Patti Papetti wrote 01/22/2009 02:42 PM My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! #224794 - 01/22/2009 02:42 PM
Patti Papetti Webboard User Reg: 01-17-2009 Posts: 3 Loc: Offline	I made the choice to feed my two GSD a raw food diet about a week ago. I started them on chicken backs and a raw egg. My male loved it, I have never seen him eat so fast. However, my female loved the egg... Not so much the chicken. Since she is refusing to eat the chicken I have been feeding her hamburger. But I know she needs the bones. The past two days she has been taking the chicken back out of her bowl and carrying it out into the yard. But that's about it. This is an improvement. Any suggestions?
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Aaron Myracle wrote 01/22/2009 02:49 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Patti Papetti ] #224796 - 01/22/2009 02:49 PM
Aaron Myracle Webboard User Reg: 06-06-2008 Posts: 5062 Loc: WA, USA Offline	Prepare to be more stubborn than a very stubborn dog, LOL. Instead of opting to replace the chicken with hamburger, stand your ground. First, since she wants to drag her food around in the yard, making it harder to ensure she actually eats it, feed her in her crate. Put the chicken in with her, and give her a little bit of time to sniff it and check it out. If after 15-20 minutes, she is ignoring the food, take it out and put it away until the next mealtime. A healthy dog will not starve itself to death as long as safe food is offered. She's just not hungry enough yet to try something new and foreign to her. Help her get hungry enough, and stand your ground. (As an aside, I started with chicken quarters first, just due to the larger muscle quantity. Once my dog was comfortably chewing the quarter bones, then I introduced backs. Some dogs just don't know backs are even food, it's so far from what they associate food as being.)
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Angela Burrell wrote 01/22/2009 03:16 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Aaron Myracle ] #224808 - 01/22/2009 03:16 PM
Angela Burrell Webboard User Reg: 05-10-2006 Posts: 2273 Loc: Ontario, Canada Offline	You could start her with ground chicken. She is already used to the texture, so this would help her get used to the smell/taste. If she eats it you can transition her to the quarters and the backs/necks last. If you get your meat from a butcher, you can ask him/her to grind up bone-in meat for you and see if she will eat that.
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Kurt Smith wrote 01/22/2009 03:27 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Angela Burrell ] #224816 - 01/22/2009 03:27 PM
Kurt Smith Webboard User Reg: 07-06-2008 Posts: 137 Loc: Eglin AFB, FL Offline	Yup. What Alyssa said. Feed in the crate. Give her 15 minutes and remove what she doesn't eat. Whatever she doesn't eat, put it down in front of her crate (with her still inside) and let the male eat it in front of her. She'll get the message. v/r Kurt
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Michael_Wise wrote 01/22/2009 03:40 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Kurt Smith ] #224822 - 01/22/2009 03:40 PM
Michael_Wise Webboard User Reg: 07-10-2006 Posts: 4454 Loc: Arkansas Offline	I'm also with Alyssa's suggestion. Just make sure you aren't worrying too much about her not liking it right now. You don't want her to sense your tension and have more reason to be suspicious of the new food. Don't take it away and then give it right back. When you take food up, stay committed to not giving food back 'til the next meal. I also wouldn't start putting things on the food to try to entice her to eat it. Use that as a last resort. One thing that I think would be fine to try is warming the food up a little. NOT in the microwave or oven, you don't want to cook it, but in a plastic baggy placed in some warm water. Or let the food sit out long enough to get to room temp.
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Michael_Wise wrote 01/22/2009 03:44 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Michael_Wise ] #224823 - 01/22/2009 03:44 PM
Michael_Wise Webboard User Reg: 07-10-2006 Posts: 4454 Loc: Arkansas Offline	BTW, how old is your female? And what were her eating habits like with her previous diet?
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Connie Sutherland wrote 01/22/2009 06:00 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Patti Papetti ] #224830 - 01/22/2009 06:00 PM
Connie Sutherland Moderator Reg: 07-13-2005 Posts: 31571 Loc: North-Central coast of California Offline	Quote: Patti Papetti I made the choice to feed my two GSD a raw food diet about a week ago. I started them on chicken backs and a raw egg. My male loved it, I have never seen him eat so fast. However, my female loved the egg... Not so much the chicken. Since she is refusing to eat the chicken I have been feeding her hamburger. But I know she needs the bones. The past two days she has been taking the chicken back out of her bowl and carrying it out into the yard. But that's about it. This is an improvement. Any suggestions? Others have made very good points about healthy dogs not starving themselves. I don't think that the hamburger is a good idea right now because I imagine that the RMBs are going to be poultry. You need to deal with that. I have had great success with ground turkey or chicken, which is readily available at any meat counter. This is a very short-term thing (a couple of meals) to demonstrate to the dog that the suspicious new texture of poultry is actually good stuff. And that slight-warming idea isn't bad, either. I did that with liver, after it stayed in the dish of one dog meal after meal after meal. (It probably did not help that I empathized completely. )
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Connie Sutherland wrote 01/22/2009 06:02 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Angela Burrell ] #224831 - 01/22/2009 06:02 PM
Connie Sutherland Moderator Reg: 07-13-2005 Posts: 31571 Loc: North-Central coast of California Offline	Quote: Angela Burrell You could start her with ground chicken. I have switched enough adopted adults or seniors after a lifetime on kibble to have run into suspicion more than once. Ground poultry has resolved each one, very quickly. JMO. I know that you know it cannot be a prolonged thing.
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Patti Papetti wrote 01/22/2009 06:35 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Connie Sutherland ] #224833 - 01/22/2009 06:35 PM
Patti Papetti Webboard User Reg: 01-17-2009 Posts: 3 Loc: Offline	She is two years old. They were eating Nutro Natural Choice before the switch. They would eat in the morning and at night.
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Michael_Wise wrote 01/22/2009 07:09 PM Re: My dog will not eat raw chicken!! Help! [Re: Patti Papetti ] #224834 - 01/22/2009 07:09 PM
Michael_Wise Webboard User Reg: 07-10-2006 Posts: 4454 Loc: Arkansas Offline	Quote: Patti Papetti She is two years old. Good. Making sure that we weren't dealing with a 10 week old puppy, which would require a little more leniency. Was she a chow hound before?
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