You did perfectly. You want to give him large pieces of meat, then pick up what is left and put it away for the next meal. Your dog will self-regulate his weight this way.
I only feed my dog once a day. She’s 18 lbs and I try to give her 7 oz a day. However, when feeding chicken I just give her a big hunk and she eats what she wants and I pick up what is left and put it back in the refrigerator for the next day.
At only 6 lbs, you should be feeding your dog about two oz., your calculations are correct. With this small a dog, the cost will be miniscule, you could cut off a small piece of your own dinner steak before you cook it and not even miss it.
If your dog is overweight, with this diet he will self-regulate and get to his perfect weight.
Typically you want to give your dog about 80% meat, 10% bone, and 10% organ meat with a large part of the organ meat being liver (it’s important your dog get liver), if you’re following the whole prey model, which is what I do. But in the beginning, I wouldn’t worry about this. Just getting started is all you want to do and you’ve done it!
A good way to get your dog to eat liver (I had a problem with my dog eating liver in the beginning) is to cut it in tiny pieces and mix it up with an egg. That’s good for one meal for your tiny dog. My dog will now slurp up liver like it’s dog candy but I thought that day would never come.
Now, don’t get scared and go back to the kibble, we call it crap in a bag.
One of the incredibly wonderful benefits of a raw food diet is your dog poops about 1/3rd the amount they do on kibble and they drink less water (because the food has water in it).
In my mind, this is definitely a success. We’re in about a hour and he is on the last parts ... no longer growling!
Since my last post I cut off some meat pieces and cracked the bone [he was having problems with this]. A piece of marrow popped out and he gobbled it up. He has not stopped since then.
I am worried about choking. Have any of you had issues with choking?
I love that it has taken him an hour to eat. He has dragged it around and involved his neck muscles, jaws, teeth and all four feet!
However, I’m not sure he can self-regulate. :)
But I saw dramatic results with raw feeding chihuahuas. I’m hoping.
Good advice.
Switched my Labradoodle and Standard Poodle to a raw diet a month ago... cringed the first time they chowed down the bones.
But it was the best thing I could do for them... happier, their teeth are in beautiful condition... crap less (and when they do, it turns into chalk and dissolves in two days)... shinier, softer coats.
Turned them on to fish this week... took a couple whole trout and wiggled them in the stream water... dogs thought it was fun... let them catch in the water... they ran up the bank and devoured them. Teaching them to fish.
Raw food is digested within 5-6 hours... great for their system. Dry kibble food takes up to 15 hours to pass thru their system.
Dog food was invented in the ‘50s... gee, how did dogs survive without it?