Need Advice Raw Diet -- Please Please Read!
 

:aimeeyork Well, I've had Betty on Purina Mighty Dog wet food for about a thousand years. April 03 coming up will be her first birthday and since DAY ONE with her we always had a problem with her eating. She's the first dog I ever met in my life that doesn't just gobble up food. Treats and dog food the like.

She really doesn't eat that often but she's gotten herself up to a healthy weight of about 7 lbs, but I'm afraid that's because she's eating such fatty wet food, not that she's properly fed. When I went to the vet she told me Mighty Dog is really junky and not to feed it to her more than a spoonful a day.

Mighty Dog is her entire diet unfortunately. In the morning I give her half a can and in the evening I give her the other half. She WILL NOT eat it. I have to sit down with her at the dining room table and physically open her mouth and put the food in. She then chews and swallows. She will NOT eat all day if I put it in the bowl and walk away.

This totally isn't working, and I know she isn't fond of it, but we've tried so SO many foods, wet and dry and the like and I always thought animal by-products shouldn't be in their food at all. I've just been getting this mommy feeling lately she isn't happy with her food and she isn't healthy on it. I was searching through some past threads and I hear about Nature's Variety Raw Medallions for Raw food.

The threads look really promising but I'm afraid I'll buy it and again she WON'T eat. Maybe my feeding schedules are wrong and she isn't eating the right time and too much or too little, but I want her to eat when I put the food out, especially since I'm hearing so much about it not being able to be left out for a while since it's raw, and she has, since I've had her from eight weeks, never eaten from the bowl.

I want her to be healthy and happy and full and for her to LOVE her food. Any suggestions? Should I go raw? What flavor would she most likely like on NV Medallions? Any website suggestions, feeding schedules, tips?

Pleeeeease help my furbaby!

I have heard wonderful things about the raw diet. I feed mine kibble twice a day (morning and evening) but I know that there are people here with a ton of knowledge about the raw diet.

Good Luck :)

Raw...???
 

My friend has a nice girl that had so many stomack issues on the raw diet .... unfortunatelly... she was recomended by her vet to put her girl on this diet as she was not a big eater herself ... she throw up day on day off... the vet mentioned she would eventually get used to it... well... she did not.... However, they now found a diet that she likes and her hair looks so much shiny and she is all good now.... but to get there was a struggle... at times she would only eat white rice with chicken broth for days... sometimes she would not eat at all.... a slow process of discipline and trial they now have her on "WELLNESS" i think that is the name, she gets the canned food and the dry and mixes it together... there is a variety of flavors and it is an all natural food. She buys it from the boutique , but it is actually not too hard to find... I do not feed it to my Maxx, but after reading your story it sounds so very familiar... i saw the 2 years of struggle to get her on healthy weight and make her eat regularly withouth having issues.... I hope you have some good ideas from this...
Good luck !!!

Here is a thread, discussing pros & cons of both the pre-made and prey model diets.

I feed prey model.

I feed my girls The Honest Kitchen. It is a freeze-dried raw food - meaning it looks like a powder and you hydrate it with warm water as you feed. They have sample bags and travel-sized bags available and will usually send you a sample bag if you ask them. The breakdown of nutrients is very similar to the premium kibbles out there. The food is really easy to use as well.

Here is a link to their site.....
http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/index.shtml

Well, I think since you've only ever fed her one thing - your options are really wide open. I feed NV Raw medallions and I love it. I researched a ton before deciding to go raw and made sure that I was making a very educated decision. I also consulted w/ Marcel's animal nutritionist (long story:)) - and she was *all* for it.

So, you could do raw - if you're comfortable in what you've learned about it. If not, there are really, *really* wonderful premium canned foods out there too. The brands I like best are Evangers, Wellness, Wysong, Natures Variety (NV makes canned, yes, so you could get introduced to the brand this way).

You could also homecook (I used to do that as well) - there are many on here who go that route. I just find raw easier - and I have more confidence in the nutrition they're getting (in comparison to homecooking).

So, lots of options! :D

How often should I feed her? Like what times of the day too? Any is convenient for me as long as she's being fed the right times. I'm just SO anxious for her to be a dog and actually eat whats in her bowl, drink her water and WALK away!

Hand feeding is a such a drag, I've been doing it since I got her, for months!

since she is almost a year old, i would say 3 times per day would be good...in the event she does not scarf it up immediately (which mine do - you would swear they never get fed lol :p) i would not leave it down any longer than 30 minutes :)

i believe you can put the unused portion back into the refrigerator for that one day but i would not use it the next day

hope that helps!

ETA: mine eat at 6.30am, noon and around 5pm (they also have small training treats throughout the day) ... we use NV red meat, venison, chicken and lamb - they love all of them!