Okay my dogs until recently where fed raw, the only reason I have stopped is I cannot stand the smell or the flies during the warmer months.
So I joined Eden breeders club and found it gave my ddb a poorly tummy eating the recommended amount but my bull terriers where fine. I reduced the amount for Agatha and her tummy got better but she started dropping weight. We then tried akela and all loved it, but after 2 months all have gone off it completely even my greedy bull terrier bitch who usually eats anything turned her nose up.
Trawled the sites and tried growling tums grain free, again they won’t eat it and am having to add wet food ( tinned butchers tripe) to the food for them to eat it.
I find for the ddb that the amounts she needs for her size are huge and she gets bored of eating, not being a greedy girl can take over half an hour to eat.
My bull terrier boy has allergies and our ddb had demodex after her puppy jabs but now is over it and has a beautiful coat and we would like to keep it that way.
So any suggestions greatly received as am getting to my whits end.
Did you contact us at Eden about the problems you were experiencing? Sometimes if food amount causes upset tummies we suggest a reduction to get things settled, and once they are settled then we may be able to look at a slight increase again torevent the weight loss without upsetting the tummy.
Did you only try one variety or all 3, some dogs have issues with one variety but are often fine on the others, usually Catch of the Day (fish) helps the sensitive ones, but I have one dog that has issues with fish so can only eat the country cuisine. The other is fine on all 3 flavours. (Both are rottweilers)
Not sure if this helps, feel free to join us on Facebook for full support , or by email or phone to the office if that is better for you.
Hello Alison - welcome to the forum. I have to confess that I am puzzled by your comments about raw feeding and the smell and flies. I have fed raw and not had these problems. I take the food out of the freezer the night before and thaw it in a covered plastic container at the bottom of the refrigerator. I just weigh out what is needed for each meal. No food is left out so flies are not an issue at all. The food does not smell unpleasant at all because it has been frozen solid. I bought some fresh offal for them yesterday and chopped it up prior to freezing it - there was no odour.
It sounds as if your dogs, after having raw and wet food just don’t like kibble. As they were doing well on raw, would it not be helpful to join a Facebook group to learn a bit more about the management of raw feeding? The problems that you were having really shouldn’t be there. Perhaps it is just a case of organizing things so that the meat doesn’t go off and attract flies.
Same for me Dottie. The only time I’ve had an issue with smell is from one supplier I used, their stuff seemed to smell off as soon as it defrosted and my dogs backed away from their chicken carcass to I threw the lot and don’t use them anymore. I get all my chicken carcass/feet/necks from a lovely supplier now and it has absolutely no smell. Were you feeding bones in the garden Alison and leaving them out?
I never managed to find one kibble that suited all of my dogs, Millies Wolfheart was the best one for us but still gave one of my pointers very soft stools despite reducing the amount well below the recommended amounts so they are all back on raw minces with burns hypo-allergenic mixer now and bones some nights.
Thanks for replying.
We took the tripe out and let it defrost over night but don’t have room in our fridge to keep it during the day, so it was placed in a plastic box and left in a cool place. Maybe I am tickled stomached but if you say ox tripe doesn’t smell because it sure does
We don’t have the room for a separate dog fridge, but have got a small freezer. Having 7lb of tripe or other meats defrosting just isn’t ideal. Maybe living rural is the problem with the flies and having a chicken coup backing onto our garden?
The dogs always get fed indoors, so nothing is left in the garden.
I think we may have to relent and go back to their 5/2 raw diet it just seemed more convenient to try a dry diet for them. They obviously have other ideas.
I do agree about tripe - it can be rather smelly. I don’t know much about getting the quantities exactly right, but I thought that tripe is actually offal, in which case needs to be given at about 10% of the total diet? Are you giving it as the whole of the diet? Just thinking that if you mix it up with meat, bone and vegetables at the right quantities then it might be less smelly.
I can see your problem about the refrigerator. That’s the down side of raw feeding compared to the convenience of a good quality kibble. That’s why when I feed raw I use the complete meal ones which are readily available at my local pet shop. It means that I haven’t had to go out and buy another freezer.
“The easiest way to tell is as follows: it the organ secretes, feed it as offal, otherwise feed it as a meat. Some people like to class different organs in their own way, but as a general rule, this will be okay.”
Thank you George - my memory is not so good these days and I tend to forget figures. It is a useful link and it seems that tripe is classed as meat, not offal. Think I’d rather cheat and stick with the complete meals. :-\
Hi Alison, Glad to hear that your dogs loved Akela. We’ve just launched our Fish Feast recipe which you may wish to alternate with to keep their interest.
