just starting need help

I have two Akitas kenji is 7 months 70 lbs and zena is a year 85lbs, wathed your vids two or three times and started feeding chicken quarters cut up or split I should say, I give kenji a leg, a couple gizzards, a couple livers, and a egg in the morning. at night I feed him the other half of the quarter he was doing well the first two days but last night he had the runs all night about every two hours I was taking him out, this morning he vomited all foamy liquid and did not want to eat the leg. is this normal and do you think I am feeding him ok, Tonight I cut the skin off the quarter and he ate that ok. he seems to be doing ok now.
Zena will not touch a raw quarter she will play with it but will not eat it, I found some ground up turke at the supermarket for $1.19 16oz she loves this with the veggies mix I also give kenji t tablespoons of veggie mix at night, so I have been feeding zena the ground turkey with an egg, veggie mix, and some brown rice. she will not eat a bone for nothing. How do you get a dog to eat a bone? as far as zenas food been feeding about 2lbs a day does this seem right? would it help to cook the chicken leg for about two min so it just cooks the outside somewhat and nothing else, I read this somewhere to get your dog to eat the leg then cut back over time on the cooking or seering, or is this a bad idea. My wife hates this raw feeding but I keep assuring her it is for the better.
Also what is your thought on grinding the meat and bone and organs and feeding this way?
Thank you for the help
Craig

you could grind it, but that would prevent the benefit of cleaning theyre teeth naturally....

my dogs had the same issue the first couple days, for the most part my portions werent really dialed in... are you using any kind of filler?? i used boiled brown rice...theyre carbs, & a filler... i dont know if that was the reason of theyre success or not, but the stools were smaller & firmer then ever. I also cut back on the liver as liver i hear will give the shits,

follow jacks eco raw plan to a T, then start playing with the other stuff slowly and see the reaction, cant go wrong......

I gave zena brown rice mixed with the ground turkey tonight she will eat this just will not eat a bone, its crazy she does not like any kind of bone or chew stick! I ordered some chicken necks and backs from the butcher today hopefully this is ok also

may not hurt to add a tad of bacon grease or something to entice??

If the diarrhea has only been a short time. try some canned pumpkin given couple times a day.
Searing the meat with a little garlic powder in the oil might help. Your on the right track.

Last night was a repeat with kanji, out about every two hours, I will try the pumpkin thank you

Adjust your dog's feed the right way. 1st day:give 3/4 kibbles + 1/4 raw
2nd day:give 1/2 kibbles 1/2 raw, 3rd day: 1/4 kibbles 3/4 raw
4th day: all raw(add small amount of kibbles if necessary)
Good luck, it doesn't look good over night but be patient and in time, it'll pay off with less stool, and healthier dogs.

I was told with raw it needs to be cold turkey to to the digestive speed...

I am on day 4 I would hate to go back to kibble, I tried the pumpkin and he barfed it up and still has diarherra. I tried seering the meat for two minutes for my older dog that worked great, she loved the meat but when she got to the bone stopped, she picked all the meat off the bone, unbelievable

cut out the liver only and see if that clears it up. You dog shoud only get maybe half a chicken liver every other day. That's more than enough

If they won't eat it, leave it for them for 15 min and then pick up. After a few days, they'll eat it.

I don't understand the problem a lot of folks talk about on her with the "shits". I had some take right to the diet and others it took a few days. Not one ever had the runs. Lucky I guess.

I only feed the organ stuff every other day and my dogs do great and look great as well.
They get quarters one day
Next day, they quarters and "guts" which consiste of yogurt, gizzards, liver, eggs and oil

Works like a charm

i stopped giving liver because of the loose stool,..........chicken quarter,cup of rice,softboiled egg & a multi vitamin.....and the added fats....if you need to grind the bone then so be it, the bone does help support the firm stool

I have cut everything out but the chicken this is day five and still has diahrrea, tried pumpkin and that did not work, lost for ideas. Is this something I should be concerned about and make a vet visit?

That's a good idea vomiting and the runs is a dangerous situation. Time to get your dog stabilized.

Feeding chicken alone won't make it right. What you were feeding is the right way. Just because the dogs are in their 5th day doesn't mean they should be good. You need to go back to the drawing board and start from the beginning like how I showed you. If that doesn't work then your dogs are not meant to eat raw(bones). Pitbulls are not your average dogs. Their system, body, and mind are superior compare to most breeds. From what the owners of other breeds have told me, they are going through the same problem as you. I haven't had a pit that didn't like bones, so if I was you, I'd go back to kibbles and slowly add raw to their feed. Let their system get used to it first. Good luck.

Special Effect, How are your dogs doing ? Hope everything is okay....

How are your dogs doing today? Is Kenji still having loose stool? If he has had that for several days, be careful he does not get dehydrated.

Maybe heat up some chicken broth and give it to him to help keep fluids in him.

A few quick questions, how did your dogs do on kibble and what kibble did you feed them? Did you add anything to the kibble?

You might want to try a slower change over. If they both did well with eating kibble, maybe put them back on the kibble until the diarrhea stops and then introduce the raw gradually. My old dog now will sometimes get the runs here and there, and I feed her a bland diet of cooked chicken and rice with a little kibble soaked with warm water. That bland diet is easy to digest and it helps firm up the stool.

When I first changed over to feeding more raw, I did not start with chicken quarters, I fed chicken necks and chicken wings. These are softer and easier for them to learn to chew, as some dogs will gulp down a leg or thigh and not chew the bone properly. The necks especially were easy to chew up and eat.

Have you thought of trying a premade raw food? The Nature’s Variety raw is a quality product and a complete meal, plus everything is ground. Maybe buy some of that and see how they do with it after the get the loose stool under control.

Some dogs can switch over to eating raw chicken quarters with no problems while others need a more gradual change over. I’d try taking it slow and seeing how they do with some premade raw and chicken necks.

Kenji is doing good he is not dehydrated but he still has loose stools, I was feeding him fromm kibble and he was doing ok on that, although he would vomit quite frequently and sometimes choke when he was eating it because the kibble was small and he would eat fast. I oredered chicken necks and backs and they came in today so will feed him that tomorrow. I also bought a grinder that should be here tuesday and I was going to try to grind a little bit also. He loves the quarters but he does eat them down pretty fast. I fasted him 1 day this week but that did not help and he had a little bit of a hard stool today but is back to loose tonight.
should I keep him on quarters or try another type of meat?
Thank you all for asking about him
Craig

Thanks for the update, I am glad Kenji is doing ok. But he is only 7 months old so he’s still a growing pup and you want to make sure he is getting proper nutrition.

Fromm is decent kibble, but since he eats it too fast, you might try soaking it in warm water for about 20 mins before you feed him. This helps slow him down when he eats it. If you decide to feed kibble and raw, feed them separately. I feed my dog her raw meal at noon and her kibble meal at night.

Necks are good but backs have a lot of bone and fat and I would freeze those to feed later when he is more used to the raw food.

It sounds like he is eating too quickly and not chewing the bones up properly. When I started feeding raw, I wanted my dog to learn to chew the bones so I would feed her a chicken wing and hold the end of it so she had to eat it slower and had to chew it. This taught her not to gobble it down without chewing. I would also feed both your dogs completely separately so they don’t feel they have to compete over the food and try to eat it too fast.

Chicken quarters are good to feed once they learn to chew them well because the ratio of meat to bone is better. But they have larger bones than the necks so maybe try semi frozen necks to see if you can get him to chew them more before swallowing them.

I have used a hammer to break up the bones a bit as I don’t have a grinder and not all grinders will grind bone. But it is better if you try to teach them to eat slower and to chew up the bones. Sometimes feeding a thigh or leg when it is partly frozen will help get them to chew it more.

How much are you feeding him? Most dogs should get about 2% of their body weight in raw meat and bones. So a 50 pound dog would get about 1 pound of raw meat and bone. Each dog is different and some might need more, some less, it depends on the dog.

Has his stool gone back to normal at all? Has it been loose the whole time he has been eating the raw chicken? It should clear up by now, it usually is not that big an adjustment for a dog to change over to raw from kibble.

Have you considered trying the pre-made raw food like Nature’s Variety? It comes in rolls and in patties and is a good way to start raw feeding since it is all ground. It’s expensive though. But to start off it might be worth a try to see if it helps with the loose stool issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Special Effex

I have two Akitas kenji is 7 months 70 lbs and zena is a year 85lbs, wathed your vids two or three times and started feeding chicken quarters cut up or split I should say, I give kenji a leg, a couple gizzards, a couple livers, and a egg in the morning. at night I feed him the other half of the quarter he was doing well the first two days but last night he had the runs all night about every two hours I was taking him out, this morning he vomited all foamy liquid and did not want to eat the leg. is this normal and do you think I am feeding him ok, Tonight I cut the skin off the quarter and he ate that ok. he seems to be doing ok now.
Zena will not touch a raw quarter she will play with it but will not eat it, I found some ground up turke at the supermarket for $1.19 16oz she loves this with the veggies mix I also give kenji t tablespoons of veggie mix at night, so I have been feeding zena the ground turkey with an egg, veggie mix, and some brown rice. she will not eat a bone for nothing. How do you get a dog to eat a bone? as far as zenas food been feeding about 2lbs a day does this seem right? would it help to cook the chicken leg for about two min so it just cooks the outside somewhat and nothing else, I read this somewhere to get your dog to eat the leg then cut back over time on the cooking or seering, or is this a bad idea. My wife hates this raw feeding but I keep assuring her it is for the better.
Also what is your thought on grinding the meat and bone and organs and feeding this way?
Thank you for the help
Craig

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I don't really have an answer for you. Even my puppies will eat raw, bones and all, so I would be guessing as to why yours won't.

As to why your dogs are vomiting, etc., again I would be guessing as mine never did that (and I have fed hundreds of dogs raw).

One thing I will say is that you only fed part of the diet I recommended. I honestly don't think that has anything to do with the vomiting, but it's juat not a complete diet is all.

As a final thought, I do know raw isn't good to feed if your dogs have coccidia, so you might want to consider that as a possibility.

Jack

I have been feeding Kenji about 2lbs a day he is 70 lbs, he still has cannon butt but yesterday he did have part of a hard stool but every time since then he has been loose, he is doing good and chews pretty good just loose stools, he has only vomited twice since I started and the last time he ate the vomit so I think he was just readjusting part of the food and it was not that much. Do you think I should go back to fromm and start over but I really hate to do that.
Craig

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Special Effex

I have been feeding Kenji about 2lbs a day he is 70 lbs, he still has cannon butt but yesterday he did have part of a hard stool but every time since then he has been loose, he is doing good and chews pretty good just loose stools, he has only vomited twice since I started and the last time he ate the vomit so I think he was just readjusting part of the food and it was not that much. Do you think I should go back to fromm and start over but I really hate to do that.
Craig

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I don't know what to tell you besides what I have posted above. I never had any trouble with my dog not wanting to eat the raw chicken. But each dog is different.

They are your dogs and you know them best. It's up to you if you want to put them back on kibble for a bit and then try again. I'd still think starting with some pre-made raw might help. Maybe they are just having a hard time adjusting.

And Jack has a good point too in that what you are feeding is not a complete balanced diet. Maybe do some more reading and change it up a bit.

I don't think a vet visit will help much unless they are really sick. Most vets are against raw feeding.

Good luck and keep us posted....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CA Jack

As a final thought, I do know raw isn't good to feed if your dogs have coccidia, so you might want to consider that as a possibility.

Jack

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That is interesting, I did not know that. Could you please explain more about this Jack?

Thanks!

I would clear up the diarrhea first before continuing again with the raw diet. Start feeding some boiled rice and chicken to settle Kenji's stomach. It wouldn't hurt to take a stool sample to the vet to check for parasites. It could also be a bacterial infection. If it's giardia or a bacterial infection, the antibiotic Flagyl (metronidazole) will help clear it up.

I think 2 lbs of food a day is a bit much. I would cut back to 1.4 lbs which is 2% of his weight. If you're not already doing it, try splitting up the meal to 2x a day.

It is possible for a dog to become infected with the poultry-type coccidia if he eats raw chicken viscera that are infected. So if you are trying to get rid of coccidia in your dog, it would be counter productive to feed raw while you are medicating him. Also there is bacteria in raw meat that can exacerbate an underlying problem such as infections or coccidia.