Chicken backs
Submitted by roanne9145 on November 14, 2010 - 7:04pmWhen weighing the meat how can you count chicken backs as meat when there is so little meat on them? I am trying to fatten my girl up who should weigh at least 50 lbs and can't seem to get any weight on her. Is there a certain way to feed raw and put weight on her?
Roanne
Raw
How old is she? Are you sure they are backs not frames? Do you have pic? How much does she weigh currently and how are her poops? How long have you been feeding raw?
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
Raw
I will take a picture of one later. She is 2 years old and was very chunky and looked great before her litter. She has been wormed and I have had her stools checked to make sure they were gone.She weighs 35lbs and looks horrible. She eats well and poops are good. She has been on raw for about 8 months and has been doing terrific except for not putting on weight. I am feeding her about 1.2 lbs a day. Thanks so much for your help because I am at a loss. I can send you a private message to show you her before and after pictures.
Roanne
Thats a huge weight difference
I wouldn't feed chicken backs unless she has loose stools. I would start offering 3% of her goal weight of de-skinned chicken quarters with boneless skinless chicken breasts for a good ratio (do you grind your meat?), essentially starting over. After a week or so of good poops add in country style pork ribs with out the bones, that is a little faster than normal but she already has her acidity built up so I don't think she would have a problem. If she doesn't start gaining weight very very soon she needs some blood work done. You could try leaving some skin on for some fat content but I don't know if she would tollerate it in her poops.
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
More questions
if you have any questions today I'm headed to work. You can email me kbesserud@aol.com
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
you really can't count them as meat
Remember their TOTAL diet should only be 10% bone. Chicken backs are 44% bone. Even if you fed a whole chicken with the skin still on it is 28% bone, WAY too much bone and not nearly enough meat.
You HAVE to add boneless meat.
If 50 lbs is her ideal weight (and you feed 3%) then she should be eating 19-20 oz of boneless meat every day, PLUS her 2.4 oz of organs and 2.4 oz of bone.
Cathy and Audrey
But
But when looking at the chart for how much bone is in each piece of meat none of them have that little bone. If I give her a chicken thigh that alone has 21 % bone so how do you give her less? Please don't give up on me. LOL
You feed boneless meat also
Think of a large prey animal body. Chickens are pretty small critters.
When feeding a raw prey model type diet the goal is to try to get as close to the natural prey of wild canines as possible. Not necessarily the exact animal, but the equivalent of that animal's body.
A deer for example has a LOT of muscle meat. MUCH more than a bird. Birds are also bony critters. I am not sure who figured it out, but the 80-10-10 ratio seems to be the agreed upon ratio. You just need to make sure you balance it out over time. For me it is the easiest if I do it daily. So I feed Audrey 1-1.5 oz organ (beef and/or chicken liver and/or beef kidney because that's all I can find) in her morning meal, then I give chopped up chicken with most of the meat/skin removed(that would have been OUR meal:-), around 2 oz and the rest is boneless meat, around 3-4oz (more in the evening because she only gets organs in the am). I REALLY need to do some math to figure out if she's getting enough bone. That is pushing my mathmatical abilites though. :-)
Ok, here is my attempt at the math:
a 50lb dog eating 3% of her body weight daily would need 24oz TOTAL per day
50 x .03= 1.5lbs convert that to ounces 1.5 x 16=24oz
to get the 80-10-10 ratio you will have to feed: 2.4oz of organs + 2.4oz of bone + 19.2oz of meat
if you are feeding chicken pieces that are 21% bone you need to feed 11 oz of that chicken + 2.4 oz organ + 10.6oz boneless meat. This is per DAY
here is what you are trying to figure out:
__?___oz x 21% = 2.4oz
to get that: 2.4 divided by .21 =11.42 (I rounded it to 11 for sanity's sake)
If you feed a higher/lower bone content, just change the percentage of that equation to get how much total of that meat you will need to feed
I honestly have no clue about how many oz are in any given whole peice of chicken, we chop ours and it makes the math much simpler. .BUT remember you do NOT NEED to have EXACT precise numbers at every meal, or even everyday. If the pieces are more or less of what you need, feed more or less next time.
Cathy and Audrey