How to Start

My Guide on How To Start.

Step 1: Be Educated.

It's important to know what you and your dog will be going through in this raw feeding journey. In this website, you will find so many useful information about the benefits of raw feeding. That's not all, you'll also find out the dangers of commercial dog food today.

Prey Model Explained.

Step 2: Feed Him Right.

Next, find out how much meat, meaty bones, and organs to feed your dog. Here is a short summary of the things to start:

Always Remember:

80 % Muscle Meat

10 % Raw Meaty Bones

5 % Other Organs

5% Liver

More info: Click HERE

Ideal Adult Weight

Figure out his Ideal Adult Weight. If you know his breed, click HERE. If not, ask your vet or support groups.

Percentage

Small/Toy Dogs: 4-5%

Pregnant Dogs: 4-5%

Puppies: 4-5%

Active Dogs: 4-5%

Medium Dogs: 2-3%

Overweight: Less than 2%

Couch Potatoes: Less than 2 %

Easy Computation

Ideal Adult Weight * Percentage = Weight of meal per day.

80% is muscle meat

10% is raw meaty bones

5% other organs

5% Liver

Auto Computation

Check out this file to help you auto-compute your dog's meal.

Example for Step 2

Intoducing Shpot.

Breed: Beagle.

Ideal Adult Weight for Beagle:

13 -16 kgs.

My vet said the ideal one is 15kgs.

Beagle Percentage:

Medium Dog:

2-3% or 0.02 - 0.03

Note: 4% = 0.04, 3% = 0.03 and so forth.

Computation:

Ideal Adult Weight * Percentage

15kgs * 0.02 = 0.3kgs per day.

The Meat, Bones, and Organs.

Out of the 0.3kgs, 80% should be muscle meat, 10% raw meaty bones, 10% organs

0.3kgs * 0.80 = 0.24kgs Meat

0.3kgs * 0.10 = 0.03 Bones

0.3kgs * 0.05 = 0.02 Liver

0.3kgs * 0.05 = 0.02 Other Organs

Step 3: Feeding Plan

Age: 6 months or Less

Divide food into 3 - 4 meals per day

Age: 6 months to 12 months

Divide food into 2- 3 meals per day

Age: 12 months and above

Divide food into 1- 3 meals per day

Eating Place

Find a place where your dog will feel safe to eat. When a dog feels threatened, he might swallow his food.
Try to find a clean place to clean. If not, you can use old shirts as his "plate".
Don't hover around him while eating. He might feel uncomfortable.

Storage

Make sure there is enough space to store their food.
Store meat properly in the freezer.

Step 4: Start Slowly

Most dogs can easily transition from kibble. Some dogs, like Shpot, have issues during the transiction. Here are some awesome tips to help you get started.

Start with chicken. For medium to large dogs, it's best to start with the breast (including the ribs). Don't worry too much about the percentage on the first week. The goal is to help your dog transition from kibble to raw food.
Check his poop/stools. Click HERE to get more information about looking at dog stools. It may be disgusting BUT it's your way of checking if they're getting better. Don't worry about diarrhea. If you're still worried, join support groups. There's a lot of helpful people out there.
After 2 weeks or a month, depending on your dog's ability to adjust to raw food, you can start intoducing liver and other organs. To know what kinds of organs you can feed, click HERE.
After a month's worth of chicken, it's time to add variety. For me, I started with pork and beef. Then, I found out my dog loves pig's heart. So now, it's his main diet. Every few days/weeks, he gets a different kind of meat as a treat.

MY DOG WON'T EAT!!!!!

First, take a deep breath and calm down. It happened to Shpot too!

It's because your dog doesn't recognize raw meat as food OR he/she doesn't like that particular meat. If they don't recognize meat as food, it's sad. Why? Dogs are naturally capable of eating raw meat BUT because of commercial dog food, it altered a dog's idea of food. They start thinking chemicals, additives, and preservatives are the definition of food. It's time we help our dogs understand that raw meat is the REAL FOOD!

Here are some steps to help:

Mix a small amount of tasty human food with the raw meat. By giving him a happy memory of raw meat, he starts accepting meat as part of his diet.
Lightly sear the meat. Heat the meat on low heat. Stop when you see the meat starting to "sweat". What this does is release flavor from inside the meat.
Have a reward system. Make him eat the meat. When he does, give him his favorite treat. Note: Don't use kibbles as treats. Some dogs get diarrhea when mxing kibbles and raw meat.
Leave the meat in front of him for 20 minutes. If he won't eat it, pick it up and store it. Try 3 times in a day. When he's hungry, he'll go ahead and eat it.
Try other kinds of meat. Some dogs will never eat chicken but loves pork. Try to find out which meat will help him get acquainted with raw food.
Remove the blood. I found out Shpot didn't like the taste and smell of blood. When I cleaned the blood out, he found the courage to eat.
Wash the meat. Sometimes, traces of organs, chemicals, or blood are left on the meat. Since dogs have a strong sense of smell, they might not like the smell or organs, chemicals or blood.
Freeze the meat. They might have a hard time eating it - but some new raw feeders claim that it helped their dog start their raw feeding diet.
Tough Love. I'm not a fan of this but other raw feeders approve it. Tough love is this: If you're dog won't eat, don't feed him. A healthy dog will eat when it's hungry. The thing is, some dogs reach from 2 days to 2 weeks without eating. So, it's your decision to make.

Step 5: You Enjoy the Changes and Your Dog Enjoys the Food!

It's time to share your success story!

I know I did! It's just so amazing how Shpot changed. During my kibble days, my vet was telling me Shpot was a healthy dog. After Raw feeding, i actually saw what a healthy dog looked like!

Don't believe "professionals" when they say dogs have bad breath, itchy ears, shed too much fur, have allergies, smelly body, smelly poop, tick infestation, and more. It's not true!

Shpot is awesome right now. He loves the fridge because he knows that's where his food is. He's also healthier than what my vet described as a "healthy dog".