Sorry But Yet Another Raw Feeding Question

[Norskgra]

Some of my dogs are on a raw food diet an up until now they have loved it.

My oldest girl was mated approximately 3 1/2 weeks ago and has now decided she will not eat any chicken mince, turkey mince or even Scotty's Roll. The problem with this is that I mix in offal and vegetables to these meals.

She still loves her bone meals which she has 4 or 5 times a week.and gutes them down. She will eat her fish meal as long as I don't add anything to it.

Because she will not eat the mince, offal and vegetables, I now don't know what to give her instead.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[noisymina]

Increase meaty bone meals. Mine gets meaty bones every night.

Try mixing offal and veg (with eggs, yoghurt etc) and leave out the mince - to see if she will eat that - if you haven't already done that - hard to tell from your post. Or see if she will just eat an egg or plain yoghurt for her morning feed.

Maybe she just has a case of "morning sickness" ;)

and will get over it in due course.

[New Age Outlaw]

If it is morning sickness you could try Rasberry Leaf tablets (from the health food store) - they often work well in these cases.

[Norskgra]

Increase meaty bone meals. Mine gets meaty bones every night.

Try mixing offal and veg (with eggs, yoghurt etc) and leave out the mince - to see if she will eat that - if you haven't already done that - hard to tell from your post. Or see if she will just eat an egg or plain yoghurt for her morning feed.

Maybe she just has a case of "morning sickness" ;)

and will get over it in due course.

Sorry, I wasn't really thinking when I posted.

I have tried just giving her offal and veg and she wouldn't touch it. I will try her on an egg and/or yoghurt for breakfast or brunch. How often can you give them eggs? I normally only give them an egg once a week.

I am hoping it is just 'morning sickness' but in the mean time I hate her not eating.

[Norskgra]

If it is morning sickness you could try Rasberry Leaf tablets (from the health food store) - they often work well in these cases.

I am not sure if it is morning sickness. She is showing all the early signs of being in whelp. The thing that gets me is that she will always eat her bones but will not touch her mince. I even tried her on some Scotty's roll to see if she would eat that and she had a couple of pieces and left the rest.

I will try to get her some Raspberry Leaf tablets tomorrow when I go shopping.

[KitKat]

Some times girls get fussy when pregnant...think food cravings and food turn offs like with people lol.

[wylie]

Hi Norskgra

I personally wouldn be giving raspberry leaf tablets to your bitch at this stage if she is pregnant.

If she is off her food at 3 1/2 weeks i would think th signs are there that she is in whelp.

Let her eat what she wants and if its meaty bones so be it.

One of my bitches went off chicken totally when pregnant and would only eat pork. That was fun trying to work out what she would eat too.

She wont starve herself and it wont hurt her to eat what she will a this point in time

Good luck

[New Age Outlaw]

I agree it can be hard to tell what's causing it. I did have a friend who had a greyhound bitch - every time she was pregnant she would only eat BBQ chicken - turned her nose up at absolutely everything else. They lived in a small town and this poor woman was buying so much BBQ chook that she worried the girl at the shop would think she was a terrible wife, only feeding her husband chook all the time - she didn't have the heart to mention it was all for the dog!

[Norskgra]

She has always been finicky which is why we switched her to raw. She loved it up until now. I guess she will be eating more bones or what ever else she likes as long as it is not fillet steak.lol

I was just concerned that she wasn't eating a proper diet.

Edited May 16, 2006 by Norskgra

[wylie]

Hi again Norskgra

Depends on what you consider raw feeding. If you are feeding BARF then not necessarily. However if you are feeding a raw prey diet then as long as she is eating bones and meat and a bit of other I wouldnt stress.

Candy ate raw bork bones and pigs feet and the occassional heart whilst pregnant and delivered 7 extremely healthy babies. One is already a Multi JR CH And CH in Europe and another has about 5 titles after his name already and the have just turned 2. Hip scores have been done on 2 and are brilliant.

So if she chooses to go off our staple of chicken again I certainly would not be worried.

What I would add tho is some good oil wih Omega 3, 6 and 9 in her diet.

Will she eat raw fish or canned fish? Cos you could try that as well

Edited May 16, 2006 by wylie

[noisymina]

she didn't have the heart to mention it was all for the dog!

That would have been even worse. ;)

Mine gets one egg a week - but, hey for a short time, if she will eat it and needs the food, one at a time 2 or 3 morning a week would not hurt her IMHO.

Just remember that meaty bones are pretty much what you get in the mince, except all chopped up, so more of that would just replace the mince she won't eat.

I know it has been said that veg have to me juiced etc, but mine just loves a whole carrot or pear or some apple pieces etc - maybe, for a short time, she would prefer some fruit or veg pieces - better than nothing.

If she is reasonably healthy, a short-tern hiccup won't be the end of the earth - think skin kids! Sometimes, they will be choosy, but still eat a reasonable diet over time - just not on a daily basis.

edited - to get quote right!

Edited May 16, 2006 by noisymina

[Norskgra]

Hi Wylie,

She gets fish oil tablets every day and eats fish, normally tinned, once a week as long as I don't add any veg to it.

[Norskgra]

Just remember that meaty bones are pretty much what you get in the mince, except all chopped up, so more of that would just replace the mince she won't eat.

I know it has been said that veg have to me juiced etc, but mine just loves a whole carrot or pear or some apple pieces etc - maybe, for a short time, she would prefer some fruit or veg pieces - better than nothing.

If she is reasonably healthy, a short-tern hiccup won't be the end of the earth - think skin kids! Sometimes, they will be choosy, but still eat a reasonable diet over time - just not on a daily basis.

edited - to get quote right!

The chicken mince contains bones but the turkey mince doesn't unfortunately. I will try her on some pieces of vegetables to see if she likes them that way. She wouldn't even eat a small piece of toast and vegemite which she normally loves.

She is certainly healthy and doesn't have any other problems. It was a lot easier when I fed them all on dry. I didn't seem to have this sort of problem when one of my girls was in whelp.

I didn't have anything else defrosted for her last night so I gave her some Nutro and she gulped it down.

She also won't eat her brewers yeast or kelp so we have to mix it with yoghurt, cottage cheese or ricotta and spoon feed her.

She doesn't seem to want to eat anything soft.

Edited May 17, 2006 by Norskgra

[KitKat]

Could you perhaps add some dry to her diet? just while she's being so picky about what she eats and doesn't eat?

[Norskgra]

Could you perhaps add some dry to her diet? just while she's being so picky about what she eats and doesn't eat?

I was going to add some Nutro Puppy to her diet in a week or 2. I might have to add it sooner.

[Norskgra]

Tonight was fish night. She had a tin of mackeral and 2 dessertspoons of vegetables in her bowl. I managed to get her to eat approximately half of it by hand feeding her. I gave her some more Nutro and she ate that.

It looks like I might have to give her some dry instead of the soft food but still keep feeding her bones on bone nights. I don't want her to be having a completely different meal to the others unless I have to.

Some of mine are fed raw and some are fed dry because that is what they do better on. She may have to be fed a combination of both until she gets over being so fussy.

Edited May 18, 2006 by Norskgra