Help for a finicky eater, please??

I am looking for a real good food for my four year old, 15 lbs boy Poodle. I fed him Eukanuba when he was a pup (I didn’t know better), then switched to Royal Canin Poodle 30 when he turned one, but he has been such a finicky small eater!! For half a cup of food a day (divided into 3 meals), I have to sing, dance, beg, or even pretend to compete with him to get him to eat. The vet, who loves skinny dogs (my dog is very tall and all legs for his weight), said my dog looked perfect, and he would not worry about it if my dog never gain a pound. Three months ago I started to add Orijen to his food, he loved it initially, but now he turns his nose up on it just as he does on the Royal Canin Poodle food. What do I do? I have tried ‘if he is hungry he will eat’ – but it got stressful because I worried that he wasn’t getting enough nourishment. Advise, please?

I could say try adding a bit of wet food with it, but I'm sure that he'd soon get bored of that too.

I think you were right to worry about nourishment while he was growing, but now that he's 4, I really wouldn't worry too much. Although I prefer to feed twice a day, I had one dog who would happily only eat every other day. I can remember that I used to worry about him too at first (he was a rescue) but after awhile I realised that food just wasn't that important to him - he'd eat enough to keep himself healthy and as you say, you never have to worry about him gaining weight.

Try soaking half of the nuggets.

If he doesn't get the runs with a change of food, I'd personally give him some variety and I'd also try soaking his kibble and/or adding some wet food into the mix.

I don't tend to go with the theory on 'they'll eat when they are hungry', but don't tend to panic when they go off various foods either.

When I got my dog, he ate Science Diet which is supposed to be super good but he never ate it dry. And when he was a puppy he started getting food from us and since then he has turned into a very picky eater. He does not touch his own dry dog food. Ever. It is always full but he never eats it. In the morning he has salami especially made for dogs and for dinner he has canned food. In between he will get treats from my family. I regret getting him used to human food because thats all he wants now. We have sent him to a kennel when we go away and they told us he never eats and when we get him back he has lost a lot of weight. I do agree with adding a bit of wet food and trying different sauces that you spread over his dry food. I wish I tried more to get him eat his kibble because now he is overweight and its hard to get him to lose weight.

My youngsters switch to 2 meals when they start to leave food.
He could well be picky because he`s never hungry.
Try 2 meals and see if it`s better?

I have two poodles one who is very fussy so I buy tinned natures menu as it is the only one he seems to eat, even then I sometimes have to hand feed a little of it to get him started. The younger poodle is no problem at all to feed.

Fish4dogs have got an offer on their salmon and trout mousse sachets at the moment. I add this to their kibble but find it particularly useful if I've got a faddy eater staying....never had a dog turn their nose up at their meal with this on the top.

I add raw Tripe to complete dry, there is never any food left.Only add a small amount of tripe unless your dogs needs to put on weight.

I heard tripe is good too but is really whiffy! As long as they are eating when the're hungry and maybe give them some vitamins. I'm going to try 8-in-1 Multi Vitamin Tablets for Puppies, only £5 online. Lately my little pup only wants baby rusks soaked in warm water - weird and def not nutritious, so I need to make sure he has some vitamins inside him