Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As you all must know, Dr. Tobin, especially. I have Zeus strictly on homemade food. Menu: 3-4 cups ground beef and 1-1 1/2 cups brown rice. At the moment he isn't eating any raw bones. He won't do it and I can't force him. Zeus isn't the type of dog for that type of thing. You'd think a 103 pound German Shepherd/Rottweiler would..but he doesn't. He hasn't been getting any vitamins either lately. So would you say that I'm doing more harm for my dog now since he isn't eating any raw bone for calcium? And if I start him on a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement would that be able to be enough for him without the bone?

Help, please.

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!

You should be able to get powdered bone meal at a healthfood store or one of the larger pet stores. Add 1 tsp. of powdered bone meal per meal. That will provide all the calcium she needs.

Since you explained about the bone meal, I'll be sure to do that. But now what I'm curious about is if Zeus is getting all the vitamins and nutrients he needs. He gets about 3 cups of ground beef with rice everyday but is that enough?

How does that work?

Think of a dog as a wolf that just happens to be living in your house. What does a wolf eat? He kills and eats whole animals. The major part of what he eats is meat and bone, including organ meat. What he would not get if he were to eat only meat and bone are the probiotic bacteria and omega-3 fatty acids, since the omega-3 fatty acids are found predominently in nervous tissue, especially the brain,and the probiotic bacteria which are found in the intestines, neither of which are allowed in our food supply. Replace these with cod liver oil or flax seed oil, and with plain yogurt or probiotic.

The way you explained it sounds right. I'm still fairly new to feeding real food to my dog. Thanks for all the help, Dr!