Picky,Picky...

[moto1320]

O.K., Daisy is a very finicky eater. When I first brought she picked at her food and didn't eat much on top of being a little underweight. (then... :roll: ) I mixed a cooked egg with her food (which she loves) when I was making breakfast so as to get her on my schedule and to have her eliminate in under an hour so I could get to work on time. After a couple of days we went back to dry food alright, still a little picky. Then when she was a little under the weather from a urinary tract infection (still on antibiotics) and didn't eat for almost three days. At my vets advice I gave her some boiled chicken mixed with her dry food and she inhaled it. Then she held out for chicken. I wanted to switch her over to Innova anyway and figured this was as good a time as any and went to Innova mixed with about a third of a big can of Innova wet to get her interested...slowly weeding the Nutro mixed in out over a week. She barely wants anything to do with that, I have to REALLY coax her to take a bite and then she will start eating. We have doubled our exercise and went from the 2 cups 2X a day of Nutro to a cup of Innova mixed with the wet and still not eating. When she was at the rescue she ate whatever was donated and had 10 kinds of food a week-and was a big eater, so I ruled out diet change messing up her tummy. I'm thinking that maybe she just doesn't like the Innova too much but am reluctant to change her diet AGAIN because her skin is a little flaky. I would like to cut out wet food altogether and get her nose out of the air. I know she's hungry, she sure wants my dinner. :roll: Any advice? Sorry this went kinda long, just wanted to include as many details as possible. It's starting to worry me.

[jmann4]

You might try by not mixing anything in and see if she'll eat it by itself. Or you might want to mix something she loves into the bowl in small quantities to get her started on the food.

I use liver treats crushed up and add that to their food to get them interested. But more times than not my dogs will eat when they are hungry enough.

Good Luck, oh, is the out coming along any better?

[kazuo]

When we were babysitting a finicky pup, I wiped a small amount of peanut butter on the bottom of his bowl, and poured the food on top.

I think at first I mixed it together by hand, so that all of the dry kibble had at least a small amount of peanut butter on it.

One thing Lilo really likes in bananas. Sometimes we throw a few slices in her dry food, and mix it by hand.

And then like you said, maybe she is not too wild about the Innova.

You could always try a little 6 lb. bag of the Wellness Fish & Sweet Potato (blue bag) for a change of pace. That might help her skin too.

Hope she feels better soon !

[moto1320]

That's the problem, since she's had the good stuff (chicken and eggs) she won't touch dry food plain. I starting to consider barf. For the walking schudules, I don't really want to let her eat at her whim. Also, I don't really think that I will have any dominance issues with her, but want to run a tight ship so i'm trying not to leave food down for her all day for these reasons as well. I want to give it to her and make her work for it, nothing over the top...but you know the deal. Her out is coming along great, our morning tug'o'war hour has been on hold for a couple of weeks since she has been sick her drive is nil. We played for a little while the other day though and she released every time.

Good recommend Kazuo, one of the things I mixed, which she just looovvveed, was tuna. I just can't get Wellness around here and was trying the Innova for that reason among others. I can get the Cali Naturals too though. Any experience with that? I don't have a major problem with giving her a mixed diet of kibble and eggs, meat, or fish. I just don't want overload her diet with rich protiens. I got the feeling that the Innova was already pretty hearty/rich because their feeding recommendations were 1/2 of what Nutro was. I did what they said and she hasn't lost a pound, so I figured this was the case. What do you think?

[jmann4]

Innova Dry is pretty rich, 24% crude protein is what's on my bag. The wet in a can is like 9% crude protein. So that's not going to add that much to the protein level. I would however keep feeding the fish two or three times per week. Salmon is my dogs favorite.

Glad to hear the out is coming along.

[kazuo]

I think the feeding recommendations being half of the mainstream stuff is about right since the higher quality foods lack the fillers that the big names use.

Cali Naturals looks like a good food. It does appear to be the same company that makes Innova, California Natural, and Healthwise, so I'm not sure how much variation in ingredients/taste there might be. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you weren't already aware of that. I found that on their website - http://www.naturapet.com/ .

You might have done this already, but it looks like there is a shop in Athens that carries Wellness according the oldmotherhubbard website.

Not sure how accurate that information is, just thought I'd put it here in case you didn't see it.

The Pet Store
3190 Atlanta Highway
Athens, GA 30606

Phone:
706-546-9906

[HugABull1]

Have you ever read the book "the latchkey dog"? Your situation made me think of that book right away, as half of the scenerios depicted in the book were pretty much the same as yours.

As you're fussing about her food, she's realizing she's got some control there. She's calling the shots. The more you try to entice her, the harder she will be to please. Assuming she's healthy that is.

I would right away start getting her to do some "work" for all things, but especially for her food. Dogs like to work, it makes them feel safe and secure and taken care of. First off, stop adding anything to her food that you don't plan on adding regularly. Second, set a feeding time for her and stick to it. When it's her feeding time, get her to "sit" and "wait" a distance (say 10ft, 5ft, whatever) from where her dish goes. Put down her dish, count to ten, then tell her "okay" (I'm assuming your dog knows these commands or something similar). Then ignore her completely. No praise for eating, no coercing, nothing. It would help if you ate your own food at this time, as dogs are social animals and like to eat together. After 15-20 minutes, pick up her dish and put it out of reach. She WILL NOT starve to death. Within 3 days, she will catch on, guaranteed!

Also, if she's home alone during the day, give her a "job" to do. Provide her with a lovely chewing treat (like a frozen stuffed kong) that she gets only when you go to work. Have her "sit" or "down" and "stay" in the place she usually likes to relax while you're gone. Put her in that position/spot with the command up to 15 minutes before you leave (depending on how comfortable she is with "staying" - my dogs would only last maybe 5 minutes), and as you go out the door give her her chewy item and remind her to "stay" - no prolonged goodbyes. Now she has a job to do!!! She needs to "stay". Any dog would work up an appetite after such a hard day of work!

Also, do obedience drills off and on when you are home - commercial breaks are a great time for that. If you let your dog on the furniture, get her to do something for you first, s/a "sit - down - stay - come".

I know it sounds weird, but if you practice "nothing in life is free", and remind your dog that you're in charge, and you take all the fuss (and options) away from eating, she will start to eat better and be a happier girl over all.

You can make yourself crazy trying different foods and adding different things, and eventually your little pupper will have you down on all fours sampling her liver pate to show her how tasty it is and won't she please just eat it? Or, you can remind her that you're alpha, you "hunted" up the meal, and she can eat what you provide when you provide it or go without. I assure you, she will eat and be glad that she no longer has all the worries that come with "being in charge" - they're back with you, where they belong

[moto1320]

Good tips, NILIF is already in effect. I waited for her to eat, specified times 30 min down...then is disappears, no dinner. She held out for three days. I have been catering as to keep her appetite up since she was already under weight and is now under the weather. I was spoiled by the late Riley, as he was ruled by his stomach. No amount of treats made him picky. If I would have let him he would have been a brindle beach ball. I will say though, the Iams I picked up on the fly, (his rescue was very out of the blue) when I first got him..he wouldn't touch. He was a good eater, he just didn't like it. The monster I created with Daisy took all of three days. After Riley's deal, I'm wondering if Daisy just doesn't like her food. I've read accounts of others who had a dog love one thing over another. This is honestly my first situation with a picky eater in any animal. After I get back from out of town and her antibiotics are through I am going back to holding out on her. I hope it's not the Innova because her slightly flaky skin is disappearing after only a week since the switch. I'm going to keep adding the fish though. Thanks for the tips guys. I'm going to keep looking into barf too. And thanks for the heads up Kazuo, that one shut down but I think another has opened across town. Anyone got a link or recommend for amounts to feed with barf for a given weight dog, like a protein /vegetable content chart? Peace.

[HugABull1]

oh, didn't realize your girl wasn't feeling good she's allowed to be picky then.

Hope she's feeling better soon, and then you can work on building up that appetite

[katsola]

My dog can be a picky eater. right now she is an eager eater because I found out I was feeding her too much so she's getting a little less. On occasion she gets some scrambled egg and sardines in her bowl with the dry food. She is on the Natural Balance Dry and I grate a little of the dog food log on top and she loves it. Originally she was on the Nutro too, but I heard the Natural Balance was better so I switched. Adding a little treat to it seemed to work for me too. The log is great because you can then mix it in and it doesn't take much to make her happy. Most people cut it up into treats for training, so I only put a little.

[jcolt32]

Try added Nupro to the food. It's a good supplement that comes in a joint support formula too. It's a powder you put over the dry kibble and mix with water. highly palatable and a pretty good multivitamin.

[moto1320]

Just got back in town. Daisy was at a sitters house. She ate like a champ after the first day for the whole ten days. There is something in my house and I am leaning toward her being the canary in the coal mine for mold toxins. I stopped off and had a talk with an old boss that suffered greatly from this and won a large law suit. He said that the effect on his dogs was dramatic. I'm ordering culture dishes to have the house tested....we'll see. As an aside, aparently little miss decided to smash through a plate glass window a few hours before I came to pick her up (to get at a squirell). A friend/nieghboor called to inquire as to why Daisy came over to hang out (puppy sitter wasn't home and thank god she ended up at a friend house). She has two little nicks on her head that look like shaving cuts and that's all. Go figure, now I have to buy a window tomorrow. She's feeling better though. :roll:

[jmann4]

Mold issues, never thought about that.

As to the plate glass window, Honey ran through my sliding door on one of her excited run around the house runs. It sounding like a wreaking ball hitting the house. Scarred the flipping crap out of me.

Not a scratch on her. Glass all over the place, I'm still picking the stuff up from under my deck.

It's amazing what they will do when they have their minds made up. Glad to hear Daisy wasn't severly injured.

[moto1320]

That was your girl! I knew I remembered reading something about that and thought of it when she did it. Crazy bullies. :roll:

Definately something in my house, she ate great the first night we brought her home and was very active. By the next morning she wouldn't eat and now we are going on two days with her being lethargic again and no meals- even with our long walks. My old boss used, in his case, culture dished from the clean living store that the mold breeds in so that they may be tested. As mold fires VERY powerful neuro toxins at different strains of mold ( to wipe out the different breed, they actually do battle) it can cause extreme harm to people and animals. Hell, the same things they concentrate for Biological warfare can grow in the average home. In Peter's case (old boss) an improperly installed drainage pan for his AC unit grew this stuff like crazy and filled his duct work with it. He and his wife suffered brain damage, serious and regular nose bleeds, skin rashes, passing blood, loss of motor skills, memory loss, and on and on. One of his dogs now has seizures and the other developed 6 tumors. We are moving, the thought that I now have is that possibly something in my home contributed to the illnesses cost my Riley his life and I want to f*****g puke I am so sick over it.