She wouldn't eat the raw meat

[shellyk]

Yesterday we finally took the plunge and decided to feed raw. A grocery store in our neighborhood advertised 10 lbs of chicken and/or pork for $10.00. We were repackaging the chicken drumsticks and I offered one to each of the dogs. They both looked at me like I was crazy. Then I took them back and put them in their food bowls outside on the patio. The Lab figured it out and gobbled it up. Our Newf watched him but still wasn't interested. She took it out in the grass - didn't want him to have it but didn't want it herself. She lost interest and let the Lab eat it. Then while we were cutting up the pork - I gave each a piece of the pork meat. The lab took it and dropped it on the floor. Again I put it in his dish and he ate it. Our Newf wouldn't even take it and barely sniffed it in her dish. Ironically we thought it would be the other way around that she would scarf it up and he would turn up his nose.

Any suggestions or experience with what we did wrong or could do better?

 

[Jeannie]

She will learn. You could try a bit is seasonings on it, garlic or salt.


I will say I never feed poultry weight bearing bones - thighs or legs. I only feed wings, neck and backs. IMO the weight bearing bones tend to splinter even when raw.

 

[nowhavethreebears]

Take a heavy can or kitchen mallet next time and break up the bones. Just smash them inside the skin so she has a place to get her teeth in. Maybe start with a wing next time.
I used this method with the newfs to get them started on chicken wings when they couldn't figure out how to tackle them.

 

[BlackLightning]

Was it completely thawed? my guys prefer their raw a little frozen. It's a texture thing I think with them.

 

[Puppypeoplenj]

From what I've heard, sometimes dogs don't catch on right away. The advice I've read is to take their uneaten food, and put it away until the next feeding, and offer it to them then. No treats, snacks, etc, until they start eating their meals. Also, have you joined any prey model raw feeding yahoo email lists? I find rawfeeding to be particularly helpful, but there are tons of yahoo groups that might help.

 

[DAWNMERIE]

Myra would have nothing to do with raw at first. When we started out we started to just lightly seared the food in a frying pan/wok (no bone) just cut up some raw london broils. (Vin doesn't want to do pork raw, so we always sear it) Her nose would go up when she knew it was for her. Also taught her a bit of patience which she doesn't have much of. (lol) She wouldn't have anything to do with chicken wings but Zeke loved it. We are thinking about getting a grinder one of these days to make thing easier for her, since she's not crazy about it with the bone in....but mind you she'll sit on the deck for hrs with a bone....go figure.

 

[shellyk]

Thanks for all the good advice and tips. We will keep working on it :smashy:

 

[jane]

Keep trying. I remember when I went raw, Merlin my food thief had no clue what to do with the leg quarter. I ended up putting him in his crate where I thought he might be more comfortable away from Roger and Sassy. He finally ate it. Stick with the chicken for about a week and then start adding different muscle meats one at a time.