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should i feed a kibble/raw diet to a very young puppy?

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!

Member Since
10/27/2012

Barked: Wed Nov 7, '12 11:15am PST


	i've posted on another thread about this (different topic), but i'm gonna make a new thread to hopefully get some advice soon. i have a 7 week old puppy who i started on raw as soon as i got her (monday.....it's wednesday now) and i have only fed her chicken breast to start with. i plan on adding organs and bones soon. she hasn't pooped since monday morning. she's farting though!! and boy does it stink!! i have posted about her new diet on a shih tzu forum that i belong to and someone brought up (and included a link) that i could be hurting her by feeding her this diet and she could have some serious health problems in the future cuz her body is growing and needs certain nutrients that i may not be providing. so now i'm worried and i'm NOW considering buying a high grade puppy kibble to feed her once a day and then give her 2 meals of raw the rest of the day. any opinions on this? or should i not even consider kibble? i didn't want to ever give her kibble, but maybe i need to?

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UCH Onyx TT

Do you even- lift?

Barked: Wed Nov 7, '12 12:25pm PST


	It's certainly possible to feed a puppy nothing but raw and end up with a health dog. I switched my dog to raw the day he came home at eight weeks and he's eaten nothing but raw since. I would start feeding bone-in chicken rather than boneless, and I don't feel the standard two weeks of only chicken is necessary or beneficial for puppies that young. Young puppies haven't been eating kibble more than a few weeks so their bodies adjust to the switch much faster than most adult dogs. And because they are growing so rapidly, a chicken only diet won't provide the nutrition they need. I only fed one meal of bone-in chicken before adding more variety (beef was the second protein I gave). Organs are very rich so I would wait at least a week before giving those, and then introduce them very gradually. That said, it you're still new to feeding raw, you may want to do more research before completely jumping into it. Giving one kibble meal and two raw meals should work fine until you're more comfortable with raw. Either way, I'd suggest reading this Beginner's Guide To Prey Model Raw PDF for more information on what's invovled in feeding a prey model raw diet.

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Member Since
10/27/2012

Barked: Wed Nov 7, '12 1:38pm PST


	thanks! i will definately read that! i got back from petsmart not too long ago with a bag of kibble. i made sure it was a good brand. but i gotta say i am not happy and i'm a bit stressed cuz i didn't want to feed her kibble. but i just am so new to it and i'm also a new "mom dog" and i just want to make sure i don't mess her up by my ignorance in any way. thanks for the link!