Hi, I have two dogs, one is 3 and one is a puppy (2 mos.). I have had my 3 yr old since he was a puppy, and he has always been picky about eating. He went through many brands of food and after eating any brand for about 9 mos. he would get sick and stop eating. Now I feed him a brand that I have to order, which claims to have only good things and 'human grade' things. He doesn't even eat this food too well, but when I put a little yogurt on it, he eats it (but it wasn't until we got the puppy that he started eating regularly). I would like to start adding things to his food to help him enjoy eating more. I am thinking of things like rice, potatos, eggs, cottage cheese. But, I don't want to take away from the nutrients he needs or add too much of one thing. Does anyone know any sites about what nutrients a dog needs and what food will provide the nutrients???

Also, my puppy eats fine now - actually she loves her food. If I start feeding him with some people food in his dogfood, I am sure she will want that too. She is only 2 mos. old right now, so I was wondering what a good age would be okay to switch??? (I will check with my vet too, just looking for other opinions).

Ok, Thanks for your help!!!

m

I am probable not going to answer your question here but I will tell you what a dog trainer would tell you. First of all dealing with a dog that won't eat
food when you put it down is fairly easy. A dog is not stupid and will not starve itself. Obviously if your dog is being sick then the first thing to do is to find
an acceptable dog food or visit the vet to see if there is any other problem causing the sickness. Be carefull of all dog foods in supermarkets. Most are just packaged to appeal to owners and have various additives and bulking components all of which may not be suitable for your dog. Stick to a sensibly priced food such as James Wellbeloved. This comes as 'turkey and rice' or 'lamb and rice'. It is also dried complete food which seems to be the best. If your dog turns away from food or is funny about eating it, think how he would be in the wild. A dog would have to get his own food and would be pleased about getting anything and so would eat it all up at the first opportunity. When you put food down for your dog he/she should eat the majority within 5minutes. If he/she does not eat any or little and you are sure there are no other problems such as illness, then you should remove the food. Do not encourage the dog with additions or enticement. The dog will soon learn that not eating means going without. It may seem harsh but it isn't. It won't take long before your dog starts eating and liking all their food. Obviously it is nice to make your dog very much a part of the family and if you want to give them other food to make their eating experience a little better you can. From what you listed rice will be ok as this is in a lot of dog foods but I would stay away from all dairy products. Please note
that I am not a dog trainer or anything else I'm just passing on what I have learnt as I have a hyper dog that we are trying to solve an allergy problem with, so
I have been looking into dog food to try and cure his allergy. Hope this helps you and anyone else!!

After reading your message, I'm not sure if I should change his diet... I was wondering though why you don't think dairy products are good for him? I give him yogurt plain now, if I put a little on his dog food, he will eat it.

Also, I live in the US and I don't think we have James Wellbeloved here. I don't know if dog food in the UK has the same standards as here, but it seems the US standards are terrible. I am always hearing about dog foods that get their meat products from rendering plants. It seems hard to find out where the ingredients in each brand come from, or what is a good brand that can be trusted. I can't find any straight forward, non-commercialized sites about this.

Anyway - if there are any dog nutritionists out there, I would like to ask them what they think of www.frrinc.com ... this is supposed to be all natural, humane grade, no by products, no rendering plant meat.

Well, thanks for your answer. Really I am just looking for a brand that I can give my dogs and feel that I can trust!

I fed one of my dogs on Nutro with excellent results - another of mine wouldn't eat it :(
I have a very picky eater who would quite happily starve himself. The less he eats the less he wants to eat and can go skeletal in a very short time I have to be really careful with him. Picking up the food can work well in an *ideal world* but sometimes we have other factors involved. In my dogs case its stomach problems - eating food makes him nauseous so its something he would rather avoid. I have had to chop and change many diets to find one that he will tolerate. He's still not easy to feed but it's better than it has been.
Yoghurt is fine to put a spoonful on his food. Many people do this with good results on increasing appetite and no ill effects. Some dogs are intolerant to dairy foods.
There are hundreds of diets to choose from - it's just a question of finding one that suits your dog, keeping him healthy and in good condition. Feeding one particular brand of dog food is very much a personal choice. I don't like James Wellbeloved and neither did my dog. I found Pedigree complete to be very staining on the teeth and had intermittent bouts of diahorrea with it. Many people feed it with no problems. Nutro for me is the diet that has impressed me the most.
Sorry I can't help with the nutritional site.

It seems to me that all dogs are different and Lara is correct, some dogs are intolerant to dairy products. When looking round for new foods I may try this 'Nutro' product myself as I have read good things about it on a few forum sites. UK products do seem to have a fairly good standard in general and before going to dog training I probably would have used 'Pedigree' or something like that, but when you learn more about how intolerances can affect behaviour you start to look round for a better product. I have read that the ingredients on packages can't always be trusted, for instance 'Chicken' may mean any part of a chicken not just the nice breast meat.
I wouldn't change his diet if your dog is eating well and is healthy but if you are unsure it probably would be best to contact your local dog trainer for advice.
Also its a good idea to have a search around the forum sites for people with the same problem, there is usualy someone who has asked a similar question.

Hi, I am hoping this might help you with regards to feeding your dogs. We keep sporting dogs and their food is cooked fresh every day as tinned and dried meals wouldn’t give them the vitamins etc that they need as most tinned and dried foods are mostly made up of ash – a bulking agent that fills them up but doesn’t really give them any goodness. It is obviously not practical for everyone to do this but some of the feeding techniques can be applied to feeding in conjunction with ready prepared meals, or with feeding them the foods that you eat for your dinner.
EG: Breakfast is usually low fat milk with either cereal or scrambled eggs or even fish for a treat, in with this we add raw egg and vitamins (depending on how much exercise they do - family pet's wouldn't really need these). If they need to loose weight or have a tummy problem they usually get fed light meals like egg, turkey, chicken, tripe or fish with a vegetable broth (made from water or stock off boiled bones with finely chopped vegetables and garlic (good for bad breath – believe it or not)) and either rice or pasta. To put weight on and bulk the dogs up we would feed them a red meat (beef or horse) with the same vegetable broth with rice or pasta and brown bread. So if you are having a Sunday lunch type meal (meat and vegetables) mash up the veggies (leafy vegetables rather than carbs like potatoes) with meat (except pork – this is too rich for dogs) and some of the gravy with brown bread and a bit of water to make it sloppy, add a bit of rice or left over boiled pasta if there’s any left off yesterdays dinner and this is quite a good balanced meal. With dogs you have to think they are omnivores just like us humans and need all of the food groups that we eat. We have one dog in the house and she usually just gets fed on what we are eating as we usually have stew or meat and vegetable type meals everyday so this is ideal for dogs as well. Certain diary products like low fat milk for breakfast (like we have on our cereal) is fine and a little bit of cheese as a treat now and then is fine. You can get a dried food and mix any meat, vegetable, rice, pasta and fish in with it to make it more interesting. You would get bored if you were eating the same meals every day wouldn’t you? Add a bit of cod liver oil to give them a nice shiny coat, garlic powder if they have bad breath and this is also very good for the immune system. For pup’s at two months old they can eat the same as an adult dog, meat and vegetable based meals, I think most of the puppy foods you buy in shops are very gimmicky but you must remember to give them more calcium and feed them little and often, where a adult dog will have their breakfast at 08:00 and their dinner at 4:00, a pup of two months will need a milky drink at 08:00, then something like scrambled eggs with milk at 12:00 then a meaty dinner at 4:00, as they need plenty of calcium for their growing bones and if you feed them too much all at once it can bloat out their rib cage and it can grow up with a slightly sticky out rib cage as the bones deform this way.

I hope this has helped you, I am not an expert but I do have a lot of knowledge of dog nutrition as I have grown up living, eating and breathing it!

Good luck,

Hi Katie,

I'm not sure where you got your info from but the complete food (Nutro) I feed my spaniel certainly doesn't have ash in it. Neither does Dr John, Chudleys, CJS or Autarky.

I've heard about lots of things being in complete food but never, ever Ash. I also wouldn't advise mixing anything in with a complete food, unless you're changing brands or have a very, very fussy eater, as this upsets the balance of nutrients/vitamins in the food.

Fiona
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I think you may be mistaking 'ash' as a by product of burning, with 'Ash' as a description of minerals such as calcium, they are called Ash as being inorganic they don't burn when the feed is heated to very high temperatures during scientific tests, this residue is what they measure.....

oops- my mistake :D

Fiona
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