Costco and Sam's Club both offer bulk discounts on chicken. I shop at Costco more so I am more familiar with their meat prices. At Costco you can buy chicken parts at 99 cent/lb but if you buy a case then you get a discount and it ends up costing you only 80 cent/lb or 85 cent/lb depending on what parts you get. I bought a case of chicken thighs at Costco last year, sticker price was 99 cent/lb but I paid 85 cent/lb because I bought a whole case of it (a case is 60 lbs for those who don't know). To buy a case of meat you have to have someone in the meat department get one for you from the back and relabel the price tag to reflect the bulk price.

Thanks! I'm really glad Mila is doing better and eating like a champ!

She literally just danced in circles over this chicken. She probably would have done a backflip if I had waited long enough!! I've yet to see her this excited about anything! Heck yes I love it!!!

Try not to give too much 'new' food immediately. This can cause stomach upsets, especially if the pooch has been eating dog food before.

I'd wait till I see my dog fully adjusted (meaning poops are still firm even without too much bone) to one type of meat before I introduce a new type.

Yes definitely jaysen, that was the plan. Her poops were normal this morning, waiting until tomorrow to see if the chicken I gave her today had too much bone. We'll be doing chicken for 7-10 days before introducing beef. I'm interested to see how much weight she's going to gain before her next vet visit in 2 weeks. I'm not expecting anything drastic but I'm still curious. Our weight goal is when I can no longer feel all of her spine or hip bones, whatever weight that may be. I feel really good about this though. No more fighting with her to eat, I'm fighting with her to calm down and not run me over before I can put the food down!

Haha! I understand his new-found fervor for food! Finally eating the good stuff!

Finally eating at all!! And it's the good stuff! Double bonus

So, just an update. Mila has been eating raw chicken since Monday. Every meal has had bones in it, thinking I could cut back the bone if her poops get all chalky. I feel like she has one normal poop and then a really runny one, and then a normal one and then a really runny one. Is she just still adjusting or am I doing something wrong? She hasn't had anything except chicken, and yesterday some benadryl for her sting. I did mix a powder capsule of benadryl (cause that's all I had) with some supplical, but that's it. Am I doing something wrong? Or is she just still adjusting and her body is all confused?

You can maybe try reducing the skin/fat from the chicken. Too much of it can cause runny poops especially if new to raw. Just observe how much Heather (?) can skin/fat Heather can tolerate. At this point, it may be OK to stay with the current bone content to help with the poops.

Yeah, it could also be that she's detoxifying from kibble.

Are her "normal" stools very hard? Are you feeding a bony meal and then a meatless meal?

I would also suggest removing the skin and see if that helps. If it does, start leaving the skin on every 3rd/4th meal and then every 2nd/3rd once that's tolerated... ect. ect.

No, I wouldn't say they're super hard. Just... normal. Lol. Not like fossilly or anything. And she has had bones in every meal. It may be too soon to tell but I think the benadryl messed her up and now she's back to normal, she just went but it was too dark here for me to really see it. From what I could tell though it looked normal. It was very small, like everyone said it would be.

I did wonder though if I was giving her too much at a time, and I may have been feeding her too much all together, so I cut back a little bit and have been giving it to her in 3 meals yesterday and today. I know it defeats alot of the purpose and she practically inhales it but I'm just trying to help her out and make it easier on her body. I'll continue with that for another day or two and see how that works out. If it doesn't I'll try removing the skin, but if it does I'll cut back to two meals a day and see how she does.

Hello how young is Heather by the way?

Could be just too much food probably then?

I would assume too much food. That gets my male every time. Just feed a lighter meal and see if the problem stops.

Hey jaysen, Mila is almost a year and a half, give or take. She came from PAWS so it's only a guess.

I think I was giving her too much and too much at a time. I took your advice Megan and cut her back to 2.5% so we're at 3/4 lb a day for now. We're gonna do 3-4 more days of chicken before I add in some beef but I think giving her 3 meals a day helped. She had a normal poop last night and this morning. Today makes a week on chicken and I'm definitely noticing a difference in her energy level the last couple of days. She's been yelling at me all morning to play with her, something she's never done.

At her age, she can probably do good on 1-2 meals a day as well. But it's best that you "train" her for that in the meantime. No need to rush things, as usual.

The effects of the change in diet is so evident so early on. That's really great! I'm genuinely happy for both of you.

I'm soooo happy I made the switch. Honestly I had never even heard of it or knew anything about it, and I never would have if she had just eaten her kibble. So maybe her picky eating was a good thing!! I went to SAM's yesterday and got about 4-5 weeks worth of chicken for $20, which is the best I can do right now until we move and I can get a freezer. But that's still waaayyy cheaper than that stupid $70 bag of food I had bought for her. And sooo much better for her! We're taking it slow. Cutting her back to two meals today and tomorrow and if she does well with that I'll give her some beef on Thursday.

I feel like it's even helped our relationship, she's much more willing and listens to me better (for the most part) now that I am the bringer of the magical chicken of nomm-edness I guess before she didn't really need me for anything, but now she does. It's crazy how that works.

Wow! That's amazing! I got about 3-4 weeks of chicken for $40 on Friday, and I was stoked lol. Food is so expensive here! Also I realized I need to invest in a good clever, I destroyed one of my knives trying to cut chicken bones. Are you freezing first then defrosting? I'm in the same boat as you in terms of not being able to get a freezer. It's been really helpful to see your updates, I'm excited to start my little guy off on raw when he comes home in 10 days. I'm sure she's starting to look at you with love in her eyes.

NYC? I bet!!! We're just in lil ol' Georgia, so it's not too bad. I told my husband yesterday I want a clever and a bone saw. I've been using his hunting knife but it only gets through the split breasts, it wouldn't get through the thigh bones. I was only trying to give her smaller meals to adjust anyway so it was no big deal, I just gave her the whole thing. I separate them out by the meal when I buy it and then freeze them, then take them out and defrost. I'm so glad we have been helpful! It's definitely a learning process, and they're all different so you just have to figure out what's best for you and your furbaby Cause I couldn't really tell you what % bone she's getting but I can promise it's way more than 10. She gets bones in every meal right now and she hasn't had fossil poops yet so I'm sticking with it cause if I backed off it would probably get runny. She's doing good so far, I'm excited to start her on some beef!

I love Georgia, my mom in law lives in Atlanta and its so pretty in her area. I found a cheaper place out on long island that has chicken for .69/lb and beef for 1.19, but have to figure out if its worth the cost of driving and tolls. Too early for math. I'll look forward to hearing how she does when you introduce beef.

Oh I love Georgia too, we're about an hour and a half south of Atlanta. Toll roads? What's that?? Haha! Down here in the sticks we don't have toll roads so I couldn't tell you. The chicken I bought yesterday was 1.89/lb and 1.19/lb. That's about as good as it's gonna get.

So today will be day 3 on the beef. She's getting chicken for breakfast and beef for dinner. She's doing really well and I'm feeding her a bit much of the beef in hopes of gaining some weight. I do feel like she's a *TAD* bit less ribby. But we're coming up on 2 weeks of actually eating after a month of not. Gonna go to sam's later and see what I can find. I didn't like what they had last time but Walmart wasn't any better. Hopefully I can find something good!

Make sure to getting the highest fat content beef you can to help her put on weight. You can also mix in some raw egg and cheese if she'll eat it and it doesn't upset her tummy...that may help speed things up too.

Val, what would you recommend? You think boneless ribs would be good? That seems to be listed as the fattiest cut of beef. She's getting her bone with the chicken for now. I can't handle giving her anything that looks like what it came from. i.e There will be no tongues in my house except the ones still attached to living things. There's not a whole lot of options here, we've got SAM's/Walmart and Publix and that's about it.

Whatever you can get your hands on for a good price but if you have options then try to opt for as much fat content as you can that's all. I don't feed beef all that much so I am not the most familiar with cheaper cuts and availability. My dogs usually get ground beef from me.

Okay, we'll go see what I can find. Thank you! I'll report back in a little while.