Guest Post: How to Wean Puppies to a Raw Food Diet

Many dog owners are concerned about the quality of commercial dog food and interested in the health benefits of a raw diet. This guest post by Maggie Rhines discusses the process of weaning puppies directly onto a raw food diet.

Starting dogs early on a raw dog food diet will allow them to gain the most benefit from this type of diet. That will make sure they get all the nutrients they need in a form that their bodies are fully equipped to handle. That is why I strongly advocate weaning your puppies to a raw food diet as soon as this becomes possible.

When you wean your puppies, you actually start off with milk meals to wean them from their mother. This means puppies as young as 2.5 weeks old can already be started on this type of diet.

When they’re just a few weeks old, you will need to feed your puppy on demand, which is usually 4 to 5 feedings in a day. Take your cue from how frequently they nurse from their mother. 

When your puppies are around 6 weeks old, you can begin looking for indicators that they are ready for solid food. You may notice the mother regurgitating her food and feeding it to her puppies. You may also notice that your puppies now have teeth.

When you see these signs, you know you can start introducing some solid food into your puppies’ diet. An ideal first food would be a vegetable mush that has 50% protein content.

Here are some key things to remember when starting your puppies on solids:

When serving vegetables, avoid greens from the cabbage family as they can give your puppy gas or thyroid problems. Avoid serving grains at all times. Puppies cannot tolerate grains and you may end up giving them allergies.

Serve one kind of vegetable or meat at a time for about a week, before moving on to another kind of meat or vegetable. This is to help you identify potential food allergies. Once you are certain that your puppies are not allergic to a selection of vegetables and meat that you have served them, you can go ahead and mix those food together to serve to your puppies.

You want to strive for balance and variety over a period of time. You can achieve this by alternating the meals that you serve your puppies.

When starting your puppies on solids, make sure that you still continue to serve milk meals.

Animal offal or organs are a good source of protein and other nutrients that your growing puppies need. But make sure that these do not make up more than 10% of your puppies meals. 

Introducing the raw dog food diet to your puppies will require a lot of attention to details. A great resource on this topic can be found in my book called "Going Rawr! Dog Lover's Compendium". I strongly recommend my book for anyone who is seriously considering putting their dogs on a raw dog food diet. 

For more information on the benefits of a raw food diet, visit www.rawdogfoodsystem.com