...or in my case "semi-raw".

I feed my dogs "semi-raw"...Honest Kitchen for the most part, add an equal amount of either ground meat or mince (has the organs and bone ground in).

I just last week bred my female (a slight and very fit 53 pound girl). I AM ABSOLUTELY PARANOID about the calcium/phosphorus ratio for both her and the pups. The two formulas of Honest Kitchen that are recommended for pregnant/lactating bitches and puppies do not even come close to the calcium/phosphorus ratio of 1/1. I should email them to ask why those formulas are recommended, but I am asking the best Labby data base I know of as to what I might consider.

Ultimately, I want to go to "real" raw, but have issues with my current gulpers...

Any experience out there?? I would PREFER not to go back to kibble to get the proper calcium/phosphorus, but will if I can not figure this out...

Yahoo groups has a raw breeder group that may be helpful even though it is not Lab specific.
I stopped raw b/c my fears of the dogs getting right amounts of everything just rather overwhelmed me.
I am sure there are raw feeders that will be more helpful, just thought I would throw the yahoo group idea out.

I don't feed raw that much, but will feed non pregnant dogs raw, frozen beef if it has been washed or vinegared or something like that after thawing . A friend very successful (BISS) in hounds feeds raw mostly, along with cooked then skinned chicken necks and lightly boiled eggs, including the shell. Her girls often whelp huge litters and have plenty of milk. That being said, one time when she ran out of the organic and locally ground meat, she bought a package of supermarket meat. I think that the raw ground meat may have started to get old on the second or third day, as she got a bacterial diarrhea in the bitch and had to give her antibiotics, which cleared it up. It was a little scary for a while, as the pups at only a few days old also were sick. All ended up making it just fine. So be careful of the source of your raw and maybe avoid commercially ground beef. Grind it yourself?

I have fed my girl Thrive since she was a year and used it during her pregnancy and after she whelped 12 puppies-I did mix some PP puppy kibble in for nursing (she nursed all on her own-no supplements) and weaned the pups on that as I knew it would be easier for the new families.. Her pups are over a year and all are fine and she bounced back great. I still feed this to her as well as the pup I kept. I love this food.

I feed my bitches raw. I have Billinghurst's books on the BARF diet. I use his recipes and quantities for all my dogs. One of the books has recipes for feeding a raw diet to pregnant bitches. My bitches have thrived on the diet.

I have feed my girls raw for years, I like Bravo, already has bone, meat, organs and veggies but I have to add more veggies. But I have also worked with a holitic vet for proper vitamins for mom dog.
I wouldn't go to your local grocery store and buy pre-pkg meat to risky a butcher that grinds meat daily is a better choice. Plus she can have meaty bones, like the rib bones of pork or beef with meat still on them.

I have been feeding raw successfully for 12 years. My dogs thrive on it. I feed pregnant and nursing bitches and wean my pups on it. I urge my puppy people to continue, some do, some don't. I feed raw chicken necks most the time but mix in a little raw muscle red meat once in a while. I mix them with a small amout of a product called Happy Dog and mix in some veggies such as sweet potatoes, carrots, mixed veggies, etc. I through in a fish oil capsule. I don't change anything with for the pg or nursing bitch except I add a little supplement during nursing called Puppy Gold. I also feed my weanling puppies this along with their raw food called Small Batch. 70-80 % meat and then all the rest. Raw feeding is not for everyone, only ones that believe in it and educate themselves on how to do it.

Isn't that a little light on red meat? Admittedly, I don't know what is in the foods you are adding in, but I aim for 50% RMB's (which are mostly chicken) and 50% red meat/tripe (along with a little liver, some veggies and an egg). If you are following Billinghurst, I believe he has admitted that he was using too much chicken in the old days! Even 50% chicken necks would give very crumbly stools.

12 years and going strong with healthy dogs. As my vet put it, "the proof is in the pudding". They get enough red meat as well. I think we have it pretty well figured out after all these years.

I know many people that feed raw, experiences have been mixed. I have never seen such horrible puppy diarrhea in my life with puppies being weaned on raw, so that turned me off big time. That and I participated in a raw foods presentation put on by UC Davis. The amount of salmonella and campylobactor toxcity from feeding raw reported in the veterinary profession is astounding. Very very sick dogs.
For this reason, I would not feed a pregnant bitch raw. Same reason I would not take a pregnant bitch to a show. Both are pushing your luck, and if something happens due to either of these high-risk situations, is it worth losing a litter for? Our litters are too important to us to risk, IMO.

I feed all raw here - not supermarket junk but raw balanced for dogs and cats.
I do feed my pregnant girls raw very heavy on the green tripe
My bitches have healthy pregnancies, deliver strong and robust pups who are not too huge to deliver naturally and the girls have tons of milk. All pups are fed raw until 6 weeks when I introduce some kibble so they will thrive no matter if the new family feeds raw or a mixture of raw and grain free.
I do not agonize over the phosphorus/calcium balances but it all seems to work out.
Judging by the overload of coyotes around I would say a raw natural diet works for carnivores!!~

Thank you all for your responses!!

PLEASE keep them coming!

I REALLY like the results of RAW in my adult dogs. If anything, I need to figure out how to PUT weight on my dogs. I am pleased with their weight, (I can see most ribs while the dogs are exercising,...), but I feed them a lot....

I know that most of the puppy buyers are going to do kibble...it's just going to be the way it will be. Since all of my dogs will at some point have to eat kibble, I am tempted to wean to Kibble...work toward RAW on my pup (and any one I think might go toward it)....

Now.....just 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 weeks to the ultrasound......