I am thinking about giving my Shih Tzus a raw diet, but am concerned about parasites and bacteria. I am feeding them Old Mother Hubbards Wellness Diet of Fish and Sweet Potatoes. Should I keep them on this diet and give them raw meat and bones as a treat or go competely raw? My Shadow has had surgery for bladder stones so we put him on a UD diet and he had an allergic reaction so we put him back on the Wellness diet. Then my groomer reccomended going to a raw diet. So I need your advice, should I feed them completely raw or keep them on the Wellness and supplement their diet with raw meat and bones?
Raw diet
- Thread starter ShihTzuLover62
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2005
- Messages
- 1,586
- Likes
- 0
- Points
- 0
I wouldn't worry about parasites if you feed human quality food. If you feed wild game like rabbit or deer and are concerned, freeze it for a few weeks. Bacteria is also very little risk- more of a risk for you if you don't clean up good. Dogs have very strong digestion and it can kill a lot of stuff- after all, they are known to eat poop and stinky stuff out of the garbage and that rarely does anything to them.
We have 3 dogs on a full raw diet including our Pug. I was concerned about him being able to handle the bones with his short jaw but he does just fine and he's fit as a fiddle. I don't see why a Shih Tzu couldn't do well on this diet.
If you want to go full raw the best thing to do is to just switch them right over. Start with chicken - most likely wings and necks for little guys like yours. Keep them on nothing but chicken for 2 weeks or so to let them adjust. Mine had the runs for a day or so then they were back to normal. After 2 weeks you can gradually start introducing 1 new food at a time, and observe how they react to it. For example, introduce boneless pork or ground turkey as muscle meat. After another week, try something else. Eventually you should get to a ratio of about 65% raw meaty bones (chicken necks, wings, legs, backs and beef short ribs or pork ribs are a good place to start), and 35% muscle meat- boneless pork, chicken breast, beef, turkey, beef heart, etc. You also want to supplement them with some organ meat such as liver as this has some nutrients they can't get elsewhere. Only a small amount is needed- maybe an ounce a day or every other day for a little dog. You can also feed whole raw eggs, shell and all. I give mine an egg every other day. For adult dogs that are mostly house pets (not working etc) you should target about 2% of their bodyweight per day, split into the 65/35 ratio. So if your dog is 15lbs, you'd need about 5-6 ounces of food per day.
Here is a link to a site that has a nice spreadsheet that will help you calculate your dogs needs and give you a way to help them diet or gain weight if needed.
http://www.rawdogranch.com/index.html
I've been doing this for 6 months or so now, and find the preparation time is minimal. I take out several days worth of food at a time, and it takes maybe 10 minutes to weigh out the portions for each dog. After a while you get pretty good at eyeballing it. If I'm feeding a muscle meat like boneless pork, I cube it up so they don't try and swallow a huge hunk of it, but everything else is fed whole. If I'm feeding the pug a chicken drumstick, I do remove the bone as he has a tendency to try and swallow to big of a piece. I still give him the bone but without the meat, he will crunch the bone better. I get my chicken by the case but it's in individual packages inside the case so I take a package at a time out. When I get something like pork on sale in a large hunk, I'll split that into smaller hunks and then take one out and use it til it's gone. We look for things on sale a lot and if there is a good deal, stock up. I try to keep the cost at about $1 per lb total. Since the chicken legs are cheap, if I spend a little more on ground beef or turkey or some other boneless meat, it all works out in the end. I've been tracking my expenses since Sept, and find I'm spending about $100 per month on 3 dogs that are 80+lbs, 65lbs, and 25lbs.
We have 3 dogs on a full raw diet including our Pug. I was concerned about him being able to handle the bones with his short jaw but he does just fine and he's fit as a fiddle. I don't see why a Shih Tzu couldn't do well on this diet.
If you want to go full raw the best thing to do is to just switch them right over. Start with chicken - most likely wings and necks for little guys like yours. Keep them on nothing but chicken for 2 weeks or so to let them adjust. Mine had the runs for a day or so then they were back to normal. After 2 weeks you can gradually start introducing 1 new food at a time, and observe how they react to it. For example, introduce boneless pork or ground turkey as muscle meat. After another week, try something else. Eventually you should get to a ratio of about 65% raw meaty bones (chicken necks, wings, legs, backs and beef short ribs or pork ribs are a good place to start), and 35% muscle meat- boneless pork, chicken breast, beef, turkey, beef heart, etc. You also want to supplement them with some organ meat such as liver as this has some nutrients they can't get elsewhere. Only a small amount is needed- maybe an ounce a day or every other day for a little dog. You can also feed whole raw eggs, shell and all. I give mine an egg every other day. For adult dogs that are mostly house pets (not working etc) you should target about 2% of their bodyweight per day, split into the 65/35 ratio. So if your dog is 15lbs, you'd need about 5-6 ounces of food per day.
Here is a link to a site that has a nice spreadsheet that will help you calculate your dogs needs and give you a way to help them diet or gain weight if needed.
http://www.rawdogranch.com/index.html
I've been doing this for 6 months or so now, and find the preparation time is minimal. I take out several days worth of food at a time, and it takes maybe 10 minutes to weigh out the portions for each dog. After a while you get pretty good at eyeballing it. If I'm feeding a muscle meat like boneless pork, I cube it up so they don't try and swallow a huge hunk of it, but everything else is fed whole. If I'm feeding the pug a chicken drumstick, I do remove the bone as he has a tendency to try and swallow to big of a piece. I still give him the bone but without the meat, he will crunch the bone better. I get my chicken by the case but it's in individual packages inside the case so I take a package at a time out. When I get something like pork on sale in a large hunk, I'll split that into smaller hunks and then take one out and use it til it's gone. We look for things on sale a lot and if there is a good deal, stock up. I try to keep the cost at about $1 per lb total. Since the chicken legs are cheap, if I spend a little more on ground beef or turkey or some other boneless meat, it all works out in the end. I've been tracking my expenses since Sept, and find I'm spending about $100 per month on 3 dogs that are 80+lbs, 65lbs, and 25lbs.
Last edited:
ShihTzuLover, i'd strongly recommend you order this book and this booklet.
you'll find all your questions answered ind etail and learn a lot about putting together a proper raw diet for your dogs that meets all their needs.
you'll find all your questions answered ind etail and learn a lot about putting together a proper raw diet for your dogs that meets all their needs.
Read the sites Mordy provided on feeding raw.
As far as when to feed and if you should mix with kibble etc. You could do what I currently do...
I feed a kibble meal in the morning, mixed with filtered water and canned food, yogurt. I never feed plain dry kibble...ever. You can never be sure if your dog is getting enough water, so for myself I add it to the kibble. This makes the process so much easier on the kidneys.
In the evening I feed a raw meal with the veggies, yogurt, flax seed etc. There are so many books and resources for feeding raw.
Good luck
As far as when to feed and if you should mix with kibble etc. You could do what I currently do...
I feed a kibble meal in the morning, mixed with filtered water and canned food, yogurt. I never feed plain dry kibble...ever. You can never be sure if your dog is getting enough water, so for myself I add it to the kibble. This makes the process so much easier on the kidneys.
In the evening I feed a raw meal with the veggies, yogurt, flax seed etc. There are so many books and resources for feeding raw.
Good luck
Thanks so much for the info, I am going to get my meat locally since I live in a rural area and am able to get farm fresh meats and eggs. Also I have several friends who hunt and are willing to give me some of the meat and bones from what ever they get, right now I have some venison in the freezer. I have already ordered several books on raw and have signed up for a group at Yahoo, called ToyDogBarf, since a lot of the other raw sites are more for the bigger dogs. I wii keep you posted on how the boys do with the new diet. Thanks again
Like others have mentioned, start off with something simple, like chicken wings. Chicken wings tend to be expensive, but they are excellent RMBs.
Midnite (10 years young) has been on the BARF diet for about three years now and she has done absolutely wonderful on it. When I started her on the diet I switched her cold turkey without any problems; always had canned pumpkin on hand though! The Raw Dog Ranch is a wonderful site and seeing that you've already ordered some books on the diet then you are well on your way.