Nose turns up at kibble...

Hi all,

8 month old GS refuses to eat kibble without meat mixed in.

She was eating wainwrights kibble with fourthglade or natures diet mixed in but would still try and eat around the kibble and get meat first. She will eventually eat it if i refuse to give her other food.

I have tried to add water, gravy but still not interested.

Thought it may of been the wainwrights so changed to JW but she is exactly the same.

My question really is... is she just fussy and knows that i will give in and give more meat or does she generally not like dry???

Any suggestions of what to try would be great.

do you want to stop giving her the meat completely? or are you happy to mix it in with the biscuits for her?

Hi,

I would much prefer to get her on a decent dry food because as you can imagine it woks out fairly expensive.

I was debating wheter to keep using the meat and try a mixer but again its knowing the good ones.

Measure out her days amount of kibble. How many
Meals is she on 2 - 3 per day?

For each feed, Put small amount of wet food in dish, add hot water mix /mash well so its like a thick gravy. Add kibble. Thoroughly coat kibble in wet mix. Add more hot water. Allow to soak until kibble soft. Mash kibble with fork & mix well & see how she does

Or for part of her feed, you could put sOme of the dry food in a kong. Add tiny amounts Of cheese / chopped chicken throughout mix. Seal top of kOng with soft cheese or liver pate.

Or you could feed only wet food as many are complete giving tbe dry food as a treat in the kong as above

I had a GSD pup who wouldn't eat dry without some wet mixed in, what we did was slowly decrease the amount of NatureDiet in until she would eat it with literally only about 1/8th of a pack mushed up and mixed in - didn't cost us a fortune that way! You might find that if you microwave the NatureDiet, it gets a bit smellier and more appetising so you can get away with using less.
At 8 months she's still young so she may grow out of it, Prue got less fussy as she got older and eventually we were able to stop the NatureDiet entirely and she'd eat dry on its own.

yes heating up the meat a bit is a good one, as it smells nicer for them.

i dont feed kibble i feed raw now so not really sure on good kibbles, but when daphni was being fussy with her food id pick it up after half an hour, and she wouldnt get anything else until her next feeding time. she soon learnt that feeding time was when i said, and she couldnt just pick at it, now with the right raw food and the 2 feeding times she is happy and wolfs it down

8 month old GS refuses to eat kibble without meat mixed in.
If you had never added meat what do you think would have happened?

She will eventually eat it if i refuse to give her other food.

Voila!

Simple!

If your dog is a fan of fish like our Newfy, then Fish4Dogs food is definitely worth a go. We had him on Royal Canin and he kind of went off it. We switched him onto Fish4Dogs and now he gets really excited about mealtimes and always eats it all. I think he loves the fishy smell and it's really good for him - great quality ingredients.

Orijen is a fantastic dry food too (although a bit pricier). I've heard people have had great results getting dogs more enthusiastic about dry food when they've switched to this.

Hope this helps,

Neil.

Hi X-Clo-X,

I have tried taking the food away after half an hour but she would still turn her nose up at the next meal. She then tries to eat anything and everything even a plastic bone that supposedly tastes llike chocolate. Would dogs starve or would they evebtually give in??

She has had raw bits and pieces before and loved it but im not 100% sure on what to feed and how much. I have read lots but i wonder if you could give me a rough diet plan that you use for your dog? Also do you find that it works out cheaper?
Thanks

Kibble doesn`t smell of much so I found I had to add meat to get my dogs to eat it - even Arden Grange which is supposed to be very tasy. Scent makes dogs feel hungry.
I don`t like the `starve them into eating` school as I want my dogs to enjoy their food and to do well.
I found changing to a raw diet worked. They all tuck in now, even the fussy ones.
I feed Prize Choice mince and chunks, plus chicken wings.