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Advice on Raw Food Diets

Sarenna

Active member
Hello all, I am bowing here to all the superior knowledge found on this forum :)

I am thinking of moving Yoshi to a commercially available raw food diet something like http://www.carnibest.nl/ or http://haaksbarf.eu/. I've seen some posts here about a BARF diet and I wondered if anyone had good information to look at. (I saw Karlin's post about being really careful about what you read online about this:p) Yoshi will not eat kibble at all whatever brand and he is really active (at his last check the vet said he was at the lower end of a healthy weight). At the moment I feed him cooked minced beef, some cut up cooked veggies and some rice. Normally he eats the meat and throws everything else out of his bowl and will not eat it, if he can't separate the rice he just leaves his food :sl*p:

I know he won't starve himself (as when he is really really hungry he will eat what he is given) but this is making feeding the dogs a nightmare especially as I manage Emiko's food so carefully as she has just got to her perfect weight having been 3Kg overweight (probably from eating Yoshi's discarded food)

Thanks all!
 
I think this is behavioural, not anything to do with what he will or won't tolerate. (y) First, I'd feed the dogs separately, in crates or separate, blocked off eating areas -- that solves your problem with them eating other dogs' food, and is far safer -- this is what any dog trainer will recommend as serious behaviour and fighting problems often start from group feeding, typically out of nowehere.

Then: give him and everyone else 10 minutes max to eat his food (I go for 5 myself); if he doesn't eat it, take it away and put it away til the next feed. He does need a hard food like kibble some of the time (eg half his meal) - eating a soft food diet is likely going to cause gum disease and teeth problems. You can feed raw if you want but I think you may find he starts these games with the raw food as well. If he will eat when he has no other choice then you need to make sure he gets no other choice and he only gets a window of YOUR choice in which to feed.

I will bet you your problem eater will no longer be a problem eater within a week if you stick to this and don't give him treats etc in between.

If you want to do raw that is an option of course too. I'd go for a commercial raw as that is much easier to feed and properly balanced. Right now I think one of Yoshi's issues with being thin perhaps is he won't be getting enough nutrients from what he is eating -- it isn't very balanced especially if he only eats the mince.

But basically I'd stop letting him control the show and feed what is also convenient for you within a strict managed timeframe.

Tansy was like this when she came to me and her foster had been hand feeding her ladyship crushed kibble or pieces of fresh cooked meat :eek:. Now, she was an outdoor kennel dog before so I knew darn well she was eating whatever she was given back then, and this was entirely learned behaviour probably because she loved the attention she got from the hand feeding. :rolleyes: She was given normal kibble (or whatever the dogs were eating) and exactly the same amount of time the other dogs get -- which is a few minutes - and if she didn't eat, the food was put away. By day three she was eating exactly what the others got but still taking her time; by a few weeks later, she was inhaling her food like everyone else. In general I don't think it is good (or pleasant!) to have a dog telling its owner when and how and what it will eat, unless there are medical/health reasons determining the diet and how the dog is fed. :)
 
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