# My puppy thinks I am trying to poison him.



## waljamer (Jul 6, 2009)

I have been toying with the idea of going raw with my puppy for a long time. I finally decided to give it a try this week. Well, after 3 days of trying to give him chicken quarters he still chews it in his mouth and spits it on the ground. He looks at me like I am crazy trying to give him this. I thought as soon as he realized it had bones he could eat, he would love it. I was wrong.
I was able to get him to eat one chicken back when I hand fed it to him but mostly he just wants nothing to do with it.

After 3 days of hardly eating I knew he was getting hungry and he was acting a little lethargic so last night I made a late night trip to get some canned food. I ate it like he was starving.

I did not expect this. Any suggestions on what I should do or a meal I should try? 


Thanks


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## ShepherdsField (Jan 30, 2010)

Pour gravy on it. That'll do the trick.


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## Lila (Dec 7, 2009)

* "I ate it like he was starving."*

Silly. You should have fed it to him. No wonder he thought you'd gone crazy.

Hey, Jessica... Worry makes me typo as well.


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## rjvamp (Aug 23, 2008)

Try the pre-mades first and then throw in a raw meaty bone in a week or so and see what he does. NV, Primal, BARF, Stella & Chewys are all good pre-mades. I'm sure there are others.

EDIT: And give the pre-mades when they are still mostly frozen so he gets used to chewing it.


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## waljamer (Jul 6, 2009)

Good catch on the typo. Hard to type with a dog on my lap.







He ate like he was starving. I put gravy, cheese, and mixed in his natural balance rolls but he just licked the stuff off. Is it possible he just doesn't like raw chicken? 




-Jessica


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## Lila (Dec 7, 2009)

It's possible. Maybe the chicken smelled funny? Dunno.

Try some other raw and see what happens.

I'm no expert on Raw but I think that's a logical step.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Jax was a little hard to switch too. If she didn't eat it the first time I might as well throw it out. then I started chunking the meat up and mixing it with yogurt. She like it with a coating on it!


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## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

It's very novel to her right now. She has had food from her mom, and some little bite sized pieces of dry crunchy things. And now she has this new thing ahead of her. i agree with Michelle, try coating it with a bit of yogurt, or chicken broth. You can take the meal and soak it in a bag in warm/hot water, the heat will NOT cook it but should release some of the smell and make it more tempting. Make it easier for her to eat at first. Crush the bones with a hammer, feed her ground meats, or small cubes of meat. Try 

Next meal...
Chicken wing(s) or back(s) and ground chicken or chicken breast cubed. Warm meal in water and then coat RMB with small amount of yogurt or broth. Also something that I had to do for my 80 pounder was score the skin at first, he just licked it until I gave him something to grab.


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

Get yourself a large saucepan, pour in a little olive oil and a small clove of garlic and heat to medium.

Lightly, LIGHTLY, saute the RMB on both sides. Just enough to brown the skin a little.

Most dry dog foods are sprayed with aroma enhancers to make them appealing to dogs. Raw meat has very LITTLE odor to it so a dog may not understand it's edible at first.

Also try cutting it up into little pieces. If your dogs isn't used to having to really chew up something that may also be putting them off.


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## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: Lauri & The GangGet yourself a large saucepan, pour in a little olive oil and a small clove of garlic and heat to medium.
> 
> Lightly, LIGHTLY, saute the RMB on both sides. Just enough to brown the skin a little.


Now that sounds just sooo good... if your dog still doesn't want it, I do!


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## waljamer (Jul 6, 2009)

*Success!*

I tried the lightly sauté idea and even though I thought it smelled good, Haas just looked at it. Thinking he just wasn’t into the chicken, I decided to try a turkey neck. But again he just looked at it. Today, I let the turkey necks marinate in olive oil, garlic powder and parmesan cheese. Tonight, I gave him his marinated neck and some puréed sweet potatoes. At first he only ate the sweet potato and licked the neck. Just when I was ready to give up, one of the cats walked up to Haas’ crate to see if he could get in on this yummy goodness. Haas let out a loud get away from my food wine and devoured the entire turkey neck in less than five minutes. So the moral of the story is that I don’t need to marinate or hand feed my puppy his food to get him to eat. I just need to tell him if he doesn’t eat it the cat will.


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## Bcannie (Jul 8, 2009)

The first time I gave my pup a chicken neck she barked at it and threw it up in the air. She gave me a look like "what the heck did you give me this for?" I decided to let her take it outside and she rolled it around in the dirt, but didn't ever eat it. (I had been feeding her Natures Variety Raw Chubs, so I thought it was because she was used to everything pre-ground). 

The second time I gave it to her partially frozen and cut some slice marks in it to give her "traction". This seemed to do the trick and she cautiously ate it. It just took her a few tries to get used to it, and now she loves it!


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