culinary snob of a dog

[antony]

  Ever the culinary snob, Marmalade our12 week old cocker, was, up until last week, quite happy to be fed on a diet soley  consisting of a dry complete pup food.

Wanting our delightful new pup to sample other textures foods and tastes, we introduced along with the dry food, a few extra bits of chicken. She loved her new treat. However, she has now decided that she no longer wants dry food apart from the treats she gets, and will only eat chicken or meat.

I've tried mixixng in dry food with the meat, but clever dog just picks the meat out and is prepared to starve rather than touch ANY dry food.

We would like to give her a mixed diet, and not one soley of meat, but are rather at a loss as to what to do. Any advice would be appreciated   

[sharesy]

I have to mix chicken with Kallis food, i feed her JWB and i put a little warm water and cooked chicken with it and mix it in with my fingers.   The things we do

[Cob-Web]

If you want to avoid a fussy dog - then my (very cruel mummy) method is to cut out all treats, all added extras and just offer the complete food at each meal - put it down on the floor for 15 minutes and then lift until the next meal 

As long as you don't give in to the whimpers and eyes that try to convince you that she is starving by giving her "in between" treats, she WILL eat it eventually - and quickly realise that its in her best interest to eat whats in her bowl as she doesn't live with an all day buffet 

This is a fairly common side effect of giving little extras in with their food - to be honest, I think its best to just stick with a complete food and training treats until they are old enough to have a well established eating pattern of one or two meals a day 

[ClareB]

I agree with everything Rachel said, you have to hard-hearted!     It's not easy, but I had to do it with Milo and now he eats well, with or without added extras.   

[Petra]

They are crafty little    >:Daren't they!!!!

I agree with all that has been said - be cruel to be kind and no added treats to dinner....
I am lucky in that Dill is a greedyguts and will eat anything no matter how boring.......

[Elisa]

I have to admit I fell straight into this trap  Bailey has never really been interested in food, so I tried everything to tempt him and this worked  but if I could go back, I would do what Rachel suggests.

Bailey has his burns soaked and then gets a little food added to it (cheese, tuna, liver, chicken etc).  I put the extra stuff in the food processor and whizz it up really small, like granules and sprinkle it over the top, so he isn't able to pick out bits and has to eat the burns as well 

Like I said, rod for my own back, but we live and learn!!! 

[MaxG]

Been there, done that & regretted it!! Max went through some phases of not eating & then only wanting 'human' type food etc etc etc - nightmare!!

We've finally got him onto a diet of wet meat with mixer biscuit which we water down slightly to give a gravy coating. He seems to really like this & eats it almost all the time - massive relief, I can tell you!!

He has the odd bit of 'extras' on top every now & then or has them completely separately as a sort of extra to his meal, but if we do this, he gets it in a different bowl that isn't his normal food bowl, so he seems to sort of realise that it's not a normal meal & will eat that & then still eat his lunch or tea as normal. I know it sounds weird, but it works - ?!

 

[suki1964]

if you are feeding a complete food then it does what it says on the packet - its complete, you dont have to add anything. Dogs are not like us needing different textures and flavours, thats a human trait that we impose on out animals. As you are finding out, start adding human food and you are making a rod for your back.

If you are going to feed extras then dont feed in with his complete. As Maxs owner does, feed it seperate. Or if you really must add to the kibble then as Letty says - whizz it into near dust so he cant pick it out.

Its really best to keep the human food as training treats, they are more likely to work that bit harder for something that they dont usually get

[debbie321]

Ben is on a complete dry food which used to have bits added.  I now give a meal in his treat ball - he has to work for it and eats every morsel!  If it's in his bowl he will often sniff and leave it - but in his ball ...... he loves it!

[Luvly]

 

[Brooksuk]

Fred quickly learned that if he didn't eat his Dry James Wellbeloved then he got nothing at all. Now he will eat every meal of dry food like it is his last and if he is good he might even get the odd treat!!!

Great advice on this thread - don't give in to their cute looks and wimpers!!

[judebt]

I agree with all above posts. After having a previously 'fussy' dog, i actually realised that it wasnt that the dog was fussy it was just intelligent and realised that if it doesnt eat its own food it will get mine. Wasnt it a shock to mummy to pick up Maddie up from the kennels after a two week holiday and be told what a wonderful eater she was!
With Roxi our new working cocker pup, I keep treats far away from meal times. she gets her dried food only 3 times daily and it is gone in 20 seconds(literlly, i counted ). On the odd occasions she will get a little chicken as a treat from my hand , not in the dinner bowl. Dogs dont need human food! In my opinion, if you want a fussy dog, feed nice tasty  human food with their dinner, if you dont want a fussy dog, keep treats seperate from meal times!
Judith and Roxi

[DennyK]

I'd second everything that's been said so far: plus giving human food may trigger all sorts of problems in your dog.  I used cheese as a training treat for Paddy but (due to inexperience/ignorance) was giving far too much.  OH compounded this by giving him big lumps of cheese to eat.  Vet thinks the cheese/lactose intolerance may well have been the trigger for Paddy's recurrent colitis and that, having developed the sensitivity, he may never grow out of it.  So stick with the dog food only, a few treats in tiny amounts - ideally chicken, not ham or cheese, - and lift after 15 minutes if they won't eat it.  If you get to the stage (as I did with Pads) where he wasn't eating full stop, it may genuinely be that your pooch simply doesn't like the food, in which case post on here for recommendations of alternative quality foods and how to migrate to a new food.

Good luck!

Denise

[crunchie]

Pringle is just like Roxi.  She has Burns puppy food and it is gone in seconds.  She adores it and seems to be really thriving on it.  She is really happy and healthy and everyone who meets her comments on how soft and shiny her coat is.  She does get little bits in between but not human food.  We learnt our lesson with our last two cockers who became overweight because we couldn't resist them and kept giving them bits and pieces.  We tend to give her little bits of dried food when we are trying to train her and she also gets Burns biscuits and the James Wellbeloved biscuits as well, but not too many a day.  The guy who runs the shop in our village met her for the first time yesterday and gave her a pigs ear as a present.  I gave it to her for about 5 minutes but took it off of her in the end, partly because I wasn't convinced she should be having it at 4 months old and secondly it was making her very aggressive and possessive.  It also looked gross, with all the veins and everything in it.  It was making me feel quite queasy.