Dog Community

HELP: I'm scared I'm starving my dog!

Posted : 9/30/2006 12:41:59 PM

My dog was always fed "real food". Chicken/ livers etc. He went to the vet recently and she told us since we are not balancing his food well enough (that was a concern of mine) we should switch him to a dog food. I've done research and got some different foods to try. Since I switched to dog food 3 days ago (bought something from the grocery store but doing research) he won't eat! If I hand feed he will eat 20-30 kibbles. Otherwise nothing. I give him 2 treats a day when he takes medicine. (he is on allergy medicine and an antibiotic because his allergy sprung up bad all at once). He is poopiing and has energy but not eating. I can't give in. If I can transition him to a dog food it would be great. I don't want him to get sick though. Also, if anyone has suggestions for a dry dog food (or adding canned if you think that helps) for a toy dog (havansese 16lbs). I'd appreciate it. Cost of the food doesn't matter to me. This is my first dog and I have no experience with things like this.

Any advice would help my frazzled nerves!
Vickie[sm=uhoh.gif]

beth82

Posted : 9/30/2006 12:49:58 PM

He probably doesn't see the kibble as food, since he's used to real food. Did you try to transition him gradually from his usual food to kibble? I recommend going back to his old food temporarily, then choose a good dry and/or canned food and slowly introduce it, giving him time to get used to the change.

Jessie Adams

Posted : 9/30/2006 12:52:40 PM

When you say that you fed your dog "real food," was it a raw diet or just random cooked food? A raw diet is not a bad thing at all, and many vets try to convince people that they need to feed a dry kibble to their dogs.

chewbecca

Posted : 9/30/2006 12:53:54 PM

Vickie,
I am no expert, by any means, but I think that...OF COURSE your dog doesn't want to eat dog food after eating real food! I wouldn't! You CAN continue to feed him real food, you just have to add variety to balance it out. You can puree some veggies, ground up some bone, give beef, lamb, BUT of course, do this with raw food. NEVER give your dog a cooked bone. Cooked bones will/can splinter. If you're still not sure that your dog is getting a balanced meal, try giving him some supplements.
I'm sure someone will come with some links for you. OR, I could post some in a little while, I have to go now.
Sooner should be on to post some links to sites with information on different dog foods that are healthy and palatible (sp?).
Don't worry, your dog will not (most likely not) starve himself. He's toughing through a food transition and being stubborn (most likely). He wants his people food. And I don't blame him.[

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Jessie Adams

Posted : 9/30/2006 1:07:11 PM

What kind of dog food are you feeding him now? I would feed a high quality, holistic food.
My 3 dogs are on Timberwolf Organics, which is a great food. They love it, have great coats, lots of energy...
Other great dry foods are:
Innova
Innova EVO
Cannidae
Solid Gold
Wellness
Natural Balance
Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul
and many, many more

I add canned food and fresh food into my dogs' kibble. They also love raw marrow bones as treats.
Another choice for food would be a raw diet... they even have premade raw diets (like BARF).

jessies_mom

Posted : 9/30/2006 1:30:43 PM

Welcome to idog; I suggest feeding canned dog food to start with as this should appeal to him. Choose a brand with meat as the first ingredient; some canned dog foods have water or broth as the first ingredient. If you have access to a feed store ( place that sells horse and chicken feed), Eagle Pack canned foods are very good, as well as Wellness, Nature's Variety, Canidae, or Innova. These brands also make excellent dry foods which would be available at the same feed store. After he's eating the canned you could slowly start adding kibble and increase the kibble and decrease the canned.
Balancing a home-cooked diet; there are 2 websites I know of that have certified animal nutritionists that will work with you in formulating a balanced home-cooked or raw diet for your dog; Monica Segal's website; [linkhttp://www.monicasegal.com/]http://www.monicasegal.com/[/link] and

etdiets.com; [linkhttp://www.petdiets.com/]http://www.petdiets.com/[/link] . I think it's great that you home cook for your dog and either of these sites will help you develop a balanced diet; hope the suggestions helped and good luck. [

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Edited to add; If you don't have a Petco or feed store, Blue Buffalo is available at PetsMart and is very good. What ever brand of dry food you choose, read the label and make sure that a named meat meal such as chicken meal or lamb meal is the first ingredient, not, for example, meat by product meal.

sooner

Posted : 9/30/2006 2:09:25 PM

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

Vickie,
I am no expert, by any means, but I think that...OF COURSE your dog doesn't want to eat dog food after eating real food! I wouldn't! You CAN continue to feed him real food, you just have to add variety to balance it out. You can puree some veggies, ground up some bone, give beef, lamb, BUT of course, do this with raw food. NEVER give your dog a cooked bone. Cooked bones will/can splinter. If you're still not sure that your dog is getting a balanced meal, try giving him some supplements.
I'm sure someone will come with some links for you. OR, I could post some in a little while, I have to go now.
Sooner should be on to post some links to sites with information on different dog foods that are healthy and palatible (sp?).
Don't worry, your dog will not (most likely not) starve himself. He's toughing through a food transition and being stubborn (most likely). He wants his people food. And I don't blame him.[]

These sites are a wealth of information on picking dog foods.

[linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/]This site[/link] has sections on reading labels, ingredients to avoid, and identifying better products.

[linkhttp://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#TopDry]This site[/link] and [linkhttp://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/criteria_list_of_better_foods.htm]this site[/link] list some of the better foods.

Personally I like Nature's Variety, Natural Balance, Royal Canin, and Sensible Choice for palatability. Those last three are available at Petco.

But, you could keep him on a real food diet, either by using the sites jessies_mom suggested, or by doing the research yourself if you are comfortable doing so. www.rawdogranch.com is a good place to start. The keys are balance and variety.

corvus

Posted : 9/30/2006 5:36:08 PM

Chewbecca is absolutely right. I took my dog off kibble and started feeding her real food and now she won't touch kibble. Kibble is pretty ordinary compared to something like organ meat. It's dry and has a lot of cereal in it and the meat it does have in it has been cooked until you can powder it and compress it into a little pellet. Would you eat that if you knew there was liver around somewhere? [

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I would encourage you to stick with what you were feeding him. It sounded like doggie heaven. My dog gets meat, bones and mashed vegies/fruit. She's extremely healthy and every time I look at her I feel a glow of pride that my 11 year old corgi is fit and looks like a 3 year old. 12 months ago when she was on kibble, she looked like a geriatric. It's turned me into a bit of a preacher about natural foods, so I'll try not to be too pushy, but I really hope you ignore your vet just this once. The pet food companies have them brainwashed as well. Whoever marketed pet food at the beginning was a genius.