Quote Originally Posted by NQK
I have a few dogs I will be breeding soon. So, this prompted me to begin my switch to RAW feeding. Here's what I'm doing now. Please add to this. Keep in mind I have purchased the DVDs from Jack and I expect them to arrive this week. However, I would love to get a head start now so any advice pointing me into a more productive direction is helpful.
Hey what's up? Good discussion topic!



Quote Originally Posted by NQK
I have been feeding EITHER, Deer Meet or Chicken Quarters as the main staple. I add one soft boiled egg, 1 tbs Yogurt and half a chicken liver.
So for this is all I'm doing. What would you add to this. Keep in mind, I am a rookie with this subject and will wean myself into a good understanding through time.
My local meet market gives me what I want in terms of newly expired meets of all varieties and plenty of fat trimmings.
Set me straight fellow doggers.
Okay, for one thing, keep in mind as you wait for your DVDs ( ) that most of this material is covered in the nutrition section of the book

However, with that said, I don't really cover deer meat, per se in the book, so this is a good place to discuss it. Deer meat in general is a very lean meat, so your dogs will not be able to put on a lot of weight when compared to eating chicken. As a matter of fact, chicken meat actually has about 4x the amount of fat as does deer meat. Moreover, chicken also has bone in it, which is vital to your dogs' health. An ideal calcium:phosphorus ratio of 2:1 should be maintained, but without the calcium of bone, this ratio becomes very bad. Dogs can actually get sick from eating lean meat with no bone, so be careful in that regard.

Yogurt is great (plain), but I personally add 2 tBsp now, and half a chicken liver is okay ... but liver should not be fed every day. It contains massive amounts of Vitamin A, which could lead to toxicity if fed daily. You should also feed the egg shell for added calcium, and that is also why I recommend diced leafy-green vegetables ... they add a lot of calcium (as well as other goodies) to the meal to balance-out other vitamins and trace minerals your dogs just can't get from meat alone. To help you get a general feel for the nutrition value of foods, I recommend that you go to http://www.nutritiondata.com. You can plug-in literally any food item and you will get a printout like this (which is for chicken):


Be sure you pay attention as to HOW MUCH of the food item you're measuring (a gram, an ounce, a pound, etc.). This chart is for 1 oz of chicken, so if you're feeding 8 oz to your dog, you would multiply everything by 8. Also, keep in mind that this chart does NOT factor-in the chicken bone, because we humans don't eat that.

Anyway, hope this helps for now ... and hope you like your DVDs

Jack