Cry for help... Ready to give up....

[Symph2001]

Since I adopted Miss Millie in June she has gone through a number of different foods as well. She really does not like kibble at all. i finally decided to go holistic with her meals.

I got a nice holistic kibble and found a wonderful recipe for lamb and rice that can be switched out with most any ground meat (beef, lamb, turkey or shredded chicken). The recipe should be halved if you have one small dog. i make enough for my Yorkie and my sisters 2 Chi's. It also makes enough to keep for a week in the fridge or what I do I put it into a bunch of individual containers and freeze it. that way if she tires of it I can offer her something else for awhile. I will also mix just a bit of kibble in with it to test the waters but she usually picks most of it out.


Loki's Lamb and Rice

1lb. ground meat (your choice)
1 cup brown rice
1 med stalk broccoli
2 med. potatoes
2 carrots
1 clove garlic

Brown meat in a pan. Add minced garlic. Put 4 cups of water on to boil in a cook pot or crock pot. Chop up the rest of the ingredients and place in the water. After meat is browned drain off any fat and put into the pot with rice making sure there's enough water to cover. Let it simmer till all water has been absorbed. Let cool and place in storage containers and/or serve.

A serving for mine is 1/2 to a full cup.

So far serving it every other day has worked really well.

[ILoveBingoo]

my dog can be the same way i think whats best is to switch up her menu everyday even if its a certain brand dont always give chicken switch to beef or liver because dogs as well as humans get tired of eatting the same stuff often my dog isnt a picky eater esp when it comes to table food but dried dog food he dosnt like but he will eat the cesares wet food and not mighty dog wet but if i give him the same one for like a couple of days straight he will stop eatting it also u can also mix the dried and wet food sometimes togther anyway i think if u switch up she may get use to it and maybe if u give her like a chicken nugget once and a while that would be a good treat for her my dog was raised on chicken the petshop where i got him from was giving him that so he got use to that and i had to give him it but i dont give it to him much i hope this helps...

[ILoveBingoo]

oh i also forgot my friend told me not to feed in to them not eatting because he or she will eventually get hungry and have to eat it but if u see that she or he wont touch it for a couple of days than thats best when to start worrying but if she see's u change it all the time she is getting her way i dont know i use to be like that until my friend thought me to be alittle tuff lol..

[rebecca127]

Originally Posted by Monday

rather than repeat what I wrote a while ago ... go to this link http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...ml#post2437795

I had such a problem and THE HONEST KITCHEN food saved my dog's life.
I recommend it highly you can get some samples size on ebay (so you do not have to lay out too much money) and find what Abby may like.

It is a dehydrated raw diet in different flavors. All you do is ate hot water. My girls like FORCE.

or try this site to get a sample size.
Click here: THE HONEST KITCHEN DOG FOOD - FORCE 1 OZ SAMPLE~ TRY IT
if this does not work, use the link on the site I sent you to originally.

*** Hey Monday,

I caved in... I ordered samples on everything....

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!! I am so desperate at this point I'll do anything...

I am so jealous all the time of ppl whose dogs and cats eat so well... and they'll eat anything and they are healthy and great....

My coworker has 4 yorkies and she tells me she just buys what she finds at costco... I am like OMG I wish I could do that!!!!!!!!!!!

It just is so frustrating when I call her to eat... I am like " EATING TIME" and she will come running to see what is in the bowl and she takes one wiff and walks away and gets a toy and plops it right on my lap and wants to play. When I tell her " NO it is eating time now" she stops goes to the bowl eats 2 pieces of kibble and continues playing.

Sometimes I have to pretend that her toy is eating out of the bowl so she can eat... or I even make believe I am giving my mother's bird her food so that she can eat... I just feel that I have gone to the extreme to make her eat...

[mscat]

I saw an eposoide on It's Me Or The Dog where the dog dod not like eating his food unless the owner was standing right there. The dogs was fed in the Laundry room where he was often shut in after being naughty... Victoria moved his food and water bowl into the kitchen and sure enough the dog ate his entire food!
Perhaps moving her food somewhere else will entice her to eat better? Just a thought!

[dogbert]

Maybe she just likes variety, try alternating all the foods you have and see if she will eat them again if you only give one to her for a day or two at a time then switch off to another. As a rule if you switch foods without mixing them a bit the dog will have runny stool, so watch out for that.

[Monday]

Originally Posted by rebecca127

*** Hey Monday,

I caved in... I ordered samples on everything....

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!! I am so desperate at this point I'll do anything...

I am so jealous all the time of ppl whose dogs and cats eat so well... and they'll eat anything and they are healthy and great....

...

I hear you! I have 2 Yorkies and one (Monday the brunette) will be so picky and the other one (Friday the blondie) would eat sawdust if given to her. But I really have found that the Honest Kitchen was the best investment I have ever made.

I am glad you ordered the sample sizes first.

[Lexismom09]

Today I went home at lunch. Well the cat decided EVO small bites is great. The dog growled, the cat hissed, I watched. Neither one backed down and they ate side by side the EVO dry kibble! Moral of the story get a fat cat!
All kidding aside, I feel your frustration. It is normal to worry about our baby and want them to be healthy. The advice here has helped me alot. If nothing else you know you are not alone. Don't give her away, I think you love her to much to do that anyway, thats why your posting here!

[stedmansmommy]

I have not read through all of the replies so I'm sure that something similar to what I am about to post has already been posted but, here goes...

My Stedman was always a REALLY picky eater - not only with his dog food, but even with his treats. He had gotten soo skinny at one point that it literally looked like I was starving him. Obviously I wasn't, it's just that HE didn't want to eat. When I would give him a bath and he was soaking wet, you could just SEE how skinny he was - his little ribs and even his spine. I mean he didn't look MALNOURISHED like some of these dogs do that you see on all the animal cop shows on Animal Planet, but he was *extremely* skinny none the less - way TOO skinny. And I knew he was hungry because I could hear his stomach growling soo loudly all the time - and he would throw up the yellow bubbly bile because he was just so darn hungry.

Like you, I tried a gazillion different foods and like your baby, my Stedman would eat the new food and love it for the first few days, and then he would show absolutely NO interest in it what so ever and he would just flat out stop eating all together.

I used to feed twice a day, and then I decided that because he was like this, that I had to start free feeding again and just leave the food out all day long - literally, day and night - never taking it up. Since I have started this he now eats whenever he is hungry. He still isn't a big eater, but he DOES eat and he doesn't look nearly as skinny as he used to. He is still a very tiny guy, but not so skinny to where I can actually see a bunch of bones sticking out anymore.

My advice is this - find a food that she seems to really love and eat the MOST at one time. Once you find that food, STICK WITH IT. *Do not* give her a new/different food 3 or 4 days after she stops eating the other food. You have to let her know that her pickiness is not going to get her whatever she wants. Once you find a food that she seems to enjoy, stay with that exact food and leave it down where it is accessible to her 24/7 and do not take it up. Once she knows that this is ALL she will be given, she will learn that she has to eat it when shes hungry because nothing else is going to be given to her. Trust me, after a while, she will catch on and get the hang of it and she WILL eat when her little tummy tells her that enough is enough of being hungry. It worked like a charm with my Stedman and he was the pickiest dog I had ever seen in my entire life. He would even turn down HUMAN FOOD - now what the heck kind of dog actually turns down HUMAN FOOD when you offer it to them? Not many.

Good luck with your baby girl. And by the way, I feed Natural Balance Potato & Duck Small Bites (it is Grain Free and is great for allergies as well, which my Tatum has) - and my Stedman really seems to love this food. He was a little picky with it at first, but now he eats it really well

[Jacqulyn]

Originally Posted by mscat

I saw an eposoide on It's Me Or The Dog where the dog dod not like eating his food unless the owner was standing right there. The dogs was fed in the Laundry room where he was often shut in after being naughty... Victoria moved his food and water bowl into the kitchen and sure enough the dog ate his entire food!
Perhaps moving her food somewhere else will entice her to eat better? Just a thought!

My mother has 4 Yorkies that will only eat if she is home, and they will only eat in her bedroom. I don't have any advice on the feeding, you have tried everything that I could ever recommend. But this post struck my eye and thought that I would share the behavior of my moms dogs.

[journey826]

Originally Posted by rebecca127

Hey it has been a while since I have posted anything or answered any posts... I have to admit I have been a little preoccupied with work and I graduated college in June....

But....

I AM LITERALLY AT MY WITS END WITH MY BABY ABBY!

I have spent A LOT of money on dog food... and I have tried everything....

Let me list all the food I have bought in the past year and a half... (and it ranges from cheap to real expensive... I will try anything to make her eat)

Cesars, Wellness Core and another type of wellness (dry and Wet), Home Cooking, Timberwolf, Prarie, NV, Stella and Chewys (forzen and freeze dried), Merricks, California's Natural, Innova (Dry and Wet), Canidae, Newmans Organic, Beneful, Canine Caviar, Royal Canine, Nutro dry, Blue, Evo, and finally ... Solid Gold Wee Bits which she is on right now.

She eats this for 3 or 4 days and just decides she doesnt want it anymore and refuses to eat it and I have to buy new food.

I have bought countless supplements to add to her food and I have tried adding gravy, oils and everything you can think of to make her eat.

She is going to be 2 on June 24 and weight 3 lbs and 5 ounces and the vet says she needs to put on a pound or two and her bloodowrk and everything is fine...

I have just ordered samples from Halo foods to see if that works...


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME ... This is a cry for help and I do not know what to do anymore... I cant afford to be buying diffrent foods every week so she can eat.... Last night I actually admitted that if she continues like this I was going to give her away!!!

Any help is much appreciated... this a call for help.....

Rebecca

I think you have described the problem (too many food changes).

My cousin went through the same exact thing as you with her boy.Vet visit with blood work checked out fine and the Vet continued to tell her to put some weight on him.I think some yorkies are going to be thinner (healthy) no matter what you do.

You actually have two problems, her finicky eating and her thinness; you will have to treat each seperate. first get her eating what you put down,then work on her weight.Trying it together is going to keep you circling.

If you stick to a food and not give in when she is finicky she will learn to eat what you give her.She will not starve herself.

BTW: this worked for my cousin, her boy is 3 and healthy but still under weight(from what the Doctor says).She also said free feeding helped so much.

[mscat]

Originally Posted by Lexismom09

Today I went home at lunch. Well the cat decided EVO small bites is great. The dog growled, the cat hissed, I watched. Neither one backed down and they ate side by side the EVO dry kibble! Moral of the story get a fat cat!
All kidding aside, I feel your frustration. It is normal to worry about our baby and want them to be healthy. The advice here has helped me alot. If nothing else you know you are not alone. Don't give her away, I think you love her to much to do that anyway, thats why your posting here!

LOL , that is funny ....

[rebecca127]

Once again guys, I thank you for all your suggestions.

I got home today and I put the Solid Gold Wee Bits in her bowl and once again she came running to see what was in the bowl and I said "EATING TIME" She took one kibble, ate it and ran away to get a toy to play... I was ready to loose it...

So I remember I saw an episode of Its Me or the Dog and Victoria Stillwell had mentioned something about turning your back to the dog when they are doing something ou do not want them to do. So I did just that, I gave her food in the kitchen and I told her its eating time and I turned my back. I heared silence and then I heard her eating. I had to this same process at least 5 times so she could at least eat 75% of the food....

I am going to give this process a try for a while to see if she thinks that by me coming home = immediate playtime ... If that is the case then i will continue what I did tonight...

Secondly, I do not want to give her up... THAT WOULD BE THE LAST LAST LAST RESORT... but it is very frustrating to deal with this day in and day out since the day I got her... It drives me crazy at work, when I am out, when I am trying to have good time... All I think about is WHAT THE HELL IS SHE GONNA EAT TOMORROW MORNING OR FOR DINNER... It completey drives me nuts...

I would love a reciepe to help her gain weight too... I remember reading something about mini meatballs or something I do not know where that thread is....

So, in conclusion, Abby at 75% of 1/4 cup of solid gold wee bits for dinner TODAY... Let see tomorrow morning...

Thanks again guys....

[QuickSilver]

Good luck! I know it's frustrating. I haven't tried nearly as many foods as you have, but I had the same experience with Wee Bits with Thor. He is very picky, and I was thrilled when he wolfed down his Wee Bits. I bought a huge bag and he ate them and ate them for an entire week, at which point he lost all interest. I tried Barking At The Moon, same thing. Innova Primal never really got off the ground.

I don't remember how much you said your baby weighs, but it is amazing how little food they need. Thor is 4 lbs and eats *1/3 cup of dog food per day*. And he's perfectly healthy and bouncy.

I will keep my fingers crossed that your baby keeps eating with your new technique.

[rebecca127]

Originally Posted by stedmansmommy

My advice is this - find a food that she seems to really love and eat the MOST at one time. Once you find that food, STICK WITH IT. *Do not* give her a new/different food 3 or 4 days after she stops eating the other food. You have to let her know that her pickiness is not going to get her whatever she wants. Once you find a food that she seems to enjoy, stay with that exact food and leave it down where it is accessible to her 24/7 and do not take it up. Once she knows that this is ALL she will be given, she will learn that she has to eat it when shes hungry because nothing else is going to be given to her. Trust me, after a while, she will catch on and get the hang of it and she WILL eat when her little tummy tells her that enough is enough of being hungry. It worked like a charm with my Stedman and he was the pickiest dog I had ever seen in my entire life. He would even turn down HUMAN FOOD - now what the heck kind of dog actually turns down HUMAN FOOD when you offer it to them? Not many.

Good luck with your baby girl. And by the way, I feed Natural Balance Potato & Duck Small Bites (it is Grain Free and is great for allergies as well, which my Tatum has) - and my Stedman really seems to love this food. He was a little picky with it at first, but now he eats it really well

Dear Steadmansmommy:

I COULDNT AGREE WITH YOU MORE!!!!!!! She has gone to the point of refusing human food tooo!!!!! grilled skirt steak!!!!! who the hell says no to that..... sometimes i am so amazed about the things she doesnt like!!!!!!