Please help. My dog hates dog food.

[gracielove]

I have an 11 month old Yorkie. After reading a lot of the info on this site I am very grateful that my dog is quite healthy except for her diet. She has never liked dog food. I started her on HALO when I first got her and she would never eat enough of it for her age. I changed her to Blue Buffalo and she hated it. She actually runs away when she sees dog food. It is not that she is not hungry. She will try to get into the cat food and will gobble up any little bit she might find. I feed the cats on their own table where she cannot reach it but they sometimes push some off the edge and she will get it. She begs for human food and will bark at us for not giving it to her. In desperation I started making her food myself thinking she would think it was human food. Well, she liked it the first day and generally refused it ever since although sometimes she will eat some if I feed her by hand. I have been giving her some chewable supplements that she likes but am concerned that she is not getting the nutrition she needs. She is very active and loves to play and go for walks. I now have Taste of the Wild and she might nibble on a piece now and then but is not eating enough. I have tried the Taste of the Wild can food but she runs from that too. She weighs 4 pounds and is a little girl. I am so concerned about her future health because of he lack of proper nutrition. Is there anything I can put on her food to make her like it? I have tried things like chicken broth and beef broth from the foods I make her. She does not like cottage cheese or yogurt. I am so desperate that I pretend to eat her food to get her interested in eating it. She doesn't fall for it though. I would appreciate any suggestions.

[Princess10]

You can try sprinkling a little parmesan cheese on it or mixing in some green beans or even peas or small cut carrots.

There's also The Honest Kitchen which is dehydrated food you can either sprinkle the crumbs on the food or make it into a gravy & pour that over it.

[Brooklynmommie]

My brooklyn does the samething. He does not like his dog food either.I have nutro and pro pac het rather eat the food we eat. I feed him from my hand he eats alot but will not eat out of his dog bowl...

[Ellie May]

Yorkies are a notoriously picky breed. You have tried everything that I would have suggested. What people foods have you tried? How long do you leave a bowl of kibble out while giving her nothing else to see if she will eventually eat?

I'd be concerned that she is running away from some of it and the issue has gone on for so long. While likely just a behavioral thing, when was her last blood work? ALT, ALKP, BUN numbers? Have you ever considered bile acids testing to see how her liver is functioning? Liver compromised dogs sometimes refuse food because it makes them feel sick (and I uspose the same could be said for those with intestinal issues). Stool always formed and brown? Any vomiting?

[gracielove]

She has vomited only about 4 times since she was a puppy. No diarrhea at all. I make sure there is no food down at night so she goes without anything available until morning. When we eat she begs for food. She is always hungry but refuses dog food. I make her a mix of chicken or beef with brown rice or sweet potatoes and vegetables. She will eat some if I hand feed her and having the cats act like they want it seems to peak her interest. It is just so frustrating and time consuming to do this and as I have said I am concerned about her long term health.
I can't leave the dry food down too long because the cats will eat it if I don't protect it. They love the Taste of the Wild food. Gracie isn't impressed with it. I have seen her eat a piece of two of it that is on the floor and not in the dish so I leave some on the floor and sometimes she will eat a few pieces of it.

[gracielove]

Originally Posted by Princess10

You can try sprinkling a little parmesan cheese on it or mixing in some green beans or even peas or small cut carrots.

There's also The Honest Kitchen which is dehydrated food you can either sprinkle the crumbs on the food or make it into a gravy & pour that over it.

Do picky eaters like the Honest Kitchen food?

[dogdoc1969]

I have finally found a food all 3 of my Yorkies eat. I live in Fort Lauderdale, Fl and get it at a store (The Doggy Store) that is family owned (they have a 19 year old Yorkie plus 3 other dogs).
They designed it with a PHD in animal nutrition and it's called "Brothers Complete". Apparently it's so expensive to make they only sell it in their store directly to their customers (including me) but I understand you can order it at their Online store and they'll ship it for free. I must admit that I have learned quite a bit about dog nutrition from them. Their food was recently reviewed on DogFoodAdvisor and got the highest rating (5 stars). It has no grain or white potato (both seem to give my dogs stomach upset) plus it has digestive enzymes and special probiotics strong enough to survive the strong stomach acid of a dog. Another thing I think helps is that is has a coating of freeze dried liver. Whatever it is, my three rascals finally come running when I open the food drum. It took a few weeks to get all of them to finally realize they wouldn't get stomach distress from it and now the love it.

[BanditSocks2]

What would happen if you just put the dog food in the cats bowl? Any chance she would eat it? Wellness worked VERY well for my picky eater, and Innova too, although he doesn't eat it as eagerly it's been amazing for his stomach and he does eat it Good luck!

[lexxicakes]

my dog goes crazy for the honest kitchen food... we used to feed him blue bluffalo and then switched to acana which he LOVED like crazy... until we started feeding him an honest kitchen sample pack for an occasional treat. Now he doesn't want the acana and will wait around for a little while to see if we'll give him some honest kitchen too.

my bentley is entirely grain free so we do the embark and he loves it. as im making it the dogs always follow me around the kitchen and sit until im finished.
they have 2 sample pack sizes and theres a bunch of different types... i'm thinking about switching bentley to it entirely but i worry that he needs something to chew and not just soft wet food all the time.

[gracielove]

Originally Posted by dogdoc1969

I have finally found a food all 3 of my Yorkies eat. I live in Fort Lauderdale, Fl and get it at a store (The Doggy Store) that is family owned (they have a 19 year old Yorkie plus 3 other dogs).
They designed it with a PHD in animal nutrition and it's called "Brothers Complete". Apparently it's so expensive to make they only sell it in their store directly to their customers (including me) but I understand you can order it at their Online store and they'll ship it for free. I must admit that I have learned quite a bit about dog nutrition from them. Their food was recently reviewed on DogFoodAdvisor and got the highest rating (5 stars). It has no grain or white potato (both seem to give my dogs stomach upset) plus it has digestive enzymes and special probiotics strong enough to survive the strong stomach acid of a dog. Another thing I think helps is that is has a coating of freeze dried liver. Whatever it is, my three rascals finally come running when I open the food drum. It took a few weeks to get all of them to finally realize they wouldn't get stomach distress from it and now the love it.

I went to The Doggy Store website to check this out. Apparently the Brothers Complete website is down right now. Maybe your post stressed the site! It sounds really good from the video I watched. I have noticed that a lot of the grain free foods do use white potatoes and I don't like that at all. They are not good for people to eat in large amounts much less put a dog on them daily. The Doggy Store does have samples available so I'm going to order them. My one concern is that it is rather high in protein. The thing is a food can have really great ingredients but if the dog will not eat it the ingredients are doing no good.
If my cats have not eaten in a few hours they will scramble to get the Taste of the Wild when I put it down. Gracie just watches them eat it and might grab a piece but that is it.
I wonder if there is anyway to get The Honest Kitchen samples? I have to order online as we have no local stores that sell quality dog foods.

[ritapatt]

Ziva is not a big eater and with 5 people in the house she wants people food. She will only eat dog food -TOTW- when there is nothing else in sight.She also liked Solid gold wee bits and could eat that faster when she got hungry.
She eats 1/3 c a day, 1 tsp cottage cheese, 1 tsp chicken or beef and a lot of that is in the evening when all other people food is put away, I feed her from a flat dish (corning ware sidekicks), in a room by herself- I sit down with a cup of tea and the newspaper and try to ignore her.Any distraction and the food is forgotten.

[ArmaniMan]

Originally Posted by gracielove

I went to The Doggy Store website to check this out. Apparently the Brothers Complete website is down right now. Maybe your post stressed the site! It sounds really good from the video I watched. I have noticed that a lot of the grain free foods do use white potatoes and I don't like that at all. They are not good for people to eat in large amounts much less put a dog on them daily. The Doggy Store does have samples available so I'm going to order them. My one concern is that it is rather high in protein. The thing is a food can have really great ingredients but if the dog will not eat it the ingredients are doing no good.
If my cats have not eaten in a few hours they will scramble to get the Taste of the Wild when I put it down. Gracie just watches them eat it and might grab a piece but that is it.
I wonder if there is anyway to get The Honest Kitchen samples? I have to order online as we have no local stores that sell quality dog foods.

You can order hk samples on their website.

[Ahmzz]

Madison has also become picky but she knows not to bark for human food since she's never been fed from our plates. That starts a horrible habit. Maybe try feeding the Natural Balance food roll. Canned dog food Madison LOVES is Merrick's Puppy Plate (looks and smells like human food!). I'll just take some kibble and soften it with hot water from the sink and mix it with the canned Merrick. It's gone in under 3 mins!

[mackenzie2270]

I buy Evengers for my girls and they love it. I get the chicken and sweet potato. You can go online to their website and see how it is made. It is a great dog food and their coats are really shiny. I know that the pet food stores in vegas have the samples you might try to contact the to see if you can get some of the samples. It is a human grade food. The site web site is evengers.com

Linda, Sassy and Patti

[terrilynncs]

Someone else on here in a different post was saying that the new Nature's Variety LID dog foods are grain and potatoe free... that might be worth trying.
Also my Yorkie will NOT eat food from a bowl or plate or dish, so i just put on the floor.... maybe she's having problems with the bowl??? I know that sounds funny. Good luck... I would keep trying different foods.... I know how scary it is when they don't eat.... just remember she's little so she really probably doesn't need as much food as you think she does.