Pepper officially turned 11 months, which means it’s time for another update on raising and raw feeding my 11 month old Labrador puppy.
This month brought another adventure – five nights on the Danish coast, Pepper’s first taste of Scandinavia – and an unwelcome souvenir: a pretty bad case of diarrhea that landed us at the emergency vet on Easter Sunday.
More on that in a moment.
At this stage, she weighed 26 kg (57.3 lb) and ate 700 g (24.7 oz / 1.54 lb) of raw dog food per day.
Compared with her 10 month update, I dropped her daily food amount by 100 g / 3.5 oz and her weight came down slightly by 0.7 kg / 1.5 lb – intentionally. Pepper was looking a little too solid, and I wanted her leaner going into adulthood.
That works out to about 2.7% of her body weight, down from 3% last month.
This post is part 9 of my puppy raw feeding series, where I documented Pepper’s raw feeding journey month by month from 3 months old through her first year with me. If you missed the previous update, you can catch up here: Raw Feeding My 10 Month Old Labrador Puppy: Lots of Firsts.
A quick heads-up: since this series started, I’ve updated my puppy percentages. Pepper’s 2.7% at 11 months falls right within the range I use today for an 11 month old Lab (about 2.2-3.2% of current body weight). You’ll find the updated numbers in my Labrador puppy feeding chart, or plug your own puppy into my free raw dog food calculator.
Raw Feeding Percentages For My 11 Month Old Labrador Puppy
At 11 months, Pepper’s meals were built around the following percentages:
- 53% muscle meat
- 5% heart
- 12% raw meaty bone
- 5% liver
- 5% other secreting organs
- 10% fish
- 10% plant matter
The biggest change from month 10 was a further reduction in bone – from 14% down to 12%. As Pepper gets closer to adulthood, her calcium needs are decreasing, and I’m gradually shifting more of her bowl toward muscle meat.
To make up for the lower bone percentage and the slightly lower heart, organ and plant matter shares, her muscle meat allowance went up from 43% to 53%.
Think your puppy’s percentage looks different? Run the numbers.
She also continues to get approximately 0.44 g (0.015 oz) of kelp per day for iodine (a kelp made for dogs, dosed per its label), usually mixed into breakfast. And while it’s not reflected in this particular sample meal, Pepper and Wally both get eggs two to three times a week.
Sample Raw Dog Food Meal at 11 Months
This month’s sample meal is built around a BARFER’S ground beef blend – the German raw dog food brand I work for here in Germany. The blend contains 70% meat, 5% heart, 15% bone, and 10% organs (liver, spleen, kidney, and lung), so it’s essentially a complete prey model blend in one product.
The only thing that’s missing for us is some plant matter and fish (oil).
Here’s what the final meal looked like:
- 75% beef blend (including muscle meat, beef bones and secreting organs): 525 g (18.5 oz)
- 5% chicken breast (muscle meat): 35 g (1.2 oz)
- 10% oily fish (sardines): 70 g (2.5 oz)
- 10% pureed plant matter: 70 g (2.5 oz)
The beef blend already covered most of her muscle meat, raw meaty bone, heart, liver and other secreting organ needs for this meal, which is one of the conveniences of using a complete ground blend – less weighing and calculating on busy days.
That’s Pepper’s Percentage – Want Yours?
Every puppy grows at their own pace, so Pepper’s numbers are just one example. Enter your own puppy’s age, weight, and activity level to get an instant, personalized ratio breakdown for muscle meat, bone, organs, and plant matter.
Try the Free Calculator
If you’re in the US or Canada, Raw Paws Pet Food’s Signature Beef Blend is a really good equivalent that consists of 80 / 10 / 10. So 80% muscle meat, 10% organs and 10% raw meaty bone.
They also have a Signature Beef Blend that includes mackerel (85% beef blend mixed with 15% mackerel), which is a great option if you don’t want to feed whole fish separately.
20 lb Beef & Wild-Caught Mackerel
Great for hip, joint, skin & heart support
Now, 15% bone is on the higher side for where Pepper is right now – I’ve been dialing her bone percentage down since month 9 – so I added extra chicken breast as pure muscle meat to bring that effective bone percentage closer to her target of 12% (it came out at about 11%).
Pepper’s Danish Coast Adventure
By 11 months, Pepper is already a well-traveled dog. She hit the German coast at 3 months, explored Southern France and Italy at 5 months, and this time we spent five nights on the Danish coast – her first Scandinavian stamp in the passport, so to speak.
She handled it like the seasoned traveler she’s becoming: curious, adaptable, and happy to be wherever we were.
For feeding on the road, I kept things practical. The first few days I put together homemade raw meals, and for the rest of the trip I switched to dehydrated raw dog food – my go-to when travel makes weighing and prepping raw meals less convenient.
Easter Sunday at the Emergency Vet
What didn’t go quite as well was what happened after we got home.
Pepper came back from Denmark and one day later, she had a bad case of bloody diarrhea.
We spent Easter Sunday at the emergency vet – not exactly how I’d planned to celebrate the holiday – followed by 2 follow-up visits for a grand total of EUR 300. That’s about US $350 and nothing compared to Wally’s squeaker surgery not too long ago.
The vet’s best guess was that Pepper picked something up from another dog at the campsite. With so many dogs in one place, that’s not surprising.
Wally had no issues at all, which the vet said could simply come down to the fact that his immune system is more mature. At 11 months, Pepper’s immune system is still developing, and she may just be more susceptible to picking things up than a fully grown adult dog.
It was a good reminder that raw feeding isn’t a magic shield – puppies are still puppies, and being around a lot of unfamiliar dogs carries its own risks regardless of diet.
While Pepper was on meds for 5 days that helped calm her gut down, I temporarily switched her to a bland diet. So for a few days, her meals consisted of boiled chicken breast, homemade pumpkin puree, and slippery elm syrup – a natural demulcent that helps coat and soothe an irritated digestive tract.
It’s a combination I’ve used before with Wally and one I always keep in the back of my mind as a first response to digestive upset. Once her stools normalized, I gradually reintroduced her regular raw meals.
What’s Next
Pepper turns one next month, which means her puppy raw feeding series is almost at the finish line.
In her 12 month puppy update, I reflect on the full first year – what worked, what I adjusted, and what I’d do differently – along with a final look at how her diet will shift as she officially transitions to adult maintenance feeding. You can also see every month at a glance in my Labrador puppy raw feeding series.
Related Reading
- Raw dog food for puppies: how much and what?
- Raw feeding my Labrador puppy series
- How to make pumpkin puree for dogs
- How to make slippery elm syrup
- The benefits of kelp
- Eggs for dogs
Barbara Rivers is the founder of K9sOverCoffee. She has been raw feeding her dogs in the US and Europe since 2015, after her Boxer mix Missy’s cancer diagnosis led her to leave processed kibble behind for good.
As a former professional dog walker, she knows firsthand how much nutrition and daily exercise shape a dog’s long-term health.
Today, she works for BARFER’S, one of Germany’s leading raw dog food brands, and is completing a year-long raw nutrition certification for dogs and cats at THP School, founded by raw feeding pioneer Swanie Simon.
Starting in early 2027, she’ll offer one-on-one raw feeding consultations. Join the waitlist.