How can you tell if your dog is hungry? I want to be sure I know the signs, because the thought of Mona being hungry bothers me.
When we started raw two weeks ago, we fed 2.5% of her body weight, or 8 ounces. About a week into it, I thought Mona was looking thinner, although the scales said she hadn't lost any weight. To be on the safe side, I bumped her meals up to at least 10 ounces, sometimes more like 12. A week later, and the scales still read 20 pounds. So far, she doesn't appear to be losing weight.
However, her behavior is causing me to rethink how much she should be eating. She has had several pig ears since we got her. In these past few months, she has not paid much attention to them. In fact, I'm not sure she'd ever chewed on a single one. She's just not a chewer. But last night, she ate an entire pig ear over the course of about 15 minutes. An impressive feat, considering I've never seen her chew on any one chew toy for more than two or three minutes. I thought it was a little unusual, but brushed it off. Tonight, she's eating another one. She's already eaten about half of it, and I expect the other half will be gone in a few minutes.
As a side note: I realize that, being raw fed now, Mona probably shouldn't have these pig ears. I suppose it's because she never chewed on them, but I just never thought about getting rid of them. And seeing how much she's enjoying them now, it makes me wonder... Is it really that bad to let her have a pig ear every now and again?
Anyway, she's gone from hardly ever chewing anything to demolishing two pig ears in as many days. Is this because she's desperate for something to eat? So this entire post is mostly just to say... What are signs that your dog is not getting enough to eat? Aside from the dog losing weight, or I suppose even hearing her stomach growl, what other signs of hunger should I look for?
I know my dogs are hungry if
ReplyDelete1) I hear their stomachs growl,
2) they stand around by their crates or the refrigerator,
3) they get REALLY excited if I go in the kitchen, or
4) they sit right at my feet staring at me, and as soon as I get up they run to the crates. Lol.
Dogs on raw tend to be a little leaner than dogs fed krapple, but if the scale says she hasn't lost anything, then...well, she hasn't.
I'm sure the pigs ears won't kill her. I still give my boys rawhides, because they like them and they're a clean chew toy to have around the house. You know, she might not have ever chewed them before because she didn't really understand chewing before. Maybe now that she's fed raw, she understands the value of a good jaw workout. She's had a lot more practice. Just my two cents.
Candice and the dogs, Toby and Ryder