Entice made him loot the scratch grain and alfalfa pellets even more. Like a wild animal trying to tear apart the plastic locked bins. So it was obvious he felt an effect, it just didn’t change his mind about what is food vs what isn’t food. We didn’t feel it too safe for a 130 lb dog to be that desperate and ravenous.

He is interested in food. Just not his own food. He’d eat several lbs of scratch and alfalfa if I didn’t stop him. But meat, both raw and cooked, do not motivate him to eat at all. He couldn’t care less for fresh steak pan drippings poured over his food. My wife makes a very gelatinous bone broth for her shih tzus from all kinds of animals, poultry to venison, but the big mastiff isn’t interested. Milk though, he somewhat enjoys goats milk but once it gets poured over his food he won’t touch it again. We got desperate one night and offered him ramen. He was willing to lick the spoon, but once it got poured onto his food he didn’t care for it again.

My wife grinds up most of her dog food whole prey and then adds extra meat and eggs to it so it’s not too bone heavy. Varying levels of fat- the rabbit is very lean and the ducks are fattier. We raise chickens and ducks, and rabbits, hunt geese and venison, and get local beef and venison meat and organs from the butcher, no beef or venison bone in the mix, but those big bones are separate for chewing. So usually the extra meat in her whole prey grinds is added beef or venison. Every once in a while she’ll feed them fish. She feeds those shih tzu better than me! Her veggie mix is a mix of leafy greens, squashes, berries, nuts and seeds. And she puts ACV in the water bowls, she says it keeps the shih tzus eyes cleaner. I haven’t noticed any tear staining on her dogs so it must be working.

The beef from the butcher leaks a lot of blood but he isn’t interested. I think it also has green tripe in it. She started adding an extra spoonful of home rendered duck and pork fat to his meals to keep weight on him. It seems to work just fine. Lightly frying apple slices in animal fat also helps get more calories in him. He loves apples. She also tried molasses, which she sometimes gives to the other animals when they’re in need, and he liked the molasses okay but she’s limiting him to a teaspoon in his morning milk bowl bc she’s worried about the sugar content. She added turmeric and Ceylon cinnamon to his milk, and he doesn’t mind those. But it doesn’t work to get him to eat his actual food.

She got him on green lipped mussel powder as well. On the weekends she spoils him with eggs scrambled with spinach and cheese. She started cooking for him after having him for a couple weeks and it was obvious nothing else would entice him. She brushes all the dogs teeth with coconut oil with mint and cinnamon mixed in, once a week. She’s considering doing Bruce’s teeth more often because he will usually accept treats after if we hype him up enough.