As we approach the 3 week mark of the birth of our Alpha litter of 9, which is the time to begin weaning, it brings to mind a few points I’d like to make about dog food.
First I’d like to clarify that I’ll be weaning this litter on a top brand of grain free puppy food/kibble, namely Fromm.
If you were to observe a pack of wolves in the wild, pups would be weaned on regurgitated food consisting of meat, bone, organ meat, and probably a bit of undigested plant material contained within the intestines of the prey. This plant material would likely be no more than 5% of the total meal. This is true of the adults’ diet as well.
Now go look at any bag of dry dog food and figure the percentage of carbohydrate contained therein. Even the grain free brands far exceed 5%. This overabundance of carbs from sources like corn, grains, potatoes, and peas is not natural to the diets of dogs or cats and is the trigger of many of today’s maladies in the dog and cat population.
We feed our dogs a raw diet consisting of things like chicken leg quarters, pork ribs, ground beef, chicken gizzards, heart, and liver, beef liver and tripe, chicken and pig feet. A small amount of roughage like green beans, spinach, quick oats, or the like is needed as well. The dogs are fit as a fiddle, their coats shine, and their teeth are very healthy. They drink far less water and their poop is smaller, less odorous, and it decays into the ground quicker.
Some people feed rabbit and other small game meat as well. But please, don’t feed wild game, feed only meat that has been inspected and is free of disease. The bone MUST be raw, and not weight bearing bones of large animals. Cooked bone is dangerous to your dog. If you feed a meal consisting of meat only without the bone, you must add a calcium supplement. Many calcium supplements for people contain added D3, you can’t use that kind, it must be just plain calcium.
Puppies can be switched cold turkey to raw diet by grinding the meat and bone until the adult teeth come in.
I will be creating a raw diet page for this website soon that will contain links with much more information and pdf downloads of charts and how to’s of the raw diet. I will also be including a packet of that material to go along with all puppies coming from our breeding program.
By feeding a raw species appropriate diet to your dog or cat, you are going a long way to preventing many of the diseases common in pets today, and your pet will likely live a healthier happier life.
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