B.A.R.F. 101

[willyg44]

Well I have a bit of a problem... Leo threw up the last 2 days in the middle of the night, and he has had diarrhea the past 2 days as well. We've just been feeding chicken and egg and he was doing great, hard poops and everything. Then, about 5 days ago we started adding chicken livers for organ meat when he got used to the chicken. We added a couple livers with each meal, and he slurps them right up. But, just a couple days ago he started the puking/diarrhea thing =/ . So today I'm going to try to do away with the livers...which sucks because I put meat and liver in ziploc bags and froze them (like 50 of them) and defrost 2 for the following day each day.

Does this happen if you feed too much liver? I thought I was giving a right amount, it's just 1 strip with each meal. Any experience with this stuff?

[suzi]

First and foremost I am NOT a nutritionalist....But I do know that organ meat is very rich. Think of eating a 8x8 sheet of fudge.....What would your body do?

The Raw diet I feed Bella is mainly Chicken, veggies, supplements, ground nuts. I got the recipe from a dog nutritionalist who had me add organ meat to the mix, but only 10% max (depending on how much you feed, for Bella it trns out to be almost a TBLS. I use chicken liver/gizzards or beef liver.

[willyg44]

First and foremost I am NOT a nutritionalist....But I do know that organ meat is very rich. Think of eating a 8x8 sheet of fudge.....What would your body do?

The Raw diet I feed Bella is mainly Chicken, veggies, supplements, ground nuts. I got the recipe from a dog nutritionalist who had me add organ meat to the mix, but only 10% max (depending on how much you feed, for Bella it trns out to be almost a TBLS. I use chicken liver/gizzards or beef liver.

Interesting.. Yeah it's probably like 3 tablespoons maybe that I've been feeding him =/ Bah I feel so bad I've been making him puke and didn't realize . Hopefully that's the problem though and it's not something else. It seems like I'm definitely feeding too much liver, thanks a lot for the reply.

[kaytenmags]

with organ meat (liver especially), start SMALL.
add in a tiny bit, and increase that ammount over the next weeks/months. liver should only be about 5% of the diet, so it's not a huge ammount. work up to it tho

[willyg44]

with organ meat (liver especially), start SMALL.
add in a tiny bit, and increase that ammount over the next weeks/months. liver should only be about 5% of the diet, so it's not a huge ammount. work up to it tho

Ok I just got confused, I thought most people did the 80-10-10 ratio? Should I be adding a different organ besides liver? Or is 5 percent fine to do.

[kaytenmags]

Ok I just got confused, I thought most people did the 80-10-10 ratio? Should I be adding a different organ besides liver? Or is 5 percent fine to do.

i feed with the 80-10-10 ratio, but that 10% is organ meat, half of which is liver.
so yes, the other 5% should be any other organ meat you can get (kidney, spleen, etc)
but again, start small! no one likes dealing with tap-ass

[willyg44]

ok thanks I'll have to see what I can get.

So yesterday I just fed him the chicken with no organ meat because when we started feeding raw the first week we did just chicken and he did great, great energy, hard poops, great.

So he didn't want to poop the whole day and finally at about 11PM we took him out and more diarrhea Then when we woke up this morning he had pooped again on the floor. Either that or throw up like the last 2 nights, but this was more chunky and looked more like poop. Was a greenish tint. I don't know what to do, could he still be "coming off" the livers? He has never had diarrhea from just chicken so I'm not sure what the problem could be. The chicken definitely wasn't bad. Any suggestions? I've spent about $1000 in vet bills in the past few weeks for skin issues and a split nail and I don't want to spend more money for a checkup and tests if I can get the same information on here. He doesn't seem to be extra lethargic or anything, he still runs around.

[kaytenmags]

as long as he's still full of spunk, eating and drinking well, i'd wait it out.
what bit(s) of chicken is he getting?
you can always remove the skin for a couple days to see if that helps.
his system might just be a bit overwhelmed, see how he does in the next day or two.

is he on meds for skin issues? meds mess up my dogs stomach pretty badly.

[willyg44]

as long as he's still full of spunk, eating and drinking well, i'd wait it out.
what bit(s) of chicken is he getting?
you can always remove the skin for a couple days to see if that helps.
his system might just be a bit overwhelmed, see how he does in the next day or two.

is he on meds for skin issues? meds mess up my dogs stomach pretty badly.

He's definitely spunky .. He's been getting chicken backs (decently meaty ones) and chicken quarters. I have been taking the skin off since I started raw. He's not on any meds right now no. I'll check back in a day or two and give an update. Thanks so much.

[willyg44]

Woohoo!! Back to normal poops and no waking up to throw up!! Thanks for your help. I guess now the question is.. how much liver should I start out giving him? To get him used to it.. I don't want to give him too much again ugh! They were on sale and I have like 10 containers in my freezer so I'd like to still use them.

[kaytenmags]

start TINY.
slip a tiny bit in with the 'normal' meal, and if all goes well then you can increase the ammount the next day.
too much, and you'll know pretty quick!

[FransterDoo]

Don't worry, Wiley! You'll get the whole raw feeding thing down soon!!!!

[El_EmDubya]

So I know there has been a lot of discussion on many Raw Feeder's boards about whether pet food has feathers in it, or not. Well I had dinner last night with a former ag. trader and product manager who stated firmly that, YES, "Feather Meal" is found in cattle feed, pig feed, dog kibble, and dry cat food.

It was an interesting conversation that started when she asked me "Why feed raw?"

She answered her own question by the end of the night.

[bullheaded]

My mom and I have been feeding a couple of our dogs raw for about 3 weeks and her dog was doing great, but all of a sudden got horrible diarhea. We have been feading chicken up to this point. My mom did start adding a suppliment to her meals (solid gold seameal) wondering if that might have caused it. We just picked up some ostrich and turkey tonight but we were wondering if we should keep her on the chicken until we get her straighten out? Any ideas on what might have caused this? Also she has been steadily losing weight. she started at about 54lbs and she has been getting a little over 1 lb a day. we were going to up that to 1 1/2 lbs per day. Is there a meat someone could suggest that might be higher in fat?

Thanks

[El_EmDubya]

Did you read this entire thread?

If so, what are your ratios?