Changing from raw feeding?

[MidnightElodie]

My ten week old girl, Elodie, was weaned onto Paleo-Ridge.  The breeder has confirmed that doggo fed well with her littermates, possibly because of perceived/instinctive competition. When she arrived here with me (9 days ago), she wouldn’t eat, even though the breeder had kindly provided me with a kg of the Paleo-Ridge. I put that down to understandable dislocation and distress.

She has been socialised brilliantly by the breeder and is a steady, friendly and gentle little puppy (still got the Cocker-dile teeth, though!).  We’ve gone walk about to keep up the socialisation, and at home, she’s relaxed around vacuum cleaner, car travel, doorbell (no barking.  No barking!!!  Can’t believe my luck - so far - with that one).  Great with visitors too.  One other difference from my last dog who was a hoover hound, is that she’s not exactly aloof, but certainly more self-contained than he was, so it feels as though we haven’t bonded “properly”, judged by Paddy who was a Velcro Cocker.

But the only way she will eat is hand feeding or spoon feeding.  Even then, it’s hard, slow going.

I’ve tried leaving the food down for 10-15 minutes, then removing it and making her wait till her next meal.  No dice. She didn’t eat one day and was still ho hum when the food went down the next morning.

I raw fed my last dog who died in 2015, and the Paleo-Ridge is way easier than what I had to do nine years ago, so I’m not averse to feeding raw.  I was also given some Nature Raw (which we both hated - ugh).

So, finally, my questions:

(1) does anyone have any experience of taking a dog off raw food and putting it onto prepared complete food, please?

(2) if so, what food did you choose and why?

Many thanks for any guidance.

[bizzylizzy]

Hi and welcome! My dog‘s been on raw since he was about a year old, I‘ve had to give him alternatives occasionally but like your previous dog, he‘s a vacuum anyway so that was never really a problem. I can only suggest you try an alternative, maybe a small amount of wet food and see how that goes. Having read a lot of posts on here over the years, I do think they can often be a bit faddy, even throughout puberty, so its possible you might be able to wean him back onto raw a some time in the future if you prefer.
Its perhaps worth considering a couple of other factors too, is the food warm or straight out of the fridge? What sort of meat is it? (Humphrey loathed pieces of liver, and spat them out!), Is his food bowl in a place where he feels comfortable? What sort of bowl does he have, does it clatter about when he’s eating? Do you stand over him or just stay relaxed in the background?  All sounds a bit daft but it just could be that it’s something very small that’s putting him off, he perhaps still feels a little insecure.
I‘d personally be very careful with hand/spoon feeding and leaving down food too long as it can pave the way for a lifelong habit, I made that mistake with my first dog and it became a real problem.
Can’t comment on the food brands unfortunately as I don’t live in UK but hopefully someone else will answer with some concrete suggestions. I‘m sure you’ll sort it, they‘re all so different and its usually just a question of trial and error.
Best of luck! Keep us posted.

[bizzylizzy]

   P.s. it might be worth browsing through some of the older posts in the Puppy section.

[MidnightElodie]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I shall audit my feeding as you suggest. I cooked myself chicken and rice (and vegetables - I am a grown up!) and she went mad for the smell of it. Gave her some as she’d only eaten 120g in total all day (should be 3.5 to 4 times that amount), and she wolfed (cockered??) it down.  So she seems to like some food: just not her own!

[bizzylizzy]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I shall audit my feeding as you suggest. I cooked myself chicken and rice (and vegetables - I am a grown up!) and she went mad for the smell of it. Gave her some as she’d only eaten 120g in total all day (should be 3.5 to 4 times that amount), and she wolfed (cockered??) it down.  So she seems to like some food: just not her own!

  Maybe you need to put her food on your plate 😂😂 They always reckon the best way to get toddlers to eat their greens is not not give them any but put them all on your own plate, - makes them more interesting! 

[MidnightElodie]

She has started eating raw food. I used bizzylizzy’s suggestions (which chimed with some super helpful guidance from her breeder).  She isn’t wolfing it down but she’s clearing her bowl within about ten minutes, sometimes less. Her breeder suggested going to five smaller meals as her tummy would have shrunk from eating so much less, and that’s helped. Finally: for Humphrey, you said that it was liver. I think that it might be tripe which she dislikes.  I will get chance to check this out as the remaining five 1kg unthawed packs of Paleo Ridge all have tripe in them.

Thanks again for the advice.  I really appreciate it.

[Toofast]

Hello, I haven't used the forum for quiet some while but have just had a look and found this problem.I hope you don't mind.
When our puppies leave home their life changes so much, their home has changed, you are a new person, all playmates and mother are nowhere to be seen, and to top all of that she has to learn to eat by herself. She has probably never had to eat alone and misses the competition of her other siblings for what is on the plate or in the bowl.
Can you find the time when you feed her to sit with her, have a cup of coffee, use a spoon and move the food around on her dish (maybe make her think you are interested too), keep meals small and don't give her more if she eats everything on the plate, just make her wait until the next feed time and do the same again sit with her and make a little fuss over the food.
Stay with her and don't cause any distractions she probably likes your company while she eats with you. Don't offer her bigger meals than she needs (some puppies will just walk away from too much in front of them)
A raw diet is full of whole nutritional values, have you tried any different flavours of meat or textures of meat or even raw chicken wings until she learns how to eat by herself. She will not need a Complete puppy mince every day but keep the product varied with meat types, bones and offal.
This will do her no harm for a while until she has learnt to eat what she is given.

 Puppies can be introduced to different meats very easily without any problems or upsets.
Our puppies have never been interested in complete puppy mixes.

[MidnightElodie]

Hi Toofast

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I had started leaving her alone because I was worried that my “hovering” was distracting her. I’ve used your advice about being casually present (cup of tea for me!), and playing with her food and she is generally eating much better. She’s still not a Hoover Hound, but at least she looks interested in the food now.  She’s put on 500g per week for the last two weeks, whereas she had sunk to 180g before that.

Thanks again.

Denise

[Toofast]

Oh wow, that sounds excellent well done.