It's been a concern of mine since day one, and I'm getting more worried about it as his eating habits evolve.
There's no question, this dog is getting spoiled because of what we have to do to get him to eat his 4-6 meals a day. (add meat, milk, peanut butter, etc) I know that he's only going to eat enough plain old dry food to prevent himself from starving.
I have been trying to feed him plain food as much as possible, but eventually I cave and sweeten the deal. It's tough trying to balance his behavior with his dietary and health needs!
How do we prevent ourselves from creating a monster who never eats dog food while still fattening this guy up so he can get the treatments he needs?
My dog gets dry food mixed w/ a little wet food in the am and dry mixed with rice at night...it seems to keep her interested
ReplyDeleteMom says she's seen many of the SiberNet members mention Satin Balls - she googled it and here is on of the furst links that khame up:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.holisticdog.org/Nutrition/Satinballs/satinballs.html
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
I read somewhere that you should avoid raw meat in dogs with weakened immune systems. Anybody know?
ReplyDeleteIs he turning his nose up at dog food without all of the other stuff in it?
ReplyDeletePuppy food is best to feed him to get weight on him. Talk to your vet about it. He'll give you instructions to get him in tip-top shape and weight. Don't get him used to too much human stuff!
And, milk will just give him diarrhea!
Give that hunk a hug and kiss for me, okay?
I put some gravey on the dry food and it works like a charm.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the most obvious answer is the correct one.
ReplyDeleteThe dry food we've been feeding him is puppy food. He doesn't find it too appealing unless you jazz it up.
I picked up some wet dog food, mixed it in with his dry stuff and he wolfed it down.
Cheers!
Ahhh... the delightful smell of wet dog food. pardon me while I go get sick :)
ReplyDeleteLove Mom
That is great to hear - because we would have had to use our only knowledge base, which is kittens. But we did the same basic thing - mix wet and dry kitten food, so we would have said to try that but with the puppy version.
ReplyDeleteI've never had to fatten up a dog before but I know with my kitty my vet had me mix his food with rice and a boullion cube(probably totally misspelled that!) disolved in water.
ReplyDeleteCat food can make a dog fat as well. And treats there are actually some pretty good recipies online for making your own treats. If hes liking the wet & dry mixed then do it. Oh and by the way we cast the vote for you to keep him then it wont matter how much you spoil him ... :) Purrs ..
ReplyDeleteI usually cook our meat on a George Foreman Grill and I add the drippings to Fenris' dry dog food.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently going through the same problem as you do. I know mine will eat his food if there's wet and dry food mixed together(but he's been having diarrhea so I've been avoiding canned dog food). There was a period of time where I was boiling chicken(with nothing else added) for him, and as I was weaning him off of it, I would just mix the extra broth with the dry food and he ate it up. Nice thing about that is that if you're going to cook something like chicken soup anyway, just boil extra broth and then fridge a bunch for later. Sometimes just mixing warm water with the dry food helps. I've also done stuff like use a little kong stuffing(comes in these air pressurized tubes, and in peanut butter and liver flavored) mixed into the food, just to get him interested. Once he's interested, he eats the rest of it. It may also just be the dog food. I just started introducing a new brand(evo) and my dog seems more interested.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteSkelly eats peanut butter? Oh bless him!
I'm pretty useless with my furry creatures - I always give in and get told off by the vets for doing so!
I hope you find the right balance! The vet should have a good dietary plan for a dog like Skelly - good luck!
Take care
x