Raw Diet for Puppy

Are you experienced with a raw diet? If not, I'd feed your puppy a quality kibble for the first 6-8 months of his life. Balancing bone, meat and vitamins for a growing puppy is tough to do, and I've seen some horrific results from people who were ill-informed and ill-prepared. 

Well, I figure that there is no difference between starting now or later as I will still have never had the experience. I have done research and am continuing to do so. I do not want to pay a premium price for over processed kibble. I have read many debates about the subject and I have decided that raw will be probably be best in the long run. There are some kibble foods that are good such as canidae, solid gold, etc, but they are very expensive as I am a college student.

Most of everything I have read about raw makes sense, but I am just curious to see if people feed raw to puppies. Is raw not ideal for puppies?

Thanks.

*edit* I misread your post, I now see that you said it is hard to figure out for a growing puppy. I thought you meant for puppies and dogs both.

Well, I figure that there is no difference between starting now or later as I will still have never had the experience.

 
The problem is if you feed an even occasionally unbalanced/deficient/excessive diet to a young puppy, it will affect him way more than if you fed the same diet to an adult dog. The reason being the puppy is growing and developing extremely quickly, so you overdo calcium for a couple weeks, your pup could have major orthopedic problems later. You do too little Omega-3's, and his brain doesn't develop like it should. The stakes are just much higher with a pup than an adult, IMO.

Here is a good article on why puppy food is important, and what makes it different.

http://petsdelightlosaltos.com/special.htm

From the Eukaneuba website:

How Do Puppies Get the Special Nutrition They Need? The challenge in providing a puppy with an adequate diet is a matter of balance. A growing puppy needs the proper amount of energy and nutrients to meet the demands of growth. Too little energy and nutrients will not provide the fuel and nutritional building blocks needed for growth. Conversely, over-nutrition may lead to lingering health problems later in life. Because puppies of different breed sizes grow at different rates, their needs for nutrients such as protein, energy, calcium, and phosphorus will also differ. Feeding diets specially formulated for different breed sizes is a way of ensuring the best match between the amount of nutrients needed for optimal growth and the amount of nutrients provided in the diet. Smaller-breed puppies (up to 20 lbs at maturity) need higher levels of protein, fat, calcium, and phosphorus to support growth and development of bones, muscles, and other tissues. Larger-breed puppies (over 50 lbs at maturity) need lower levels of these nutrients to control their growth rate and to achieve healthy weights and skeletal structures. Medium-breed puppies fall between the other two groups in nutrient requirements.

If you can't afford puppy food, why do you have a puppy? Can you afford the vet bills if she swallows a bone, breaks a tooth, or has any other health problem puppies are prone to? In my experience, unless you have a raw group or special access to bulk food, raw is MORE expensive than kibble.

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Thank you chelsea for explaining it more clearly rather than insulting my dedication to my pet.

I would go to Monica Segal the nutrionist's website and see what she says about puppies.  But don't think she has a primer to raw feed puppies, other great $5 pamphelts on raw and home cooked.
 
I too was in your shoes 6 months ago when I got a 4 month old pup.  Having raw feed my adults with pre-made raw, did not know what to do with the pup.  I opted to feed Innova Puppy dry with some EVO canned meat, however the canned made her stools loose.
 
I slowly have incorporated raw meat like hamberger or turkey buger with right amount of calcium added and Solid Gold Seameal, some fish oil and E.  I started her about age 6 months with a raw meal every 3rd day or so.  I gave her first recreational raw bone to chew on about 3 times a week.  I have not tried a chicken wing nor chicken neck yet.
 
But I agree you have to know what you are doing when raw feeding an adult or puppy.  HAve you seen Nature Variety raw?  It winds up being $3 per lb.  You can google it and see if its balanced for puppies.  Thats what I would do.  I give it my adults (100%) and my 12 month pup (20%) of the time.  
 
The pup definatley wants the raw over the kibble/canned any day.  

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I would go buy a bag of good quality kibble, and spend at least a couple weeks reading, learning recipes, and cooking for your dog. Having fed raw myself, its NOT easy, even using a pre-mix. It takes money, dedication, education, time, commitment to detail, and impeccable cleanliness to do raw correctly. It is NOT for everyone, and for a puppy its even tougher...

The fact that I think something is expensive does not mean that I cannot afford it. I simply want to spend the right amount for the things that I and the dog needs. So do not worry about my financial situation. I work and I make enough to buy a high quality food, I just read about raw being much better, so I figured why pay much more for something less in quality.  content removed.

ORIGINAL: New2Puppies

Well, I figure that there is no difference between starting now or later as I will still have never had the experience. I have done research and am continuing to do so. I do not want to pay a premium price for over processed kibble. I have read many debates about the subject and I have decided that raw will be probably be best in the long run. There are some kibble foods that are good such as canidae, solid gold, etc, but they are very expensive as I am a college student.

Most of everything I have read about raw makes sense, but I am just curious to see if people feed raw to puppies. Is raw not ideal for puppies?

Thanks.

*edit* I misread your post, I now see that you said it is hard to figure out for a growing puppy. I thought you meant for puppies and dogs both.

If economics are your reason for going BARF, I think you're going to be disappointed.  From what I've read about BARF diets, they're mostly like manufactured foods in that you get what you pay for.  Considering this is a puppy, even more so.

ORIGINAL: Misskiwi67

I would go buy a bag of good quality kibble, and spend at least a couple weeks reading, learning recipes, and cooking for your dog. Having fed raw myself, its NOT easy, even using a pre-mix. It takes money, dedication, education, time, commitment to detail, and impeccable cleanliness to do raw correctly. It is NOT for everyone, and for a puppy its even tougher...

I agree with Misskiwi67 - I would start with a good quality kibble while you do a lot of research on raw (and a lot of research is needed). And you can give a raw chicken wing a couple of times a week to satisfy the chewing instinct.  I think it's great that you want to give your pup the best nutriton possible and a raw diet is a good way to go if done properly.  I unfortunatley don't have the time myself so my dog gets premade raw a couple of times a week in addition to good quality kibble and canned.  Good luck with your new pup []

Ok, guys, enough already. 
 
New2Puppies has gotten your message.  Some of you don't agree with him, but that is no excuse to run him off.  There is plenty of information out there on feeding puppies raw. 
 
I'll start with this one and look for what else I have:
 
Rearing Puppies on a Raw Diet
[linkhttp://b-naturals.com/Sep2002.php]http://b-naturals.com/Sep2002.php[/link]
 
Edited to change "her" to "him".

[color=#000000]

[font=verdana][color=#000000]I am worried that the bones will be sharp and dangerous for him.

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Raw bones don't break and splinter the same way as cooked bones.  However, you need to make sure that he is chewing and not gulping.  The fact you are starting with a pup should help.  Look below for an article on raw chicken bones.
 
One big thing to remember is that wild canine pups eat the same things that their parents eat.  The parents may start them on small items (mice instead of deer), but it is basically the same diet.  However, pups may eat mostly regurgitated food at first, of course. 
 
There is a lot of controversy on whether or not to feed grains, vegetables, and fruits.  You will have to make your own decision on that.  Dogs fed on a whole prey model (whole animal) only do just fine if they get variety.  The problem is that people can't just get whole prey at the grocery store.
 
Raw feeding links:
[linkhttp://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html]http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html[/link] 
[linkhttp://www.homestead.com/VonHapsburg/Barfdiet.html]http://www.homestead.com/VonHapsburg/Barfdiet.html[/link]
[linkhttp://b-naturals.com/natural.php]http://b-naturals.com/natural.php[/link]
[linkhttp://www.dogaware.com/menus.html]http://www.dogaware.com/menus.html[/link][/color]
[linkhttp://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html]http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html[/link]
[linkhttp://www.rawdogranch.com/rawdiet.htm>http://www.rawdogranch.com/rawdiet.htm][color=#000000]http://www.rawdogranch.com/rawdiet.htm[/link]
[color=#666600][linkhttp://b-naturals.com/Sep2002.php]http://b-naturals.com/Sep2002.php[/link]
[linkhttp://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm]http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm[/link]
[linkhttp://home.att.net/~hattrick-dals/Diet.html]http://home.att.net/~hattrick-dals/Diet.html[/link][/color][/color][color=#000000][size=2]
[link>http://www.rawfeddogs.net]http://www.rawfeddogs.net[/link][/size]
[/size]
That first link has a section called "[color=#000000]But aren't chicken bones dangerous?!!!"[/color]
 
[size=3]Some examples of premade raw are:
 
Nature's Variety, Bravo, Oma's Pride, Steve's Real Food [/size]
[linkage=1308&-session=naturesvariety:47615E1407bdb35FD3QGK3B46E05]>http://naturesvariety.com/content.lasso?r=2211480&age=1308&-session=naturesvariety:47615E1407bdb35FD3QGK3B46E05]age=1308&-session=naturesvariety:47615E1407bdb35FD3QGK3B46E05>http://naturesvariety.com/content.lasso?r=2211480&age=1308&-session=naturesvariety:47615E1407bdb35FD3QGK3B46E05[/link]
[linkhttp://bravorawdiet.com]http://bravorawdiet.com[/link]
[linkhttp://omaspride.com]http://omaspride.com[/link]
[linkhttp://stevesrealfood.com]http://stevesrealfood.com[/link]
 
List of some other premade raw:
[linkhttp://search.onlynaturalpet.com/search.aspx?searchterms=raw-dog-food&click=11&s_kwcid=TC-1595-raw%20dog%20food-S-375-375&OVRAW=Raw%20Dog%20Food&OVKEY=raw%20dog%20food&OVMTC=standard]http://search.onlynaturalpet.com/search.aspx?searchterms=raw-dog-food&click=11&s_kwcid=TC-1595-raw%20dog%20food-S-375-375&OVRAW=Raw%20Dog%20Food&OVKEY=raw%20dog%20food&OVMTC=standard[/link]
 
Books:
 
Johnson, Susan K.[/color], Switching to Raw[font="times new roman"][size=3], [/size]1998[/font]
[linkhttp://www.switchingtoraw.com/]http://www.switchingtoraw.com/[/link]

[font=verdana][size=3]MacDonald, Carina Beth, Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy For You and Your Dog[font=verdana][size=3], 2003
[linkhttp://tinyurl.com/7y6ro]http://tinyurl.com/7y6ro[/link]

Segal, Monica, Optimal Nutrition, Raw and Cooked Canine Diets: The Next Level, 2006
[linkroducts_id=101]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&roducts_id=101[/link]>http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&roducts_id=101]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&roducts_id=101[/link]

[font=verdana][size=3]Segal, Monica, booklets that may interest a raw feeder
http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/productindex.php?cPath=25_26
     Home Feeding Primer
     Raw Food Recipes 2nd edition
     Balance Needs With Nutrition
     Nutrient Metabolism
 
Resources:
[color=#000000][linkhttp://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding]http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding[/link][/color]
[color=#000000][linkhttp://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/CarnivoreFeed-Supplier]http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/CarnivoreFeed-Supplier[/link][/color][/size][/font][/size][/font][/size][/font][font="times new roman"][size=2][font="times new roman"][size=2][size=2][size=2]
[color=#000000][linkhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawissues]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawissues[/link]
[linkhttp://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawChat]http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawChat[/link]
[linkhttp://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BasicRaw]http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BasicRaw[/link][/size][/color][/size][/size][/font][/size][/font]
[font="times new roman"][size=2][font="times new roman"][size=2][size=2][link>http://www.switchingtoraw.com/links.html]http://www.switchingtoraw.com/links.html[/link][/size][/size][/size][/font][/size][/font]

ETA:  Added more links.

New2Puppies, if you don't get what you need from the links and books I posted, I am sure that you can get it from the Yahoo groups.
 
Please continue this thread and let us know how you are progressing and what you decide to do -  sort of a blog!  That would really help lurkers who are thinking about doing the same thing.
 
Also, we would **love** to see pictures of your new baby.  Please?  Pretty, please?   []

I second the recommendation for pre-made raw, plus giving RMBs occasionally.