Posted on 09/26/2010 3:45:01 AM PDT by the scotsman
LOL. Good point.My dog eats crayons, toilet paper, any plastic toy she can get her hands on, her poop, other poop she can find and the dead crickets that have resulted from the last spraying.
The general rule of thumb for Labradors seems to be "eat it now, decide if it is food later"......btw, mine LOVE crickets and grasshoppers.
I’d occasionally share a peanut butter sandwich with him, one bite would keep the dog busy for a long time.
I use the bag food. It was a little hard to find in Charlotte but it is good stuff. As you probably know, it isn’t always easy to locate the good ones in a given community since many are regional.
Anyone?
Easy to do. Switch them over using something like chicken wings (mostly carilege) and they learn how to chew. Then give them larger pieces (chicken legs etc.) you'll be suprised how fast they learn what to do.
I've been feeding raw for years. You have dogs with lean, muscled bodies, clean white teeth, no doggy breath, and very little to pick up in the yard. If you need more info just freepmail me.
Veggies and fruit are mainly filler. Dogs have a very hard time digesting them. I feed mostly prey model (meat and bones) and salmon oil. They get fish, beef, lamb, chicken, buffalo and goat. Every great once in awhile I'll give some oatmeal, or some bok choy (don't ask, it's the only veggie my male will eat) and they share whatever fruit I might be eating.
My boy is a 2 year old GSD. We gave him premium dog food for 3 months after we got him as a pup. We switched to the raw diet. He loves it. Until recently, he ate only once a day, at his insistence.
He won’t even eat a dry dog-treat when folks offer them to him. He politely takes it and sets it on the ground. The only thing that he gets cooked is beef liver, just for treats.... and the only reason we cook it, is for our connivence..... a baggie of raw liver in your pocket would suck. LOL
It is expensive and about once a week, you need to commit about 30 minutes to an hour to make up his fool packages. For my best friend... he’s worth every dime and any trouble.
Other than for checkups, vaccinations and a recent ear infection (yeast), Falco has never been to a vet. He is very healthy and he looks great. Though you wouldn’t know it to see him, he is about 10 pounds underweight for his breed, but he’s still growing..... and being a little underweight for this breed is better for their hips.
He truly eats better than most people.....
You’re right, if they are cooked. ANY bone that is cooked is bad for a dog.
If they are raw, they aren’t a problem.
I will tell you what happened to me.I’ve mostly been a stay at home wife for all of my years married but a little over a decade ago I decided to go back to work for a while when we wanted to buy some land etc and thought I’d help out.I went and applied at a temp agency when placed me in the local dog food factory we have here.I don’t want to mention names but it is one of the big brands and not an off brand.The first 2 days were ok hard work but ok.On the thrid day I was sent to reselect where they opened boxed packages of some of their premium dog food that is in individual packs and you grabbed the opened ones out while the still closed ones went on to be repacked.I did that for about 1 hour before I started to get so sick I could barely stand.I made it 1/2 way home before I ended up having to pull over and get sick.I just kept getting sicker.I’ve never been so sick in my life and it lasted for the better part of 5-6 days.No one else was sick around me or at work so that told me it had to be the exposure to that food.I do not feed that food and would never feed that food!
haha. My friend used to put a bit of pb on the roof of her dog’s mouth — we were easy to entertain in high school days.
Freeze it in usable sized packages when you buy it.
I have had dogs in my life since I was born. Mother raised purebred Labradors. Good enough that even the runts of the litters went for no less than $250—during the height of World War II. We also had farm dogs. They lived on scraps.
I have had dogs since I moved out at age 18. All kinds of dogs- purebred & rescues & ‘ooops’ puppies when the bitch got caught by an unknown daddy dog.
I have my dogs with me now all the time. I drive somewhere-dogs are with me. I go work an endurance horse ride- my dogs are with me.
I have had dogs that lived to be 15++ & traveled with me all over the country.
I have fed Purina- Old Roy from Wal-Mart & other low-cost brands from the ranch supply.
Vets see my dogs with regular intervals because of horse rides. One is alot more heavy than I would like, but he doesn’t get the same exercise here as my prior residence because of lack of surface water where I ride.
Have never had a problem with diets of my dogs on the cheaper food.
They do definately get scraps. They know the last 3 bites on the plates are for them. More fun when I have company====more plates to clean.
On the rare occasions when I have tried to feed the fancy dog food brands, it has backfired on me with gaseous vengence. Enough to peel paint from the walls!!!!!
My cat lasted 18 years on dry Purina, and one visit to the vet in her kittenhood to get her fixed.
All my dogs get is some dry food mixed with either ground turkey, ground Hamburger meat or London broil; all of these mixed with carrots, sweet potatoes and some rice. They love it and they are in great shape. We have a mini Dauchshund and a Shipoo.
I wanted to thank all of you for the suggestions. I’ve looked for the suggested books and links. Very helpful. Videos on YouTube show chihuahuas eating raw food enthusiastically.
This morning I picked up 4 free range drumsticks. Free range only because it was a small pack and on sale.
The suggestions were to give him 2% to 4% of his weight ... is this twice a day? He is only a little over 6 pounds and 2% [recommended for weight loss] is about 2 ounces.
I got home and pulled the skin back on one drum, and I cut to the bone on one side to give him a head start. He chewed on it for about 5 minutes making very little headway. For the last 15 minutes he is sitting by the drumstick growling [he doesn’t normally do this]. Why is he not eating, but growling? Does it have to do with it being raw?
Fidel is naturally finicky. He OFTEN will not eat at all if he does not like what I give him. He actually waits til the next day.
Ideas?
I think a drumstick might be way too big for the little guy. It tastes fantastic and he does not want to give it up, hence the growling. I would try wings for him cut in half. He should be able to bite through them.
I think you are right. I was even thinking “drumettes” which are just the large wing bone, with the small wing bone and tip cut off.
He’s still growling, not eating. Odd.
Okay, I just cut off a chunk of meat. He gobbled it down. Now he is chewing and growling. I think we may be okay. :)
You did perfectly. You want to give him large pieces of meat, then pick up what is left and put it away for the next meal. Your dog will self-regulate his weight this way.
I only feed my dog once a day. She’s 18 lbs and I try to give her 7 oz a day. However, when feeding chicken I just give her a big hunk and she eats what she wants and I pick up what is left and put it back in the refrigerator for the next day.
At only 6 lbs, you should be feeding your dog about two oz., your calculations are correct. With this small a dog, the cost will be miniscule, you could cut off a small piece of your own dinner steak before you cook it and not even miss it.
If your dog is overweight, with this diet he will self-regulate and get to his perfect weight.
Typically you want to give your dog about 80% meat, 10% bone, and 10% organ meat with a large part of the organ meat being liver (it’s important your dog get liver), if you’re following the whole prey model, which is what I do. But in the beginning, I wouldn’t worry about this. Just getting started is all you want to do and you’ve done it!
A good way to get your dog to eat liver (I had a problem with my dog eating liver in the beginning) is to cut it in tiny pieces and mix it up with an egg. That’s good for one meal for your tiny dog. My dog will now slurp up liver like it’s dog candy but I thought that day would never come.
Now, don’t get scared and go back to the kibble, we call it crap in a bag.
One of the incredibly wonderful benefits of a raw food diet is your dog poops about 1/3rd the amount they do on kibble and they drink less water (because the food has water in it).
If you raw fed your dog it would stop eating everything it isn’t supposed to. My girlfriend had one of those dogs, a yellow lab, and when she switched it to raw, it quit all it’s destructive behavior—it ate EVERYTHING, even money, electrical cords, you name it, that dog ate it. It was starving for real food.
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