when to ween off puppy food

[lv4dogs]

Bri, personally I'd keep her on puppy food until she's about 9-12 months of age.

[zoey]

Hi.
I thought I'd respond to this old thread. Thanks for all your responses.
I'm mostly feeding Daisy raw, now, and have been for about 6 weeks. Chicken, veggies, some steak & roast beef, beef kidney & liver. She's responding well.
But I keep a quality puppy kibble around,
just in case.

[bckrazy]

That is awesome that you're feeding her raw! =) I'm sure she loves it.

How often do you feed bones? Steaks are totally muscle meat, which should be limited... beef rib bones, with the meat on them, would be better; and whole ( or half ) of a Chicken, etc. Just make sure you don't over-do the muscle meats and keep in mind calcium to phosphorus ratios.

[zoey]

That is awesome that you're feeding her raw! =) I'm sure she loves it.

How often do you feed bones? Steaks are totally muscle meat, which should be limited... beef rib bones, with the meat on them, would be better; and whole ( or half ) of a Chicken, etc. Just make sure you don't over-do the muscle meats and keep in mind calcium to phosphorus ratios.

Bckrazy, Hi.
Usually I"ll bake a whole chicken in the crock pot and give her some of the meat and bones from that. (It's good b/c the chicken bones get soft that way.) I have given her raw chicken breasts too. She also loves bacon, mackeral, salmon, & tuna. I give her some organs too, usually about 3 days a week, (beef liver or beef kidney so far.) A buddy of mine that we visit often, cooks beef ribs a lot, so she gets that or a small amount of steak. I always feed her lots of veggies. (She's always loved them.)Turnip greens, rutabaga, squash, bok choy. She's like every veggie we've tried, but raw celery. It's good b/c while I'm chopping them for her, I always eat a bit myself. (The green leafies are such an excellent source of calcium especially for folks who cannot absorb calcium from milk.)
She likes fruit too; Granny smith apples, banana, grapes etc. Lately I've itroduced rice into the mix. That's going well, though I"m going to purchase brown rice next time.
I stay away from kibble more and more. It only gives her gas and upsets her digestion, anymore.
The only thing i'm not sure of, is sometimes i think i give her too many bones from the chicken. We usually spit the chicken and she'll have all the bones. Do you think that ratio is too high then? Maybe I should just toss some of the bones. Thanks.

[mruffruff]

I thought cooked bones were a no-no.

What you are feeding isn't a raw diet. Raw means absolutely no cooking.

[zoey]

She likes the cooked bones. Why what's wrong with them?
Sometimes I cook the meat and we share it.

[wolfsoul]

Cooked bones are dangerous -- they are more brittle and difficult to digest. They can easily perforate the intestines, whereas raw bones are more palatable.

Grapes are toxic, so be careful. If you feed too many you can damage her kidneys.

I wouldn't bother with the rice. Rice is a grain and it's one of the reasons kibble is so bad. Dogs aren't meant to digest grains. The only reason to feed rice, in my opinion, is if the dog is too thin or ill. And in that case it should be white rice. White rice is actually better for dogs than brown rice. A dog's digestive system is not strong enough to extract the nutrients from the brown rice, so it can cause indigestion. White rice is just brown rice with the bran and pretty much all of the nutrients already extracted, so a dog can digest it better.

I disagree that lots of muscle meat is bad -- I feed a prey model diet, which is mainly muscle meat. In fact, raw meaty bones are somewhat of a rarity in a prey model diet (unless you have the rescources to feed whole carcusses, but since fowl and rodents are limited prey in the wild for most wolves, deer and other larger animals are the norm and are difficult to feed whole). Bone only makes up about 10% of a prey-model diet.

As for the original topic of the thread, I disagree with puppy food. In the wild, wolves don't grind up bones for the puppies for extra calcium, and they don't leave them all the fat. When the pups are still young, they feed them predigested food which has less nutrients. As they get older, they are the last to feed, which means they recieve less nutrients. Most of the edible bones would already be gone so they would get less calcium. So why do we feed puppies more nutrients when in the wild they get less? Less nutrients ensure slower growth, which helps to prevent bone/joint problems. How many wolves in the wild do you see with panosteitis, hip/elbow dysplasia, etc?