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I started feeding my dogs the economical raw diet but they are loosing weight pretty fast I am feeding 2 cups of rice half chicken quarter multi vitamin and lard and the soft boiled egg I feed them heavier since its cold up here in the great lakes region anything I can do to fatten them up
Increase the fat content. Increase the feed amount. Maybe more rice. When switching to RAW there is some weight loss to start with but it tails off and works him back to a more ideal weight. EWO
It's really simple science. You must simply increase calories. What you are feeding is fine, you just need more of it.
I'd like to share some observations I've made since switching. I've been doing this about 8 months now and have a system I like a lot and is working very well for me.
I feed a concoction I call "Guts". It is a mixture of Chicken Livers, Gizzards, Raw Eggs, Yogurt and Oil. I feed "Guts" every other day typically. There were times when I would go several days without it. The mainstay was chicken quarter per dog. B/c the quarters are cheaper per pound, I would try to bump the weight gain and such by adding more chicken, b/c it was cheaper. Didn't work. I add back my "guts" and their body weight goes up quickly. Lots of calories in this mixture.
What I do now, is I feed "guts" 2 days on, 1 day off and they get a chicken quarter every single day.
With what you are feeding, I'd say up the fats/oils for sure. The Chicken and Rice won't do a lot for adding weight. You may just add yogurt for the calories and get good results.
Best of luck!
First of all, all dogs lose weight fed a good raw diet, because most dogs are fat and look like shit when fed kibble (especially overfed).Quote:
Originally Posted by erik440
Second, depending on how big your dogs are, half a chicken quarter might not be enough, so feed the whole chicken quarter (maybe 1.5 chicken quarters).
You must remember that most of my dogs were in the high-20s to mid-30s, so if you have big dogs you might have to feed twice as much as what I feed.
You have to do the same with kibble: if you see a guy feeding 1 cup of kibble to 30 lb dogs, you can't feed your 45 lb - 50 lb dogs dog "1 cup" and think they're going to be okay ;)
Jack
So just add more chicken
I would add a little more of every thing until you dial it in. Dialing a dog to RAW can be fairly difficult as weight loss/weight gain is a gradual process. It takes time. XXX amount today may need to be XX amount next week or XXXX amount the week after until you find the ideal "X" amount for that individual dog. I have been back and forth over the years. I first went RAW with a Rottweiler many years ago. After a gradual change and he was on an all raw diet he lost weight like mad. I began pouring the food to him and over compensated. He gained weight and left food and most RAW is not 'reusable' the next day. So until I matched his activity level to his feed intake and coupled that with his individual metabolism I 'see-sawed' his weight over a couple of months. In time he was better for it but he looked fat then skinny then fat and then skinny and finally he looked fit. Then I got a second dog. Same ingredients but I had to feed her twice as much it seemed because she was a spazz, always on the go.
Long story short, add amounts gradually, and i would say an increase across the board, and dial him in from there. His size, metabolism and activity level will make him different from any other and he has to be fed based on those three things. Best of luck. EWO