Bulldogs World

Wait until you are into week 5 or 6 or even later.

The ratio will be thrown out the window until you have nice poos, usually a few days to a week then you start adding the chicken breasts in.

Feed them 2% of their current weight total a day if you are happy with their weight.  If they are too big reduce it to light add a little more.

Take the skin off

Get thighs, drumsticks or quarters or even whole chickens or cut up fryers so you can experiment with the cuts, and a big pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts to have on hand.  All of this has to be non enhanced and 3% or less sodium and 100mg or less sodium and sometimes they hide all of this on the bottom of the package.  Rinse rinse rinse!!

You can beat it with a meat hammer they are cheap if you don't have one, you can give it to him whole, he will throw it up if he didn't chew it right and "rechew it" if you let him and hopefully you will ;) you can also give it to him particially frozen but I'm not a huge fan of that, you can cut it up into swallowable portions with a cleaver those are also cheap ( I got one for less than $10).

10 hr minimum fast after kibble

They will pee more and drink less

Keep a daily diet log of what you fed if possible it helps and never stop learning.

Ok, to answer a few of your questions.

2% of their ideal body weight is a good amount to start with. You will be able to adjust it once your dogs adjust to eating raw. They may need more, they may need less. No matter how much you feed, the 80-10-10 ratio should always be used. That is not a set in stone amount either, but you should aim to keep pretty close to it.

Hold off on organs at first. When you do add them, secreting organs from red meat animals is best. At least 5% of their diet should be beef liver. We feed beef liver, beef kidney, and chicken liver.

Chicken is a great start!  But chicken alone is NOT enough for long term, it does not have the correct nutrients to provide a nutritionally complete diet. Red meat is absolutely necessary. Don't forget about eggs and fish also. Variety makes it fun and makes it easier to get all the necessary nutrients.

If your dog is a gulper, holding onto the piece of meat will help until he gets the hang of eating whole pieces. Bigger vs smaller pieces(as in big enough that they MUST chomp it before they swallow it) also helps them with not gulping too fast. Remember that dogs do not masticate(chew) their food in the way that an omnivore or herbivore does. The only purpose chewing has for them is to get the pieces into their stomach. This chomping through bone keeps their teeth clean. We chop all Audrey's bone pieces, her teeth aren't that great for chewing bone. We take care of her teeth by brushing and chew toys. Bone is still necessary for the minerals it provides.

Do remove the skin at first to let your dogs gradually get used to the change. It is very common to need a higher bone ratio at first also, which is another reason why chicken is such a great starting meat. It is VERY bony.

One common mistake many new raw feeders make is to continue the initial extra high bone meals for too long. If your dog loses weight chances are great you are not feeding enough meat. 10% is really not very much bone. Chicken thighs and legs are somewhere in the 20-30% bone content range, WAY too much for long term exclusive feeding. 

I do not go crazy with trying to get exact weights and measurements, it is not necessary to get every meal precisely balanced but to acheive an overall balance over time. Some feed bone only a few times a week, same with organs. Some feed bone once a day.

The beauty of raw feeding is that there are so many 'right' ways to do it!

Thanks so much for your answers.  Ok, so we are starting on Saturday morning, what would be a good meal to start with?  Do I want to get some chicken drumsticks since they have a bit more meat on them?  Do I just hold it while they chomp away?  Do I want to add bit more chicken breast?  Should we add an egg?  How long would you stay with chicken before you start adding some red meat?  Sorry for all the questions :)

I will let you know how it goes!!