Just out of curiousity, how long is she making herself go without food by refusing to eat what is offered?

I don't know about puppies, so don't take that question as saying you need to just hold out on her 'til she eats. Thats definately not what I'm saying. I have nil experience switching a puppy.

Also, 2nding Carol, THK sounds like a great addition for you. A 10 lb. box lasted FOREVER with my 15lb.er.

Michael, she went two days last week. I just about freaked out with worry because I thought if she fasted she would eat, so that's when i started feeding her the ground beef again. Just to make sure she ate. But after a couple of feedings she turned that down, too.

Like I said, she was so frantic with wanting outside when in heat, I thought that might have played a part of the food problem, but now she is better.

I gave her chicken back and she ate it once. Since then, I have offered her chicken with bone in different forms (wing, breast, then breast with no bone but cut up, then breast that I ground) refused all of it.

Sooooo, now I am going back to ground turkey. That is what I started her on. (I mixed it with the aforementioned supplements.)

I am hoping to get her on RMB's so I don't have to supplement anything except the fish oil and vit E.

 Quote: Michael_Wise

Just out of curiousity, how long is she making herself go without food by refusing to eat what is offered?

Excellent question and that reminds me....are you feeding her in a crate, or does she have the ability to wander around and just nibble when she feels like it?

I don't feed her in the crate, but it is beside her crate and she does not have the ability to wander around as I always have her on leash (There is a thing I hook it to when she is eating and I am always in the room with her.

I take the food up after about 15 mintues. On those days when she wouldn't eat, I left the food a little longer. She would then sniff if a couple of times and walk away and lie down or look at me.

 Quote: nora ferrell

Michael, she went two days last week. I just about freaked out with worry because I thought if she fasted she would eat,

Cool. That honestly was curiousity. I wish I could say to wait her out, but no puppy experience here. I only own "pigs". I DO NOT envy your task of switching a picky eater.

From what I know about THK, I would bet that if you contacted them directly they might send you a small sample. If not, for desperate times they sell it in 4 lb. bags, too. Its just beyond me to think she wouldn't like it.

She likes to eat some things. When I first got her (about two months ago, she is 8mo now) I started giving her high value treats for ob.

The treats were left over rare steak. All I have to do is get the baggie of treats out of the fridge and she is more than willing to do anything for the treat. So, I wonder if maybe the treats were so high value that it is turning her off for the RMB's.

I kept her on the kibble she came with for the first month. So when I first switched her to the raw, it was a real treat but since then she has become so picky. What to do?

So, that's why I did the ground turkey with supplements tonight, but I would really like to get her on RMB's or someting that I can always fix at the house without having to worry about ordering something. (I have the same reasoning with cosmetics. I won't buy Mary Kay, Avon, etc. because you have to order, I prefer something you can go to the store.)

Maybe that is a bad comparison, but you get the drift. If she is being fed a natural diet, surely I can but her food at the grocery store.

I thought one of the advantages to feeding raw/natural was that I wouldn't have to mix up pills and potions, but now she is refusing the bone-in chicken. So I wonder, is it just the chicken she doesn't like? or what else could I feed her that is an RMB that is small enough bone for her.

Thanks, sorry for the rambling.

ps

She likes the sardines and mackerel but it seems richer and she gets a little runny after a few meals.

Update.

She ate more than half of the turkey mixture and I refrigerated the rest fot this am. I mixed up the left over turkey mixture with some left over sirloin steak and added a little extra egg shell.

It looks more and more like she is just being picky. She ate all the sirloin while trying to avoid the ground turkey.

How much calcium per pound does she need if she does not have bones?

Any ideas for small RMB's other than chicken?

It does sound like she is being picky.

How much does she weigh now?

Carol, I had her weighed at the vet's office about a month ago so I would know exactly how much she weighed because I kept getting mixed up on how much to feed her.

At that time she weighted 7 lbs, 3 oz with her halter on.

Since then, I think she has maybe gained a little and is closer to 8 lbs.

Her estimated weight (for schipperke) is 10-18 lbs. I think she will probably go to the lower end when grown as she still seems small at 8 months old.

Nora, this may sound strange and maybe someone has suggested this (I didn't read through all 9 pages)

Why don't you see if you can find any information on Google for switching CATS to raw? Cats are notoriously difficult to switch (as they tend to become "addicted" to kibble) and I'm sure that cat owners have a few good tricks up their sleeve.

I remember reading once, a blog by a person who routinely rescued cats and she kept a log for each cat on how she switched them from kibble to raw. One cat it took like 6 months. (Of course, I can't find the link now, so sorry I'm not more help).