Ok, further to my earlier post about Nellie's fussy feeding antics - largely due to her shamelessly training me to feed her only cooked beef and chicken - I have just agreed with hubby that we are going to "get tough" with her (long may it last) and get to into a sensible eating regime, and stop allowing her to manipulate us.  Okay, me :).

I'm cooking her last batch of chicken, and over the next few days plan to slowly introduce her to a normal diet for dogs - much as she enjoys my home cooking, she refuses all but beef and chicken so there seems very little point in continuing to try and get her to eat veg or cereal.

Any recommendations?  She hates most commercial wet or dry commercial foods.  What luck have you had with picky dogs?  What about mixing something commercial with green tripe, if I ever find somewhere to buy it in small amounts (I don't have room for 36 1lb trays from Landy-whatsit).

Thanks!  This forum has proved more useful in one day than the other one in a year, haha!

S

http://www.csjk9.com/feed/index.html

I feed CSJ That'll do to my terriers, very good price no colours or preservatives and they wolf it down.  There's plenty to choose from and they may do samples for you to try.

I had trouble keeping my dogs in show condition, but not any longer!

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/markus_muehle/14524

This is what my two eat. It looks very unappetising, but they adore it. Bonus is small poos!

Thank you.

I'm totally confused now by all the different brands, but am I right in thinking it would be ok to mix a little fairly routine wet food, with a good quality complete dry food?
I see from the reviews that the CSJ successfully tempted another Patterdale.........not keen on buying 15kg at first though, will see if they do samples!

How did everybody research, find and decide upon their current brand?

Ta
Suze

To be honest is your dog actually underweight? 

A fit young dog should be lean with you easily able to feel his ribs, but only see the last one or two.  You should also be able to feel the backbone easily but not every vertebrae.

If not then basically choose what you want him to eat and tough.  If he doesn't eat it in 15 minutes, then he gets nothing Nada, no treat nothing until the next meal.

When he does eventually eat do not be tempted to top up his dish as next day he will be picky again.

With this regime dry food is less wasteful, until you have him regularly eating.

It could also be your expecting him to eat far more than eh needs.  the recommendations on the food bags and tins are often way over generous.  Most dogs I know only eat around 2/3rds of those amounts or less.

Suze,

I did research brands and one of my criteria is that the food has to be readily available.   I use Arden Grange, which gets delivered to me in 24-48 hours by ordering on their web site, others carry it too.  Or, I can buy it at my local Waitrose.   JWB is a good, readily available brand too, but it does not agree with my dogs (the duck gives one of mine the squirts and their new lamb & veg gives my other dog soft poo) and I am not about to buy two different brands.  However, my two are probably the exception with regard to JWB.

My dogs get a mix of people food and dog food; so to be frank which dog food I feed is not all that important.  However, I don't want to feed them junk either so I would never buy anything overloaded with cereals or anything containing artificial ingredients/preservatives or made into funny, coloured shapes to please people (it only adds to the manufacturing costs, which means the quality of the ingredients need to be cheaper to keep the price down). 

My sister claims her dog is "fussy" and she needs to encourage him to eat. He also does not like most dog foods, or he will eat the food for a few days and then refuse it.  He is very picky about what he eats - but all the "encouragement" means she has an overweight, picky dog.    Don't get trapped by a so-called "fussy" eater!

My advice is too make the food as palatable as possible - mix a spoon of Chappie with the dry. Or Naturediet, or Natures Menu, or the new JWB moist  - or any moist or wet food you want.  Or choose a lower-protein dry and mix some minced beef or chicken in with the dry (or the same of Pilchards in tomato sauce).  If your dog does not eat it -pick it up.  And don't give any extra treats or tidbits, ever. 

And finally - unless you dog is truly underweight there is nothing to worry about.  Some dogs do not have big appetites, even routinely taking a day or two a week off from eating - and they are slim (not skinny) and healthy.  "In the wild" they would not have eaten every day and the quantity that they ate at any one time would not have been consistent - so a dog that mimics that same situation does not have a health issue; it's actually more natural than not.

Hello,
Could I ask what dogs you have as tried my TM on this, but he was never that enthusiastic about it-shame.

I have 2 Patterdales and a friend has Cesky Terriers. I find all the dogs do well on it, and eat with enthusiasm. Also the delivery is very reliable.

ETA: We were introduced to it by a friend in Germany, where it is very highly thought of.

Royal canin(junior varieties) are often a hit with fussy eaters.The ingredients however aren't that good :( Go for the one you can buy at the vet's,not the average pet shop formula's.
In regards to RC's ingredients,you could try and make up for them by adding in healthy extras,but this is probably something you want to avoid at first?? Although adding in something like naturediet/prizechoice etc could work.
I don't mean to discourage you,but i have found that if a dog doesn't like dry food then there's nothing you will ever be able to do to change that.Most dogs IMO don't relish the stuff,it's dry and boring,but most dogs are chow hounds,so they don't particularly care what they are served up as long as it resembles food :-D
Would adding in her treasured beef/chicken to a dry food tempt her to eat? If so,there's nothing wrong with adding meat to commercial food,i do it for every meal for my dogs.

Have a look at the zooplus website,they have a great variety of different foods along with all the info pertaining to them.

Thank you everyone for those comments!  I bit the bullet today and thought enough is enough, I need to get this sorted asap and stop fussing about it.

As far as her being underweight, it was the vet who got me started on that slippery slope - oddly, I figured that she was just a gangly teenager (its my first dog, what would I know), but it was the vet who said she should be carrying more weight!!  The vet knew the dog was only eating chicken, so I assumed she knew what she was talking about and went about loading the dog up with more food by volume.

Anyway, right now I have to wean her OFF the 100% chicken and onto a complete dry food, which I intend to mix with a little wet food.  At this stage it doesn't really matter what it is, I can look at quality etc later - and similarly I want it to be readily available.  So I've got some Butchers canned tripe mix - she ate the Butchers puppy ok for a while before turning her nose up, so that should be a good start - and funnily enough, I also got some of the JWB new lamb and vegetable kibble!!  Again she ate the JWB puppy kibble for a while previously, and she steals JWB out of the dish of my mother-in-laws dog, therefore I'm hoping her resolve to hold out will weaken sooner if faced with foods she has eaten in the past.

I had a very useful email from the Burns nutritionist, who suggested blending any new food/biscuits with her chicken so she can't pick it apart - and if she hasn't eaten the mixture within 15 mins, it gets picked up.  I have a blender in a cupboard somewhere, so I'll start with chicken + spoonful Butchers + a spoonful JWB, whipped up in the blender.  Mmm sounds delightful.

I am going to have 2 major problems on my hands with this regime.  1) My husband says he wants the food to stay down for at least an hour as 15 mins isn't long enough, and 2) he says that if she hasn't eaten for 24 hrs he will go and buy her chicken himself, as he "won't have her going hungry".

Great to have support at home, huh?  Having said that, he says she hasn't eaten at all today, so I said good, keep her hungry and we'll start tonight!

Wish me luck.......I can face a battle with the dog, but not with my ever loving.

Suze x

> it was the vet who said she should be carrying more weight!!

Hmmmm. Vets see so many overweight dogs that I guess a gangly teenager would look thin to most of them :(

I guess so!  I've been looking at some pics of Nellie, and 2 months ago she looked really leggy and spindly (her nickname is Spider).  Looking at the latest pics and seeing her now, she has definitely filled out, her chest is much deeper.  I even noticed that she suddenly doesn't look so lost in her normal sized bed!

I guess she was going through a growth spurt when the vet commented that she felt marginally underweight.  I will stop worrying, henceforth.  :)

I would choose a complete and stick to it.I have tried loads and have found the most palatable to be supadog well being.My dogs have never looked better since putting them on it.
I would feed an adult dog once a day,put the food down and pick up anything uneaten after 10 minutes.Don't change food and be persistant.Also stop any treats etc
Nikki