[Gem M]

Yes my dogs love their goats milk! Well 2 months in and the dogs are looking fabulous. Have gained weight and are now at their ideal, they are so soft and looking amazing! They eat everything that is put down and enjoy it although they aren’t all that fussed about veg

[Gem M]

Ps ingredients for satin balls purchased! Plus he ate two large full meals today, lamb meat offal and bone, spinach, pumpkin, goats yogurt and a sprat! Number twos healthy! I think we are well on our way now! 😃

[Gem M]

I’ve seen that site! Sorry to say but vets all have different takes, a lot of their work is trial and error and in my opinion you can never do enough research of the good the bad and the ugly. If the raw feeding movement had enough money to compete against the commercial dog food industry for research and proof I’m sure even this site could argue better, but most research is done in bias.

I’m glad we have knowledge to do what we feel is best for our pets! But I guess people against raw would like me to stick with a dog who has the runs, itchy skin, raw pads, mucky ears and bad anal glands!

[Gem M]

I never thought of adapting satin balls thank you!! Thank you for your kind words also our boy is three now it’s been a journey but a great one! He has eaten a bowl this morning still frozen tried some at room temperature and he wouldn’t go near it but I guess it’s early days he is eating that’s all I care about at this moment in time hehe!! Right time to shop for satin ball ingredients!! Thank you!!

[Gem M]

Okay so here is his history

We obtained him at 8 weeks he was skin and bones. The vets told us to prepare for the worse. He didn’t even weigh a pound! He had blood in his stools but was very playful and alert. They said it was parvovirus, I argued that it was worms. After worming him regularly each week he started to grow and the weight came on. Food was an issue he’d go three months the get sore skin and anal glands. Some food he would have very loose stools.

The vets would give us steroids but overall we just kept moving through different kibbles moving to anything grain free. He never had an ounce of fat on him and had an absolute love of life but never got to an ideal weight for a pointer for more than a month. We managed his environmental exposures to help his paws and kept switching foods every 3 – 6 months unless there was an immediate problem.

In January I researched food until I was blue in the face, by this time I was working at a vets myself. I decided on Orijen… The vets disagreed that he needed so much protein and as he was loosing weight I felt despite him looking fab fur wise, anal gland wise and pads I should listen to one particular vet and give him a carb based diet. He gained nothing and I spoke to a nutritionist who said no way is this the right food for him. So I decided enough is enough we are going raw. I spoke with another nutritionist and she explained meats, percentages etc etc. I’m also adding in some sweet potato and butternut squash to his veggies. The plan is lamb as a main base, little fish each day and small amounts of goats yogurt and veg. Egg each day.. Then move to more meat but all of this slowly slowly..

So my boy is pretty much the dream of my vets, he is very active, yet calm, and they think I’m making too much fuss as he is in their minds healthy!! I have spoken to 7 different vets with all different backgrounds and they all say yes he is underweight but he is fine. But I can see every rib, his hip bones, even his back bones. He shivers in the winter. He needs some fat. We’ve gone from walking him 2.5 hours a day off lead to 1 hour every other day off lead. But we can see that what other dogs do in a week he does in an hour. That’s no exaggeration we once did a 26 mile hike and he was STILL running on the 25th mile! He is just a beautiful dog with a lust for life. He is fast playful and great fun. He plays fetch, plays with my other dog, loves his walks and is active around the house for about 8 hours a day… But very obedient.

Anyway last night I gave him some frozen meat in a bowl and he absolutely woofed it down… So I think it’s a texture issue! I’m sure giving frozen is not good but I’d rather that than no food. He ate some frozen lamb, pumpkin, two eggs and two frozen sprats in the end!!!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 12 months ago by Gem M.

[Gem M]

Thank you so much for the link I will read it now. I just feel I can give him a better diet than cooked kibble. I support raw and feel that he should eat what I’m providing him with. But I know many people have this issue and worry when they transition, hence an urgent help appeal. The food he was on was given at double the recommended feeding guidelines and he was still not gaining weight. He ate it but it didn’t improve his health only he didnt react to it 🙂

[Gem M]

Ps I’ve tried gravy, searing, garlic, yogurt, veg nope just won’t take it without really coaxing and praising him and even then he gets fed up of it!

[Gem M]

Please please help…. I started my two German shorthaired pointers on raw on Friday. One can’t get enough of it, the other who has always eaten fine is totally upset with it. He went from Thursday until Saturday night not touching it (mince) with me putting it down for 30 and taking it back up until that meal he ate a little with a lot of coaxing… Sunday he ate a bit for breakfast and a tiny bit this evening with coaxing. He is very underweight so we need him to have proper nutrition hence switching him to raw from Orijen. Any cheaper food makes him Ill with allergies, orijen made him loose 5kg he didn’t have but allergies healed.

I’m so worried that
A he won’t start eating a full meal again
B he will loose more weight
C he won’t accept it ever
D he will get really ill

Please can you help?

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