Chewie starts his raw diet today!

He had his 4th meal this morning (don't worry, I'm not going to post about every meal). This morning he was excited about breakfast. He was running around, very enthusiastic, very excited. He calmed down and sat for his meal, but he devoured every morsel of food; and licked the bowl clean.

Coincidentally, he has also mastered conversational french, written 2 novels (one in English, and another in dog), he's solved the whole dark matter mystery and can beat me in chess 9 games out of 10 and it is all thanks to changing his food.

Seriously though, this could not have gone smoother so far. I'm still working out the math so i know just how much I have and how long each batch will last. My family keeps asking me how often I will have to make it (the only question I don't really have an answer for yet). I ordered small glass containers with lids that will hold 1 portion of food for him, to make it easier to handle and track. They should be here this week. I have a bunch of food frozen, (portions in muffin trays) but I'm not sure how long it will take for each portion to thaw in the fridge so that they are ready when needed without spending too much time not frozen. I know I'll work all this out over time, but I really am pleased at how smoothly this has gone and how enthusiastically he's taken to eating this way.

So now my next question is this: Since he's eating raw, what do you folks use for training rewards. I'd like to get him away from store bought processed treats, but was not sure what to use for his "good boy" treats when working on commands. He's still a puppy, so we need to do lots of command training yet. Any thoughts???
 
I was like you at the beginning...I bought small containers but over time I find it faster (and easier) to store in ziplock bags (usually do 2 days worth, with 2 dogs and a puppy I go through almost a pound of raw mix a day), plus I also do a veggie mash so by the time I'm done I'm pooped lol. I usually do enough to last a month though.
I also had the same dilemma with the puppy as to what to use as training treats. I make cookies for the dogs already ( a very good one I make is called banana biscotti), just google the name but make sure you say for dogs and you'll find the recipe. Only things I change is I use ground oatmeal in place of flour and coconut oil in place of canola and I don't use baking soda...(I don't see the need to add salt).
I also bought a dehydrator and just the other day I made chicken jerky (you need a jerky gun, super easy) and I made dehydrated sweet potato and banana chips. I also dehydrated a batch of Finnie's food. The chicken jerky was a big hit, added garlic powder and parsley and he loves it.
 
I just spoke with the owner of our local butcher shop by email. He offered that if I buy in larger quantities they would portion out into 1lb parcels and pre-freeze it for me so that it would be easier to handle. I would still have to thaw it and add the veggies, eggs, oils, vitamins, etc. but I could have that prepared separately and add it at the time I serve it, or just top the meat with a veggie/egg/oil/vitamin slurry (sounds so nasty).

Either way, gettin an offer of this level of service has locked me in that I will ONLY be going to this place for my Chewie's food.
 
Regarding your question about treats...over the years I mellowed a bit with regard to total no grain diet. I bake cookies for them using oat flour (grind it myself with a blender--just takes a few min) and also slice up sweet potatoes and dehydrate them into chips. Everybody deserves some crunch in their lives :) Food dehydrators are easy to find at garage sales--lots of people with good intentions that never used them LOL
 
I have a dehydrator already. It is my second one. I make beef jerky at times. I could be happy dehydrating sweet potatoes as treats. Do you blanche them first?
 
No I just run them thru my food processor to slice them (slicing by hand is time consuming) and then dehydrate to chips...
Some make sweet potato chews but the chewy ones can go bad fast. Chips are good long time.
 
So my first moment of concern in all of this....

Chewie seems to be drinking much less water than previously when he was on the dry kibble. I know this kinda makes sense, but he didn't want any water last night with dinner, nor did he this morning with breakfast. He is still peeing regularly. I gave him two ice cubes this morning before I left for work because he can't resist them, so I'm not terribly worried, and I know he'll drink some when I go home at lunch and let him out, but it seemed weird that he didn't drink with supper or breakfast. But he did eat ALL his food again and I guess he's getting good moisture that way too right?
 
Yah don't worry. He will drink when he's thirsty. Lots of liquid in raw meat! Koko rarely drinks water as he eats ice. Fillion maybe drinks a few times a day tops, unless its hot outside.
 
I agree with Margi, raw is like 60-70% liquid. My boys drink way less now than when they were on kibble (that's one of the reasons kibble is so bad, they drink and drink after eating causing the kibble to expand in their gut). Before, I used to fill their bowl 3-4 times a day now it's only twice.
 
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