Picky Eater

[soccerbabiesmama]

My girl, the picky eater has a clean bill of health from the vet. No underlying issues, other than her allergies and the fact that she's probably super sick of the fish based food. She quit eating her kibble and was counter surfing like a fiend - very hungry, boycotted kibble. I tried a tough love approach, (eat, you'll get nothing else). Quickly, she dropped a little weight and started shedding like mad. Now, to get her to eat, we have to top with something new everyday...cheese, gravy, egg, tuna, oatmeal, pumpkin, sweet potato. But after 2 feedings, she boycotts her topper. So... to kick start her, we've started Solid Gold Green Tripe. She loves it so far, but she loves every topper at least twice. Did I tell you that she's very spoiled?

Anyway, the questions are: How long on average does it take for the green tripe to jump start the appetite? Will I have to feed this to her everyday to keep her appetite going? (Maybe not very economically possible at over $3 a can in addition to her $$ kibble)? And, is buying raw, uncanned green tripe better than the canned? Any others recs for my picky girl???? BTW, her kibble is Fromms whitefish and potato. She HATES anything salmon.

Thanks, any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Ren]

I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why dogs get finicky, so this is likely not your problem - but I found a solution to Fergus's kibble strike. He is currently 16 months old & still growing. I had him on Orijen 6 fish for quite some time this year, and he has always had a lot of gusto for eating his dins.

A while back he started turning his nose up instead of diving in, and occasionally went and hid when he knew I was putting it out. He started missing meals as well, but at least ate a bit eventually if he got starving enough. Eventually I started noticing he was doing a lot of hacking/gagging while eating.

I asked around a bit, and someone I knew with a giant dog also had this problem and solved it by switching to a jumbo size kibble. I tried it on Fergus and happy to report he is now back to enjoying dins as he once was. He loves crunching up this new chunky kibble! He is fine on soft stuff too - its just that those tiny hard kibbles must get stuck in his throat a lot now that he's grown so much bigger.

ETA: he did the same thing with toppers - boycotting them after he figured out it was disguising the demon kibble.

 

[janices]

Have you tried Honest Kitchen as topper? If you need a fish based food for allergies they make a white fish called Zeal.
http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/products/zeal/
As far as fish kibble I use one made by Petcurean for puppy Go! Natural Salmon. My adults get the grain free. Topper is canned Grain free trout or turkey/duck/chicken.
http://www.petcurean.com/index.php?page_id=195

Last time used Fromm if remember cause been awhile my usually non-picky newf girl didn't want it.

 

[Bär]

When Bär was on kibble we had the same problem with the small kibble, he chocked a lot while eating.
As for toppers, try cooking your own, it does not take that much time, is healthier & cheaper.

 

[grtpyrlvr]

Where are you located? I would find a raw feeding group near you for the tripe. When we get it for our guys we can get it for 1.30 or so a lb. Typically these groups know where to find all the "good deals".

 

[soccerbabiesmama]

I haven't checked here in a little while - but thanks so much for the responses! I haven't tried Honest Kitchen yet, but am very interested in adding that as a topper or their vegetable blend. Raven has gotten very good at dumping out the kibble and licking off the toppers and leaving the kibble all over the floor. I love her, but she is a handful!

What brand of large sized kibble? We've bought some small bags and several sample packs and everything is so tiny! While she doesn't choke, it could be uncomfortable to eat such tiny kibble when you have a giant mouth.

Grtpyrlvr, we're in Moore, OK and get our meat from a private grassfed ranch/butcher. I'm going to ask them for the raw tripe. I have to admit, it gives me the heebeegeebees... but anything for our newfs, right? Lol! She did turn up her nose at the second can as a topper, Like Ren said, she boycotts when she realizes that I'm disguising kibble.

 

[Sound Bay Newfs]

Are you giving her fish for allergy reasons? Maybe she doesn't like fish. How about the bowl? Have you tried a different bowl or putting it in a different location when you feed? I had a Lab years ago, that did the same thing. I finally figured out that his tags were hitting the metal bowl when he ate and it was scaring him. Once I switched his bowl, he ate everything.