Can anyone tell me the amount of BARF that would be suitable for feeding to a 7 month old Golden Retriever puppy please. At the moment he is fed on Arden Grange junior but they have now combined the puppy and junior food and, as I understand from reading various posts on this forum, large breeds should not have puppy food for too long as the high levels of protein does not encourage slow steady bone growth. It would seem an appropriate time to think about changing him to a BARF diet but for all my research I can't work out the quantity he should be getting each day. At the moment he has two meals a day which total about 600g. If I just convert this to an equivalent amount of raw food how do I go about bones which obviously can weigh more than that (marrow bones, ribs etc). I find it all quite confusing and would appreciate any help with amount to feed.

High Protein content per se will not affect bone growth, if you think about it, in the wild dogs and other carnivorous species eat hardly anything BUT protein.

If you have read good books ( the best IMHO is Kymtyhy Shulzes Ultimate Diet for Cats and Dogs) you will see that you need to feed an adult circa 2 - 3% of its bodyweight per day depending upon lifestyle, temperament etc.  Puppies generally 10% of their bodyweight per day or 2 - 3% of their projected adult weight.  Basically if you are confident feeder, you generally never weigh food, or the dog, you judge by hand and eye.

So 30kg dog should be getting between 600 - 900 g of food a day, however one of mine gets considerably less than this general rule and another considerably more, different dogs, different outloooks. :D

I am definitely not a confident feeder although I do only weigh food now and again. I too go by look and feel - you can feel Harley's ribs but cant see them. When he went to vets the other day he said his weight was fine for his age 27kg at 7 months so I think I am getting it about right. I thought I had read about too much protein being not so good for large breeds somewhere on Champdogs but may have misunderstood post. We have always had mongrels before and I never worried about them at all just got on with enjoying them and they all lived long happy, healthy lives. We were going to get another crossbred rescue dog and it was just coincidence that our GR pup had been taken in an hour before we turned up at the rescue and we were offered him. I didn't worry about his health or diet to begin with either but since reading posts on this site paranoia has set in and I am really worried about getting it wrong and the effects it could have on him especially as we have no idea of his parentage and so have no health history. All we know is that he has a pedigree but have no papers ( they were seen but not taken from people who gave him up for rescue) but that doesn't necessarily mean that he comes from healthy stock just that he was registered.