[nikkiluvsu15]

Hey Everyone! :smile:

My girl Harleigh is having some issues with her skin right now and we're (Vet or me) not exactly sure what is going on. It could be environmental or it could be something else entirely. Our first step would be changing her diet up, get her off of kibble entirely, to see if that helps. If it doesn't.... Well we'll go from there :wink:

Right now she is getting Acana Grasslands in the A.M. and RAW in the P.M. We've been doing this for quite some time now and its worked wonders. Besides the skin issues that have been going on.

The Vet gave me 2 different options. 1) put her on a canned food diet (can still do raw at night though) or 2) put her on full RAW diet.

I thought about doing the canned food diet, but it is just SO expensive. I found a website and I put 6 or so cases of canned food in my cart and it was $170 w/o shipping. That is just WAY to expensive for me.

I'm almost positive that I'm going to go with a full raw diet, but I'm always concerned about her not getting enough of this or enough of that. I mean, I know what percentages she needs of these things, but I'm always afraid I'll mess it up. lol

Another thing I'm worried about is not finding enough space. Right now I've got a small space in the big freezer that I use for her raw, but I can't use much more. I found a used upright freezer for around $60 and I thought about buying it just for Harleigh's stuff, but I have no clue where I could put it! I would have to talk to my parents about that (I'll be a freshman in college this fall; still living at home).

One more thing I'm afraid of is spending WAY to much money than I need to. Which I know doesn't happen if you do it the right way... I've already gotten some ideas for that though, so I'm pretty sure I could deal with it in my own way! :tongue:

Anyways... So those are my main concerns, I guess.

As a side note... Here is my Har-Har with her BFF Phoebe. Poor Harleigh... She can't ever eat in peace

 

[DaneMama]

As far as knowing if you're doing things right, you pay attention to body condition, bowel movements and overall energy with the dog. You know something is out of whack when your dog has "cannon butt" or is vomiting or losing/gaining weight. If your dog is acting normal or even better than normal, and bowel movements are completely normal you know that you're doing things right. Its really a simple thing to do once you get the hang of things...which really doesn't take long at all.

Its easy to feed raw on a budget. Especially just to one dog. How much are you spending now on kibble?

A freezer can go anywhere really...even outside. We have a huge chest freezer that lives outside on the side of the house.

 

[nikkiluvsu15]

Thanks! :smile:

It does sound simple and I know it is... I think I just make it complicated! lol I've gotten some great advice from 2 people. One person who is feeding 2 Labs and the other is feeding 5 dogs (2 Danes, 1 Pit Bull, 1 Coonhound and 1 Lab), they have helped me a lot and basically told me the same thing that you just did!

Right now I'm getting a 29.7 pound bag of Grasslands for around $52 (after tax) and that'll last us about a month. Well, most times it'll last longer than that because she gets raw at night.

Oh, I never thought about putting it outside. I'm sure I can find a place somewhere out there. Hmm. Thanks!

 

[DaneMama]

We feed 2 Danes, a wolf hybrid, a hound mix and 2 cats all raw for ~$225 a month. I would estimate you'd spend no more than $35 for your one dog if you got all different kinds of meat to feed. Just try and keep the price of meat you buy to under $1 per pound.