From raw to homecooked - looking for some advice and/or opinions. - Page 5

elizabeth is he ball driven? or has absolute favorite toy..why not use that....its same as training.."to get this toy you must to/eat that"...

if everything else can be taught why can't eating food be taught as well and given reward for?

I have a 9 mos old border collie who too is very picky , but the most she goes is 24 hours without eating.  She is fed a raw diet.  Interesting though she recently had an intestinal bug of some sort, so I switched her to a bland diet of  browned turkey , venison and brown rice, she ate like a pig for 4 days. Yesterday and today she got pan seared chicken and little bit of kibble and now she is only eating one meal a day again.  What ever she doesn't eat gets wrapped up for the next meal, she does eventually eat it, but I must say it is unnerving to have a picky eater.  My other two GSDs are heathens will eat anything!!!  I am going  back to the raw, but can't say I am not considering cooking some of her meals.

Lyn

i believe ladyfrost that genetics has more to do with eating than anything.
 all the driven dogs i have been around, not just mine, have a great food drive.
 a person,if one wanted too, could in my opinion make some dough by printing a small book on favotite and healthest foods for our furry friends.
  just food for thought!

sable

I agree

food drive is genetic but if the dog is a picky eater then it does not help if the owner is aggavating the problem by giving in to the dog

I don't think that after 2 years of trying she has giving into her dog.  Most dogs will do well on a raw diet that's not to say some dogs won't. Some dogs do great on freain Ol Roy for god's sake, at least she is trying to provide a nice balanced diet for her dog.  Any dog that goes for days without eating is not typical. My dog has only gone a day and that worries me at times.

Sorry about not responding right away, we went on vacation (sooo nice!) in the bush (cabin) and so I had no internet for a while.

I have to say that after 2 years of this, I am not giving in to my dog. Come on.. that's just silly. I can see two months, or even 6 months of this behaviour, but after two years? No way, sorry, we are going to disagree there.

My dog's food and toy drive are pretty low to be honest. I love my boy but he has been a challenge in almost every which way. His drives are just starting to emerge at 2 years and his ball drive is starting to become more apparent but it is still not where I would like it at all.

I have started to incorprate his raw meals back into his diet via raw meaty bones. I have also started to leave his muscle meat raw while still incorporating the double boiled brown rice and some veggies that have been flash boiled.

It is my hope that I can gradually take the grain away completely, along with the veggies. He has been eating everything (raw included) lately so hopefully this plan will work.

Like I said, I don't want to feed this way as I would perfer he eat the raw, but if he isn't eating...