Raw question

 I give my guys  frozen chicken quarters or ribs for breakfast and kibble for supper. Lillie is 56lbs, Joker 45lbs, and Fynn is 70lbs.

Lillie gets 2 cups of kibble with an egg. Joker and Fynn get 1 cup. Joker gets fish oil capsule and Fynn gets an egg. Egg makes Joker have gas.

Lillie seems to do better holding weight getting a little raw meat. Joker and Fynn just love it and Im sure it's nice to have a little meat than kibble all the time. Plus the raw does a wonderful job keeping teeth white!!

One meal of raw and one meal of kibble is fine. That's what I do, too. It's just recommended to feed them seperately, not kibble with raw mixed in at the same meal. As far as how much, I'd start off with just a leg or thigh for now. I don't really measure my pups' raw, because I only feed it at one meal about 3 times a week. So, I just give them what looks to be appropiate. Trial and error, really. Good luck!

 Thanks! I think I may just switch them to home cooked.  I added some to their dinner tonight (I'm running low on dog food. Lol) and they loved it!

I think next month instead of buying dog food, I'll just cook for them and see how it goes.

Suddenly switching to homecooked can get overwhelming at first; but you quickly learn how to simplify.

Instance, when I first started, EVERYTHING got cooked, chicken got de-boned, etc. Well, between my gang of 3, that equaled about 15-20# chicken a week....got tired of de-boning REAL quick.

Several months into it, 9 +/-, everything is now fed raw, exception is sweet potatoes, small amounts of brown rice.

 The mixing kibble w/raw is a no-no is pure myth.  Do you never eat anything raw with anything cooked ?  Raw will digest at it's own rate and the kibble will digest at it's own rate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. My dogs have been eating kibble mixed with raw for years with nary an incident. In fact most of the higher quality biologically appropriate kibbles are formulated SPECIFICALLY  to be used w/raw mixers.  If you're unsure about how much raw to feed...maybe you'll feel more confident if you start out by feeding "pre-made" raw first like Nature's Variety Instinct or Bravo raw patties. They are easy to portion and contain all the necessary nutrients so there's no guesswork. Then, when you have the time to do a little extensive research into BARF feeding you'll be better prepared and informed and from there it'll be much easier to figure out the right amounts and percentages of muscle meat, organs and bones. There's a fairly simple formula and I believe you can find it on Dr. Billinghurst's site.

 It's not that confusing. It's just food!

What I've found is that activity level is pretty important in figuring out how much to feed, too. Kivi is 20kg and eats less than Jill, my mother's Kelpie/Boxer cross, who weighs in at 17kg. I'm increasing Kivi's feeds at the moment as he feels a bit skinny. Must be all that playing at daycare. Jill is a high activity dog and she runs a lot. Kivi does much less and is more of an ambler. I had to cut down on Penny's meal size considerably when her arthritis and advancing age brought her to doing a lot more sleeping and a lot less activity in general.

It's not hard, really. You just monitor. You start off with something that looks about right for them and if they start putting on weight you cut it down slightly and if they are dropping a lot of weight you increase it a bit. I've found the dogs respond really quickly to raw and homecooked. Penny dropped a few kilos when I switched her over, but her energy level just about doubled. 

BTW, Kivi gets 3 large chicken wings for a raw meal, and that does him all day. I think he could stand to go to 4 wings. Penny is 10kg and she gets one. She used to get two when she was more active. Hope that helps.

 That does help! Thanks!  I just have to wait til I find a steady job. Lol. Need to pay for my dog addictions. *sigh*