Puppy starting raw

I started Polly now 15mths on Raw meat and bones a couple of months ago to try to help her fight some skin allergies and a poor coat after 3 months of being on steroids, and we are slowly sorting out her diet to include whole raw fish, Sardines at the moment. We are mainly using frozen blocks of raw meat from our local pet food shop, although she also has chicken wings, legs and carcasses, and a mince our local butcher makes up from everything except brains, and who also supplies us with nice big bags of bones for her. She can't eat raw eggs as they don't stay down and she will eat a few bits of fruit here and there she doesn't like it mixed in with her meals. I do give her a table spoon of live yoghurt every couple of days. Trying to make sure I get everything balanced is a nightmare for me. She is a little over weight now but that is slowly coming down.

Last week we adopted an 8 week old staffie pup, Charlie, he has been on purina beta puppy food as that is what the rescue centre was feeding him at the time. Today I gave Polly a whole fresh sardine only to look up and see Charlie swallowing the head almost whole after she had bitten the fish in half. So far he hasn't had an upset tum or anything and was very pleased with himself.

This whole raw feeding is hard work for me with Polly as she is a very fussy little lady, I just think that if Charlie was on the same stuff she might eat it before he could, as he is very enthusiastic about her food.

Is it ok to feed Charlie the same food as Polly? obviously in smaller amounts?

I know there are hundreds of links to various web sites out there but i think I have confused myself by reading conflicting opinions and methods now

My husband thinks the whole thing is a waste of time and expense and would rather have them all on kibble, but he does admit that Polly is so much better since switching and has got an amazingly shiny coat and hasn't had the allergies as severely as she did before (or the vet bills), but our vet is against raw feeding and hubby thinks I should listen to him
Any advice, hints and tips gratefully received

Well, a lot of vets are against it - with a lot of them it's because they can't then promote the commercial food they sell in the practice!

A pup can go raw from the time they are weaned. Have a look through the following - it's a food diary of a GSD litter weaned on to raw. It might give you some ideas of how to tweak the diet for a pup.....

http://www.krisannriorawfeeding.com/rawweaninglitterdiary.htm

Thanks for that Caryll, I didn't realise that Salmon can be dangerous to dogs if it hasn't been frozen, hopefully my Polly won't have any problems from the bits she got the other day

Do you think it is safer to freeze everything that they get before they are given it?
Also should I worm the dogs more often on a raw diet?
I'll give Charlie his very own chicken wing later when they can get out in the garden, I am trying to change him to 3 meals a day so it will give him something to practise on.

I freeze most of the food I give, but it isn't always necessary. Freezing will kill some bacteria but not others. But it does keep it fresher, which means the bones don't get brittle.

I don't worm any more often with raw than with commercial. The recommended worming time is every 3 months & I just stick to that (more or less).

I'm not worried about bacteria, from what I have read its parasites that are the nasties to watch for in raw feeding. There is a particulary nasty one that can be found in some salmon, which I only found out in the link you so kindly put up for me.
I do worry about fresh rabbits which Polly catches and eats from time to time or that my hubby shoots for the dogs. I think unless I am feeding them meat sold for human consumption I will freeze anything I get for them.

Oh and I found out that although Charlie loved the fresh sardine he stole off of Polly yesterday, his tummy wasn't so sure so he will only get a little bit of that at a time in future. Thank heaven for carpet shampoo

Charlie is having his 2nd jab on Thursday, I will keep things as they are for him until after that and then start changing him over, no point upsetting his tum more than I have to.