# Pickiness is back and I can't take it



## Amy18 (May 17, 2011)

She's once again refusing bone. Quail is what i'm offering now and she's still refusing it. I'm at my wits end here and i'm thinking of switching to a premade raw diet as much as it pains me to do so. She is only eating enough to sustain herself which is less than half of what she should be eating per day. I'm doing the 15 min rule and will pick up the food then set it down at the next feeding and so on. She is only 6lbs and i can feel her losing weight, i fear her getting severely underweight and even making herself sick because of this.

Where i'm at right now she's eating half of her breakfast and no dinner. I feel so hopeless in that i believe in this diet and it has been working so well for her but now i'll have to switch. On top of that i have a whole bunch of meat in the freezer that will go to waste.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm sorry. I have no real great advice, but I wonder if adding an egg would help.


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## ciaBrysh (Dec 16, 2011)

I would also suggest an egg to get her interested. 
Have you had her checked out by a vet?
Also, have you considered grinding the bones? I know it isn't ideal, but a pre-made diet will kill your pockets, so maybe it is worth a shot!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i learned a long time ago....ain't nuthin' worth dying over.

get yourself a pre made that is well made....and transition over to that...

go to hare-today.com and get some of their ground pre mades with bone and organ. their food is worth the cost of shipping and at least, it's not full of veggies. if you choose to do a barf type diet.....with her and pre made go to darwinfood.com and they have good stuff albeit with veggies.

go to greentripe.com and get yourself some quality tripe...

not worth stressing about.

she has you wrapped....something very common with dogs and those who love them.....


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

I would actually just buy a grinder and I know exactly what is in her food. Most will grind chicken, quail, fish, and duck with no problem.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Liz said:


> I would actually just buy a grinder and I know exactly what is in her food. Most will grind chicken, quail, fish, and duck with no problem.


even better. and if you buy a quality ground red meat protein, such as pork and chuck and ground bison and veal, life is good.

mix some sardines or herring or mackerel in and you're golden.


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## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

Do you happen to live in any of the midwestern states? If so, look to see if you are near a delivery location of My Pet Carnivore. You can get ground whole prey from My Pet Carnivore. Nothing added except for additional heart and organ into the whole prey mix. From local farms.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

good suggestion, brownie...also oma's pride has distributors.

but i do like liz's suggestion of buying a grinder....that way you can make your own mixes and you'll know just how much bone and protein goes into each meal.....

there are times i want to get a chub of ground exotic, like ostrich...and i like the bone part, but i don't know how much organ they put in along with the protein and the bone and i don't know how much bone they put in....

i believe that's important information we should know, unless you know from the manufacturer.


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## Amy18 (May 17, 2011)

Thanks everyone, I've set up an appointment with the vet for next week to have her examined. Hopefully it's not health related. She's started doing this weird thing where I put the food down on the towel and she immediately starts pushing the towel over the food with her muzzle until it's completely covered, then lays down and guards it. Then when time is up and I go to pick up she makes a huge fuss and immediately starts eating. Why is she covering the food and guarding it?


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

My dogs cover their food to "save it" when they have an upset stomach, but will guard it because they want it, they just dont feel good enough to eat it right now. I hope thats not the problem with your pooch tho. Maybe she is just being really picky and trying to hold out to see if you will give her something else and when she realizes you wont, she starts eating? 

Is there any chance she could have gotten into anything? ate a toy or something else small? Maybe she doesnt like the protien source? Does she seem to be constipated or have diareah?

I would definatly buy a grinder if i were in your situation. It would save your pocket book. esp considering you have a freezer full of meat like you said, if you buy premade, it would go to waste. And IMO if i had to feed ground, I would grind my own to see exactly what goes into it and watch the bone/organ/fish rations like others suggested. 

Good luck! I hope you get a clean bill of health from the vet!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Snorkels covers up her pee afterward  - never have figured that out, either, unless she's trying to hide from the coyotes.

I do feed snorkels ground meat with bone/organs in it and I got it from My Pet Carnivore. They have more than just chicken and turkey too, like goat which makes for a good variety.

Since we've moved I'm going to have to buy a grinder as the company down here has stuff like ground up venison but they don't put bone in it. 

By her covering up her food, it seems almost more mental than physical. I wonder if you should try feeding her in a different environment - like feed her from your hand and see what happens. Or in another room. Or outside. or from a different bowl, or put it in a plate instead. 

I feed Snorkels alot of bones ground up into the meat, and then things like rib bones and frozen turkey necks to keep her teeth clean. It works pretty well - but in the end, it is probably better to grind your own and those pre-mades are extremely pricy. Getting ground from a raw food company is alot cheaper than something like Bravo!


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## Mondo (Dec 20, 2011)

Some of the pre-made might not be to your pup's liking either. Tuffy won't eat the commercial premade, well, it is more of a "mix" with some veggie. I think it is the additional stuff, kelp maybe. He won't eat kelp. But I picked up some ground sheep, and he loves that. Just meat.

With ground you can also include a bit of organ.

Point being, with pre-made ground, it just might not be palatable to a picky eater.


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## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

magicre said:


> good suggestion, brownie...also oma's pride has distributors.
> 
> but i do like liz's suggestion of buying a grinder....that way you can make your own mixes and you'll know just how much bone and protein goes into each meal.....
> 
> ...


That's the good thing about MPC. They tell you all of this. I tried the grinder once and just about threw up. It's a heck of a lot of work to grind and it's nasty as heck. My Pet Carnivore is nice in that they tell you exactly how much organ meat and heart they have added into the mixes. It's a very small company and you see them face to face when you meet once monthly (for us at a gas station) to pick it up. You can ask all sorts of questions and they are happy to help. They even tell you what farm the meat comes from.

They feed this meat to their dogs themselves. They grind up whole prey and add enough additional heart and organs to make it 80/10/10 - exactly what we would do. They feed prey model too, so it's nice to buy meat from someone who does exactly what you do. They sell heart of all sorts, too, and I've found that adding heart to a meal makes it quite delectable. But my dogs aren't sensitive to the richness of heart, so...


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

BrownieM said:


> That's the good thing about MPC. They tell you all of this. I tried the grinder once and just about threw up. It's a heck of a lot of work to grind and it's nasty as heck. My Pet Carnivore is nice in that they tell you exactly how much organ meat and heart they have added into the mixes. It's a very small company and you see them face to face when you meet once monthly (for us at a gas station) to pick it up. You can ask all sorts of questions and they are happy to help. They even tell you what farm the meat comes from.


Yes, I will miss them since we moved. We have a new supplier (Texas Tripe) but they don't seem to be as forthcoming about their meat sources and they don't do the grinds like MPC - I can get venison, but it's ground up with no bone in it. Not much help - if I'm going to give snorkels boneless meat I don't want it ground up.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

BrownieM said:


> That's the good thing about MPC. They tell you all of this. I tried the grinder once and just about threw up. It's a heck of a lot of work to grind and it's nasty as heck. My Pet Carnivore is nice in that they tell you exactly how much organ meat and heart they have added into the mixes. It's a very small company and you see them face to face when you meet once monthly (for us at a gas station) to pick it up. You can ask all sorts of questions and they are happy to help. They even tell you what farm the meat comes from.
> 
> They feed this meat to their dogs themselves. They grind up whole prey and add enough additional heart and organs to make it 80/10/10 - exactly what we would do. They feed prey model too, so it's nice to buy meat from someone who does exactly what you do. They sell heart of all sorts, too, and I've found that adding heart to a meal makes it quite delectable. But my dogs aren't sensitive to the richness of heart, so...


good points.....when a company is forthcoming, i like that.

we are at this moment, ordering from hare-today ...it's a co op order.

hare-today has excellent products, but i am not ordering their gound mixes, simply because i don't see the percentage of bone and organ.....if there is too much of either, then my dogs would suffer.

too little bone and i suffer.


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## Celt (Dec 27, 2010)

My Scotty does sorta the same thing. He likes to "bury" things. He'll hide food in corners, his bed, under towels/clothes/blankets but if it's "found", he'll either move it to a new location, "give it up" or eat it. We figure he's just trying to "save it" either for later or to keep it from "disappearing".


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## Noodlesmadison (Sep 18, 2011)

Honestly, there were a few times in the beginning when Noodles wouldn't touch meat so I sprinkled parmesan cheese on it. She ate it with the cheese and then got back into the swing of things, minus cheese


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## Amy18 (May 17, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice, fortunately she's getting her appetite back. I suspect it's because i took some extra shifts at work lately and haven't been able to exercise her as much as i used to. Maybe she was feeling neglected or just didn't work up enough of an appetite. She's eating her meals with gusto now but still needs to gain the bit of weight she lost.

She has an appointment today at noon for a full exam and shots. This will be a new vet that i've researched they come highly rated, excellent facility etc- a big step up from the one i was going to before. Though i enjoyed the other vet he was fresh out of vet school and at times seemed a little inexperienced. They also had 2 Vet cats roaming around all the time, they would come into the examination room and jump up onto the table during our appointment.

Looking forward to this new vet but very very nervous about telling them i feed prey model raw. Wish me luck


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

Good luck! Don't let them boss you around you treat you like the worlds worse owner if they don't agree with PMR. It's YOUR dog, THEY work for YOU.


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## Amy18 (May 17, 2011)

*Update*

Just got back from the vet and it couldn't have gone better. During the examination she asked the question i'd been dreading,"so what food do you feed her?", i said i feed raw.. she asked which type of raw if its "the one where you go to the grocery and buy all the components yourself or premade" i told her prey model and she said great!. 

She then went on to tell me that the premade raws do a process called pasteurizing that eliminates the bacteria, salmonella or e.coli from the meat. That if she ever exhibits any signs of vomiting or diarrhea as a result of contaminated meat i should switch to premade raw.

She went to check her teeth and said "Now i expect to see some pearly white teeth, that's what i love about dogs fed raw their teeth are always amazing". Opened her mouth and yup all teeth were perfect. Apart from 2 retained canines which will be pulled soon. She commented that because they're so close to her adult canines a kibble fed dog would have a lot of buildup there but she doesn't because of her diet.

Otherwise she was given a clean bill of health. Bloodwork will be done when she has her teeth pulled but i'm feeling really good about this vet and how everything went.:smile:


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