Hi Mallory, I'm sorry for the delay in responding to your question, and hope by now your starter is rising well! Patience normally does pay off when it comes to creating a starter. If you're worried about going through all your flour before you have your starter up and running, you might want to consider maintaining a smaller starter, at least until your starter is rising well. You might also want to consider trying the alternative feeding routine suggested to us by microbiologist and sourdough baker, Debra Wink, who found that lowering the pH of the starter environment seems to help pave the way for the wild yeast to kick in. Here's the plan:

1. Feed once a day. 

2. Feed with whole wheat or whole rye flour, if available. If not, unbleached AP flour is okay. 

3. Feed with a ratio of 2 parts starter : 1 part water : 1 part wholegrain flour, by weight. For example, for the smaller starter that would be 30g starter : 15g water : 15g wholegrain flour. 

Once your starter begins to rise predictably (twice), it's important to return to twice a day feedings, which will further promote yeast development. You'll also want to gradually transition to feeding with AP flour and increase the water/flour percentage so you're feeding once again with a 1:1:1 ratio, by weight. 

It's not uncommon for the starter to act sluggish when you change it's feeding routine, as the organisms need time to adjust, but when the starter begins to rise predictably once again, then you should be good to go! 

I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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