[Olusile]

Hello All!

My boy SILE is 7 month old! We started from the beginning with the raw food diet. He used to love Chicken Backs. And I say "used" because now, for some reason when chicken backs come to the plate he just don't eat and starts crying.

Last night, we left the chicken in his plate, but he finally approach the chicken three hours later.

When meat, of soup, or vegies come to his plate he doesn't waste a minute to eat it.

Is this normal? What do you think is happening? Should I stop the chicken?

All my best, and look forward to hearing from some of your thoughts!

 

[BoxMeIn21]

Chicken backs don't really offer a lot of meat - I would ditch those and feed different parts of the chicken that are meatier.

 

[Adara]

I wouldn't give up on the chicken if he finally did approach it. I might take a tough love approach and just put chicken down for a few meals and not give treats.

You could try other pieces of the chicken also and see if that makes a difference and/or cut the backs up.

 

[LindaH]

I would try other pieces of chicken also. Are you checking to see if all that bone in the chicken backs is causing hard stools? A lot of bone will cause white chalking stools that are hard to pass. I can't see him making that connection but maybe the upset his stomach, does he pass gas after he eats them.

I just wonder if he has a reason, other than liking something else better, like maybe he has a broken tooth or a piece of bone stuck between some teeth and the backs hurt his mouth to eat them. Does he get other bones that he eats alright?

I would try to investigate and see if you can discover a reason.

 

[Olusile]

I have checked and his stool are fine. The white color comes after a couple of minutes - I still getting impressed about that!
Have you done Rabbit before?

 

[CuriousMoves]

The first thing I thought about was a potential dental problem too, since he eats the meats and veggies just fine. Assuming your other meats are bone-free that is. I would give his mouth a good check up just in case.

I have tried rabbit before, my dogs liked it. I think in general the bones are gonna be similar to chicken in terms of toughness if it's farm-raised rabbits you are feeding. If they are wild hares tho, they might be harder bones.

 

[LindaH]

So does he eat other bones okay? You dont seem to acknowledge that he might have a problem with his mouth or teeth which hurts him when he eats the backs. He could have broken a tooth below his gumline which you cant see. Same with a bone between the teeth. Those can turn into major health problems. He SHOULD NOT be having chalky stools. White chaulky stools mean he is getting too much bone. He should have regular looking small stools, no white or just small amounts, never all white stools. You need to feed more boneless meat.

 

[mmctaq]

I have had dogs refuse certain foods... my male refused emu and when I insisted, he ate it and threw it up a few minutes later... he refused canned fish (after eating it happily for his whole life) and when I insisted, he threw it up (a year later, he wanted canned fish again, and ate it happily for the rest of his life)... my girl began to be reluctant to eat rabbit recently, and when I insisted she threw it up. My guess is that dogs sometimes know they shouldn't eat certain stuff. This is different from simply not liking something.

Particularly with a pup this age who is growing rapidly and probably thinks that he is starving all the time, I would honor his decision to not have chicken if he's happy to eat everything else. One of my dogs refused chicken that was adulterated with seasoned broth... this must be shown on the packaging, and usually they will call it "enhanced" with a certain percentage of saline solution... is it possible that the batch of chicken backs you have now is different from what you usually get? I do agree that there may be an issue (dental or other) at play which should be investigated. I can no longer feed chicken, but when I did I offered leg quarters mostly... they seem to be a better quality meal.

In my experience, dogs tend to be very opinionated about rabbit. They either love it or hate it. All you can do is offer it and see if your dog considers it to be food or something disgusting. Some dogs will eat whole ground rabbit but not whole rabbits. It is very low fat, so you want to make sure there is adequate fat in other meals... rabbits also have huge livers which can be a bit much for dogs and maybe cause loose stools. Wild rabbit can carry rabbit fever and various parasites, so I would stick with domestically raised rabbit. Bunny heads are fun to bowl across the yard for dogs to chase down and eat!

 

[Tater927]

I have had dogs refuse certain foods... my male refused emu and when I insisted, he ate it and threw it up a few minutes later... he refused canned fish (after eating it happily for his whole life) and when I insisted, he threw it up (a year later, he wanted canned fish again, and ate it happily for the rest of his life)... my girl began to be reluctant to eat rabbit recently, and when I insisted she threw it up. My guess is that dogs sometimes know they shouldn't eat certain stuff. This is different from simply not liking something.

I apologize for laughing at your strife, but this made me lol. Don't get me wrong, I totally get why you would try to make them eat it but it was just kind of funny as I was reading it...hmm then what happened?...and then?..and theeeeeen?

 

[eisel]

chicken sucks...would you want to only eat chicken