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Newbie to raw diet. Questions about rotating proteins.

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your dog's diet, please contact your vet!

  
Stella

1282203		 
 
Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 9:20am PST 
Hi everyone!
I am a proud owner of a 8 month old Cane Corso (Italian mastiff) named Stella.I switched her to a raw diet about 3 weeks ago. So far everything is going great. I've only been feeding her chicken and we are ready for a new protein. I bought red meat and pork the other day and gave her a few pieces to try, she loved it. My question is how often can I switch up the proteins? Can I give her pork one day and then chicken the next? Can I mix chicken and pork? Or could I even do three different proteins in one day?

Also, Stella will not chew up big pieces of meat yet so I have been cutting the meat into chunks. Should I stop doing that and basically force her to chew up a big piece of meat? She will chew up bones but only of most of the meat has been removed.

Thanks in advance! I look forward to being a part of this forum.
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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 9:35am PST 
You can mix proteins in a single meal. Yesterday Max got chicken liver, pork chunks and a beef rib for instance. A convenient but boring diet is very often 1/3-1/2 bony chicken with 1/2-2/3 beef/pork/lamb and a couple chunks of beef/lamb/pork/chicken liver/kidney fed any way that works best. For over a year Max usually got a bit of bony chicken plus a bit of whatever organ and whatever red meat was the best price that month.

Try easing her into whole bits by making the chunks into long strips that require more work to get into the mouth then thickening up the strips until she is handling a pound of meat in a single long strip. Max will attempt to swallow fist shaped hunks whole so I cut them into W or Z shapes. Cut the meat to the bone for her now but it is safer to eat bone inside the meat. Basically you need to have the picture of how you want her to eat in your head and slowly make changes to what she is getting now to get her to that point.

Could she still be teething? How is her bite? Perhaps there is a mechanical problem instead of her being a slow learner or a princess?
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Stella

1282203		 
 
Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 9:54am PST 
Thank you for the response! I've been looking into raw diets for a long time, but I always seem to have questions lol. I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about everything, I just don't want to mess up and hurt my girl.

And think she is still teething. Yesterday she was chewing on a Nyla bone and I noticed it was really bloody, along with another toy she was chewing on. I don't mind cutting up her food, but it would be nice if she would eat a whole drumstick so I can save myself some prep time and i want her to learn how to chew up meat. But I dont care if it takes a while to get to that point, or even if i have to cut it up forever, i just don't want her to choke (big fear on our home because we had a 5 month old bulldog choke to death on kibble).
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Saya

I want to play!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 10:03am PST 
Saya has been raw fed since 8months old so about 3 years now..

Saya's meals are sometimes one protein source sometimes I mix it up etc.

Beef heart, egg and chicken foot then next day chicken liver and boneless pork, then next lamb ribs and ground turkey and so on.

When introducing new protein it's best to transition slow choose one either beef or pork and work up to it. Small piece with each meal and increase as he gets used to it.

If your having issue with it can go back to normal meals and try again, but slower.

Some dogs have iron guts and transitions easily some need take time.

Boneless, organs and ground meat Saya will eat those fast compared to chicken quarter, turkey neck, or pork shoulder.

I feed boneless, ground meat, and organs frozen mostly except for tongue it's very chewy and more work for her to chew.

Unless the boneless meat is big like a leg roast or pork shoulder I have to freeze it or semi thawed to slow her down.

Big meat items I have no issue with her eating fast as it's more work tearing meat off.
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