Dixie's Diet

[Leigha]

We've been on a week of the bio-yogurt, honey and meaty beef/chicken broth regimen. She's still ravenously hungry at each meal, but it'll get better eventually I guess. We're feeding her 4 times a day. Except for when she sleeps she doesn't generally go more than 4 hours without a meal. Do we continue feeding her this for a while, or can we begin the switch to raw? If we can begin the switch to raw, how do we do it?

[emmabeth]

I reckon I would start adding raw to her diet - though I would also ask Nettle first but she will see this in the morning..

I would switch out any kibble and replace that with raw meat - I wouldnt attempt to mix kibble/meat personally - but what I would do is add the meat one type at a time so if she has an issue with any particular ingredient you will know about it pretty quick.

I would thyink you can increase her meal size slightly each week as well now, but see how she handles her first raw meat meal. I would still add the live yoghurt to each meal too.

I would also keep the bone content low to start out iwth, so say if you choose chicken as the first meat to introduce her to, go for one or two wings and make up the rest with just meat - it should only take her a week or so to get used to digesting bone. You might want to hold onto the end of a wing with some pliers or bash it with a rolling pin first in case she thinks shes gonna inhale it, and I wouldnt introduce juicey recreational bones just yet, until raw meat is the norm, rather than a novelty.

Nettle will come along and give you better advice though!

[Nettle]

I agree 100% with the advice Emms has given

Add some meat and a little veg to the broth so it is more like stew.

Offer one chicken wing afterwards so she isn't so hungry when she gets to it and don't faint if she swallows it whole. then offer another. Then stop

Continue with the yoghurt mix but reduce the amount.

Increase the meat (not the veg) daily and cut down on the liquid.

Step away from the kibble............

You are SUCH a lovely person to do this.

[Mattie]

She may never get over the "I am starving and need to eat as much as I can as quickly as I can" way of eating, both Merlin and Tilly know what it is like to go a long time without food or only what they can get scavenging, they were both typical of starving dogs when they came and still eat like this although they are fed 3 times a day. Merlin has been with me for 6.5 years and Till 3. She may never eat like a dog that doesn't know what it is like to go without food.

You are doing really well with Dixie

[Leigha]

We've been off the kibble since Sunday, I was able to get everything cooked up for her, so we've been feeding her the brothy stuff and using boiled chicken to bribe her into her crate, rather than tossing a few pieces of kibble in there.

I started increasing the amount of meat we've been giving her Wednesday because she'd eat, then look at me and whine and keep licking the bowl, so I felt kind of guilty. I'm such a pushover when it comes to puppy-dog eyes. The brothy stuff that I made was more like chicken and dumplings (minus the dumplings than chicken soup) and had carrots and celery in it, so I think I oopsed on that part since it was more stewish at the start, but she seems to be doing okay.

Do I offer her the chicken wings after every meal, or just one? And for how long should I continue the yogurt? And when would we phase out the stew altogether and add in more veggies?

I'm such a dork because I'm a planner (in all things except my wedding which I'm ridiculously behind in) so I like to have timelines and a game plan in place.

Thanks for all of your help!!!

[emmabeth]

Each dog is different soo... keep an eye on what shes producing out the other end - is it (sorry..) runny, soft, firm, covered in mucous or not?... I wouldnt expect her to have totally excellent firm poos just yet but as long as shes not producing anything narrrrrrrsty... (ie really foul smell, liquid, mucousy) then that tells you you are getting things right.

I think I would offer a wing or two after one meal a day or maybe two if shes on four meals... so perhaps offer a wing or two after breakfast... and then again after tea, with the idea that eventually many weeks from now she wont have the middle meals or will maybe just be having a 'snack' at lunchtime....

If stew is good now and shes not showing any adverse effects, don't panic! Just gradually aim for a thicker more meaty stew until you get to the point where to make it thick enough youd have to boil the heck out of it, at which point its probably better to move to just raw meat. I think when you get to a pretty thick stew, start doing stew for some meals... raw for others (so since shed be having the raw wings breakfast and dinner then it makes sense to either increase the number of wings or add in a handful of ground meat or chunks of meat to those wings).

Try to spread this out over the cours eof a couple of weeks so, for example by next friday, shed be having thick stew 4x a day with wings 2x a day, and by the friday after that shed be having thick stew 2x a day and raw wings/chickenbreast/lamb breast 2x a day.

When she has the hang of raw meat, add in some fattier meat - do so slowly because it is rich and too much will give her the squits but fat is good and necessary stuff, but get her used to raw meat first.

Its more an 'art' and a 'play it by ear' sort of thing than a strictly 'planning' thing.

I would keep her on the yoghurt for the forseeable future really, as it does no harm if its not required and its not taking up space that could be filled with more meat/fat/bone.

[Leigha]

Her poos are pretty stinky... but they're firm logs. So I guess that's good. When she picked it up the other night to have a taste, it kept its loggish shape and didn't break off... UGH! However, on the poo eating front, she's stopped eating it. But that's pretty much because we found these tablets that go in her food once a day that (I guess) make it taste really bad. That night she picked it up, she spit it back out and left it alone. Bru saw her go for it, and I guess he thought it was food, so I think he tried to have a taste, but when I'd come out of the house to go clean it up he was doing the tongue against the teeth "Oh man that tastes AWFUL" thing where they shake their head and walk away. Those tablets aren't going to hurt her are they?

I had pretty well timed when she poos, and it's always at the last potty of the night... for whatever reason we only get one now instead of the 5 we got the first day. So when she squatted to poo it surprised me so I had to run back in the house for a bag and when I came back out, saw her pick it up then put it back down and Bruiser not enjoying what he'd put in his mouth.

If my choice in dogs is any indication of what my human children are going to be like, I'm in trouble.

[Nettle]

Tell us about the tablets might be useful information for others. As in: what's in them?

[Mattie]

I tried tablets with Merlin, he didn't eat the poo while he was having the tablets, I continued them for a lot longer than it said but as soon as I stopped giving them to him he ate the poo again. For a dog his size they were expensive and as I was worried about what was in them I didn't give them to him again. At least I know what is in his poo, I didn't the tablets.

[Leigha]

Tell us about the tablets might be useful information for others. As in: what's in them?

The active ingredients in the tablets are monosodium glutamate and oleoresin capsicum. The inactive ingredients are brewer's yeast, dehydrated garlic, glycerin, magnesium stearate, stearic acid and thiamine hydrochloride. All of which means little to nothing to me.

The name of the tablets are Pro-Pet stool-eating preventative.

Hopefully theyre not horrible for her!

[Nettle]

Thanks for the info.

I wouldn't have a problem with a dog being fed those short-term. Sometimes it breaks the cycle, sometimes not, depending how strong the "eat anything to survive" urge is.

Now be guided by your excellent instincts and increase the solid food as you wish.

[Fundog]

ROFL! Oh, you don't know what it took for me to gain control of myself long enough to post this. I had just stopped laughing, turned my eyes back to the screen where Leigha was desribing Bru's facial expression, and started back up again. My kids were telling me to get a hold of myself. My younger son, who just looooves bathroom humor, thought it was great-- (I told them what I was laughing about, imitating Bruiser).

[Leigha]

I have to admit, that if nothing else, our house is filled with humor. Last night it was Kole scaring himself with his bowl while he was trying to get his veggie cube out.

*sigh* this is my life...

[Leigha]

J's worried we're either overfeeding or underfeeding Dixie, depending on how he feels at any given moment, so he's sent me to ask if we're feeding her enough. She's ALWAYS hungry (I'm thinking duh, she's nursing and still skin and bones from her previous life), but we're feeding her 6 times a day. She eats twice in the morning before J goes to work, he comes home for lunch and feeds her, then I feed her when I get home, then she eats 2 more times a night before we go to bed. Sometimes we feel sorry for her and feed her a 7th time. So by just the number of feedings he's worried we're feeding her too much. But then he's worried she's not eating enough to cope with the puppies.

So here's what we've been feeding her--
Once every two days or so we cook up some form of protein (deer, veal, chicken, beef roast, etc) with some carrots and celery. We feed her about 1/2c of the meat, a heaping spoon of veggie mush, yogurt, scrambled eggs (sometimes), peanut butter, and a teaspoon or two of calf-manna to help with the nursing stuff.

And she eats that six times a day and could very easily eat more if we fed her. So what do I tell J--are we feeding her enough, too much, not enough?

[Nettle]

There is a "formula" for feeding suckling bitches, which involves the number of puppies and the curvature of the earth - but I feed to appetite. However, I'll look up the formula if you would like.

IMO just keep whacking the food in and she'll keep shoving the milk out.