How do I make dry food more interesting?

Louie is on a puppy dry mix CJS/CSJ - it's a small brand but is really good, it keeps his coat lovely, keeps him active all the things a good dry mix is supposed to do. And it's cheaper for us as we get it from a wholesale in bulk.

However there is somedays where he wont eat it, we've put tuna in, sardines and gravy, also bits of chicken (proper stuff not the cheap crap from supermarkets) but it gets boring sometimes. We sometimes put in chopped carrots and peas.

I do feed him this 6 days a week and try to fit in some brown rice or pasta with veg and chicken/tuna mixed in, so he gets a healthy filling meal.

But other than that how can I make his dry mix more exciting for him. He gets about 600-700g of this, including the veg or anything else we add to it and if I leave it plain he doesnt eat it all. I dont want to move him onto wet food until I find one that is mainly just meat. He does love licking the other two dogs' bowls out when they've had meat and jelly (they've always had butchers/pedigree) I've never liked feeding Sadie meat from a can but it's what her owners give her and she'll eat dry for a week and then refuses to eat at all. Benjie will only eat biscuits when he's really hungry.

Any ideas what I can do for Louie? And also how to get Benjie to eat dry mix (he'll be fed it every day when the OH and I move out)

Thanks

I think one thing people are guilty of is humanizing dogs and assuming they'll get bored of the day thing every day. An animal's diet in the wild would be fairly routine - even animals like mice and rats who would scavenge what they could would probably eat a large amount of the same food depending on what grains were available in the area, what bugs lived around, what scraps were binned (e.g. a rat fortunate enough to live around a KFC would probably eat looks of chicken in its life!). Rabbits will eat grass all day, every day, with the odd herb, berry or bit of veg here and there. Cattle graze on grass, hay and dry feed. Even carnivores would eat mostly the same thing, whatever prey animal was the most readily available.
Some dogs are more foody than others, and dogs can develop a sweet tooth and favour cheap, fatty, sugary foods like Pedigree, but I'm sure that most dogs fed on dry food are perfectly content with just having a full tummy. If you think the dog is bored then try stimulating them mentally - don't just put their dinner in the same old bowl. Give them breakfast in an activity ball, scatter half their dinner around the kitchen floor, feed part of their daily food requirement as rewards in a clicker training session. Give them treats with different smells and textures - a stick of pizzle will work a dog's mind as they find the best way to hold and chew at it.
CSJ do a few different flavours of adult food so you could always mix that up for a change in flavours and smells. If you wanted to add a small amount of wet food then I'd recommend something like NatureDiet or Nature's Menu, a short list of ingredients and high in meat content.
As for Benjie, will he eat dry kibble soaked in warm water (don't use boiled water as it will 'burn' off some of the nutrients)? You could always soak kibble to a mush if he'll eat it and gradually put less water in until he's eating it dry, it might help convert him. Alternatively, finding a better wet food like the above and mixing that in with a small amount of kibble, and gradually increasing the kibble/decreasing the wet may do the trick.

I do sometimes hide his food and sometimes hide half of it on the grass so he has to sniff it out being springer x lab. So you think he may not just be as hungry. He gets walked before he's fed and he's fed at the same time everyday. The other two are fed either before or after (we switch it so that Louie doesnt wait to lick their dishes)

Benjie hardly eats his meat. Before Louie came along, he had food down all the time, I didnt like it because they were wasting cans of meat and it would spoil and to me thats throwing money away. So when we got Louie he got one meal a day - like Sadie is on. I try and put biscuits in with his meal and he spits them out. I will try the mushy stuff.

I dont mean to "humanize" them with the pasta and brown rice I just think that the nutrients in them are good for them. Nothing wrong with spoiling them with good food right? LOL and as for treats they'll get carrots or blueberries. But mainly get a nice big pigs ear or cow's bone from the pet shop. And Louie found a potato the other day and used it as a tennis ball - he's not eaten it yet LOL Thanks for the advice

If I add things to Ruperts food he eats the added stuff and leaves the dog food. He'll suck gravy off each piece of kibble if I put gravy on them. The more I put in his food, the fussier he got until he would turn his nose up at pretty much everything. He looks forward to his meals and eats them readily as long as I add nothing to them. I just put the food down, if he hasn't eaten it within 20 minutes it gets taken back up and he gets nothing until the next meal time when I repeat it. He used to miss meals regularly but now he misses less than one meal every 2 weeks.

Are you sure you're not over feeding them? 600-700g is more than what my 35kg dog gets and you say that's what you're feeding a puppy. If they're not eating it could be that they're eating more than they need at each meal so aren't hungry when the next one comes round. Feeding guides can grossly overstate how much to feed if you're going by what's printed on the packaging.

The first bold part: We also do this.
The second bold part: He's going to be a big dog and it's really only a dish full. And we didnt follow guidelines, we asked the vet about how much we should be feeding him and not just one vet - several. He is nearly 6 months old, so it doesnt feel like a lot or look it either. He gets one meal a day like the other dogs, he started off with 4 meals a day at 300g and then was slowly weaned off and he's fine with that.
And just because he has one meal a day doesnt mean I make him or the others starve until their next meal, they get daily training with cheese treats and they also have a bone to chew on if they get peckish during the day.

Given his breed mix he'll likely end up roughly the size of mine. If he's looking slim on how much he's on then keep at it, it just seems a lot considering the food I use recommends 600g for breeds like Great Danes. Some do need more, Rupe gets 600g a day just to maintain weight, a lot need less (I know a Lab who's on just 100g a day and still obese).

I don't go by guidelines or vets for feeding (god if I did I'd have a grossly obese dog fed on food he's allergic to), I go by how my dog looks. Rupe's on the lean side, has a well defined waist but you can't play a tune on his ribs or feel every single bump in his spine clearly any more.

Try splitting it into two meals. It does seem an awful lot for a six month old puppy and he may be overfaced by the quantity. My collie pup only had around 200g at that age. Check the ingredients in the food - is it a lot of rice/grain that may be filling him up too much? My lot have dry kibble in the morning (apart from my oldie whose kibble is very small so she has a little warm water with it) and then in the afternoon they have it with either a small amount of tinned (half a tin between five of them!) with warm water to make a gravy, or sardines or other fish. None of them ever leaves even a taste in their bowl and all go around cleaning each others bowls!

But kibble is full of all the nutrients that are good for them - that's why it's a complete food rather than complementary. Pasta and brown rice are good for people - and yes, they have their uses in dogs, e.g. dogs struggling to put on weight, but dogs get enough (and some would say too much) carbs in the form of cereals and grains in their kibble, without needing to add more. If you want to give him a nutritious treat then swap his dinner for a pouch of Natures Menu every now and then or something - by adding solitary 'components' to a diet (e.g. feeding just pasta/carbs) you risk unbalancing his diet. It would be a bit like giving a child a complete, healthy dinner and then giving them a portion of oven chips extra. On its own, e.g. a birthday and christmas treat, it won't be unhealthy but if you did it on a regular basis, they'd probably gain weight and get too many carbs in their diet.
I agree with giving two meals, too, even if you just trial it to see if it improves his appetite as such.
Btw, I don't think raw potatos are good for dogs - they can be toxic, especially if sprouted and/or going green.

To be fair though I dont actually measure it out any more I just give him a dish full which usualy equates to 600g - so it could be more or less. And he is a healthy weight I weighed him last week and he was 42lbs. You can see his waist - so he's not obese but unlike Sadie (who's always been naturally skinny) you cant see his ribs defined anyway.

It's a bit blurry but you can see him, this was yesterday morning.


I've tried two meals, one in the morning and one in the afternoon - when the others get fed and he doesnt eat his morning meal, thats why we shifted him to one meal.
I'll try spliting it again but I dont think he'll switch back to it.
The bit in red: noted. I'll just give it them as a treat like once a month, although Sadie's owners give Pasta once a week because she's getting older and she's losing her weight, even though she's never been one for putting on much weight.

Thanks for the advice guys

P.S: I took the potato off him after he'd played a while - he didnt eat any of it

I know quite a lot of dogs who don't enjoy kibble day after day. Or perhaps I just know a lot of owners who are very indulgent with their pets! Unless your dog is obsessed with food, and I did have one of those once, then they really do appreciate some variety in their diet. Also, the less variety they have, the more likely they are to get an upset stomach if they encounter something that is not their particular brand of kibble.