The Picky Puppy

681 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Raindrops, Sep 14, 2019

Getting ready

Discussion Starter · Sep 13, 2019

We’ve been training a lot and tried to vary the value of incentives. We may have made a mistake of letting Noodle try anything but kibble because now he turns his nose up at every kibble we’ve tired even when topped with good stuff. He came to us on ProPlan. We tried Instinct and Honest Kitchen. We’ve tried bone broth as a topper, cooked meats, ziwi peak, and honest kitchen pour overs. My mother’s oncologist asked that we not feed raw so that doesn’t work for us. (I’m not going to push it as she has enough on her plate.). I may try Stella and Chewys patties but had bad luck with them with my prior dogs so I’m wary. The bags seem to be very different so sometimes my other dogs would love them and sometimes would not touch them. We do feed wet food out out a squeeze baby food dispenser as a treat but I am trying not to go wet only in part because he does enjoy his snuffle May and bob a lot toys. Any ideas? He does seem to be growing like a weed despite his lack of interest in food. He went from 5 to 10 lbs in 6 weeks!

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Mfmst

· #2 · Sep 13, 2019

Paying it forward... I was frantic with Buck’s lack of appetite as a puppy. It turned out he was adjusting to his new home and schedule. I tried the 15 minute rule, and threw out a lot of kibble. I tried a lot of different brands and donated a lot of hardly consumed bags to our shelter. Someone wise on PF reassured me that no puppy or dog will starve when there is food available. I allowed him to free feed, and eventually he joined the “clean bowl” crowd, by the end of the day

I use toppers to keep the same old kibble interesting, which was my breeder’s specific suggestion. Give him time.

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mary2e

· #3 · Sep 14, 2019

I hear ya.....

My pup wouldn't eat just about anything until he was starving. I tried Primal freeze dried, Stella and Chewy, plus a bunch of kibbles.

The only food he ate happily was what we gave him when we visited my dad. And that was whatever protein we were eating.

A lightbulb went off and I realized that was what he really liked and ate happily. So I bought Honest Kitchen and Dr. Harvey's base mixes. He ate the Honest Kitchen for a bit, but when I bought Dr. Harvey's he really started eating it happily and regularly.

I also have an issue that most days he doesn't want to eat twice. If I go out, I leave him some Stella & Chewy freeze dried without hydrating, and if he's really hungry, he'll eat it. So now I'm trying to feed him only once a day.

So I have 2 foods in my arsenal that he'll eat...

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Raindrops

· #4 · Sep 14, 2019

With the pour overs does he just pick out the good stuff? Vital essentials freeze dried comes in pellets that look a lot like kibble. I use them as moderate value treats, but they're also a complete diet so that could be good to try. Just pricey to feed as diet. I use Real Meat Air Dried food as high value treats, and that is also similar to ziwipeak but it uses more spices so it smells more like human jerky. All of these are not cheap though.

I get not wanting to push raw with the oncologist. If she is concerned with bacteria though, I would be concerned whether a dog is fed raw or kibble. If you look at the studies you'll find that both diets result in some potential risks, just different risks like salmonella vs C. diff (I'd rather take salmonella on that one). Dogs get into all sorts of nasty stuff as well. So I'm kind of like :dontknow:

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