Hi New2dogs

Whilst I know you're trying to find something she likes, just be careful you're not pandering to her toooo much. Dogs (especially terriers!) are very clever and soon work out they get something better if they turn their nose up at what you offer
I do not however, advise for you to give her 'tough love' and if she doesn't eat she doesn't get anything. Try not to worry too much, she might just need a while to settle down into her new routine.
If she liked the sardines, try soaking a small amount of Orijen in boiling hot water until it is cool and has gone soft. Then it can be mashed up with a fork and mixed with the sardines. She won't then be able to pick all the good stuff out If she eats the Orijen like this, you can gradually get her used to eating it, and eventually you can stop soaking it.
Nature diet is good and I advise you do buy some of this. Our dogs are raw fed but they love Nature Diet if we go away or if we have run out of raw meat.

You could also try her on some raw food. You can buy raw frozen tripe from Pets at Home (along with a lot of local pet shops) all you have to do is defrost it and mix it with her food. Ours go mad for raw meat, they used to be on Nutro complete and would regularly leave meals no matter what you mixed them with.

There are a few companies now that prepare a raw diet for your dog (Let me know if you want the details). This is a excellent way of feeding raw if it's just not practical for you to chop all the meat, veggies etc yourself. And it works out so cheap if you just have one small dog to feed. All you have to do is get a bag out the freezer, which keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days. That's it. No mess and no fuss.

I'm quite the raw food convert From always having dogs fed on complete food with nature diet mixed in. We bought a puppy who is raw fed and never looked back. My boy is very lean and muscular and drops weight quite easily, he would turn his nose up at a couple of meals and with in a week he would be underweight. Now he dribbles for his raw food

I know it's not something that suits everybody, but I really feel it's one of the best things for fussy eaters. We weaned our litter of pups on raw food with a mixture of Orijen (for owners who might not want to feed raw) The pups were NOT impressed with complete food thank you very much and would much rather have raw meat

See once I start talking about raw feeding, I can't stop! But my opinion really isn't biased as I have fed both complete and raw. I'm not one of these who thinks complete food is the work of the devil etc but I do believe paying a large amount of money for food like Orijen is not as good as paying less for better food.

But that's just my honest opinion. I hope she starts eating for you soon. Don't worry too much, you're doing fine

I agree that she's probably being a clever little dog here! She picks up on things so quickly - she is already going to the door to be let out into the garden and we're having very few accidents in the house now - even at night-time.

I have just taken a book out of the library 'Give Your Dog A Bone' by Ian Billinghurst and it does make a lot of sense. However, I visted two very nice butchers shops this morning neither of which had any bones they could sell to me!!!!!! Millie had a lamb leg bone after Sunday lunch (before I knew that cooked bones can be dangerous!) and she absolutely loved it. So, where do people find their bones? I would like to be able to go with a mixture of raw feeding and dry feeding in an ideal world so that it's not so onerous if she has to stay with relatives or go into kennels at some point. My own historical family background is a rural farming one although I didn't personally grow up on a farm but I know that all the family dogs in the past would have had far more raw meat and bones plus scraps . . . rabbits too etc!

I agree that I have probably been giving her far too many different things to try as well - I guess it's a steep learning curve here!

Yes that book is brilliant

I'm afraid we get our bones from the butchers! You can of course buy bones like chicken wings from the supermarket. Always freeze them and defrost before you give them to your dog. Some online raw dog food companies, now sell bones but they are much more expensive compared to if you have a friendly butcher. I would suggest phoning around, once you have found a butcher who will let you have bones (sometimes for free!) you can stock up and freeze them. Dogs need a certain amount of bone in their diet, so this is quite important if you plan to feed raw.

You can of course mix raw with complete. As I mentioned, we give our dogs sardines, nature diet etc if we we have to. So this would be fine to do if she was staying with friends.

Have a look here http://www.naturalinstinct.com/ our dogs LOVE this food. Unfortunately, with 5 medium sized dogs, it works out expensive for us. But I think it's quite reasonable if you just have one dog. We were talking to the owner of the company at Crufts, he said he started the company because he used to spend every Sunday mixing up vast quantities of raw food for his dogs. He decided to make it easy for others. The mixes also contain bone, so you don't need to worry too much about buying bones. You can just feed a chicken wing at night to keep your dogs teeth clean. We also give ours chicken carcasses. Most butches will let you buy these as they are normally wasted once they have removed the wings, breast and legs. Our pups have chicken wings to play with from 6 weeks onwards. They of course can't eat them, but it helps with teething and it's also a wonderful way to develop their muscles as they grip on to the wing with their paws. You must remember to only feed suitable bones, and not all bones are okay to give to your doggy

There is also this company http://www.darlingsrealdogfood.com/range.php They are slightly different because you submit your dogs information (Age, weight, breed...) and they make up the food especially for you dog. I think for your dog, it would work out to about £1.60 a day. Again, I spoke to them at Crufts, and they were extremely helpful. They are also trying to put together a puppy pack, which is full of information especially for people who would liked to feed their puppy on raw.

Alternatively, you can just do what we do. We buy Prize Choice free flow chicken or tripe from our pet shop. This is frozen and can be kept defrosted in the fridge for a couple of days. We chop up our own vegetables in a blender (Carrots, swede, peppers, apples, spinach...) and keep this in the fridge. We also buy ours offal once a week such a heart.

Raw feeding always sounds hard, but it's not once you get into it. And you can just give her bits of raw here and there. So mixing tripe with her food, giving her a chicken wing at night etc. Or you can pay a bit extra and have somebody take all the hard work out of it for you You don't need to be too strict, so you can carry on feeding Orijen if you wish

Thanks for the links Sarah - you make it actually sound pretty straightforward. I will get some bits and pieces from the supermarket when I do my shop tomorrow and I will also pay a visit to Pets@Home - we've got quite a big one here. Morrisons always advertise that they are proper butchers so I wonder if they have bones out the back - anyone ever asked them?

Thanks everyone!

you could try buying some chicken wings from the supermarket?

Also if your pup likes the sardines and you wanted to stick to dry food you could try fish4dogs? they will send you a small free sample if your email them and you can see if your pup likes it

Hi Terri it is usually the small independent butches who have bones.

Did you read the link Wheaten mad posted to Darlings food, I think they are not far from you at Pewsey and they sell bones.
I think their food looks very good as does Natural Instinct . I do wish these people would do small trial packs though , a months supply in one go is a lot of money if it turns out it doesn't agree with your dog.

I have never been a great fan of complete food and feed a mixture of foods but after a new member joined from the USA and told us about the poisoned pet food scandal over there which had affected her dog I looked into just what goes into complete food I became even less of a fan. I appreciate feeding fresh or raw food isn't possible for everyone but I am tired of people saying complete food is the perfect diet and people should not give their dogs anything else.

This is why I like Natural Instinct, the man at Crufts asked us if we had ever used their products. We said 'No, we are just trying to find pre-packed raw food so our puppy owners can purchase it if they wish, rather than doing it all themselves' So he then gave us two bags of the food to take home to try The dogs went mad for it! Darlings also gave us 14 packs of air dried liver treats to give to our owners and for the 5 dogs we have at home!

I'm sure if you phoned them up, they would either send you a sample pack to try, or they may let you buy a packet. Also if you discover you dog does like it, you can order 28 days worth of food from Darlings and they will give you the first weeks food for free.

As I said to the lady on Darlings, raw food must be good because with this litter, our bitch kept trying to take the pups chicken wings and carcasses Although one day, we gave her a piece of left over roast belly pork which she decided was suitable for 5 week old puppies and went and spat it in the whelping box

I'm sure if you contact some butchers and let them know what you want the bones for, there will be somebody who will sell/give them to you. Most butchers throw away the bones and are more than happy to let you have them for the dog. Just don't feed large weight bearing bones such as shin, or marrow bones....these are too hard and may damage the dogs teeth. Chicken wings, carcasses, turkey necks, lamb ribs etc are all suitable. All bones should be large enough so they don't swallow them whole.

It is actually quite simple to feed raw, and I can guarantee that you will only have positive changes in your dog.

Thanks Wheaten for the links!

Mini, I just called them and they offered me 5kg - they do puppy packs for breeders of 1kg so I've just ordered some chicken and lamb packs.
They said the reason they pack it in big bags is that the food will get defrosted quicker when in small packs, but we'll give it a try.

my german shephard is very different he wont eat wet dog food as it upsets his tummy and gives him the runs. he likes his dry food but likes it with gravy. a good way to get the dog to eat dry food is to put a small amount of oily fish (tuna in sunflower oil) and mix the fish and oil round really well.

Yes, fish4dogs is a great food....but my miss fussy LOVES tuna, and sardines ae her most favourite thing ever.....but would sheeat fish4dogs....Not a chance! Wouldn't even lick it