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Avoiding raw food, why?

708 views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Grace'sMom 
#1 ·
I've been feeding Elly Stella & Chewy's since we got her.
When she was a baby, I fed her freeze dried patty, broken into bits with warm water. For past few months she's been doing pretty well with frozen patties.
She used to jump and twirl when she sees the bowl!

But after spay surgery, she completely lost her appetite.
We got her blood work done, and she took medication for stomach ulcer.
(ulcer was cause by anti inflammatory medicine from spay procedure)
It's been about a month since the diagnosis, but she's not eating well.

I tried spoon feeding her, took food away when she's not eating, gave her freeze dried patty without water, also gave her cooked chicken with Sojo's vegie mix.
Every attempt was not successful, until I gave her sample of dry kibble from Merrick. She ate it up, and she seemed soooooo happy.

I really want to keep her on raw diet, please share your thoughts!


* she gets very excited with treats, and very energetic, playful!
 
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#2 ·
hey,
I've started feeding my dogs stella&chewy too, but I haven just recently started and it def has not been as long as you have been feeding your fluffs. I have beef, duck, chicken, and surf& turf flavor, and they have so far liked all except Ein is NOT eating beef at all. actually when I fed Ein beef pat tie(soaked in water), he ate them really quickly but only to throw up soon after- he actually threw up the whole thing. I could've swore off he actually threw up everything in his tummy. Ami in the other hand, ate it up, and went to poop this morning(very nice solid poop). I actually had their stool being too soft, but I found out I overfed them LOL. as soon as I cut the portion by 1/3 they are doing awesome on stella& chewys.

OK so back to the Ein avoiding stella& chewy's beef; he also recently got neutered(last thursday) and is still wearing a cone. I am guessing with his pain med(he will be done with his meds today, which could be upsetting his tummy), and the cone strap tight around his neck when he bends over to his bowl to eat, he ended up throwing up- and I think he related that awful experience with the beef flavor. I am still hopeful that once Ein gets better, I will give him few more attempts with Beef patties as Ami loves it and did upmost tiny solid poop this morning on it!

Do you have her favorite kibbles that you occasionally rotate? I have Royal canin yorkie formula that Ein is loving at this moment(and he is avoiding beef patty. I might try chicken or duck tomorrow though) but I personally don't like to give them kibble as it seems to keep them in constant dehydration. It does give them a nice poop though. For the time being, I will feed whatever he will eat as he needs to eat and get better. So if Elly is preferring the kibble for now(and I am positive it won't be her permanent diet), maybe keep her on that until she is well again? Ein was never a finicky eater until he got recently neutered.. I suppose they are very fussy when they are not well(as Elly is). Once she is clear with ulcer, and her spay is very well and healed, you can try the raw..

Please update us on how Elly is doing. I'd love to know if she ends up going back to raw after this episode, as I am going through the similar thing :)
 
#3 ·
It is entirely possible that her tastes have simply changed - maybe the anesthesia left a funny taste or maybe it simply doesn't taste good to her anymore. It is also possible that the raw upsets her tummy a bit because of her "ulcer" and so she doesn't want to eat it.

Instead of trying to force the issue, I'd make sure she's getting a quality probiotic to restore her digestive health and is eating a high quality diet rather than being concerned over whether it's raw. You might feed her the dry if that's what she will eat (and if it is a high quality diet) for a few weeks then try and reintroduce the raw once her digestive tract has had a chance to heal.

I hope she's back to feeling like her old self soon!
 
#5 ·
It may also be that the raw diet is too high protein and fat for her, now that she is spayed.

Now that she doesn't need to build up her uterine lining for puppies...spayed females actually are okay eating less and do better on a lower fat diet.

So it may be that eating that food is causing too much stress on her pancreas and other GI organs...so she isn't wanting to eat it.

I know you want to keep her on them, but you may need to feed less of them and offer her other things like steamed or roasted veggies or oats to mix in.

And it could be what Maggie said... her tastes changing.

My experience with Stella & Chewey's was my dogs ate them for a few months great, then they just stopped all together. And I rotated them so they weren't the same all the time.

I know why Grace stopped (too hard on her liver), but Gus surprised me. He is not a picky eater but he would not touch them. So we stopped feeding them.

Other raw products they would not eat.

It may be too high protein and fat for your fluff.

For Ein - he may be stopping his puppy growth. So he may need to eat much less. Again - raw can be good but it can also be too high protein and fat for them. So make sure to find the balance that works for your fluff.
 
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