I have a few seperate questions regarding my dog eating the natural diet...
1. My dog won't eat chicken wings, legs, backs, necks, etc etc, nor will he eat the ribs I got him, I can chop it up into tiny lil pieces and mix it with god knows what, he knows its in there and will just spit it out.
He DOES eat ground turkey, ground beef and ground pork, as well as sardines, mackerel, raw eggs with the shell and yogurt (which helps him eat the mackerel). I've been adding alfalfa/kelp/vit c powder/vit E/flax seed oil/salmon oil to his food successfully.
How important is it that he eats the chicken/turkey necks etc. Is there something else I can substitute this with that he may like better? Or is he ok with eating just the ground pork/turkey/beef/sardines/mackerel? I am still feeding him Nutro Large Breed Puppy dry food mixed with the same brand canned food (all human grade natural ingredients) for a lil less than half his meals just to make sure that he's getting all the things he needs to be healthy.
2. When I had him on the dry food diet, he poop'd in the morning before breakfast, in the evening before dinner, and at night before bed, almost consistently every day, sometimes only twice a day. Now that I've switched him to mostly natural diet, he poops once a day, or even sometimes skips a day, and his poop quantity is much less and usually not all that firm. Is this related to his age? Less frequency required as he gets older? Or is it relating to his new(ish) diet? He's been on the mix of natural/dry food diet for about 5 weeks now. Is it normal for this frequency and quantity of poop with this diet?
3. The last 3 days or so he's been licking his butt alot, not constantly or anything, just more intensely and noticably than normal - should I take him to the vet to be tested for worms? If he has worms, could this be caused by the raw meat somehow?
My dog is a 13 month old male, he was 65.5lbs about 3 weeks ago, I don't know if he's gonna get any bigger, I think he hasn't been eating enough food for the last 8 months thus slowing down his growth rate, which is why I switched him to a diet that he seems more keen on eating (albeit still picky). He doesn't look unhealthy, but to me he looks small/young, other people tell me he looks like a big adult, so it might just be because I see him every day and he still looks 4 months old to me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Any advice would be highly appreciated - his eating habbits and growth rate have been my #1 concern since Day 1. I've been feeding him twice a day, once at about 12 noon and again at about 8.30pm - the later at night I feed him the more likely he is to eat a good dinner, the earlier I feed him in the morning, the less interest he has in his food entirely which is why I feed him at 12 now instead of 8.30am when he will more than likely ignore his food entirely. I pick up his food after 20 minutes, unless he only started eating after 15 minutes and is still eating at the 20 minute mark, in which case I will wait till he's done eating, if he finishes his food and licks out his bowl, I'll try and give him a lil bit more, which he usually ignores too.
Natural Diet - Foods & Worms
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