Dog Community

My pup is pickiest eater ever.....HELP!

Posted : 8/22/2006 1:45:36 PM

Ok, many of you know my story. It's one thing after anther and I almost gave up...but thanks to the positive replies and help on here, i stuck it out with my 17 week old Lab/Coonhound pup, Kobi.

Now, the problem is eating. I wrote a couple days ago, that he would eat Bil-Jac, after trying Science Diet, only to hane him stop eating both now.

So, my wife bought some of that Nutro in a package food...wet, meat chunks, etc. Well, after Kobi has eaten maybe 1 cup of Bil-Jac in the last 4 days, we decided to give this a try. He ate the Nutro like it was the best thing we have ever given him-even better than treats!!!

I was wondering a couple things.

1. What should I do from here? Mix this Nutro and the Bill-Jac(propotionate of course, say half packet of nutro and half cup of the Bil)?
2. Should I forget the Bill-Jac and just feed him this new found love (Nutro)? It seems like it would take 9 packets of it a day to feed my 40lb puppy??? Is that right? I dont have that kind of cash (.75 a packet).
3. Feed the Nutro only once a day and stick the sucker with Bil_Jac the rest of the time.

I mean, this dog is stubborn. My Vet said "Oh, after a day of not eating, he'll it anything. So just leave the Bil-Jac out there". Well, after almost 4 days, he alsmost ate nothing.

Any advise, as usual, would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
GSB

agilebcs

Posted : 8/22/2006 2:18:21 PM

First, I'm so glad that you're sticking with Kobi after all of your frustration!

Regarding feeding him - I would toss the Nutro and Bil-Jac and go buy a quality kibble. Feed him twice a day, put the food down for 20 mins and if he doesn't eat it, pick it up and try again the next feeding time. He will eat. Some good quality kibble brands are Canidae, Innova, Eagle Pack, Solid Gold and there are many more and lots and lots of threads about the different brands. Sorry, but I wouldn't look twice at anything made by Nutro or Bil-Jac. I wouldn't doctor it up at all with mixed in moist food or gravy; occasionally maybe, but all the time - no.

It seems like you are totally catering to him and making him picky. Personally, I don't think that there's such a thing as a lab that is a picky eater! They're genetically programmed to eat anything.

Johnathon Spiro

Posted : 8/22/2006 2:55:22 PM

Well, intially, he ate the science diet like it was the last piece of food on earth.

Now it seems like I have to do backflips while tossing the best food possible into his dish to get im to eat.

4 days of not eating seems like a lot, so I was willing to try anything. So thats why I used the Bil-Jac and Nutro

I think the next thing I will try is picking up the food and taking it away.

Right now, we leave the kibble that he doesnt eat in his area so he can eat it whenever he wants.

Any other advise would be appreciated!

ColleenC

Posted : 8/22/2006 7:35:46 PM

In my opinion, free feeding causes more picky eaters. They know food is there all the time, so they just nibble. When you offer it at certain times, they realize that is when they eat, so they better eat. I'd try that before chaging foods.

chewbecca

Posted : 8/22/2006 7:47:23 PM

ORIGINAL: ColleenC

In my opinion, free feeding causes more picky eaters. They know food is there all the time, so they just nibble. When you offer it at certain times, they realize that is when they eat, so they better eat. I'd try that before chaging foods.

I agree and am finding this out the hard way. But I am going to have Ella on a schedule, especially now that I'm on a school schedule and will be gone for some of the day on certain days.

papillon806

Posted : 8/22/2006 9:09:23 PM

Regarding feeding him - I would toss the Nutro and Bil-Jac and go buy a quality kibble

Keep in mind that some "quality" foods don't work for all dogs....I think the quality is based on how the dog does on the food. Nutro and Bil-Jac are not terrible by any means.

chewbecca

Posted : 8/22/2006 9:19:03 PM

ORIGINAL: papillon806

Regarding feeding him - I would toss the Nutro and Bil-Jac and go buy a quality kibble

Keep in mind that some "quality" foods don't work for all dogs....I think the quality is based on how the dog does on the food. Nutro and Bil-Jac are not terrible by any means.

You are SO correct.
How is it that you know so much about this stuff? Do you go to school for it, or are you an experienced pet owner that has had to study up on it for the sake of their dog(s)? Or both?
[

]

papillon806

Posted : 8/22/2006 9:21:41 PM

I am a doctorate student studying companion animal nutrition at NCSU, so I suppose that contributes a little [

] But reading up on my own has helped me connect my studies w/ what's currently happening in the "dog food world."

chewbecca

Posted : 8/22/2006 9:25:56 PM

oooh, so you'll be the one I can ask if I'm checking out a new food for my dog!

papillon806

Posted : 8/22/2006 10:19:11 PM

Anytime [

]

ColleenC

Posted : 8/22/2006 11:17:13 PM

ORIGINAL: papillon806

Regarding feeding him - I would toss the Nutro and Bil-Jac and go buy a quality kibble

Keep in mind that some "quality" foods don't work for all dogs....I think the quality is based on how the dog does on the food. Nutro and Bil-Jac are not terrible by any means.

I completely agree! I use Bil-Jac myself and have had great success. The breeder I work for is an animal science professor/animal nutritionist, and we always recommend it to our buyers. Different foods work for different dogs. I just get sick of people saying it is a bad food based on looking at the label alone. It it does well for the dog, then why change!?! Don't make your dog food decision based upon other people's opinions. Use what works for your dogs!

agilebcs

Posted : 8/23/2006 7:45:36 AM

ORIGINAL: agilebcs

Regarding feeding him - I would toss the Nutro and Bil-Jac and go buy a quality kibble.

Well, I stand by my opinion. Nutro and Bil-Jac aren't terrible foods but you can do a whole lot better. And I do think you can call a food bad just based on the label alone - to say that you can't is just silly. Tell me you can't look at the ingredients in Old Roy and say that it's a bad (meaning not healthy, nutritionally balanced, etc) food.

Pam

Posted : 8/23/2006 7:56:07 AM

This our 4th week with our new puppy and all I do is mix 1 tablespoon of warmed up Canidae canned food. a little warm water, with 1 cup of Puppy Innova. She licks the bowl. $1.80 per can, but lasts about a week in tupperware in fridge.

If I don't put the canned on, she wont eat the dry. (Breeder fed life stage Canidae and I switched to Puppy Innova) cause she spit the Canidea all over the floor (think it was too hard for her baby teeth)

Even my adult raw only dog wants some of it.

Margaret Tyler

Posted : 8/23/2006 10:18:54 AM

They are right about Bil Jack and Nutro not being the worst, but I think if you try a different type, a healthier type of canned food you will get the same results you had with the Nutro pouches.

If you look at the ingredients on the Nutro pouches, they use wheat gluten, which is wheat protien. Wheat protien is not readily digested by dogs and is also one of the #1 allergin in dogs. My dog gets ear infections from wheat and your dog, if he has the long hound ears will be very suceptable to ear infections.

Maybe try the nutro canned food and not the pouches. I know Canidae's canned food is also very well accepted by fussy dogs.

Have you tried Chicken Soup dry kibble? I highly recommend it for fussy dogs. Chicken Soup now has a large breed puppy formula. I believe it is also less money than Bil Jack and healthier. Pro Plan dry food is also a food that fussy dogs readily accept and it is still a little healthier than Bil Jack. But don't use Pro Plan canned - it's junk.

tony

Posted : 8/23/2006 10:37:13 AM

Personally, I don't think, the value of the ingredients list is the end all be all of determining the quality of a dog food. First of all you can not determine the quality of the ingredients from an ingredients list, there are many different grades of meals, and of by-products, so company A may be using very good by-products and company B may use a very poor quality meal. Also, the way the food is prepared can impact the quality, for instance Bil Jac uses a vacuum process which cooks the kibble at a very low temperature preserving many nutrients, as opposed to using a very high temperature extrusion process, there are many factors that go into determining the quality of a kibble, including research, supplier agreements, the manufacturing, etc. From what I have read the total nutrient profile of the food is more important than the ingredients list.

Question

If the ingredients list should not be of primary importance, then how does one go about choosing a pet food? Most of the major brands have conducted AAFCO feeding trials, and the guaranteed analysis doesn't give very much information. In fact, the guaranteed analysis looks almost the same for every food. The ingredients list doesn't give the complete story, but at least two foods can be compared to see which one uses higher-quality ingredients. Don't you agree?

Answer

Sorry. The ingredients list cannot and should not be used to assess the quality of a dog food. Please disregard the self-proclaiming pundits who say you can. It simply cannot be done. In fact AAFCO and FDA guard against it.
Yes, many but not all foods have passed AAFCO feeding trials. Yes the test is 6 months long, but I'll take that over a product that has not been tested and has some melodious sounding ingredients concocted by some marketing guru. It may interest you to know that there are foods that fail the AAFCO feeding tests.

Rebecca Remillard, Ph.D., D.V.M., DACVN