My 12 month old Dobe is a very picky eater. Obviously, her favorite training treats are tiny hotdog bits, but food wise, she is not happy with anything I've tried. Prior to us owning her, she was on Purina puppy chow. The first brand I bought (before I knew better) was Purina ProPlan which she liked ok. But my new dog behaviorist/trainer said Purina is awful and she needs to be on a grain free diet so I switched her to Taste of the Wild per his recommendation. You would think that she would like this, but she doesn't. She will go most all day without eating anything and finally at night she will eat it. Maybe I should only offer it at night.
Suggestions? Any of you guys feed grain free that is better than TOTW and comparable in price?
There's a grain-free line of Costco pet food that my grandma and uncle feed their dogs. It's reasonably priced since it is Costco and I checked the ingredients it was pretty good. It's more expensive than their regular dog food which they were on before.
My own dog is now on raw food, but if I'm travelling etc. and cannot have the patties with me I give her the Orijen freeze-dried food which you rehydrate.
Did you do the switch in a gradual manner by mixing the kibble or did you just all switch it up one day?
Also be watchful, my grandmother's dog is a super picky eater but he will eat whatever I give him because he knows that's all he's getting and if he doesn't start eating within 5 minutes, I take it away and don't offer any until the next morning. On the other hand my mother or grandmother ends up feeding him, he won't eat unless they give him very specific yummy things mixed in to his kibbles, because he knows he can get away with being picky with them because they will bend to his capriciousness and give him what he wants.
If she's at a healthy weight (you can see a hint of rib but still have good padding on hips) I wouldn't worry. Better quality foods usually require less food than the junk stuff like Purina so take note of the feeding recommendations also before you get concerned.
Petfoodadvisor.com is a great resource. Grain free is the big buzz sales word but you have to carefully check those as well. I've seen "grain free" foods that have one meat source and potato in as much as FIVE different forms. It's grain free but hardly healthy or worth the premium price they get for "grain free".
Note how much she gets in treats daily too. You may want to cut the treats back some as they are usually higher in fat or junky ingredients. Better to cut the food in the bowl so they are eager to earn their food instead of always upping the jackpot value of the treats they get.
I remember how worried my grandma was over my dogs when we brought her to live with us. She "never liked dogs" but swore they weren't eating and was really worried. I wasn't as they were getting pudgy if anything. Turned out the dogs got breakfast, lunch and dinner snacks -custom made daily so they didn't get bored.
I have several food sites below, one of which teaches you how to analyse dog food so you can judge for yourself whether a food is good or not.
The dog food advisor site is good, but the Dog Food Analysis site hasn't been updated in several years and most foods have changed their formulas.
Many dog foods now include peas or legumes(beans) both of which can be hard for a dog to digest plus the gas they can produce. However, these contain protein so its a cheap way to boost overall protein to fool the purchaser. Protein is very important, but the protein source is much more important. Vegetable protein is not the digestable protein of meat. I avoid foods that have much of either of those two ingredients.
A dog needs MEAT not carbs whether its in the form of grains or vegetables. Some carbs are okay as they are used as binders, but so many manufactures use splitting to make it seem like there's not as many, like red legumes, green legumes or brown rice, white rice. While there might be a slight difference, beans are beans and rice is rice!
You should also look for named meat(ex.chicken, beef, salmon) meals, more than one, as a first and second ingredient, not just meats as just meat contains around 80% water. Manufactures love to list chicken or venison or salmon or whatever meat as a first ingredient because it looks good to the consumer. BUT once the water is removed during processing there is only 20% meat left which in actuality puts the meat much, much farther down on the ingredient list and suddenly what looked to contain a lot of meat is almost a totally carb based dog food.
I could go on and on, but its all in a link below. Educate yourself and protect your dog!
I did the switch to Taste of the Wild over a week and I did notice some gas but not too bad. Her stools certainly look much better than when she was on the puppy chow her previous owners had her on and sent her with. She was 59 lbs at the vet last month when I took her to get checked for worms and a heartworm shot so I'd say shes at a healthy weight. I can see her ribs if I look yes but otherwise shes muscular and healthy. She just picks at food all day. She might take a bite in the morning...another bite at lunch and then eats some or most of it right before we go to bed. She gets treats during training but not an excessive amount because we sometimes only give physical praise and when we give treats I cut them up into very small pieces.
It sounds like your dog might be a self-regulator then. Some dogs are good at it and it sounds to me like she's in healthy condition so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
My Keon is on purina pro plan salmon and in the morning feed he likes it plain, nothing added, but the evening meal has to have some tuna (canned in olive oil), eve if just a tea spoon, otherwise he will just sit in front of me like "is that it?"
Smokers like the habit, because of the nicotine...Coffee drinkers get hooked on the caffeine.
Many kibbles of lower quality, have salt &/or sugar added (in some form).
- otherwise the pet would be smart enough, not to eat it (given a choice)...taste enhancers have to be added in manuf.
Therefore, easier to make pets addicted, to lower quality food brands.
I will only feed a 4-5 star rated dry food.
They like their premium food, because they haven't had the other.
- our girl(s) even get last bite of what we humans are eating, but never become picky kibble eaters
- her kibble dish, is only for dry food...never doctored up
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