# Very fussy eater!



## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

Holly my border terrier is 20 months old and is sooo fussy. She rarely clears her bowl, infact most morning and evenings it's left. I feed them burns biscuits, I changed from Arden Grange as I thought she was struggling with the slightly bigger biscuits. She is only a little border, but is a good weight. I also give wet food, such as tinned or fresh meat. The only time she will eat is if i give her bowl of fresh chicken or sausages. Her and Fudge my male border both rarely eat their biscuits so I end up throwing them away.

What do you feed yours and how do you get them to eat the dry complete food? I feel I am wasting my money and I worry about them not eating properly.


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## Sam1309 (May 18, 2010)

i had this prob with my pup and older dog, added some raw into their kibble and they wolfed it down, raw chicken breast is what i first used ( simply as i was cokking it for myself that evening)


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## Lyceum (Sep 25, 2009)

This comes up quite a lot, seems to be a common issue. Here's what the vet told me to do, worked a treat, I've seen since many others users post the advice and say it's worked for them.

She's basically pushing her luck, she knows if she doesn't eat the dry, you'll give her something else. So you need to now teach her that if she doesn't eat the dry, she gets nothing. 

Thing to do is settle on a food, both burns and AG are great foods, maybe mix in some wet food, but only do this if you intend to do it all the time. Or try adding a little warm water to bring out the smell.

When it's meal time, put the food down, leave it for fifteen minutes with a quick reminder to the dog half way through, if it's not eaten, take it up and don't give anything else till next meal time. No treats, no table scraps, nothing. Next meal time do the same, down for 15 minutes, if it's not eaten, take it up.

The dog might not eat all day, but it'll be perfectly fine and as long as you keep giving things like sausage and chicken she'll know not eating her dry food will get her these yummy treats. And you'll end up spending a lot of money on wasted dog food. 

Mine did this I follows the vets advice and he missed three meals, he's not missed a meal since.


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## Mum2Heidi (Feb 17, 2010)

Mine was much the same as a pup. I felt that wainwrights was about the best I could afford but she regularly refused to eat it.

When we went onto adult, I found what I thought were the best 3, got samples and let Heidi make the final choice. She didnt choose my favourite, nor the one I thought she would go for but has never refused to eat since.

I will never know if it was a stage she grew out of or if she genuinely didnt like wainwrights. But I would say that you have to be v careful keep making changes to try and please them. Heidi ended up with a poorly tummy and back on wainwrights.

I tried taking the food away when she wouldnt eat it but that seem to pay more attention to the fact she wouldnt eat it. In the end putting down her daily quota and leaving it worked.

If only we could read minds, or they could talk!!!


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## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

Lyceum said:


> This comes up quite a lot, seems to be a common issue. Here's what the vet told me to do, worked a treat, I've seen since many others users post the advice and say it's worked for them.
> 
> She's basically pushing her luck, she knows if she doesn't eat the dry, you'll give her something else. So you need to now teach her that if she doesn't eat the dry, she gets nothing.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your help.

Holly will refuse to eat dry, I would prefer them to just eat dry as buying tins aswell is pricey. She won't eat dry, once she went 3 days and ate nothing, we gave her no snacks or left overs and she refused the dry mix still!

Is it ok for them to go that long?? it worried me.

Is it ok for dogs to just live off their dry food? we tried water on it too and she still wont eat it.


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## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

Mum2Heidi said:


> Mine was much the same as a pup. I felt that wainwrights was about the best I could afford but she regularly refused to eat it.
> 
> When we went onto adult, I found what I thought were the best 3, got samples and let Heidi make the final choice. She didnt choose my favourite, nor the one I thought she would go for but has never refused to eat since.
> 
> ...


Thank you.

They were on Arden Grange for a long time, we then tried Burns to tempt Holly, but still no luck.

Does your dog just eat dried food?


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## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

The only food both liked was the Arden Grange puppy but I took them off this at 12 months old. Would they not be able to be on this at their ages now?


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## Lyceum (Sep 25, 2009)

Jem29 said:


> Thank you for your help.
> 
> Holly will refuse to eat dry, I would prefer them to just eat dry as buying tins aswell is pricey. She won't eat dry, once she went 3 days and ate nothing, we gave her no snacks or left overs and she refused the dry mix still!
> 
> ...


It is god awful when the dog won't eat. Worries you sick.

I spent almost a week hand feeding Novak because he'd just refuse his food.Got the above advice when I took him the vet to make sure it wasn't a medical problem.

I meant to add, some dogs just don't like dry on it's own, mine being one of them. I decided to buy naturediet or weinwrights trays and add a bit of that to every meal. Lovely clean bowls every time. Maybe you could try that with yours?

Naturediet isn't expensive, about £13 for 18 trays, which you can freeze and defrost as needed to save spoilage. Weinwrights is always on offer too. Or if pouches are easier try naturemenu. Or maybe buy a bag of prize choice free flow mince, 2kg is about £3 and just defrost enough to add a few spoon fulls to her meals every day. Mine loved the prize choice so I stuck with that up until I switched them to raw.

If you do try this make sure to adjust the amount of kibble to take into account the meat.


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## Mum2Heidi (Feb 17, 2010)

I've not tried Arden Grange so cant comment on that. As far as feeding puppy food to adults - years ago there was no senior or puppy, just the same food and you fed more to a pup and less to a senior :lol: Perhaps compare the arden grange puppy to what you are using and may be it wont be that different?

Yes, Heidi has just dried food but because the skinners that she loves has a low meat content, I give her a raw beef bone/chicken wing a few times a week but only when her dry has gone. The more I fiddled with her dry food, warm it, add water,bit of wet, grated cheese, the more she faffed. Since the skinners, we can put our table scraps in her dish with it and she will still eat the dry.

I have heard that the Skinners salmon and rice seems to tempt fussy dogs so perhaps get them to send you a sample. If you ring/email them, they are v helpful. My favourite dried food (in my price range) with a good meat content and no cereal at all is Vitalin Adult Maintenance Chicken. I got sent for a sample of it along with the skinners duck/salmon and rice. Heidi liked it but it was obvious the salmon really touched the spot.

If you are thinking of changing again, I would get samples of what you think and see which they like then stick to it.

I feel for you - it can be a right nightmare but you will sort it and look back with a sigh of relief


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## Lyceum (Sep 25, 2009)

Jem29 said:


> The only food both liked was the Arden Grange puppy but I took them off this at 12 months old. Would they not be able to be on this at their ages now?


Try the Arden Grange lamb and rice, great kibble, gets 4* over on the kibble review site.

I like Skinners too, the hypo-allergenic ones anyway (duck and rice, salmon and rice, lamb and rice), I think AG is better quality, but my dogs did very well indeed on Skinners.

As I said though, maybe try adding some wet, some dogs just don't like dry on it's own. Novak doesn't, I used to free feed him and sometimes he'd go all day without touching his food. Started adding a few spoon fulls of wet and thats when he started eating properly.


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## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

Thank you both.

I have heard Skinners is very good, I remember the trainer once mentioning it.

I shall look into that if I decide to change their food.


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## Georgina1 (Jun 9, 2010)

My dog is very fussy and just will not eat what he does not like.
When I took him to the vet, he said that as long as he eats some and is not underweight not to worry.

Maybe try not overfeeding him? Just give a little at first and see if it will eat that?

I was so worried about him... then I realised he'd been stealing the cats food whenever my back was turned! He was caught though when he got greedy and started ripping up cat food pouches and leaving a trail of destruction behind him


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## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

HI,

I know, Holly is always eating the cats biscuits and wet food, lol!

Thanks.


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## paddyjulie (May 9, 2009)

Mavis is the same...she will not eat her burns chicken and brown rice..up till a few month a go she was fed a raw diet so i can imagine her shock when i poured the kibble into her dish  ...i can only get her to eat it if i mix it up with perhaps a little cottage cheese...but..she is going in kennels in a few months time..i really need to get this sorted

juliex


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## kaisa624 (Mar 5, 2010)

Holly never used to eat her food, especially when we changed it from Pedigree to Skinners. However a week after her not eating her Skinners, we decided to try some raw. So as the Natural Instinct warehouse is 5 mins from me, we popped around and asked for a pouch to try. So now she gets 50g of Skinners and 50g of raw per day, mixed up, in 2 meals  She wolfs it down.

Once we move out, and get a decent freezer, we will be feeding her on full raw, but at the moment we don't have the space


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## Jem29 (Dec 28, 2008)

Thanks.

So can you feed them anything raw and it is safe to do that? If we give them meat we always cook it first, lol!


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