New here....need feeding advice!
 

How do you get a 1 year old (recently adopted) to eat dry food!? Her teeth are healthy, limited snacks/treats (almost none) eats canned at night, but refuses to eat dry Iams.....is there anyting else they like better? Thank you

Mine eat Wellness. You can get it at Petco if there is one by you. I have never feed canned dog food. What you may have to do is mix the can food with the dry food and slowly decrease the amount of can food over time.

Thank you, I'll try that. I've tried mixing but she eats around it, and spits out the dry. Her teeth are fine, there are no health issues. The previous owner said to just leave it out but that doesn't work w/our other dog & schedule. The previous owner also had many dogs and I think that the others were eating it, not my little girl. Thank you, I'll try switching brands.

Thanks for the info. No more grease or milk! I was unaware! I do only put the dry down in the a.m. for a few hours, then the canned at night as suggested by the previous owner. She takes the dry out of the bowl and hides it around the house. That's prob. why the previous owner thought she was eating it. I'll try switching brands and mixing w/soft, hopefully eliminating the soft all together. Thanks so much for your help and advice!

Just a lil' tip, when shopping for dog food make sure the first ingredient say's chicken not chicken meat and of course any meat will do. IAMS is known to have fillers, not the most nutritiuos food out there.

A tip the vet gave me is " A dog will not starve himself" leave his food out he knows where it is when he gets hungry he will eventually eat. It may take a whole day or even more but he will eat I promise.

There's a brand called Merrick and you add warm water and it makes instant gravy, you can slowly stop pouring less water until it's dry. But like I mention before leave dry food out and he will eventually come around.

Hope it helps.

Oh one more thing I would like to add.

There's nothing wrong with giving them healthy wet food. Whether they eat dry or wet it's always a good idea to brush their teeth.

Welcome to YT! Glad you are here!!

OK GOT IT! NO MILK OR BACON GREASE, EVER AGAIN! Thank you all for your advice. I'll try the better dry food, mixing w/soft and see how that goes. I guess she just doesn't like the Iams. We'llwork it out!
thanks again to all!

Magnus was on Iams but is currently munching happily on Wellness for pups. I changed to different brand after reading that Iams isn't exactly at the top of the list for good foods. If you still have a tough time getting your furball to eat dry food, maybe you can get some "FortiFlora" by purina one and sprinkle some on it. It worked pretty well for my pup. Good luck!

Same Here.

After you have done your research and picked the brand of food you want...you can do a couple of things. Wet the dry food a bit...the extra water is actually very good for them. Or mix the can as previously stated. Quality can food is very good for them...more like "real" food. But the biggest factor is not what you feed, but how you feed them! You need to put her food down, leave it for 20 minutes. Pick it up. No food or treats until the next feeding time. Put it down, wait 20 minutes...pick it up. Within a day or so she will be eating readily anything you put down. I brought my new rescue home and switched her from a poor quality kibble to raw within 2 days without any bad reaction by following the above procedure. The only thing I did the first day to "ease" her transition was to lightly cook the raw and add a little of her old kibble....but she received the same bowl of food for 3 offerings before she decided that she should eat. Now she waits eagerly for both her meals, and clears her bowl within 10 minutes! This method of feeding not only helps prevent "pickiness", but also helps you keep track of what your pup is eating and whether or not they are ill. My schnauzer suffered from a pancreatic attack and the first sign she was ill was her refusal to eat her breakfast! No word of a lie, it is hard to see them go without food, but it will not hurt a healthy dog...and the trouble/worry it saves you from having a picky eater is all worth it in the end.

What was her diet prior to being adopted? How long have you had her? How is her body weight?
I had luck transitioning my 13 year old by wetting the dry (let it soak up the water (boil cold water, don't add hot tap water)) and mixing it with canned, or pureed chicken (make it so fine or liquid so it cannot be picked out, You could try putting the dry in a blender to make it a smaller size, also.

Be sure to give her only a small amount of canned, or decrease the amount with each feeding. Sometimes, once they eat a tablespoon or so of something they like, their appetite kicks in and they may eat some of what they think they don't like to get full.

Try sprinkling some Parmesan cheese on top... kind of stinky but many like it.

Note from a Vet: It is better for a dog to eat a bad food than no food at all.