Please age my rescue puppy & Q. re diet (meat & bones diet mix)

Hi, I am really interested in providing a more natural diet for our gorgeous young staff. We've had him just over a week now from rescue. He has his adult front teeth and has just lost his puppy canines the others are puppy teeth still. He is just now being fed on Hills science puppy plan 3 times a day. What age would you say he is? Rescue said 4-5 months vet said more like 4 but ???? What would you say?

My father in law feeds his 4 dogs on the meat and bones diet is it which is 70% raw meat and bones and the rest their food scraps. The dogs are in great health and have the shiniest, most healthy looking teeth and gums I've ever seen in adult dogs! It seems to make quite logical sense to feed that style diet to me but I don't know enough about it!

My question is what quantities should this diet be fed in really especially as Milo is still a growing pup. I was thinking about doing a mix of the science plan and a bit of raw meat and bones such as chicken wings to start but am unsure. I know we feel quite strongly about not giving Milo our scraps plus our chickens would miss out ha ha ha ha!!

What do you all reccommend? Also what age would you say he is? Thanks :0)

Not much help on raw im afraid I dont feed it raw I have 2 pensioners and cook the meat or fish to soak the kibble.
Its hard to age a puppy cause they all mature differently but I would have thought the adult teeth would be there around 5 months

Hi & welcome to the forum.

I'd probably agree with the 4 - 5 months old, judging by his looks and teeth lost. He looks a real cracker by the way!

As to the raw food, there's a thread on here all about it that may help...
https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t2170-looking-into-barf
or try this site.....................
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/whatisrmb.php

I don't advise mixing raw & commercial, especially with a youngster as it can upset their digestion (raw takes about 4 or 5 hours to digest, commercial takes about 17 hours!).

i've asked about raw before cos i was considering using it, but, decided against so i've stuck to dry with some cooked meat now and then mixed in, sorry to be of no help, jake has been used to dry since 6 weeks old and i didnt want to disrupt his digestion by changing and anyway, most of the dry food out just now has all the nutrients needed too xxx

we changed billy over to raw, and the links that caryll has given you are a real help. when we changed over to raw i had so many questions and they were all answered here on this forum, caryll is the raw food expert on here.

Thanks guys :0) I have to agree with you he really is a cracker ;0) apart from being a little too eager to er *play with our rabbit! Our old rescue staff and our jack russel were both loose in our garden with our rescue guineas and rabbits their whole lives and got on brilliantly, even when the little bundles of fluff had a funny 5 minutes tearing about the place, maybe in time and as puppyhood fades we can expect the same .... but also maybe not .... only time will tell!!

Funny I've looked into it a bit and knew coomercial food got digested quicker but didn't apply it to my mixing it up idea! Hhmmm so is it an all or nothing king of diet. Or could you feed raw in the morning say and dry mix in the evening or something? I think 3 meals a day are recommended until he is 8 months or does the raw diet suggest different, I kinda need a formula to follow lol!!

Will look at links thanks again :0)