Long story short Milla hates kibble. I've giver her Chicken Soup for the PLS, TOTW and Wellness and none do the trick. I started mixing a little with canned CSPLS and rice and this worked for about 5 days but then she turned her nose at it.
For the last couple of days she barely touched her food. She's only interested in treats but I can't keep feeding this to her (Tricky Trainers Chewy Salmon Treats, Wellness Puppy treats & freeze dried liver).
Yesterday I felt so bad that she hadn't eaten I opened a bag of Primal Raw I had in the freezer and gave her a beef nugget. She loved it and her poop was normal in the morning.
I had tried to avoid raw for fear that she will never eat kibble after trying it, but after this I thought maybe it would be better for her (although evidently less practical and much more expensive for me).
Well, after remembering someone in the forum suggested to start raw diets with chicken, today's lunch was half a primal chicken nugget. I mixed just a little bit of kibble with it. She was fine and 5 hours later when I fed her the other half with a little bit of kibble she ate it and puked 5 minutes after. She puked like double what she ate so it was probably the morning meal as well.
I don't know what to do next. Should I keep feeding her raw? or back to kibble although she doesn't eat it? did I screw up by mixing the raw with the kibble? It had probably 10-15 small kibble pieces in there. I didn't think it would make a difference for that amount.
I've heard some people use grizzly oil and probiotics, do you think these would help in my situation?
I have heard that kibble and raw have different digestion rates, but I've never actually seen proof of this.
For my pup, he gobbled his raw food really fast, like in 20 seconds. Eating so fast caused him to regurgitate the whole meal about half an hour later. Since then, I've been splitting up his meal and spoon feeding it to him. I feel really silly but he hasn't thrown up yet.
I'd try a probiotic like gentle digest from ark naturals.. I'd do grizzly salmon oil once puppy is doing fine with raw.
Maybe switching cold turkey would be better?
I always feed ground meat, boneless, organs and pre made stuff frozen Saya eats it much slower then thawed. Can try semi thawed if you think it'd be too hard or try as Nekopan said splitting up meals hand feeding, spoon feeding or giving smaller bits each time.
I like hand feeding did it with Saya when she ate kibble as puppy and held her chicken thigh, drumsticks for the first week she was on raw.
I agree pre made is bit high I think it's worth it. Saya is on prey model/frenkenprey type feeding.. lot less expensive especially with a chest freezer.. If I were to move out my parent's one things I'd get would be a chest freezer if can't normal freeze on fridge would do till I could get one.. I could leave most of the meat at parent's haha..
Did he get really excited any run around? Maybe he ate too fast?
So far only thing Saya has ever regurgitated was a pork rib tip it was gulpable size Saya thought it was boneless so she didn't crunch it. After she regurgitated it she has been much more better with pork rib tips and stuff.
Coarse I don't feed rib tips anymore rather give normal pork ribs or lamb ribs. hehe
Bella my parent's 55lb boxer has regurgitated a bit of turkey wing she didn't chew it enough.
Coarse regurgitating and vomiting is different..
Regurgitating usually due to eating too big of piece, or didn't crunch it enough and happens right away or close to eating time and vomiting happens usually after a while after eating food..
I dunno why it happened sorry. Maybe do it with just raw. Feeding some whole items might help offset price? Be sure meat and bone in items are not enhanced by salt, sodium, brine or broth.
Thigh, drumstick, is good meal for Saya she is 21lbs. She'd usually get a little bit of boneless with a meal like that or something like bit of heart, gizzard, caned sardines, salmon or tongue..
Saya usually eats 5oz to 7oz a day some times 3oz or 4oz or bit more depends coarse I'd stick with what guideline says can increase or decrease if pup gains or loose weight.
I try to keep Saya and Bella calm a bit after eating.
I like raw feeding takes Saya so much longer to work on it then kibble.
hey ginger, we've struggled with kiba with dog food for a while as well. what sort of worked in the beginning was using cottage cheese with the kibble. i'm not sure if you've already tried it but we had some success with it.
have you tried mixing canned dog food with the kibble? kiba didnt like the really wet soupy kind like blue and weruvra but did like the meatier ones like addiction and canine caviar.
Zim also doesn't really eat much of his kibble either, and when we try to mix it with wet food, he just picks out the kibble and eats the wet instead (he LOVES wet food)! What has worked, at least a little bit, is just leaving food down for him. He still doesn't eat much of his kibble, but he does eat a little bit that way.
I'd stick with the raw if she likes it. From what I've seen, there's a bit of an adjustment period with raw and I would think this is part of it.
Probiotics might help a bit. Our vet gave us some for Zim's loose stool (eating mostly only wet food means he's basically switched food cold turkey :(). Pam also recommended Greek yogurt for him.
Question, did you ever feed her Merrick? I have yet to meet a dog, especially the can varieties, turn their nose up to it. Personally, constantly changing her food will make her more likely to get an upset stomach. In between changes you may want to consider boiled chicken and rice, its also good to mix in with kibble to bring your dog around to trying it.
Was she gobbling down without chewing? Maya would swallow a whole piece of meat if there are no bones, no matter how big it is. She did end up vomiting a few times, so now I make sure to cut into small pieces unless it's a raw meaty bone. A bit troublesome, but easier than cleaning the carpet. "Gentle Digest" also worked well to firm up her poop when she started on raw.
Thank you all so much for your advice. I was completely freaking out.
I won't feed kibble and raw together anymore. I did an online search and found exactly what Nekopan mentioned, numerous times. The suggestion is to leave anywhere from 4 to 12 hours in between meals.
I thought the first thing I should discard is puking due to eating so fast (Nekopan/Mayama/Saya tip), so this time i slowly spoon fed him half a patty at 11 AM and then again at 4 PM. I took her out to potty at 9 pm and she mini puked, not much came out, but I thought I was done with the Primal Chicken. An hour later, she went potty and the poo was perfect.
Saya, I took a look at your link and researched raw diets for about 5 hours. I cannot believe the vast amount of conflicting information there is. I think I switched my mind several times depending on what kind of research I was looking into.
At dinner my husband mentioned that his grandmother had fed her dog raw for 14 years and he was in perfect health. I never expected him to be ok with feeding raw.
As of now I am still undecided mainly because we're thinking of having a baby and many articles mentioned the danger of Salmonella and E-coli from raw feeding in pregnant women and children under 5. I handle raw food all the time for cooking, just use soap and water to clean up and have never had a problem. However I don't know about dogs shedding the virus in feces/saliva. I need to do further research. It also looks like I can get the bacteria from kibble too..
@ Kiba - Cottage cheese! hadn't thought of that ;) I think she'll like it. I stopped canned because it was giving Milla horrible breath.
@ NotoriousScrat - I tried leaving food down, it doesn't make a difference for this picky shiba LOL ... good tip about the greek yoghurt, probably much better than the Danon I have in the fridge
@ Inoushi - I don't remember the brand, but next time I go to the pet food store I'll take a look! Boiled chicken + rice is definitely on my list now, thanks!
Today I'm going to the health store to see if they have any gentle digest just in case. I'll probably guy the grizzly salmon oil too for later.
