Wanting to go raw for my dogs food, but needing some help?

[welasharon]

I recommend "Natural Health for Dogs and CAts" by Richard Pitcairn. My vet suggested putting my lab/bulldog mix puppy down because he had severe allergies (a puppy found abandoned in a park). I figured I would try something natural since I had tried all the science stuff. What did I have to lose? Within a couple months I had a new dog! All his skin went back to normal, his hair softened back up and his body quit oozing and smelling. It was wonderful. When beneful food came out I tried it and he has been eating it for quite a while but I noticed last week his skin is reddening up again so this weekend I will go back to feeding him raw.
sharon

 

[GnarleyDogFarm]

I feed my LGDs raw. My house dogs eat some too.

I found that all my dogs, young and old, want to eat raw food. My dogs turn their noses up at kibble, even though it is the best, grain-free stuff on the market.

They eat veg out of my hand and whole chickens or rabbits (hide on). Mealtime around here is a show!

Even my 12 yr old dog began eating the raw food when I started to feed it to the younger dogs!

They eat yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh milk, lots of eggs (with the shell), kelp, vitamins, minerals, as many different kinds of critters for lunch as I can come up with.

I love it!

 

[bossynbella]

Quote:
Firs of all thanks to everyone for all the help, you have all given me exactly what I needed. Especially the links from Akane. I am going to try the "Raw" diet, though I will be honest, my picky girl much prefers cooked meat to raw. We will see.

Now to answer Jamie. When we got Miss annie we did everything by the books. Had a very rough 6 months before we realized Annie is not a by the books dog. In those first months she was fed three meals a day which where left down for ten -fifteen minutes each (consisted of her sniffing it and walking away 9 out of 10 times. The 10th time she would take a few bites then walk away) we never fed her scraps or people food, just dry Iams, puppy food. We also did the potty training by the book. We would take her out to her potty area on her leash. armed with hidden treats and the clicker. and we would stand and wait. after 30-40 minutes of standing there staring at a puppy staring at us we would give up and take her in. With in 5 minutes she would be looking for a place to go and we would repeat the process. with the same results. Sometimes she would eventually go outside, other times as soon as the leash was off she would go inside. She was crated at night, and would sometimes have accidents in her crate even though she was onlyin there for about 4 hours. At her 6 month check up the vet told us to start trying other brands of food so we did, still did the three meal thing, still with the same results and we have tried about every good dog food available around us Still no table scraps or people food, though occasionally canned food which she also didn't eat. We gave up on the lead training potty thing and bought a tie out. She was potty trained immediately. She would ask to go out we would put her out and then when she was done she would bark to come in. The only accidents she had where in the crate at night. Then one night my DH forgot to put her in the crate, and WOW No accidents. She is now confined to the kitchen at night, because every now and then she will have a pee accident, but its like maybe once a month. Usually when I oversleep.
It was at her year check up that the vet told us to start giving her people food. So we have added that to her dry for the last year, and she eats the people food. Will like whatever it is off of each peice of dog food before dropping the dog food on the floor. We started with still the meals but found if we leave it down she actually will graze eating a peice or two now and then. When she does eat the dog food its on her time schedule. As far as working for her food, we have done that. When we come back from hunting or from training I will make her a nice meal. She is no more likely to eat it then and often just gives me this look like.... this is not what we hunted!

thanks again for all the help
Melissa

 

[Akane]

I have one of those few dogs who will starve herself to health issues if fed meals. She also has the problem of if forced to eat kibble in a short amount of time she throws it up. If left to eat small amounts as she feels like it she will not throw it up and she will maintain weight. I tried for months and months when she was a puppy and she started to have growth problems and so forth from not eating. I was buying the highest calorie most appealing foods like timberwolf organics and evo but she still would not eat meals. She eats when something triggers her to eat like giving her some human food (our dogs get all our leftovers) or coming back from a hike. Exercise makes her feel like eating. Raw works out so much better for her because she mostly will eat the meals that way. She still sometimes just lays with her food even if she hasn't eaten in 2 days until an hour or 2 later she actually feels like eating it. Most of the time though she crunches it up right away.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
Now to answer Jamie. When we got Miss annie we did everything by the books. Had a very rough 6 months before we realized Annie is not a by the books dog. In those first months she was fed three meals a day which where left down for ten -fifteen minutes each (consisted of her sniffing it and walking away 9 out of 10 times. The 10th time she would take a few bites then walk away) we never fed her scraps or people food, just dry Iams, puppy food. We also did the potty training by the book. We would take her out to her potty area on her leash. armed with hidden treats and the clicker. and we would stand and wait. after 30-40 minutes of standing there staring at a puppy staring at us we would give up and take her in. With in 5 minutes she would be looking for a place to go and we would repeat the process. with the same results. Sometimes she would eventually go outside, other times as soon as the leash was off she would go inside. She was crated at night, and would sometimes have accidents in her crate even though she was onlyin there for about 4 hours. At her 6 month check up the vet told us to start trying other brands of food so we did, still did the three meal thing, still with the same results and we have tried about every good dog food available around us Still no table scraps or people food, though occasionally canned food which she also didn't eat. We gave up on the lead training potty thing and bought a tie out. She was potty trained immediately. She would ask to go out we would put her out and then when she was done she would bark to come in. The only accidents she had where in the crate at night. Then one night my DH forgot to put her in the crate, and WOW No accidents. She is now confined to the kitchen at night, because every now and then she will have a pee accident, but its like maybe once a month. Usually when I oversleep.
It was at her year check up that the vet told us to start giving her people food. So we have added that to her dry for the last year, and she eats the people food. Will like whatever it is off of each peice of dog food before dropping the dog food on the floor. We started with still the meals but found if we leave it down she actually will graze eating a peice or two now and then. When she does eat the dog food its on her time schedule. As far as working for her food, we have done that. When we come back from hunting or from training I will make her a nice meal. She is no more likely to eat it then and often just gives me this look like.... this is not what we hunted!

thanks again for all the help
Melissa

Thats very interesting. I hope raw works for this dog -- breeding a low weight dog is, as you know, not a good idea. It can cause lots of health issues for both Mom and babies, including infertility, miscarriage and mal-formed puppies, it is very hard on a mother dog to have puppies even when she's in good condition. They almost always lose condition in the last few weeks of pregnancy and then lose condition even more when nursing a litter. If she continues to refuse food after she's had her litter chances are she won't be making enough milk to feed her pups. You'd either have to bottle feed them or stuff her (force feed her small meals several times a day)-- you'd have to do that every day for about six weeks.

So please let us know how the raw feeding goes! I am very curious to see if it works on your girl

 

[bossynbella]

Well We will be starting it sometime next week. In the mean time we just feed her people food, it keeps her weight up. She is not underweight at the moment. well maybe just barely, but its because I "spoil" her now as my husband puts it. I spend a great majority of my time mixing dog food with... well anything till she will finally eat a cup of it. I just feel like she is telling me quite clearly, this stuff is gross and I don't want to eat it give me something better. That why I want to try the Raw diet. Plus it sounds like it will be easier in the long run.
Here are a couple pictures from today just so you can see, and let me know what you think of her weight. Vet says she will be okay as long as we keep babying her appetite and giving high protein high fat foods.

napping in the sun by the back door

With our Black Lab Apollo. He is fixed but still thinks she smells pretty good right now! lol

 

[brownlikewoah]

I admit, I didn't read all the replies, but here is my input on the situation! Change to raw if you feel like it, but personally I think it is unnecessary. Give her less freedom when it comes to eating. Right now she can pick and choose and have all the time in she wants to do it. So, if she were my dog, I would limit her freedom to eat. Feed her in the morning, whatever you would normally feed her, and put the bowl down for 20 minutes. If she doesn't eat, pick it up. Same drill in the evening. She might not catch on at first, but a hungry dog will eat eventually!

 

[SourRoses]

Hey... she actually looks at a really good weight. Im sure you've heard the general rule of thumb? You should be able to feel the ribs, but not see them. I cant see a hint of her ribs, and her actual tummy area seems to have a little bit of substance. I know theyre not the same breed, but they are semi-similar and related, and most all of our jacks were a bit slimmer than your photo. My puppy now, Eli, he will eat and eat and I've been feeding him quite a bit since the start to try and get a little baby fat before hes too old for it (hehe!

) but he just wont gain anything.. hes got more of a tuck-up than your girl.

 

[bossynbella]

To brownlikewoah : if you read my last post you will realize we have tried that for over a year. Some dogs will eat if they are hungry, she has gone three days before finally giving in and eating something she doesn't like. Which I guess is fine except that at this point she needs to keep her weight steady. Not to mention she is my baby, we tried it by the book, it doesn't work by the book with her. I guess I am at the point where I just feel like, she doesn't like dog food, I have the ability to provide something else for her, something which could in the long run be healthier for her, I just want as much information about it as possible first.

To Squishy: Thank you, I think she is looking very nice right now as well, its just a constant fight to keep her looking like that. When I was a kid (birth to age 12) my parents raised beagles, until my father passed away, then we always had one as a house pet. In my experience the usual issue with them is they tend to be overweight, so when we first got her thats one reason I was very strict about her diet. We have just learned with her that's not the problem. She will not overeat. Last year at Thanksgiving after we had all eaten we always clean the meat off the turkey carcass and give it to the dogs, with the juice and what not as well as the organs because none of us eat them. She ate what she wanted then left it, with a lot of meat left in it.

She will eat and look almost fat, but as soon as she gets a chance to get outside especially when I take her to the pasture for a hunt, she just burns it so quickly by the time we get home she is looking very lean again. I always say she got my husbands metabolism, lol. He can eat an intire 6 pack of candy bars and not gain a pound. I just look at them and swear I gain five pounds.

Anyway thanks again, for all the help. I will keep you all updated on her process with the raw food diet. Which we will be starting some time next week.

 

[MysticScorpio82]

Gorgeous dogs! If I can ever get a dog again, I am definately going to feed it raw. Thank you for bringing this topic up, it really helped me to learn some things as well!