Help I've made a mistake!!
 

Ok so for years I've fed Lilly Natural Balance, months ago I had her on the lamb and brown rice small bites food and she was doing good on it. Long story short I started dating a guy who has a tiny chihuahua and he feeds her crappy food. We tried separating them and even tried just putting them both on the Natural Balance but his dog dropped some weight and it worried him. Honestly she was probably at the weight she needed to be and was just overeating the food that wasn't good for her. I'm pretty sure the food is very high in fat and salt as it isn't even a brand like Purina etc. Needless to say we wound up having them both on the crappy kibble. Lilly loves it... which is scary because she has always ate good but not like this. She has put on weight and his dog has put back on her weight.

The reason I had Lilly on the NB to begin with is because she has horrible skin allergies and would constantly sit around and bite/itch. Of course we are back at square one now, she is sooo uncomfortable I can tell. I feel like the worst mommy in the world for allowing this to happen. I tried to get the NB food and put her back on it and she REFUSES to eat it. She picks out the old food and won't touch the NB. I even tried feeding her just the NB and she went a whole day without eating then wound up puking the yellow bile stuff.

What do I need to do? What food do you all reccommend I try for both dogs? I need a small kibble. I think they like the nasty stuff too because it is a softer kibble. Lilly is around 9 lbs and his chihuahua is around 4.

Thanks so much in advance!!

Just curious, but what is this brand? I would put them both on the Natural Balance, put it out and leave it out for 30 minutes and if they don't eat it take it away. Or you can leave it out till the next time they are supposed to eat, and replace with fresh, keep doing this until they give in. You have to be more stubborn then they are, they can easily go a day without eating. I also wouldn’t bother to mix it, as you said, they will just pick out the part they like. It's probably healthier if they are slightly underweight rather than slightly overweight. If his dog drops too much, you can always give it healthy high calorie treats.

Well finding a quality food is step one and then being consistant about feeding only it is step 2.
I usef bits if boiled chicken and its broth to encourage mine during food change over.

A lot if people here swear by fromm abd its seems decent.

I would definitely get her off of whatever you are feeding her and get her on a grain free diet. We feed Acana and my two do well on it. They get breakfast and dinner but otherwise don't have food available to them outside of these times. They both eat it all and have always been at healthy weights.

Good luck!

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A great plan!!!

You can give nutrical on the days they refuse food during change over too

You could go to a local pet food store and get some samples of different foods to try. Maybe you'll find something your dog loves. It's worth a try. Maybe you can get them both to like the same food but a higher quality food. You can also go online to different dog food companies' web sites and request samples, but it may be best to get them from a local retailer since then you know what they carry.

I'm going to get smacked through the computer when I tell y'all but it's Purina moist and meaty dog food. I may just try to stick to what I was feeding before since I've already bought a whole bag of it and just force them to eat it.

Thanks for the comments ladies

Yuck. I'm glad you are switching back... I wouldn't feed my dog anything with corn as the first ingredient :thumbdown

Glad you are switching. The dogs will be a lot healthier for it.

I dont know if you can get james wellbeloved in the u.s, its a grain free small kibble dry dog food sam has had it since day 1 of being with me and is thriving on it, i would deffo get your baby off the "crappy" food

FROMM's Kibble is small. Mine love their Chicken a la Veg.