[Natalie R]

InkedMarie: thanks! We are trying to transition her (we have some fish to add once per week, and we recently added the egg), but since she’s still having problems with basic bones and pollen allergies, we’re being slow with the transition. We will probably introduce the fish in a few days, and we have some turkey for tonight. She had allergies when we introduced it at thanksgiving, and we wanted to wait for them to subside before we tried again in case it was actually a reaction to turkey or we would have continued sooner. Still, I hadn’t seen any recommendations for just HOW many kinds of meat should be in rotation, so that is very useful! Thank you very much!

DogFoodie: thank you! It’s always good to have reassurance.

[Natalie R]

Thank you both!

A friend offered today for us to borrow her vitamix to blend raw chicken after hearing about our problems. We plan to try out what you suggested, Coonhound Mama; it’s reassuring for us, too, that our dog isn’t the only one with trouble eating bones. I read some raw food vets say that it’s okay to give recreational bones like beef knuckles that still have meat attached for teeth-cleaning purposes. Our dog does very well with her deer antlers (doesn’t chew too vigorously and hurt herself), so we may add that to make up for lost jaw exercise and hygiene if grinding works out.

To anon, thanks for the resource! I don’t think grains will work for our girl because she reacts so badly to even oatmeal shampoo (we can feel how inflamed her skin becomes through her thick coat), but the bone meal guide is useful. Every dog is different, so I know some would thrive on that diet plan. I will bookmark it for its produce and vitamin references especially.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Natalie R.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Natalie R.

[Natalie R]

Thanks! Yes, we are aware of those issues and are keeping an eye out for discomfort or unusual behavior. So far, the vomiting I described was not alarming because she acted well before and after and we could easily figure out the cause and avoid it in the future.

We would like to exhaust our resources for raw before trying something else, and we refuse to give commercial dog food (even high quality stuff) after reading several scientific studies about it. We chose raw over cooked homemade food because bones provide calcium in what should be an easily digestible form. Since she does digest bones when she chews and doesn’t digest ground eggshell, we aren’t sure if we could use many alternative calcium sources for a cooked diet.

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