so far so good although she threw all her dinner back up last night(OH fault he decided to play with her straight after her dinner)
Oh dear! He won't be doing that again will he?
the only thing i need to get right are the quantities ,i think she has put weight on since last week
on the last visit to the vet i was told she needed to lose weight 
so thats not good
if shes put weight on and is being fed raw that will give him twice the amount to tut,tut about 
can i just ask happydog how much fern weighs
that would give me some idea if my quantities are anywhere near right 
Fern is quite a short working cocker and now weighs about 13.5Kg. She weighed 11.75Kg when I began but tbh she was a bit thin. However she doesn't look fat at all, still has a waist and I can feel her ribs through a thin layer of fat. She has more muscle than she used to, in spite of me thinking she was fit when I began
and muscle weighs more than fat
. She also gets more exercise than she used to.
She went over 14Kg and began to look quite lardy at one stage and I realised I had been slightly overfeeding her. I was thinking her bowl looked so empty and had been tipping in just a little bit extra. I started to reweigh the food for a while, to get used to what it looked like again. I think if you have a dog of that weight that is not quite as active as Fern then 200g might be too much.
You have to match the amount to your particular dogs' metabolism and you're only going to do that by observation and adjustment for the first few months. You need to get to know your particular dog. The chicken wings I feed her are tiny and I am feeding her 200g absolute tops for mince. I find there is a fair bit of moisture in AMP. It probably varies between 120 and 200g plus veggies plus wings.
That's the thing to watch with BARF - the portions look so measly compared to processed food portions, but they are only larger because of all the cereal/rice(usually) fillers and they only come straight out the other end. With BARF it's all good useful stuff
I wonder if its me being paranoid, but Sarah seemed a little quieter today (her 2nd day), is that normal?
Yes, I noticed it too with Fern and agree with CraftySams explanation. Fern is so much more laid back at home than she used to be. When out though, she is still faster than the proverbial speeding bullet. The great thing I noticed that came with it is that she listens more. Recall has definitely improved. Although she is not completely cured of selective deafness
.Additive free diet=less hyperactivity and better concentration I guess.
also can you please give me a list of the vegtables you use, only using carrots, broccoli and cauliflower at the minute. My husband is a little concerned about the diet, he keeps asking me shouldn't Sarah be having any supplements (ie vitamins), and to be honest I'm not sure. Fern looks so well and you don't mention any. What would you recommend?
When I make up a batch I ensure that Fern gets a mixture of root and leafy green veggies, with fruit -usually apple. She doesn't like pineapple, tomatoes or bananas. I try to make it colourful
A typical mix(and this makes a very large pudding basin full) for me would be:
Small swede
Half small cabbage
One broccoli head
Half small Cauliflower
Three parsnips
Four or five sticks celery
One apple
5 or 6 carrots
Three cloves Garlic
1-2" ginger
No raw potato, apple pips, onion or grapes.I thought about supplements and decided not to as she is in good health. IMO, if you are feeding a good quality food with a wide range of fruit, veggies, bone, muscle and organ meats why should they be needed? Vitamin and mineral supplements are only manufactured forms of what is readily available in fresh foods after all, and some of them don't work as well as those which occur naturally in fresh foodstuffs. Variety is the key, so they get a wide a range of vits and mins as poss. It's exactly the same for us humans. If Fern had a health issue though, such as arthritis I would certainly take advice and look at it again. I vaguely remember there being something to watch out for with the fish oils(wrong type building up toxins??? might have got that wrong-can't remember), so do your research thoroughly. Don't assume all human types are suitable for dogs, they're not.
Ah just found it in my old thread
You can overdose Cod liver oil because as well as providing EFA's it is a source of Vitamins A and D both of which are fat soluble and therefore excesses tend to get stored in the body rather than flushed through the system.
trouble is i don't own kitchen scales so i have no idea what a chicken wing weighs
Ah I do 'cos I weighed them in the first few weeks
a couple of small ones will weigh approx 150g
