My puppy is very picky..doesnt like dog food, rather cat's food.

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[TravisKR]

Has anyone else had this problem? ive brought almost every kind of dog food for meika, and she hardly eats it, but as soon as i puts down some soft can food for my kitties, she comes running for it..and eats it all..i heard it wasnt good for dogs, but i havent giving her a full can, just a taste here and there...just wondering if anyone else dealt with this kind of behavior.

[Mai Tai]

Mojito is the same way.  I asked the vet if I could give him cat food, but it is too rich in protein for dogs, especially small ones prone to liver shunt disease.  She said I can put a little of the gravy from the cat food on the dog food to entice him to eat.  That did not work, he just licked the gravy off.  I ended up having to give Mojito rice and chicken because he will NOT eat any dog food I can find.  He had a constant case of bloody diarrhea until he was on rice and chicken for about 9 days.  Now it is all I give him.

[teddybear]

Well, I hope everything goes well with Meika and Mojito, but I haven't had this problem. Teddy has tried to get cat food before, but he also eats his doggy food so I have nothing to worry about.

[shorkiejem]

Be careful changing dog foods to quickly.  It will give them digestive upsets and other problems as well.  Have you tried to mix just a little bit of can dog food into his dry?

[teddybear]

Yeah, Shorkiejem is right. Maybe Meika would like CANNED dog food instead of regular dog food. . . . for now at least. When Teddy was a puppy, we mixed canned food with dry food for a meal, and he liked it. So, after a week or so, we gave him less and less canned food, and then no canned food at all. He soon ate just dry food with a little bit of water over the top of it to make it a little bit softer for his puppy teeth. But now, Teddy doesn't even need the water on top of it, just on the side in his water bowl. Maybe this will work for you, by chance, Meika. It's worth a shot, at least. Good luck with the canned food, if you try it, or what I did with Teddy. Meika won't get an upset tummy if you change it slowly; I just changed it a little bit faster because Teddy never had a problem with the dry food, and I only gave him the canned food with it because that's what he ate before we got him. If I didn't, he would've got an upset tummy then! I think they even gave us some food to start with, and that went well. When we got him he was 8 weeks old, so he still had his little baby teeth. He had never even eaten dry food before, but I decided to mix it in as a start, because I was downsizing on the canned food. But I could've just started giving him dry, and then mixing in canned food, then taking the canned food away, but what good would that have done for him? That would've given him an upset tummy, for sure. So don't start with a different food if your puppy was on another food before you got him/her, just an important fact to know. Hope you try my idea; good luck!

[Belldandy]

Wicket loooooves cat food....I have to feed my cat on top of a box so he can't steal it! It took a while to get him to eat dog food but wet food made it easier. Now he likes both wet and dry food.

[TravisKR]

Meika has grown out of the "pickyness" stage..  i have her on a stable dry dog food diet now with soft on occasison for treats if shes good!

[Kim]

Max is very picky about his food. He will only eat soft food rather then the kibble ones. But we like to give him the kibbles ones because it is good for his teeth. I've read that you shouldn't give into your dog's unwillingness to eat. Just leave their bowl out for about half an hour if they don't eat it then just take it away. Then try to give it to them at their next scheduled meal time. Again if they don't eat it within 30-60mins just take it away. They won't die if they don't eat for a day or two. Once they are hungry they will eat no matter what it is you feed them.

Max now knows this so usually by dinner time he'll eat his food. 

[Mai Tai]

Kim, in general, I agree with you, but you cannot do this with tiny dogs.  Mo is under 4 lbs, and if he went without eating for a day, he could get low blood sugar and get very very sick.  It is like his little ace in the hole, so he gets to eat boiled chicken and rice because I don't want him to go into a coma...LOL.  No wonder these little dogs get so spoiled.

[darazzle]

Daisy is 13 weeks old now, and maybe eats 3 T of food some days, 5-6 T on other days.   I had decided earlier that she may just not be that hungry on days when she eats little.   I never thought about low blood sugar.  Good grief.  I haven't given her any soft food, I have jusy been giving her the same food she started with from the kennel.
She seems to be doing well.  Am I doing OK with this?

[Kim]

Yes I should have mentioned that it's mostly for full grown healthy dogs. Darazzle you don't have to feed her soft food. It's actually better if they eat kibble foods. Giving her food 5 times a day will be good since she is little, but once they are adults, you should really only feed them 2 times a day. I'm not sure what dog food you and the kennel was using but I've come to realize that any dog food that contains Wheat, soy, or corn as the first ingredients are not very good for Shorkies because it causes them to have allergies.

[tons_911]

My Shorkie as well is a very picky eater. I have gone through some of the best dog food out there, Orja, Fromm, Wellness, Halo and so forth. She likes it for a few days then stops.

I have been discussing this issue for a while and I am contemplating putting her on a raw food diet. I have heard great things about an all natural real meat diet. 

Anyone have any comments or has put there dog on this type of diet?

[shorkiejem]

Go for the raw diet.  I responded to your other thread about it.