Moving my Beardie to raw diet - help please!

I have finally made the decision to move my beardie onto a raw diet.
I have started by mixing half and half tripe with his normal complete dry food. (Royal Canin).
So far so good as he seems to like the tripe.
My main concern is the amount to feed him - he weighs around 24kgs.
I also like to give him 2 meals a day.
Any advice, particularly beardie-specific would be gratefully received.
(PS I am new to Dogsey!)

I wouldn't worry too much about mixing old and new gradually when switching to raw, at least not in the same meal. Perhaps one morning meal of complete and evening meal of raw while you are getting used to it?

The general advice is 2-3% of ideal body weight per day, which is fine to split over two meals. That's 480 - 720 grams per day for your dog. Make sure you include meat, bone and offal as well as the tripe you are already introducing. It can help to start with one protein type (e.g. chicken) and introduce others one at a time (lamb, beef, turkey, pheasant, rabbit, venison, duck etc). Although saying that, mine had a mixture from day one and were fine. Different meats over different meals, I mean, not mixed into the same meal.

Generally it's best to start with a good idea of how much you are feeding; monitor how he looks and feels and if he's putting on weight, decrease his food a bit. If he's losing weight then increase it a bit. It's not an exact science but you'll soon hit the happy medium that keeps his weigth right with his level of exercise and metabolism. All dogs are different

I keep it very simple .....am always short of money being a pensioner and also a long way from shops.. If I can get chicken backs and bones, they get those raw, and I make stew with stock and vegetables and mix with bread. Sometimes they get a tin of dog food or a little kibble is there if no raw available. Bones too of course. I see no need to vary etc. Thy thrive and are happy ... Been doing this years on advice from family who are breeders and trainers and not had any problems

First of all...



Secondly, SneaksyWhippet has given you a rough idea of the amount of food your Beardie should be having each day. The general rule is 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, and 10% offal, but my dog has far more bone and also is a vegetable freak in that she loves lightly steamed veggies in with one of her meals.

A good guide for you is this:

A rough BARF guide

You do not have to follow it exactly to detail but it is what it says, a rough guide to raw feeding. I still refer to it frequently.

Good luck and if your dog does as well as mine has done since I changed her onto raw, you will have a very happy [and healthy] dog!

What the others have said it the gist of raw feeding. At first it may feel a bit stressful as you figure out the right combination for your dog but after a while it become like second nature and you don't really think about it anymore.

With raw feeding you can go simply by the way your dog looks. If he seems a bit too lean, increase his meals slightly and vice versa on the heavy side of the scale.

Start slow, don't rush as that might result in loose stools. Slow and steady always wins the race with raw feeding. I transitioned my guys onto organs last as it's so rich that many times they get diarrhea. Eventually your dog will be accustomed to it and you can feed in larger quantities throughout the week.

Hope this helps.

I've been raw feeding my boy for about 3 months now and he LOVES it! He is a collie cross weighing around 22/23kg and I feed him around 500g per day. (between 2 and 2.5% ish!)

Just build up slowly, as others have suggested. Start with chicken for a week or two then slowly add other things in like tripe, lamb etc.

Please dont be put off if you experience any 'detox' symptoms as your boy will come out the other side happer and healthier than ever before!

I have also a very happy and healthy dog (even got confirmed that by the vet, where I've been only past Friday for her booster and beside for a check ) though she prefers home cooked stuff, she just doesn't like raw