Is Feeding A Puppy Raw 10% Of They Body Weight Too Much?

[Emmajin]

I have a Golden Retriever thats 5 month old and weight 18KG.

I did alot of research on raw feeding, but couldn't find much information on feeding a puppy raw.

many people said a puppy should be feed 10% of they body weight.

so, my golden is 18KG, thats 1.8KG a day, 600G each meal for 3 meals a day.

it looks alot to me, but my golden can always empty his plate in no time.

What i do for each meal is:

200g beef mince mix with Vet's all natural mix

300g lamb or beef RMB, they do have alot of meats on them

beef neck or lamb rib or chicken wings for him to eat up all the bones.

then i give him hearts or liver sometimes, not eveyday and in small amount.

I will change the type of meats i give him over time, but this is what i do for a start.

BTW , he poops many times during the day, but eveytime is only a small amount, is this normall? his poops are hard and ball shape ( used to have diarrhea all the time on dry dog food)

If i did the right thing how long should i be doing this for? when can i change to 2-3% of they body weight?

Thanks for all advice

[Tilly]

I was feeding my GSD pup (now 10 months old) anywhere from 2 to 10% of his body weight. Some days he gets a big meal and other times he will get a lighter meal - it will depend on if he is going through a growth spurt and how his body weight/shape was going.

He was putting on an average of 1.2 to 1.8kg per week. Even though he is on the very lean side (clearly see all his ribs) he is going to be a very big boy .... he is now 46kg.

My boy is now down to 1 meal a day and he does small nugget size poops.

Compared to what our older boy used to deposit in the back yard - the poops are much smaller on raw.

Edited February 18, 2010 by Tilly

[puggy_puggy]

10% is what young puppies should be getting. At 5 months old you could probably cut it back to about 6% to 7%.

[Esky the husky]

I was of the understanding it was 2-3% of the full adult weight

Maybe I'm wrong though

[SBT101]

Adults is from 2%-3% depending on if they are of good weight, bit over weight or underweight.

Puppies are from 5%- 10%. I give Phina, nearly 6 months, 6% most days but if she wants more then she gets a little more. And I think she has good weight on her.

[Sandra777]

Don't get too wound up about a number. If the dog is eating everything up and putting weight on at a steady pace, with good energy levels, nice coat, healthy skin etc then they're getting enough food. Frequent pooping isn't abnormal but not exactly normal either - could be a hold-over from the irritation the dry food caused and may settle down after a while (can take weeks/months). Small hard poop is fine, if it gets too hard up the meat content fractionally.

Even feeding a dog out of a bag takes observation of the dog's condition, raw feeding is no different.

[Emmajin]

thanks so much eveyone, i'll adjust around for what he needs.

[puggy_puggy]

I was of the understanding it was 2-3% of the full adult weight

Maybe I'm wrong though

This is incorrect.

Adult dogs are fed approx 2% of their ideal weight daily. I have my older adult pugs on about 1.5% of their weight daily.

Young puppies, from when they are weaned approx 6 weeks till about 4 months old, on the other hand are fed 10% of their actual weight daily. Weigh at least twice a week.

From about 5 months onwards, untill they stop growing, you still feed a percentage of the dogs actual weight but basically cutting the percentage down as they get older.

Edited February 19, 2010 by puggy_puggy