I just had our first raw litter and they are 5 months now. We were careful to stop bone in mom's diet the last two weeks and increase heart and beef. She was 7 and did great. She looks better now than she did when she was 3. The pups nirsed and we fed mom in their pen. They started to get interested in her food about 3 1/2 weeks. At that time I ground chicken with some organ and goats milk. They started one meal a day and by 5 weeks they were eating three meals per day. At 5 1/2 weeks we changed from ground to chicken wings, duck necks, chicken necks, and then to chicken legs, chicken thighs and cornish game hens. At about 8 weeks we started adding beef, then 2 weeks later organ. They look fantastic. The pups I kept have incredible muscle tone, glowing coat and lovely calm demeanor I believe is at least partly due to being able to really chew and enjoy their food. They really get a work out. If you don't have a grinder ground chicken or turkey can be purchased.

 

Excellent to hear! I do not have a meat grinder so I would buy pre-ground meat. When you first start them on solid food (3.5weeks) was the chicken ground with bone or was it pure ground chicken with no bone? Adults for my breed are 18-24ish lbs so they are pretty small but they have large teeth (although small puppy teeth).

 

You should invest in a meat grinder that can handle bones. I would assume that all chicken that was fed ground up was bone inclusive because without bone the puppies would get diarrhea. Honestly I'd love to hear more about this as well considering I will be getting into breeding Great Danes here in the next 18 months....

 

I would assume the ground chicken was bone inclusive, as well. I do have a supplier who does ground chicken (and fish) with cooked eggs and some organ. Would this be a good choice for the first little while (before the puppies can chew bones)? Plus small chunks of boneless meat? Perfectly Raw or Perfectly Raw.

Do you stop feeding calcium to the bitch a couple weeks, or halfway through the pregnancy? And then as much bone as she can handle once the puppies are born?

 

I ground up the bone and the meat and added a tiny bit of organ. Ebay has a grinder that does chicken bones and duck necks well. I have not tried turkey neck yet. It cost about $70.00. I have had it for a year and just this week ground 200 pounds of chicken necks - my dogs gulp them so I grind and add diatamaceous earth to inhibit fleas and oil, eggs, and sometimes organ and make small meatballs. They get a meatball a day and it helps with fleas. My friend just weaned a sheltie litter to raw in the same way and had great results also. Especially non stinky stools. She noticed how clean they were and easy to maintain their pen.

 

Awesome info!! I'm planning a breeding right now for one of my girls at the end of this year, so storing away all the info on weaning puppies onto PMR. I figured ground at first...then slowly work into the bone-in stuff. ....I'm actually VERY excited to have a litter from a PMR-fed dam, and to wean the puppies straight onto PMR!!

Question: Why stop the dams bone intake in the latter stages of pregnancy?

 

I was told to limit calcium intake right before delivery and right after delivery to up the bone content for the calcium. I guess many dogs have a problem. My collies never have but my friend with the shelties did have to give calsorb for calcium after delivery before switching to raw. Now even her girl did just fine. My litter were collies and got to bone in meats alittle faster of course but her little shelties have done really well. Yours are bout the size of my collies you should have an easy time. The puppy poop smell is almost non existant - they are very clean and don't stink at all. I look forward to hearing about your litter.