Hi, We've just welcomed an 8 week old lab puppy to our home. She's been fed on Wagg's puppy food by the breeder, but I would like to feed her a raw diet instead. We have 2 other adult dogs who are a raw food diet and it works well for them but I'm assuming that a puppy has different requirements from the adult dogs. Both dogs were over a year old when we transferred them from kibble to raw. What should I take in account to make sure my puppy gets all the nutrients that she needs?
Snap. Our pup had been fed wag. I never bought a bag of the stuff. My boy came home and straight on to raw. He was fed the same food as my older girl just 4 times a day. This is a link to Ann ridyard website, it gives the guidelines for puppies. Our boy was on 1kg of food at one time, he's not a big lab but he's now down to 500g a day. Puppies transition faster than adult dogs, a couple of days on one protein and moved on to the next. https://dogsdinner2.webs.com/feedingpuppies.htm Don't bother with buying raw food aimed at puppies, it's a marketing ploy. Most of these ready made 'raw' only give a choice of two proteins which is not a 'balanced' diet for any animal.
I didn't get my dog til he was older so have no first hand experience to offer I'm afraid. There are some really helpful and busy Facebook groups (Raw Feeding UK is my favourite) with some very experienced raw feeders who respond very quickly to queries. They all seem to agree that raw puppy food only differs in texture and most people seem to feed as they do their adult dogs, although with a bit more attention to balancing meals rather than balance over time.
I wean my puppies onto Nurtiment raw complete as my reseach showed it to be the most balanced/compete. I keep puppies on Nutriment Puppy raw until they are around 6/7 months then they go onto DIY like the rest of the dogs. It's not cheap, but puppy nutrition is oimportant to get right.
