Fat Balls/satin Balls

[3DogNite]

12 yr Rascal, usually an ok eater has REFUSED everything! and recently have resorted to "whatever he wants to eat, he can have!" and he can have as much as he wants, when he wants to eat! kibble, canned, a mix of both, tripe, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, Pizza. he wants non of it!

I have resorted to literally forcing can food or the pre packaged raw diet,,,anything down his throat just to have something in his tummy.

 

he has lost quite a bit of weight after being on antibiotics for almost 2 months for a bone infection, I thought once the antibiotics are done he'll go back to eating like a Normal dog..... NOT!

 

he ate some of the "Tuna's meat loaf" recipe,, but his interest in that didn't last.

 

he will only eat Treats (any crunchy commercial dry treat) and FAT BALLS!!! oh and he'll do an occasional Raw Turkey neck

 

Can he live on Fat Balls, or Satin balls? he will gladly take 5-9 meat balls from me every time he comes walking by. so he could easily be eating 20-25 meat balls a day!

 

he is drinking, pee'ing, pooping normally, and the infection seems to be gone!

he recently had a dental, and his teeth still look good

 

i don't ' love the idea of making fat balls every week = the recipe is for 10 lbs of meat and all the ingredients, he is eating the whole batch in one week.

on the plus side, he has gained back his lost weight, and his coat is shinny and smooth! just am wondering about basic nutrition for the long term.

 

Thanks!

[ahicks51]

Watch for pancreatitis, but depending upon what you're putting into them, fat is very nutritious- as is meat. Carbs are superfluous- entirely unnecessary from a nutritional standpoint, although they will help with weight gain.

 

An interesting food note: pemmican is a 50/50 mix of powered dried meat, and rendered saturated fat. If prepared at a low temperature, the vitamin C is not broken down, and as a result a human can live on pemmican with no additional supplementation for weeks at a time. With some small addition of vitamin C, a human can live on this indefinitely. I have one correspondent who has lived on nothing but raw ground meat, supplemented with pet-grade organ meats- for four years. Yes, I know- a little disturbing, but it's cured him of a wicked stomach ailment. No joke.

 

Anyway- dogs (like almost all other animals) produce their own vitamin C, so this is not even a consideration. I mean, I'd throw in some organ meat- liver, kidney, brains (if you can get them)- and mix up the species if you can: mostly bovine, with some chicken and turkey, maybe with a bit of pork if you care to. Meat is exceedingly nutritious to carnivores like dogs- pretty much the only supplementation I'd do is with a bit of kelp (to add some iodine, ensuring sufficiency of that element), and fish oil (to help bump up the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio, as corn-fed beef is too high in omega 3's).

[queenwinniesmom]

I didn't really know the answer to your question---and you got some great info there---but I just wanted to send Rascal a hug from me and his sweetie Polly.

Precious boy, you gotta eat some normal stuff!

[Guest Hoolyghans]

What about gradually sneaking in some soaked kibble to the satin ball mixture? Let it get good & mushy before mixing so it's hard to detect. Say 1 cup in the first batch, 1 1/2 cups the next etc.

Maybe you can get him back on kibble that way or at least cut the cost down a bit if he insists on the yummy stuff.

[FiveRoooooers]

Good idea to try soaking kibble and adding it to the meatballs. You could also try pulverizing the kibble in your blender and adding it that way.

[Batmom]

Is he getting something like Pepcid for his tummy? If appetite is off, I usually give 1 regular-strength Pepcid (generic is 10mg famotidine), wait 30-40 minutes, feed, then give any other meds. You'd want to check for medication interactions but Pepcid is a little different from most antacids and doesn't interact with much.

Could add calcium and vitamin supplements if you're concerned.

 

I don't know what exactly is in the fat balls / satin balls. You could use lower-fat meat if you're concerned. We feed 80/20 ground beef in large quantity here and have never had a problem, but all dogs are different.

[3DogNite]

Is he getting something like Pepcid for his tummy?

 

 

Yes, while he was on the antibiotics he got pepcid regular basis. i'll add that back into the mix. just in case.

 

And it is a good idea to crush and add the dog food into the fat balls. I'll do that on this next go around!

 

Thank you ~ good ideas.

 

I am resisting going full on raw food ~ for whatever little reasons, they usually aren't good, but it seems sooooo expensive to me. And Rascal does like the turkey neck, however I have to HOLD onto one end while he eats it, he just doesn't understand the lay-down, use your paws to hold the object, method. He typically trys to eat the neck in one crunch/swallow!

[ahicks51]

Add in chicken necks if you care to. Locally they're about $.69 a pound, and while they still swallow them whole, it's a little less distressing than watching a tom turkey neck the size of your forearm going down the gullet.

[DevilDog]

I think your title is misleading. I was somewhat disappointed. lol.

 

Great advice here. I have non.

[3DogNite]

I think your title is misleading. I was somewhat disappointed. lol.

 

Great advice here. I have non.

 

 

sorry for the dissapointment! .... maybe more coffee would be a good idea for me!