bottom of their dish.

Although their very first tastes of raw I like to use organic beef or lamb....and then go to the chicken.

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Whatever you would feed an adult in raw..you can feed pups. Just make sure it's cut up a bit smaller. We use mince with bone all the time and nothing is ever left behind. We feed a variety of offal and include pasta/veg mix up. We currently have a litter here and their mother is raw/natural fed and they will not have kibble whilst they live here. We can't control what their new owners do, but while here, they will eat normal and natural food without preservatives or additives.

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I started with straight beef mince and within a couple of days introduced minced chicken carcass (with bone). I never had any issues with them on raw and had more trouble getting them to accept kibble. Next time I'll be feeding raw only.

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I used to give finely diced beef mince, I was told chicken would be easier to stomach. However with the last pup I gave her minced turkey, which you can now buy in the supermarket and this is a great hit. :)

Edited by LizT
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Becks I just go to the supermarket and buy the cheapest mince available.

I feed it as it comes. After a few days I add some well soaked dry food, just a little to start with and build it up. As they progress I use less water in the dry till they are having mince with dry food mixed through it. This may be over 10 days and then I change over to chicken mince slowly by mixing the two minces together with the dry food.

Never had a problem with it. :)

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I've always started them on scraped beef - get a lump of cheap beef (stewing steak is usually good) and scrape off the meat with a small serrated knife - leaves all the fat and sinewy bits behind. They get a lump about as big the top of my thumb 3 or 4 times over a matter of 2 days or so (these are Stafford pups, 3.5 to 4 weeks old). Next meal is the highest quality human beef mince I can get and they get a piece about the size of a golf ball twice a day for 2 or 3 days - then they get chicken wings as the next meal and go up from there. They usually get a meal of mince with some dry food, a meal of meaty bones and a meal of sardines or eggs or cheese with some big chewing type biscuits (I use Greyhound biscuits) or just more meaty bones

I never soak the dry food and I don't use milk to wean pups - that's what mum is for!

ETA: obviously this isn't 100% raw :laugh: I am realistic enough to know most people aren't going to feed 100% raw so I like to get the pups used to dry food early. Some Staffords have beef allergies, so I introduce this early too - no idea if it's sound reasoning but I don't have dogs with beef allergies.

Edited by Sandra777
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over here we can buy small packs of dog mince, so I got a selection to try out, last night the mince was rabbit with some chicken. Mushed it with some goats milk, as the pups are only just 3 weeks old - you can see in the april thread how it went down!

Bit wary of getting cheap supermarket mince as that is often half pork mince here and very fatty - i don't feed pork or fatty foods to my dogs as a breed they can be prone to problems with a high fat diet.

thanks for all your comments, interesting to hear how different breeds are weaned!

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You really shouldn't feed kibble and raw in the same meal especially with puppies.

That's because dogs have a short digestive system which is great for being able to eat raw food and not get sick from the bacteria that is in - Raw food moves quickly through their digestive tract so it doesn't have time to brew the bacteria but if you add kibble that stays in the digestive tract longer and keeps the meat in there with it and there is a greater risk of them getting sick. Better to feed a meal of raw food on its own and if you also want to feed kibble do it at a separate time.

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I have started my last 2 litters of GWP straight off mum onto raw meat. No kibble to be seen!!

We have a great local supplier and we just double mince the meat so it's very fine (we purchased a mincer for this very reason)

We add in minced spinach, cottage cheese, fish oil. It's an instant hit!

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over here we can buy small packs of dog mince, so I got a selection to try out, last night the mince was rabbit with some chicken. Mushed it with some goats milk, as the pups are only just 3 weeks old - you can see in the april thread how it went down!

Bit wary of getting cheap supermarket mince as that is often half pork mince here and very fatty - i don't feed pork or fatty foods to my dogs as a breed they can be prone to problems with a high fat diet.

thanks for all your comments, interesting to hear how different breeds are weaned!

Gee that's a shame. As i said I just usually buy the cheapest hamburger mince available.I suppose we are rather spoilt in Aust. with such a huge Beef Industry we tend to forget that others may not be able to purchase similar.

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You really shouldn't feed kibble and raw in the same meal especially with puppies.

That's because dogs have a short digestive system which is great for being able to eat raw food and not get sick from the bacteria that is in - Raw food moves quickly through their digestive tract so it doesn't have time to brew the bacteria but if you add kibble that stays in the digestive tract longer and keeps the meat in there with it and there is a greater risk of them getting sick. Better to feed a meal of raw food on its own and if you also want to feed kibble do it at a separate time.

That's interesting Steve, I do that by instincts :laugh: I just figured one type of food at a time since it was different and guessed it must have a different digestive time.

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I also wouldn't feed hamberger mince unless I added some egg shell powder as this is setting up a mineral in balance -critical at this time of life which carries over into all sorts of potential problems later on.

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You really shouldn't feed kibble and raw in the same meal especially with puppies.

That's because dogs have a short digestive system which is great for being able to eat raw food and not get sick from the bacteria that is in - Raw food moves quickly through their digestive tract so it doesn't have time to brew the bacteria but if you add kibble that stays in the digestive tract longer and keeps the meat in there with it and there is a greater risk of them getting sick. Better to feed a meal of raw food on its own and if you also want to feed kibble do it at a separate time.

By the same logic one should never feed bone and meat in the same meal - bone stays in the stomach until it is sufficiently broken down to move in to the intestine while the meat is broken down more quickly and moves on. The digestive system is a wonderful thing - especially the stomach acids of a healthy dog.

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You really shouldn't feed kibble and raw in the same meal especially with puppies.

That's because dogs have a short digestive system which is great for being able to eat raw food and not get sick from the bacteria that is in - Raw food moves quickly through their digestive tract so it doesn't have time to brew the bacteria but if you add kibble that stays in the digestive tract longer and keeps the meat in there with it and there is a greater risk of them getting sick. Better to feed a meal of raw food on its own and if you also want to feed kibble do it at a separate time.

By the same logic one should never feed bone and meat in the same meal - bone stays in the stomach until it is sufficiently broken down to move in to the intestine while the meat is broken down more quickly and moves on. The digestive system is a wonderful thing - especially the stomach acids of a healthy dog.

Not necessarily- it takes much longer for kibble to digest and assimilate than bones and it requires different enzymes too.

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You really shouldn't feed kibble and raw in the same meal especially with puppies.

That's because dogs have a short digestive system which is great for being able to eat raw food and not get sick from the bacteria that is in - Raw food moves quickly through their digestive tract so it doesn't have time to brew the bacteria but if you add kibble that stays in the digestive tract longer and keeps the meat in there with it and there is a greater risk of them getting sick. Better to feed a meal of raw food on its own and if you also want to feed kibble do it at a separate time.

By the same logic one should never feed bone and meat in the same meal - bone stays in the stomach until it is sufficiently broken down to move in to the intestine while the meat is broken down more quickly and moves on. The digestive system is a wonderful thing - especially the stomach acids of a healthy dog.

Not necessarily- it takes much longer for kibble to digest and assimilate than bones and it requires different enzymes too.

I would have though "meat and bones" are a "complete package" since they do come together!

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You really shouldn't feed kibble and raw in the same meal especially with puppies.

That's because dogs have a short digestive system which is great for being able to eat raw food and not get sick from the bacteria that is in - Raw food moves quickly through their digestive tract so it doesn't have time to brew the bacteria but if you add kibble that stays in the digestive tract longer and keeps the meat in there with it and there is a greater risk of them getting sick. Better to feed a meal of raw food on its own and if you also want to feed kibble do it at a separate time.

By the same logic one should never feed bone and meat in the same meal - bone stays in the stomach until it is sufficiently broken down to move in to the intestine while the meat is broken down more quickly and moves on. The digestive system is a wonderful thing - especially the stomach acids of a healthy dog.

Not necessarily- it takes much longer for kibble to digest and assimilate than bones and it requires different enzymes too.

I would have though "meat and bones" are a "complete package" since they do come together!

Yep.

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At what age do people add things like chicken wings? Mine tend to be about 6 weeks old and it is basically a good suck and play with them at that age, by another week they have got the idea to eat it!

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At what age do people add things like chicken wings? Mine tend to be about 6 weeks old and it is basically a good suck and play with them at that age, by another week they have got the idea to eat it!

The same here but I use necks as I had a bit of a fright over the long thin wing bones.

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