Advice needed

[dragondawg]

Bobbie is my first dog so I am quite illiterate as far as dog raising goes. I follow whatever our vet tells us, but lately I am thinking that perhaps this is not the road to follow.

My 4 year old medium sized Griffon was brought up on whatever handouts were provided as she was raised on the streets in the "care" of a homeless alcoholic. Handouts consisted of potato chips, French fries, sandwiches, nuts and God knows what else. After having adopted her, we have tried to get her to eat dog food. We have tried all leading brands and the only one she grudgingly eats and that on occasion is PEDIGREE dry food and FROLIC dry food. Forget the canned stuff. She turns her nose on that.

She loves fish, chicken and meat in general, spaghetti or any kind of past, dairy products and doggie treats, especially salmon kibbles and smoke flavoured bone chews.

Both vets we have taken her to, insist on feeding her HILLS or SCIENCE PLAN "in order to avoid later health problems". I suspect however that they are promoting these labels for their own interest. They also said to leave her without food for 2-3 days in order to teach her to eat dog food. Well sorry, but after 3 days I couldn’t bear sitting at the table and having her watch our every spoonful.

I have tried cooking various fish or meats with rice or pasta (no onions or salt added) and included a little grated carrots or zucchini in hope that she would get some vitamins in her. Somehow she managed to eat all the fish or meats and leave the rest on her plate.


I have read in many of your comments that you feed your dogs raw food. The vets however are very stern about avoiding raw meats. Can you please give me some advice on what to feed her? Perhaps I should give her some dog vitamins as a supplement?

I want to keep her healthy but also have her live a happy life.

Research the Internet, and/or visit a Petsmart to get an idea as to what types of quality dry dog food is available. Your Vets probably do clear a nice margin of profit for the foods they sell. That does not mean they are bad dog foods, but only that they are going to be more expensive.

Your goal should be to find a food the dog enjoys eating, and which maintains good health and energy levels. I've never had to add vitamins to the Propet brand I feed mine, and the dogs health has never lacked because of it. If you pick a quality brand it will be balanced.

For a dog that has been exclusively raised on human foods then in general maintenance or low protein/fat dry dog food will be a hard sell on the dog. Possibly flavoring with beef broth initially will get the dog to eat it. On very rare occaison one will find a dog that will not give up a hunger strike. But it's extremely rare.

P.S. Mine get the last bite of whatever I'm eating. In return they leave me alone while I'm eating. It works out great.

[SunsetRose]

I'm with Borzoimom about Science Diet.

It really isn't the best of foods. Although your dog won't die if you feed him Hill's or another low quality food (assuming he doesn't have bad allergies to corn or preservatives), it's a good idea to get the best you can afford. The results from a high quality food vs a low one are really significant. Trina was fed Pedigree for the first 6 years of life, then Hill's for the next 5 by my stepfather. When I acquired responsibility for the dog about 5 months ago, I immediatly put her on Nutro senior formula. Her shedding is much better, her coat is much better and her dandruff is gone. The added glucosamine and condroiten in the food has helped her hip displaysia significantly also. That much of an improvement in an 11 year old dog is truely amazing, I'm hoping that the change in diet may add another year or 2 to her life.

You may need to take a firmer stance with your dog. You can't really reason with a dog about food like you can a child. If you want the dog to eat his kibble, then be consistent. At the moment he knows he doesn't have to eat the kibble because he's going to be provided with what he wants. Put the food down (you can add some chicken or beef broth as suggested above) and leave it for 15 - 20 minutes. Then pick it up wether he ate it or not. No treats or anything for the rest of the day. Put his food down again in the evening for dinner and pick it up after 15 - 20 minutes wether he ate or not. This may go on for 2 days, but don't give in. If he's hungry, he'll eat. I had to do this with Trina also as she was used to free feeding. She didn't want to eat when the dogs got fed, so if she didn't eat, then that was just too bad. It took her 3 days before she finally caved and ate when I put the food down.

And a little more about foods....There's a few things you want to avoid in a kibble. Corn, byproducts, preservatives (BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin), and non specific grain ( mill run grains) or meat sources (like "Meat" "poultry" "meal" "fat"). The main protein source should be from a meat and a meat should be listed as the first ingredient in the ingredients list (or even better, first 2). I personally use Nutro for all my dogs. My 2 younger dogs are on Nutro Ultra and I love that food and would deffinitly recommend it. Some good quality dog food brands include Nutro, Innova, Royal Canin, Eagle pac, Canidae, and Chicken soup. There's others as well, but those are just the first that come to mind. Just do some research and look around at labels and ingrediant lists.