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Whenever we get a puppy, the first thing which happens once they’ve had a little quiet time in their new home, is that they get a chicken wing to play with, we play with them with it for a while, to raise their interest in it, then they play with it themselves, until they pierce the skin and realise it is food, and eat it, then they get another.
We believe this is an excellent time to change over dogs to a natural raw diet for the following reasons:
*growth is slower and more balanced on a raw diet,
*you don’t end up [unless you over-feed them] with fat, podgy puppies, which, although they may look cuddly and cute, are carrying extra, unnecessary weight which is putting undue stress on growing, forming bones and joints, which is very important for all dogs, especially large breeds
*they learn from a very young age to eat bones nicely so once older, even though a large breed, you can still give smaller bones like chicken wings to them and so have more variety in the diet
*they are getting good, sound nutrition from a very young age
– oh, and they love it and are very happy puppies !
We recommend puppies initially be given a complete raw diet which has been formulated for the specific needs growing puppies have, which are different to the needs of grown dogs.
The only raw diet we know of which is formulated to these needs, as laid down by FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry Federation) is produced by Nutriment Raw, so this is the puppy mince which we recommend be used for puppies, for the first year of life, to ensure all nutritional needs are being met.
Because puppies are still growing, they have more frequent meals and require a higher percentage of food than an adult dog who has finished growing, and this can seem tricky to work out as they may not be a specific breed, and parent breeds [if they are full breeds] may be unknown, so an easy way which works well, is to start your pup on 10% of their own weight at 7-8wks of age [the age most pups are when brought home], and just reduce by about 1% every 4wks from then on, so 12wks = 9%, 16wks = 8% etc. slowing down once they hit the 6mth mark and spacing out the increments then until at around 18mths of age they are then onto the normal 2-3% that is normal for an adult dog.
Use this method of working out food amounts only once, to get a starting point, and after that, judge by their condition as to whether you need to increase, or decrease their food. When they are standing straight, run your hands over their ribs each side, and you should be able to easily feel every rib without needing to dig with your fingertips, but not feel in-between ribs, or skin-on-bone unless you have a large breed and are wanting to grow them very lean to minimise strain on developing joints.
You should 'Never' have chubby puppies when they are rawfed.
Now, they are no different to human babies in that some will be ‘hungry babies’ and others will want less, but this basic guide works well alongside you keeping an eye on your pup and gauging the amounts so they don’t become overweight.
I remember my GSD [Holly] as a pup start her own change-over, as she walked past my older girls dish [Jess] and quite matter-of-factly just took out a whole lambs heart and munched it !
They love it and take to it so readily, so there are no problems with dogs not liking specific tastes or textures.
It can be daunting, but part of our business is to offer our clients help and support so hold our hand and dive right in !
