Picky eater, what dog food to try?
 

I've been home cooking for my baby Bentley for about 5 months. He is a very picky eater and he rarely eats a good variety of food. I've just decided to try dry dog food again but I'm going to try out Blue Buffalo food for him. He's never been into eating dry dog food but I have hopes that he'll accept this. He likes tuna and they have a fish variety of small bites for small dogs. If he won't accept it I'm going to try adding mayonnaise to it as he loves mayo. I won't add a lot, just enough to coat it a little bit. Maybe that'll get him to eat it.

I know he isn't getting the right nutrients when I home cook and I have trouble remembering to mix in the vitamin powder we have for dogs. Any ideas of what foods I should try or what to do would be greatly appreciated. Bentley is 3 years old.

I probably wouldn't try mayo. It's really high in fat, which I would be hesitant because yorkies are so prone to pancretitis. Not to mention, not a very healthy option.

If you want to start adding something into dry food, I would start with some canned food. It would be a more healthier option. Wellness makes 95% meats and are great Mixers with kibble. I always mix a little wet food in with Taycie's kibble.

I love Honest Kitchen Ice Pups! I sometimes will make up a batch and pour a small amount over Taycie's food. She loves it.

I know many on here also make their own Chicken broth. That way you are able to control the sodium content and onions.

You could also Try a little bit of yogurt. Yogurt is a great supplement and many dogs love it! If I buy it I buy the greek yogurt because it's not loaded in sugar!

Hope this helps!

We buy the low fat hellmanns mayo but we do have either fat free or low fat plain yogurt. I'll try that.. Thanks!

We've tried all kinds of canned dog foods and he refuses to eat any of it, but oddly enough he'll lick clean a dish that has old dry canned food stuck to it. I don't know why. He is a very picky dog when it comes to food in general. But he does like denta-stix, greenies and some dog treat that is shaped like a filet minion and says that's the flavor. So we don't know why he is so picky with food itself. We've tried many brands of dry and canned food over the few year's he's been a part of our family (we've had him since he was old enough to be adopted). He never was a big eater. He doesn't dive in like other dogs do, he picks one piece and takes it away from the dish and eats it, comes back for another piece, takes it away to eat it, etc.

I'll try mixing yogurt with it if he won't eat the Blue Buffalo food tonight. My parents are out shopping right now and they will pick the food up for us. Thanks for the tip.

Well yogurt didnt help, neither did canola oil or cream cheese lightly mixed in. I don't know what to do. My mom refuses to stop feeding him table scraps and she is adament that its cruelty to deprive him of human food. I'm pissed. Dad goes along with it and asks my permission if he doens't know what's best for him but mom just wont go along with not feeding him human food/table scraps/licking bowls, etc.

I don't know what to do. He's not going to eat his food if mom keeps feeding him from her plate. We all know that. So I guess I'm destined to home cook for this too spoiled dog. I think I'm going to start refusing to cook food for him. If she wants for him to be fed from the table, she can do the cooking. I'm done with it.

If you pay the pup's bills and are 18 or older, just tell her to stop. If you are still young and/or don't pay his bills, my guess is it's your mom's choice.

You are right. He is not getting the right nutrients this way. You can get a diet recipe that would be acceptable, but you'd still be doing the work. An unbalanced diet over an extended period can lead to very serious health issues.

Since hs is getting table scraps, the tough love approach isn't going to work. If you can get her to stop feeding table food, then you put the kibble down and he'll eat when he knows he's not going to get anything better. No treat or bones during this time.

Please make sure to pick up those bowls that the canned food was in before he can get to it when it's old and dried out. It could be spoiled by that time and cause some major issues.

:thumbup::thumbup:
Great Post!

I am 27 living at home and have no income due to disability. My parents pay the bills for the dog. Bentley just isn't interested in teh kibble. He did eat about 8 grams of kibble (I'm now weighing his food night and around noon) yesterday. But that's it.

We are wondering if he is eating the cat food we have down on the floor for our old cat. SO, dad and I cleaned off our "junk" counter and put the cat's food up there so Bentley can't get into it. I'll give it a few more days of coaxing Bentley to eat his food and then talk to the vet about what to do. But my dad isn't relying on what so called "experts" say about feeding nothing but kibble, picking up the food in 15 mins and then trying again at next scheduled feeding time, etc. He doesn't believe it works for all dogs and we do have an exception on our hands. He's never been interested in kibble, only table food... But I'll continue to work with him to eat by playing fetch with the kibble once or twice a day and offering treats if he eats kibble. That's all I can think to do. I've exhausted Google trying to find answers for this but it seems that this is not a common problem among dogs, at least the whole lack of appetite issue. Normally the issue is eating too much.

I do know that he is not an active dog at all, he's always laying on one of us all day and sleeps at night in my parents bed. So maybe he doesn't need more than 8 grams of food a day. I don't know. That is about 20 pieces of kibble I think. I'll have to measure each kibble or a few at a time to see what the grammage is.

I know there are ways to stimulate a dogs appetite but we don't like the long term damage some of them cause such as anabolic steroids can cause osteoporosis in humans, etc.

Picky eating is very common among Yorkies. Assuming that all bloodwork is normal, it's really up to the owner to offer one food and not give it. The vet can tell you how long they feel it is safe to just offer one food and not give in.

Picky Eater
 

My Sadie (turned 1 last week) is so picky. I have tried multitudes of food - dry and wet. This is finally what is working right now. I feed her meat in the morning --- chicken breast, turkey breast, pork tenderloin --- if we have some left over. I also make her a liver meal - liver, carrots, egg shells, baby pasta & potato. It is a recipe I found for Yorkies. I make a batch and freeze 1/2 c in ziplock baggies. Therefore, she gets some kind of meat in the morning/lunch. Then for the evening she has Blue Wilderness dry food for small dogs. The absolute only way she will eat it is if it is sitting on the couch in a bowl. When we are playing fetch, she will jump on the couch, eat a kibble or two and proceed to play. It probably takes her 3 days to eat 1/2 cup, but at least she is eating some dry food now. Good luck!

Exercise will increase an appetite. Jackson is pretty picky but he has never turned down a meal after a good 2 mile walk, or even after just playing in the house for 10-15 mins (I chase him around the house and he carries a toy in his mouth! ;))

Oh-My-Goodness! Leaving the food down for Bentley is working. Finally! He's willing to eat it and eats a few pieces every once in a while. Finally! He's been to his dish twice in the last 10 minutes or so. I do notice that he eats at night when we are all asleep if I leave the food out over night... So this is promising!

I thought Gizmo was going to be a pain about eating, but what I discovered was that the bowl I had was too high and he had trouble geting his little head over it. So, I went to Target, got him a lower bowl that spreads out the kibble more, and he's good to go.

By the way, he loves his Solid Gold, Wee bit kibble. And my husband does too every once in awhile give him a chip or part of a pretzel. I get after him about it saying it's too high in salt content but it's not a common thing so it doesn't distract Giz from eating his food.


But let me tell you, he was subborn about eating.

Yeah I noticed Bentley doesn't like to eat fro bowls, even if they are small. So I have his food on a plastic teacup/coffee cup flat dish. He seems fine eating off of that. So I'll keep it that way. Little by little he is getting more comfortable eating his kibble... I"m excited! I hope tonight he eats more. Before I go to bed I'm going to weigh his food again and record it and then weigh it at noon tomorrow. Just to see how much he is eating for a while. He only has 1/2 cup on the dish which is one daily serving of food so I'm wondering how long it'll take for him to eat that whole serving.. :P