Bones: A Cautionary Tale. Health

I followed your instructions on Dogsey before I changed Pereg from kibble to raw. Her look, when I first offered her a frozen chicken wing was "THIS is FOOD".

Tiny Tikva is thriving on raw. She still has [human] baby cereal mixed with [human] baby dehydrated vegetables for her evening meal and will sleep through the night on it.

Yes she will eat tinned food with raw vegetables, and will eat chicken backs etc, but she refuses point blank to touch kibble now.

All dogs are different, and yes sorting out raw food takes longer than just tipping in kibble in a bowl. But Joanne taught me a lot about raw feeding and Pereg definitely flourished on it. And Tiny Tikva is going the same way.

But as I say, all dogs are different and a lot depends on how much time you have to prepare/dish up their food.

There is no one size fits all.

Gosh I thought only my dog did this. My previous dog would ONLY touch raw beef (and only steak etc., would not touch ground beef), and he'd do the SAME as your dog with anything else, he'd just roll on it. So irritating. I remember doing a video handing him a fresh raw chicken thigh and he wouldn't touch it, and then gave him a piece of semi burned toast... which he loved!

I dunno, maybe we're just lucky to have robust dogs. I don't feed them top of the line kibble, I can't afford the pricey stuff. And I've given both cooked bones from time to time for years. They're both at ideal weight and the vet always compliments their perfect teeth. Nothing special, a denta stick daily. I do supplement with people food. Callie loves vegetables.

Tikva has now decided that young as she is, she only wants three meals a day. Which is ridiculous at her age but you try telling her that. Breakfast is what used to be supper, ie human baby cereal mixed with human baby vegetable powder. She is now on Stage 4 which is for toddlers - so go tell her that?

Lunch, or whenever she decided she wants it, is meat or turkey of some kind with defrosted vegetables. And her evening meal is frozen raw whatever. Chicken neck, half a chicken back, crunch crunch crunch.

Meat or poultry gizzards/hearts of all sorts [her favourite is ox lung], fish of all sorts, either defrosted or frozen - this is definitely one very strange puppy. Oh, and she has just had, for the first time, some turkey liver. Nom nom nom.

Did I say this is a strange puppy?

Oh, in case anyone misunderstood me, her poultry/meat/fish/whatever with her defrosted vegetables, have been frozen and then defrosted for her main meal. Well, the vegetables are frozen to start with, I just defrost them.

I learned so much from Joanne [Tarimoor] that it gave me the confidence to raw feed. It suited Pereg fine and little tiny Tikva is so far doing well on raw.

Some dogs it does not suit them, others it it just right for them. And no bad reaction, so far, on Tikva's first taste of turkey liver.

Yet.

If it is the same site I use, something like What Dog Food, I agree there is lots of good info. As I came across it on our sister forum, Dogsey, I think you would be OK to give it.

Lovely puppy pic. Stuart - how about an updated one?

Ok, here it is, hope it proves useful, or at least interesting.

http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Carol, when I have a decent picture, I'll post on this site somewhere! lol.

Yes, I've just checked, that is the one I use too.

That's a really comprehensive site - thanks for posting it.

My vet has stopped trying to convince me raw is bad and just accepts it now. I think the Pugs teeth might have convinced him a bit. Pugs have notoriously manky teeth due to usually being fed whatever they want and their teeth are not what one would call straight. It's like looking into a sharks mouth lol but my lot have very white and plaque free teeth. They do gnaw bones both chicken carcasses and lamb and beef bones. They gnaw the big bones recreationally and really just gnaw around the edges. Although never under estimate the strength of a Pugs Jaw, Phoenix once bit right through my finger when I was trying to remove a bit of meat from her mouth.
When I switched to raw, I did loads of research and just switched, it worked out fine but my lot seem to have cast iron stomachs. I had no choice with Tucson, she arrived at 16 weeks and was kibble fed but went on hunger strike till she was given raw like the rest. Teddy and Phoenix just switched when they came home too. They will still eat kibble if I chuck some on the floor, free samples etc. but no idea what they'd make of a bowlful, they're greedy gits they'd probably eat it, they eat everything else. If I have an apple they expect to share, same with oranges and peanuts.

Somehow I do not think that Ram will ever accept raw feeding even though he accepted that I raw fed Pereg, and as Michal seems to be Tikva's primary vet now, even though she herself is vegan, she is happy that Tikva is raw fed.

She just understand what suits Tikva.

There is no size/food suits all.

Eddie was back at the vet last week for his thyroid blood test - which was perfectly mid-range, and he can now go on to 3 monthly tests. While there they also examined his tooth socket, which, although it was looking clean, was sharp and had exposed bone. So, on Monday it was back under the anaesthetic for the poor lad, while he had some more tooth lining (alveolar, I'm told) bone removed.
Two days on, and he still isn't firing on all cylinders - but I'm sure he will soon be back to normal, and hopefully, be a lot more comfortable.

Poor Eddie - but it sounds as if his dental problems are now sorted once and for all - and good news about the blood test too.