Raw Feeding Question
Submitted by Katie and Chumlee MN on November 21, 2010 - 5:33pmI may be at my wits end here......
Why is he throwing up in the middle of the night? Not his meat just stomach juice and sometimes bone fragments. And just before I decided to finally post this he threw up stomach acid three times at my feet. I have been trying to figure this out for weeks now. He was having 'spitups' throughout the day but then I started giving him 1/3 dinner at 4 with a pepcid and then 2/3 dinner at 5 ish and the spit ups stopped. I am so sick and tired of my boy throwing up I am ready to give up entirely. Yesterday when I tore his bedding apart to clean it with hypo-allergenic detergent because I'm freaking out he has some kind of indoor allergy (see Friday's post) I couldn't believe the amount of bone fragments in his bed! And how did I miss all of this??? Last night I tossed and turned and was sick to my stomach myself over all of this, I feel horrible, just horrible what did I do???????????
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
Make sure
it isn't a medical issue. Has his palete been checked?
Yes
and it was normal. He does have a little bit smaller trachea than normal they said.
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
**Edit
Sorry Deb...He had xrays and head exam at 5 months, I believe that is still a little early to determine palate right? And then at 7 months he had more xrays and another exam and that is when they said he had a narrow trachea and palate appears to be normal, still only at 7 months of age.......he is currently 9 months old. Again sorry for the lack of info on the first response, still a little on edge.
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
what kind of bone?
are you chopping or grinding them?( I guess they can't be ground if they are fragments)
are you making sure you are pretty close to the 80-10-10 ratio?
Poor guy! I hope you get it figured out soon!
Have you tried some boneless meals?
Cathy and Audrey
Mathmatician=Cathy
40 lbs of de-skinned chicken quarters + 15* lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts on a coarse grind
livers added every other day
country style pork rib chunks added every other day
beef rib on Saturday morning
1 pump grizzly salmon oil with dinner
2.5% of 55 lbs total/day
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
too much bone
your mix is 19.6% bone. Does he eat the beef rib bone? Are the pork rib chunks boneless??
drumsticks = 33% bone
thighs = 21% bone
average that out to get 27% bone (closest thing I could find to quarters)
so 40lbs of meat that is 27% bone is 10.8lbs of bone
add 15 lbs of boneless meat to that and you now have 19.6% bone
Cathy and Audrey
Bone
The pork doesn't have bones. And the beef rib he knaws the ends of the actual bone but never even finishes all the meat or bone he walks away after 20+ minutes. They are huge 9+ inch texas style ribs. We did try the smaller sized ones but he would try to swallow them whole. How much more chicken breast do I have to add to make the ratio better?
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
I KNEW you were going to ask me that :-)
When I figure it out, I keep coming up with you need 108 pounds total to get the 10.8 pounds of bone to equal 10%.
My numbers:
40lbs of 27% bone meat = 10.8 lbs of bone and 29.2 lbs of meat
no matter how I look at it, I keep getting
? lbs x 10% = 10.8 lbs Answer is 108
SO
108 pounds TOTAL
minus 10.8 pounds bone =97.2 pounds
minus 10.8 pounds organ = 86.4 pounds of meat
minus 29.2 (in the quarters) = 57.2 pounds boneless meat needed
I am not sure how many lbs of the pork you are feeding, but any boneless meat will do.
Somehow this seems off, but I just can NOT figure it out any other way. I am stumped.
10% of their total diet is really not that much bone needed, maybe it will be much easier to just use less of the quarters?
Cathy and Audrey
Cathy, your head must be spinning :)
I'm going to add more chicken breasts. He has nice little poops that aren't chalky so that's good right? (I've seen a chalky one once from my GSP the day after she had a pork bone that was weird) I tried to find the ratio for chicken quarters and haven't found it either. Thank you!
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
Yes it is!
and I have a twitch too! I have asked too much of my brain. ;-)
yes not chalky poops are GOOD.
They do need more bone at first, so since it's still kinda new for them, just start gradually increasing the boneless meat.
Cathy and Audrey
Foundthis info on a raw forum....
My Dog Vomits Bones and Bile Why is That?
New-to-raw dogs sometimes do this. Bile usually indicates that the dog's stomach anticipated food, and when none was forthcoming, the produced bile was expelled. Not a big deal. Bone bits vomit is simply a sign that the dog's system has not adjusted yet to the raw diet. Over time, this will decrease, and eventually, will not happen again
Cathy and Audrey
Katie, so sorry that you're having
so much trouble with your guy. I would think about grinding the bone until Chumlee adjusts better to raw.
Kofi will spit up bile if she goes too long without eating. I always give her a spoon of yogurt or a chicken liver, or some small treat before bedtime.
I'm not very careful about the bone to meat ratio, but I watch the poops and try to incorporate what is recommended when I can.
Keep us informed. Kofi had no special problems before feeding raw, so it may take Chum longer to get his system use to the change.
Hug to all your guys.
Carol, it is a continuing education that's for sure
I've learned to never stop learning. xoxoxo
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee