How much do you feed?

Well, I did it! I went raw! Started yesterday after a day of fasting. I started by buying a whole chicken and trying them with nibbles of raw meat, as well as teeny-tiny pieces of heart, gizzard, and liver, just to see how they'd respond to it. They loved it! As did the cat -- so guess who else is eating raw now? :rolleyes:

We are doing chicken backs with some plain fat-free yogurt and a small scoop of veggie/fruit purée. They've both done yogurt, fruit, and veggie before. No problems. So far, so good (knocking on wood!!!). They aren't gulping or being huge pigs about it, either.

Both dogs are a good weight though I'd love to see them both bulk up a bit instead of being "skinny fat" so adding muscle/losing fat is my goal and I think raw will help. Sam is 4 and a very easy keeper at 94 lbs (down from 110 lbs) and Linus is a year old and is probably in the mid-90s as well (I will weigh him by the weekend). We are very busy but I'd say they are moderately active.

They ate the same food at 550 cals/cup and 30% protein / 18% fat (lamb) with Sam getting 1.5 cups a day and Linus getting 4 cups a day. In addition they'd get some veggies/fruit, maybe yogurt or 1/4 cup wet food per day at most. If I fed a whole raw egg I took away a handful of food. Linus is right at the point where I've started backing off on the food just a little as he was getting chunky. I'm assuming he's done growing up and is now filling out. Plus he's not as active on a day to day basis.

At 2-3% that's 2 to 3 lbs. I am starting Sam off at 1.5 lbs and Linus at 2 lbs. This is all meat/bone, and does not include fruit, veggies, or supplements. I feel like it should be enough and sometimes when measuring it seemed like a LOT of food! What amount does everyone else feed?

I don't have the time to do the homemade raw diet, wish I did, instead we use Oma's Pride. Rio is almost 2 and I feed him 1/2 lb raw plus2/3 cup kibble twice a day. He's pretty set at 75lbs and gets plenty of jerky treats and marrow bones.

My two boys are 53lbs and 60lbs. They each get 16-20oz a day, depending on activity. My smaller boy is actually harder to keep weight on, had to feed him 4+ cups a day on kibble and he was still skinny. My girl gets 12-16oz a day. She is 65lbs and chunks up easily. It really does depend on the dog, 2-3% is just a guideline.

Oh, and all three did gain 5-10 lbs each when we switched to raw...all muscle, vets and family/friends can't get over how great they look

16-18oz - 95# - just dropped from 18-20oz in hopes of shedding more weight.

Both our dogs gained weight with Raw. Their bodies use so much more of the nutrients and more efficiently. We started with the amounts from the charts based on weight and activity. It ended up being way too much food. You have to watch and see how they do. Muscle does weigh more than fat...but we are down to 8 oz of meat/bone/greenbeans twice a day.