1 week into home cooking

[Shannon Querry]

And what a difference it has made! We started last Wednesday and Fleury still had 2 looser stools on Thursday and Friday but then she didn't have a BM for 2 days until Monday morning! And when she did it was this perfect little poo! LOL!!

 

So now I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Right now she's getting 2 cups total of a mixture of chicken and rice with a few dollops of yogurt on top each meal. I just bought a bag of The Missing Link w/glucosamine yesterday also to start adding to it. Do I now start adding a veggie in to see how she tolerates it?

 

I want to make sure she's getting everything she needs since she's still so young, anything else I should be adding to her meals. She won't be a year old until May.

 

Thank you all again, this is such a fantastic board!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

The 40 -50% protein works really well for Guinness. I only use about 20% veggies (max), and 30 - 40% carbs (brown rice, whole wheat pasta, lentils). I also make sure he's getting yogurt daily (calcium), and I give a supplement in the evening and a vitamin in the morning along with his salmon oil.

[Kay Bolin]

How much salmon oil - do you get it from a store or vet?
What supplement?
Yogurt as well as calcium?
What vitamin?
Is this home cooking plan right for young puppies? My puppy is coming home next week, at 15 weeks old. I can't wait, but am grateful for the time to research food.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No, homecooking is only recommended for adult dogs who have reached full skeletal growth. For young puppies, a premium quality dog food such as Orijen is recommended.
I would strongly advise you to keep your new puppy on whatever the breeder has been feeding for at least a week or two after you get him. You want to minimize any changes as much as possible until he has adjusted to your home. Also, since stress can cause digestive upsets, you'll need to know that any diarrhea or vomiting is NOT from a dietary change. Lots of these dogs have digestive issues.
To answer some of your questions, Jane adds yogurt to provide calcium. I would not start any fish oil until your puppy has at least adjusted to the major changes & stress that leaving his mother & littermates will cause him, for the same reasons mentioned above. Fish oil can also cause diarrhea in some dogs.
Since your puppy will be eating a nutritionally complete and hopefully high-quality food, it is not necessary, and in fact can be dangerous, to add vitamins or other nutritional supplements to his diet. They are necessary for dogs who are eating entirely homecooked diets to ensure that all nutritional needs are met, much as we would take a daily vitamin.
I hope that reading through our discussions here will help you with all of these choices & issues as your pup grows. Congratulations!