Hey ya'll! I am new to this forum and fairly new to the dog world. I've owned dogs before, but have never been the kind of responsible dog owner that I have now discovered I want to be and can be with lots of great help and support. Hope that makes sense.

My family has a Brittany who we recently adopted into our family. The family that she came from got her from a rescue. I haven't been able to get her into the vet here yet to have the vet give her a look see just for general health purposes. I have had her on the BARF diet for the last two weeks and she LOVES it. I was having trouble getting her to eat kibble and then found out about the BARF and now she's eating well. I have seen on this forum and heard from diff people on the net and also read that she needs RMB. Makes perfect sense to me. I cannot get her to eat RMB. I started out with semifrozen porknecks. She scarfed down the smallest pieces, but wouldn't touch the bigger stuff. So then I fed her thawed chicken wings and drums. She ate one of the wings and wouldn't touch the rest. I'm thinking maybe a dental problem. Won't know for sure. Gonna see if I can get her into the Army vet on the base next to ours. Any opinions or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!! We got her some rawhide bones and she won't chew those either. I'm glad now because they are not really safe. We will be replacing them with nylabones as soon as the order gets here and I have placed an order for gumabones. i found a local butcher and I am going to see if he can grind some bones up for me if it turns out being a dental problem.

 Quote:

.....I have had her on the BARF diet for the last two weeks and she LOVES it. I was having trouble getting her to eat kibble and then found out about the BARF and now she's eating well. I have seen on this forum and heard from diff people on the net and also read that she needs RMB. Makes perfect sense to me. I cannot get her to eat RMB......So then I fed her thawed chicken wings and drums. She ate one of the wings and wouldn't touch the rest. I'm thinking maybe a dental problem. Won't know for sure. Gonna see if I can get her into the Army vet on the base next to ours. Any opinions or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!! We got her some rawhide bones and she won't chew those either. I'm glad now because they are not really safe. We will be replacing them with nylabones as soon as the order gets here and I have placed an order for gumabones. i found a local butcher and I am going to see if he can grind some bones up for me if it turns out being a dental problem.

IMO, don't feed raw without the bones (because the calcium/phosphorous ratio from just meat is thrown into total imbalance).

Wings/backs/necks (chicken) are probably the best to start with anyway, and are great RMB examples.

Legs (drums) aren't so great as the RMB part because of the weight-bearing (harder to chew and to process) leg bones.

I would absolutely make a dental-vet appointment and see if the dog will eat backs and necks meanwhile.........if that seems to be a problem, too, then sure, have the whole chicken ground up.

Then when the dental problem is resolved, check out the softer RMBs again (wings, backs, necks).

JMO!

Read these Q and A for the required ratios of bones to meat and also all about grinding:
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

Thanks for the reply. Also, I appreciate the website for the ratios. I might try some chicken wings later on this evening for her second meal. I am also trying to thin her out a bit. She is a tad bit pudgy.

I have one of the books from Leerburg on order. it should be here sometime next week. My biggest thing is to do this responsibly. I ordered supplements last night for her. Salmon oil, Vitamins C & E and also kelp. Will have to order alfalfa from Leerburg. I usually chop up some veggies very fine and mix in with her raw meat. Will be going to the butcher later today hopefully to get organ meat and ground bones. I can't wait to see the look on the butcher's face when I request that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Will let you know how it goes.

 Quote:

I have one of the books from Leerburg on order. it should be here sometime next week. My biggest thing is to do this responsibly......

My biggest thing, too. When we have dogs completely under our nutritional control, the dogs' instincts about nutritional deficiencies are blocked. They can't go to the market and pick up some of whatever we have inadvertantly left out. We dictate their eating 100%, not for a meal or a week, but for their lives. It seems worthy of research and care... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Good for you, I say. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />