Still no luck and now a new symptom. Suggestions?

[Heather & Jake]

Jake has been transitioned to Orijen 6 fishes for a whole month now.  His poops are still very unpredictable: 1/3 are great, 1/3 are formed but very soft/mushy, and the other 1/3 are either too firm they are like rocks or back to rip up all the grass soup.  It's worse and always very soft/soup unless I add pumpkin and plain yogurt, or his Honest Kitchen Perfect Form supplement.  The first few weeks I was adding pumpkin/yogurt, and he was chewing on his feet a lot and bit off all the hair on his toes and his nails are all cracked from him chewing on them.  So I stopped adding the pumpkin/yogurt to see if he would do okay without them, and about 3 days later I saw his poops were getting super soft, I tried adding the Perfect Form.  From this I discovered the PF works the same for him as the pumpkin/yogurt (firms it up for the most part but not reliable) and he doesn't seem to be chewing on his feet as much, but still chewing.  Do you think it may be the food or yogurt and this is allergies?  Also since it has been a full month and he's still not having reliable poops, I'm thinking this is not the food for him so it's time to find another food to try.  The Honest Kitchen Embark is still high on my list, but I was wondering if the new constant feet chewing is an allergy, if I should try something else.  Is there anything else I may not have noticed symptom wise to look out for?

[David E]

Thanks, I will, I didn't realize there was a raw group here. I was doing it for a reasonable length of time when Monty was a puppy and it was excellent. However, I'd like to at least have something that's quick (kibble) for the mornings when I don't have time to deal with raw foods. I'm happy to do raw in the evenings, but in order to find a kibble that works I've been feeding only kibble. It's annoying though, Monty seems to have a sensitive stomach so I haven't been able to find one still that produces consistent results - lol.

Monty loved duck necks, they seemed to be a nicer size than chicken and gave him a better crunchy-chew' experience!

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

Hello! Just wondering how things are going? Are you still feeding him Embark? We are still on Embark only, and things are great...though it is getting very expensive..i have been debating on adding other things in with it...

[Heather & Jake]

Hi Jill!  Things are still going great and yes he is still eating Embark although not much of it... I've expanded more into the raw diet and that helps cut down on the cost greatly and his stool is even better!  Jake's typically diet is ~11oz bone-in chicken (mainly leg quarters) for breakfast and then another ~11oz boneless pork and 1/2c Embark for dinner. He also gets about 3 raw eggs with the shell a week as well and I've given him some canned mackerel that he looooves.  I've been transiting into raw very slowly so we haven't gotten into organs or other meats yet but I'm looking forward to it, and in the mean time doing a lot of research on the raw diet.  At this point, I know he could do without the Embark, but he loves it and I think it helps add a little more balance.  With feeding this way the Embark lasts over 2 months and not 2 weeks!  And the raw I spend about $2/day.

[David E]

Are you just buying raw from the supermarket? I like the idea of using Embark for balance with raw.

[Heather & Jake]

Yup, I look thought the ads for the best deals on meat each week.  Wegmans sells chicken leg quarters for $0.59/lb and pork shoulder roasts have been on sale for under $2/lb.  I just cut them up, weigh them out, and freeze them in separate baggies... I get about 2 weeks of food each time as I do not much that much extra freezer space.  I just check to make sure the meat is not enhanced with sodium.

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

now this may be a dumb question, but does he eat the whole entire chicken quarter..bone and all?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, that's the idea with raw feeding.

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

Those of you who are interested in branching into raw feeding please joing us in the raw feeding group!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good idea! Here's a link:Raw Feeding Group

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

thank you!