My picky princess has been eating much better lately with a 50/50 mix of cheap beef mince and kibble. She turned her nose up at all wet dog food, until she won 2 tins of 'Lillys Kitchen' dog food, turkey & chicken casserole flavour and beef hotpot flavour. She was very happy to eat this mixed with her kibble, but it's extremely expensive, and I wondered if anyone would care to hazard a guess at any tinned dog food that might look / smell / taste similar (I know taste could be tricky, haha) but perhaps cost a little less than £2.20 a tin! I'm afraid I can't now remember which foods we've already tried. :-)

Wouldn't it be better to just stick with what she is eating ??

have you tried their dry? it might work out cheaper than the tinned. If PP will eat it of course.

Chappie is one that comes to mind.  Stinky stuff that most dogs will eat.

Arden Grange Partners is supposed to be good

Daisy, if we buy a load of fantastically expensive dog food tins, she's bound to go off them! Thanks Jean & Dvnbiker, don't think we've tried either of those yet, will get a tin of each and see.....

> Daisy, if we buy a load of fantastically expensive dog food tins, she's bound to go off them

But, on past experience, she'll go off cheap tins as well :) :) If she's eating reasonably well ATM, just stick with it :)

> My picky princess has been eating much better lately with a 50/50 mix of cheap beef mince and kibble

I know it is not tinned but you could try Robbies. It comes dry, add warm water and leave for ten mins to rehydrate. Not inexpensive but would have thought better than £2.20 a tin. Our two have done very well on it, good luck.

Oh, more than likely, but at least we won't have wasted as much money. :-)

> but at least we won't have wasted as much money

But what is wrong with what you are feeding her at the moment ??

I two have a very fussy dog(toy poodle) who will only eat natures menu in tins and then it has to be either chicken or beef and chicken I have tried all the other decent wet foods including lilys kitchen but he doesn't like them.He doesn't even like the pouches of natures menu only the tins. I also buy Arden Grange mini lamb and rice which I put in kongs for both poodles which they sometimes eat if they are especially hungry.

> But what is wrong with what you are feeding her at the moment ??

It seems that the cost is the issue.
I, personally, would also try to find a cheaper 'version' - it's the rule the humans in my house are fed by so the pets can live with it too :-D

Have you tried wainwright trays from PAH as they smell quite delicious and are excellent, at a good price for 12 packs in a box.
Or maybe Nature Diet is another choice.

The fact that I'm not willing to pay £2.20 a tin!! I'm not poor, but I'm not made of money, and that's exorbitant. Thanks for that idea Goldie, she did eat Wainwrights for about 2 months, her best run yet at that point, but then she went off it. She's fine on kibble mixed with cheap mince, but if we could mix it with dog food I'd feel like it was a more balanced diet, and save me having to cook or reheat the mince every night! :-)

>But what is wrong with what you are feeding her at the moment ??

As long as the mince was frozen and then thawed you wouldn't have to cook it, just mix it raw (think of steak tartare!) with the kibble.

> The fact that I'm not willing to pay £2.20 a tin!!

Penny's dropped! - this is the fussy madam who won't eat anything for long, that you posted about before?
In which case, I would splash out on a couple more tins but divide them up and freeze them in portions (it is perfectly OK to freeze canned dog food). Then just take out small amounts which you can mix with kibble to make a topper or gravy.
[At least, until she goes off it and wants something cheaper....]

Butchers Tripe mix (not the other stuff they do) usually goes down a storm as it is smelly though I like the smell ;)

Another one to suggest Butchers Tripe tins -the loaf, not gravy tins.

Have you tried any of the frozen food sold at PAH. They do small 400g blocks (have to defrost in 1 go so not good if it'll take longer than a few days to eat up) or the freeflow mince - come in 2kg bags but you can easily break off a little to defrost. I've not yet any doggy to decline the tripe ... always a first though ;)

i would have thought it would work out cheaper to home cook something similar, my lot also loved lily's kitchen but im sorry £2.20 a tin is rediculously expensive.

Yes, she ate the Prize Choice stuff for about 6 weeks before going off it. *sigh* I got some Butchers tins, can't remember which ones except they weren't the jelly ones, she won't touch any of the food in jelly type tins. If worst comes to worst we'll go back to beef mince, she's fine mixing the kibble with that. I'd just like to get her on a more balanced and doggy diet! Anyway, the Lillys Kitchen tins are finished now, so tonight will be the first test of a new tin! :-)

Yes MsTemeraire, this is still my picky princess, bless her. She's already getting it in portions as she gets quarter of a tin mixed with the kibble. But even so it's pretty costly. I'd rather feed the beef mince if she won't eat any of the other tins, which we will start trying from tonight. :-)

JG she won't eat it raw..... :rolleyes:

I assume you're adding the meat to a 'complete' kibble? And just doing so to get her to eat that - as that would be balanced?

If that is the case have you tried mixing in cottage cheese or yoghurt or even a bit of pilchards? Or maybe adding a little hot water to the kibble to release the smell & produce a bit of gravy. Sorry if these have been tried - not seen previous posts so not sure what you've done in the past. Eeeh, they are a worry ;-)

Yep, tried gravy / hot water / pilchards / cheese, and yes, it's to add to complete kibble. Haven't tried yoghurt, but somehow mince feels like a better addition to me. We'll see how it goes. I'm happy with her weight for now, and if it ends up having to be beef mince I'm fine with that too. Just thought it was worth trying a few other tinned foods. :-)

We don't like Chappie..... :-)

> Yes MsTemeraire, this is still my picky princess, bless her.

Blimey! She's becoming a legend in her lunchtime... lol :)

Have you tried human pate, with a bit of hot water added to make a lumpy gravy. Duck and Orange is a real favourite here. Plus the fact that you could keep shuffling the flavours to stop her getting bored.

Alternately Zooplus have some great varieties, I have used Lukullus in the past as they have a very high meat content and "different" varieties. The ones I have used are:

Venison & Rabbit, brown rice, apple and linseed oil
Wild rabbit, turkey, pear, oats and black onion seed oil
Beef & Poultry with pasta, spinach and wheat germ oil
Goose & Turkey Heart with barley, leeks and St Johns Wort Oil
Lamb & Poultry with potato, dandelion and grape seed oil
Turkey & Beef with potato, parsley and sunflower oil

£10.99 for 12 x 400g tins.

Send her to us for a week lol. Fussy dogs are normally clearing their bowls at a decent speed after hearing my 10 chow down (btw the guests are fed in another room but can hear the others).

Lol Marisa, she eats normally at all the friends who have dogsat her - perhaps I should give her away! :-D

She didn't think much of Denes either. If the Butchers goes the same way I'll give the Zooplus a try, then it's back to beef mince. :-)

Isn't she just! Wouldn't touch the Butchers either, which I thought looked really yummy with the nice meaty chunks in gravy. She will eat if I let the others in, flick a piece of kibble across the floor, give her 3 or 4 pieces, flick another across the floor for the others to chase, etc etc etc - but obviously this is a ridiculous way of ensuring she gets sufficient food! Looks like it's back to beef mince.... :-)

Hi, I occasionally use Arden Grange Partners Lamb & rice tins as a tasty addition to their complete AG kibble. It smells delicious too!! Individual tins retail at around the £1 mark, slightly more expensive than most tinned food but definitely superior quality to others I've tried. Would highly recommend...

Thanks - I had another vote higher up for Arden Grange, but PAH in Bury didn't have any. Might get a couple of tins online and see what Madam thinks. :-)

Nature's harvest is a favourite with my dogs.  Naturediet is good as well.

You're going to think me mean and I don't mean to be but I would starve the little madam and make her mega hungry, then offer what ever I had to hand, if she is really hungry she will eat unless really unwell.

Don't give her so much choice, keep her lean and keep her mean.

Big sorries if I offend

Totally agree. Sounds mean, but sometimes fusspots are best off not pandered to lol ;-)

I'm afraid I used to do the same with my children.
If they didn't eat their meals then they didn't get to snack on crisps, biscuits and sweeties. I did make a few exceptions for things that they really did dislike, but most things had to be eaten.
I was even making my son eat various vegetables when he was in his 20s lol

Not offended at all, but we tried that, it was the first thing we did way back when she first started mucking about. She would eat a third of it one day, nothing the next two, a third the next day, and so on. She weighed under 6 kg and was so ribby people commented when we went to shows with her. Thanks to the brief spate of normal eating a month or so back, and our continued efforts once she had started gaining, she is now up to 7.5 kg and looks a million times better. They say a healthy dog won't starve itself, but with this one I'm not so sure! Definitely not going to do any starving before the club show on Saturday anyway. :-) She did eat her Butchers & kibble tonight without any fuss, the same tin she turned her nose up for the last 2 days. Weird dog!