BARF feeding and dog refusing bones <weeps>

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

This dog will be the death of me!

I have posted off and on about the woes of my 11 mnth Border Terriers diet.

He has been a reluctant eater from day one. He has never been food motivated for treats and could ignore kibble for days. He genuinely couldn't care less if he is fed or not. I had terrible trouble with guts too and lots of runs despite better quality kibbles. I should also point out he is underweight and the vet said I needed to try ans get an extra kilo on him bearing in mind he is only 7kg to start with.

We moved to raw a few months ago. Dog loved it, tummy troubles disapeared overnight and all was wonderful in the world.

Now for the last few weeks the little blighter is hardly touching bone. Out if the last dozen ribs he has had he has eaten 2. Chicken wings he has eaten a third at best for probably the last 3 weeks. He will happily go days without eating if I don't offer mince or fish.

I know the diet needs balance and it is getting to the point where I have to admit he is being offered a balanced diet but isn't getting one.

He is also not getting anywhere near the amount he should be getting as a defrost a mix of meat and bone and he just eats meat.

I'm going to have to give him a complete food aren't I? He has done so well on it and his guts were so much better. I know he will turn his snout up at a complete food too but at least what he eats will have balance. I don't know what I am supposed to do.

Check his teeth are ok. You could give him minced meat with minced bone in it and see what he does.

I've had a look at his mouth and teeth and it looks fine.

Tbh he has always been so take it or leave it with food I think he is like a busy toddler and food is like a minor inconvenience in his busy day and if it can't be swallowed in seconds he can't be fussed.

How would you mince the bone? Do you think those manual table top mincers could handle it? I don't have one at the minute but could get one. I only have a food processor which I use to chop meat to a mince like texture but not sure that would hack a chicken leg?

You can buy it like that...

www.theyloveit.co.uk/

www.manifoldvalleymeats.co.uk/barf-diet-products/

www.landywoods.co.uk/price_list.html

www.daf-petfood.co.uk/

There's more depending on where you are, but those are the ones I know of...some of them aren't quite the right ratios, but they'll tell you what they contain if you contact them.

Mine is a finicky git too - I had to give up on raw as he wouldn't eat anything but chicken, no other bones and no organs...which kind of matters, lol. He's now on tins of Butcher's tripe mix.

my BT was very fussy and sometimes refused food for a day or two. She periodically had 'noisy' tums and would vomit white froth . She lived to be nearly 18 so try not to worry too much

My dog was very fussy as a pup and he now has Barking Heads ,it's for sensitive stomachs ( yellow bag) , he really likes it ,it's not overly expensive and it is British .

I haven't got the freezer room to buy in the kind of amounts I'd need to make delivery pay. I have a tiny kitchen but we don't use freezer much so I halved it - 2 drawers for us and 2 for the dog. Shame to be fair...would be a lot cheaper. Though looking at the eye watering prices of wet food then even raw feeding at the supermarket is half the price

I find raw and wet cost the same... more than dry, which is what I planned on feeding him, lol.

Which food did you price?

Wainwrights 89p and Naturediet 1.09.

He'd need a tray a day. Raw was between 35p and 70p at the most depending on what he had. I suspect yours was a little more as yours is somewhat bigger! I would say average day about 50p.

I would want something reasonable (and he doesn't like tripe...obviously )

Naturediet is only 87p per tray near me, and my 7kg dog only has half a tray a day. Are you sure about the amounts he needs?

Nature's Menu now do a complete frozen raw food as individual meal servings. It's quite compact and works out about £0.80 a meal. They also do some frozen raw bones and chews.

I prefer Natural Instinct but it's more expensive and takes up way more room in the freezer but it does have the bones ground up and added.

The wainwright's works out at 76p if you buy the 12 packs...and they're quite often on offer as well.

I just went in the pack saying small dog half to one tray so possibly not but also bearing in mind he is not supposed to be 7kg and I need to get some meat on him.

I think 7kg is the breed standard but he is tall and bigger than a lot of borders we meet (doggylonglegs pics on profile!) but vet said would be happier to see 8 kg at least on his frame.

My top tip is find a local butcher, ask them what he does with his chicken carcasses and strike a deal in which you buy your meat from them, and you'll also take all his chicken carcasses.

My local butcher was fab. I would also try some raw tripe, it's great for the dogs digestive system.

I think a tray a day might be too much. My girl is just shy of 40 kilos and used to eat 2 trays a day. That kept her a touch overweight unless she got some serious exercise. She also showed less interest in treats or dinner when fed that amount.

Sounds like he might need smaller amounts but of richer foods but obviously ones he can tolerate.

Does he look look and feel overly lean ?

He looks as lean as I think a border could. You can't see his ribs but his coat is fairly thick. You can feel his backbone. He looks lean as opposed to emaciated though. The vet just told me to give him an extra meal. At the time he was on kibble and being offered 2 but eating one at best. At least on raw he could managed 3% in one sitting when he was eating.

I should point out he is fairly active. Since being told his age is ok for joint worries etc we do walk a fair bit. Some days only the basic hour and a half and others way more. He is fit as a butchers dog energy wise and loons around the garden too.

I am starting to think he is mocking me as tonight he has eaten a pork rib and left the mince

Can I just ask anyone more knowledgable as I accept I am a relative newcomer to BARF - I read that the diet ahould be made up of 10% offal, 80% muscle meat and 10% bone and that in reality this equates to 50 - 70% meaty bones . So I offer roughly half his diet as chicken wings, lamb or pork ribs and the odd oxtail. Does this sound about right?

At the minute he is only eating the boned meat every 2 -3 days.

I fed my girls on one chicken carcass in the morning and one in the evening.

3 times a week they'd have natural yoghurt, a tablespoon of olive oil and a handful of porridge oats with the morning carcass.

Once a week, they had tripe in the evening with the carcass and once with offal.

The only muscle meat they had was any trimmings from meat that I used for the pot and lamb trimmings only very occasionally as it's very rich.

It cost next to nothing and they were both literally as fit as a butchers dog.