switching to raw

[akilupo]

I have been reading a lot about feeding Aki raw for the past couple of months. I finally went and bought some Bravo today and I am going to give it to him for dinner tonight. But, I think I would like to try to buy raw foods at the grocery store. So, with chicken, how much should he get a day? Aki is 18lbs and he is 4.5 months. Should he get a couple of thighs? A chicken breast a day... How many ounces should he get a day? I bought a scale today, so if anyone could help me with this, that would be great. From reading all of these posts, a lot of my questions have been answered, but I don't want to over feed my pup. I am going out right now to buy the book by K. Schultze. Please advise, excited about feeding raw!

[gmacleod]

Well, the weight of whole raw food should be the same as the weight of ground raw food ;) So if you feed half a pound per meal of ground (as an example) you should likewise feed half a pound of whole meat portions.

There is no need to be precise, of course. And if you use a kitchen scale initially, until you get a pretty good idea of what constitutes the weight of food you feed (how many thighs, or how many legs, or ribs, etc) then it won't be long before you're just eyeballing it.

I don't work in imperial measures (metric for me, thanks ;)) but at that age I would expect the average pup to be eating in the region of 5% of his actual body weight in food per day (or around 3% of his anticipated ideal adult weight - which I think is an easier calculation). That's a little less than a pound of food per day. But that's just an average - as is always the case, you need to adjust to suit the individual and their metabolism (as is the case whatever you feed). The best guide to how much food he needs, and whether you're feeding too much/little is his waistline ;)