Umm...feeding 400g when your pup is only 4kg would mean you're feeding her 10% of her body weight everyday O.O" That's a bit too much, in my opinion. At 6 months, she is young, but not THAT young anymore, if you get what I mean. If you need to up the amount from 200g, do it slowly in small increments (10g maybe?) instead of going up double like that.

For me, I feed Scottie (a Min. Schnauzer too) about 120 - 150g a day only, and he's about 6-7kg of weight now. Granted, he's already 3 years old, but even for his puppies, I actually go with the formula of 2% of the breed's ideal weight (which is around that weight also) and monitor as I feed. Feeling the dog's sides will help you get some gauge also whether she is underweight or overweight. If the pup is underweight, I just up the amount by about 10-20g first for a few days and go on from there.

Again, this is all by estimation...you need to actually monitor your dog to see if she is too thin or too fat, or just nice. If it's just nice, just keep on feeding the amount you're feeding now. If not, then adjust accordingly Hope that helps

Well, I follow the ideal weight thing coz it so happens Scottie falls under that range, but not all dogs are in that ideal weight range...so yeah, again it's back to the monitoring. By no means you should reduce coz your pup is still growing unless she has become too fat as a puppy. So, the food SHOULD increase when she's growing steadily until she has reached adulthood (around 1 - 1.5 years old). By then, you would have had an amount that you should feed steadily to maintain that ideal weight for your pup The best advice I've always seen from other experienced raw feeders is to keep monitoring our dogs and KNOW OUR DOGS There is no set amount of food to feed coz each dog grows differently, so keep monitoring and adjusting until you get that ideal weight for YOUR pup

Well, to be honest I don't really know that much with regards to preparing BARF. Although I too feed raw, I follow the Prey Model which does not use as much vegetables and all that. So, I don't really know much about what kinds of veggies and their ratio. But, if you have the time, go look up the pages in this thread...they also have some recipes in the beginning few pages and what not. Also, read up more about raw feeding to clear your doubts about the questions that you have asked...not that I'm discouraging you to feed raw, but before feeding raw you need to know WHAT you can or cannot feed, and should you come across some 'bumps in the road' along the way, how to deal with it.

It is extensive reading I would say, especially if you want to prepare the raw food yourself. It's better for you to read up yourself as much as you could instead of relying on just one person's opinion. I myself took about 2 months of reading before I went into raw feeding and I still am learning

If you're talking about meat, start out with chicken first...it's the cheapest and easiest to find meat available. What I would do is buy a whole chicken and chop it into pieces. Since Scottie is not that big, I usually get about 8-10 pieces from a whole chicken. I weigh the chicken of course to make sure it's around the amount I feed Scottie. Rinse and feed. Note that I feed Scottie only once a day, and I don't cut into very small chunks because I want him to chew the meat and bones to clean the teeth better. If your pup is a really small breed, or just a young pup in general the 'rule of thumb' is to cut the pieces either really small that they can eat easily, or something that is big enough to make them chew. Anything in between might be cause for choking.

When we say 'meaty bones', it's not just chicken wings and necks. They have too much bone and not enough meat. I prefer to use bones that are heavily enveloped in meat, like breasts, thighs or drumsticks. But since I buy one whole chicken anyways, it's kind of like a balance: you get some bony parts and some not-so-bony. When you mix and match, you get Balance Over Time (which is what we want). If you find that your pup is having a hard time chewing the bone, you can use the back of a chopping knife or a hammer to smash the bones a little (the bones MUST still be enveloped in meat) to help with the chewing. Since you're starting off, I would suggest using breast meat first...the rib and keel bones are soft and more pliable compared to the rest, so they are good for beginners. I have posted an article that I found very useful for beginners here in this thread if you would like to start on the Prey Model diet...if you already have read the whole thread, it is enough to start on but you would still need to read up more from other sources to expand your knowledge on this.

As for veggies, I can't really help you much but from what I've observed from my friend (who feeds the BARF model), the veggies MUST be blended. Dogs can't digest the cellulose from the vegetables easily, so to help it along, you need to blend the veggies into a mush. From what I can tell, she uses most kind of leafy green veggies, celery, carrots, capsicum, tomatoes and sometimes she also adds fruits like apples (whatever you can find at the market). If you want to give variety, you can use different kinds of vegetables each time...no hard rule to use a set number of veggies. If I remember correctly from the previous postings in this thread, there was a post by Shayne about not using too much broccoli, cauliflower or the 'night flower' family (go back and read that up).

Veggies & fruits to avoid: ONIONS, GRAPES. There have been mention that garlic is also something to avoid, but if you give a very minimal amount, it is still okay.

You can also mix offals into the veggie mush to make it smell more appealing, as most dogs tend not to like the veggies. Offals are things like liver, kidney, spleen, heart, gizzard, brain, etc etc. Be careful not to overdo this though as too much offal might cause loose poop. My friend also adds apple cider vinegar in the veggie mush as kind of a supplement. If you want to add other supplements, you could also add things like salmon body oil (NOT to be confused with cod liver oil) but you need to be aware of how much to give as per your dog's weight. I've also heard people add on occasion yogurt for digestion, but my friend doesn't.

Again this is just a rough estimate. I cannot stress this enough, but please please do more reading than just reading the thread here about raw feeding. You will definitely find more info from books and a bit of Googling instead of just relying on other people to spoon feed you. Since we all want the best for our furkids, I think a little bit more effort on our part is not that much to ask for.

EDIT: To answer your question about storage...I store my furkids' food in the freezer. They last for about a month or so in the freezer. If you keep the meats in the fridge they last for only about 2-3 days.

This post has been edited by Rayne: Jul 8 2010, 05:07 PM

I've fed mackerel, sardine and salmon before to Scottie Mackerel is actually the fish that was used to make fishballs (I THINK it's called tenggiri if I remember it correctly). You can just get those from any wet markets or supermarkets Have not tried herring though, but fresh sardines definitely can be found in wet markets It's rather cheap too and the easiest to feed as Whole Prey...I usually just get them scaled and washed. Then I feed them as is (no cutting off the heads, gutting, deboning, etc).

But it's not really a pre-requisite to feed fish though...I mean, if your pup doesn't want to eat fish, you don't have to force it on her Maybe give her some time and introduce again later...she might develop a taste for it I feed Scottie fish just to give him more Omega-3s, which is why I only feed those fishes that have high O3s

Yeah, kind of But I still lurk about at the Schnauzer thread...just that I have nothing to say

I'm not too sure mackerel is kembung though...kembung is the really small fish. The mackerel is a deep sea water fish, and when I see my Mom buys it to make fishballs, they're usually big. If I remember correctly, my Mom says it's "Ma Yau Yu" in Cantonese. If you go to the wet markets and ask the fishmongers, I think they can guide you better since they know more about fishes

Yeah, sure...I've done that before when I was rotating meats for Scottie. I fed lots of sardines, pork and buffalo for about a month to Scottie & Kenji. But before you do that straightaway, I think it's a better idea to introduce the fish to Miki first to see if she'll like it. Some dogs take to it better, some don't...I'm lucky Scottie wallops everything that I get for him. Kenji is a tricky thing though...he doesn't really like fish, wild boar and quail. So I feed him a bit differently...but lucky he's small, so it doesn't impact the cost too much

Umm...I guess it depends on how big the fish is compared to the amount of food you're feeding, but then again, the amount of organs in the food is very VERY little compared to the meat portion. Sometimes I feed a bit of organs to Scottie, and sometimes I don't when I feed fish....I guess no need to be so overworked about it It's Balance Over Time, anyways...as long as there is meat, bones and organs it's fine Just monitor the stools I guess...sometimes too much organs can result in loose poop.

Not too sure if duck is actually haram, but I've seen duck being sold in Giant supermarkets near the chicken section Sometimes I get duck from the Giant in Bandar Kinrara if they have a good deal. Most ducks in the wet market (my Mom usually frequents the one in Kuchai 4 1/2 Miles if you're near that area) sell for about RM19-20 per duck. Sometimes Giant can go down to about RM18 if they have sales. 1 duck can last Scottie & Kenji for about a week or so, depending on if I mix with other kinds of meat or not Hope this helps!

I kind of disagree with this. As all raw feeders know, raw feeding is totally different than just scooping up some food and feed. We need to know and read more about what to feed, ratios/percentages, what things to expect in raw feeding, as well as basic stuff. It's not for everyone, as you can see. I myself took 2 months of reading and researching (online and otherwise) before I switched, so I don't think spending a few hours to read through a thread is a hard thing. If we really want to do it right, some effort is needed. Even just reading this thread I feel is not enough to learn as much as you can about raw feeding. If reading through one thread is too difficult, I would suggest you stick to kibbles for your dog.


Do you feed just the breast meat in itself, or does the breast meat have some bone in it? It's better to have at least SOME bone in the meat. The keel and ribs of chicken are good also for pups since these bones are the softest. Dogs don't really chew because they don't have the same kind of digestive system that we have. When we chew, the saliva is helping to digest the food (hence chewing our food is good), but for dogs their digestive system starts in the stomach itself so they don't need to chew. When they chew,it's just to break the bigger pieces into small enough pieces to swallow.

When you feed organs (liver, pancreas, brains, kidney, lungs, etc. Gizzards and hearts are more towards meaty meat instead of organs as they are made mostly of muscle) especially to a puppy, the amount needs to be small coz organs only play a small part in ratio for a meal. Too much organs will cause loose poops. And yes, it's best to have as much variation as we can (meats, organs and bones) so that they get the best out of the different meats as each meat have their own nutrients.


Agree with this mostly. For beginners, it's good to feed slightly more bone as bone helps to firm up the poop a bit. Once they've gotten used to the raw meals, we can slowly decrease the amount of bones until the poop is the right consistency. It's better to feed in bigger chunks as it gives the dog a better chance to chew. Since they only chew to break the big pieces, it kind of makes sense to feed bigger pieces because we need them to chew. Chewing works out the jaws and cleans the teeth.

Honestly, feeding raw is not that expensive especially when you count the amount you will save from having to visit the vet too often. We all want what's best for our pets, no? Since we can feed ourselves 3 meals a day which definitely costs more than RM3, why not spend that RM3 a day? They only eat one meal if you think of it

Sam, what we're feeding is still raw feeding, so it kind of falls under this thread too. I follow the Prey Model too, so I don't really give Scottie veggies except occasionally like treats.

I usually use fish body oil / salmon oil. Yes, you can get the oil from pharmacies.

Just to copy and paste back some comments I wrote re: fish body oil at another thread:



Hope this helps

Yeah, I normally don't get those from pet stores except for the MyBeau supplement. Human grade fish body oil is good enough...just make sure the EPA + DHA is at least about 300mg per capsule

I don't really know much about flaxseed oil coz I follow the Prey Model. The reason I give fish body oil or feed fish to Scottie is because I want him to have a balance of Omega 3s and Omega 6s. But if you want to feed fish body oil, it should be fine also I think...so far I don't think I've read any cases where the dog gets ill from fish body oil It depends on the dog whether they will take the capsule as is or you would need to break it. Some dogs will eat the whole capsule, but for Scottie he doesn't like the capsule, so I'll break the capsule and squeeze the oil onto the meat for him.

For me, I switched Scottie straight away...as in, let's say yesterday was his last meal was kibble. The next day onwards, it is all raw. No transition period, and he has been doing well on it. I've been feeding him raw for close to 3 years if I remember correctly and he hasn't had any problems with it If you are thinking of doing a transition though, might I suggest feeding kibble in the morning and raw in the evening, and not adding an egg just yet. Especially when your dog is new to raw, eggs MAY cause loose poop...or your dog might not like it (depending on your dog). Scottie doesn't like eggs much so I only give it to him once in a blue moon. LOL! Hope this helps