Eukanuba?

Redlegos- If I were you I would try Natural Balance Ultra Premium. It's for all life stages, is supposed to be palatable and I'm sure having it available near you is a huge plus!

 
Thanks for the tip! I was really leaning toward NB and was either going to get the Ultra or the otato & Duck Formula. I know they also carry NB treats so maybe they will like them if they like the food. I think if they don't like that I will try the Bil-Jac but I'm hoping they do. I'm going to go get some now, wish me luck, lol. 

Good luck! I'm really crossing my fingers that they'll eat the Natural Balance and like it!!

I have a very picky italian greyhound. We've tried many foods with varying success. He will eat Natural Balance. It is one of the few dry foods that I'm willing to feed him he actually somewhat enjoys eating. Good luck to you! I know your pain. When my dog finishes a bowl of food in one sitting it actually makes my day.

One thing that did come up on that forum was it seems it is usually the small (toy) breeds that are picky eaters.  I wonder why that would be?  I have never owned a small breed dog, only sporting breeds and we have never had a bit of trouble getting them to eat their kibble,same brand, every day of their lives, as long as 15 years. 
 
I just cant feature a dog starving itself to death because it doesn't like the food.  Even humans won't do that and eat bugs, worms, other humans (puke)  etc to survive when necessary.  I would think that even if not using brains to figure out they had to heat, natural instinct for survival would step in and tell dogs they have to eat what is there.

Here's my guess. For an animal with more reserves, death by starvation is long and very slow and very painful. You wouldn't believe how long a sheep can go without real food - it's normal practice to cut off food for about a week, other than really trashy hay to keep the rumen going, when weaning lambs, to dry up the milk.

For an itty bitty dog, I suspect they go from hunger pangs to ketosis really fast. During the latter phase, you don't feel like eating at all. I imagine this would more than reinforce a picky eater. I know that when food made my cat sick, she would hardly eat at all in the future. And cats really can starve themselves to death by choice.

My chinese crested is about as far from being a picky eater as it gets. But I can sympathize - she's so little I don't want her to go more than twelve hours or so without food, much less more than a couple days. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to change her mind. And she's a stubborn thing.

I'm struggling with UTIs with one of my dogs - for some reason it's making him a picky eater too. He's also my dog with the mouth deformity so it's a real uphill battle. For him Royal Canin was a real life saver, and so was Bil-Jac.

Life is short. If I want a battle of wills with my dogs I'll go do some training on sheep. []

I know that I am to blame for my dog's picky eating habits. When he was a puppy I started him on the dog food roller coaster. I was convinced I'd find a food that he liked better. He'd eat, but i wanted him to really eat like he actually liked the food, hence always switching. I still am convinced that there is a premium food on the market that he will love. My fingers are crossed that it is Orijen, since I've heard that picky eaters really like that food, including some iggies out there.

Also, I've never actually starved my dog for any great length of time to get him to eat. It is very likely that if I did he would give in. However, he is a young male with zero body fat and looks like a stick figure as it is. I finally have him at a decent weight and he could still use another pound I think. He can't really afford to lose the weight he would lose if I starved him til he ate.

Redlegos, I found out my dog liked Natural Balance by getting a bunch of samples from the pet store and mixing them together in a big bowl with a lid. No need to waste all that money on bags of dog food since the samples are free. Over a few days I fed this to him and watched to see which ones he gravitated towards and which ones he spit out.

I change up a bit, too........I was feeding Canidae and Sensible Choice Puppy by Royal Canine, but the puppy formula was recalled.....now, I feed Chicken Soup.........all my dogs are doing fine on it.....no tummy upsets, no gas, no loose poop......and I home cook all the meat.............DH made a comment about the dogs eating better than him......right......[]

ORIGINAL: Luvntzus

Good luck! I'm really crossing my fingers that they'll eat the Natural Balance and like it!!

 
I went and picked up the NB Ultra Premium. My niece was the one who picked out the bag since we took the dogs to Petco, I told her to get the Ultra Premium and she did but I didn't realize it was the reduced calorie formula until we had already bought it. So we walked out to the car and I opened the bag and was curious to see if they would try a piece. Chico ate a piece right up and so did Pedro! On the way home he kept begging for more. I was praising him like crazy, lol. Thank you guys for all your help!

and she did but I didn't realize it was the reduced calorie formula until we had already bought it.

Are you serious?!! Were you in the store with her?

I just cant feature a dog starving itself to death because it doesn't like the food.

The dog will pick at the food and eat only enough to survive,until a condition/disease brought on by lack of nutrients or whatever happens to their bodies when they dont eat gets him.

The Op has picky eaters, so lets leave out the smug 'my dogs eat everything' posts []

Yay! Redlegos I'm glad your picky one ate the Natural Balance!!

Edie and Brookcove- I agree. There ARE dogs that will eat so little that it's unhealthy for them. What I resent is people implying that dogs are only picky because we make them that way. [&o] That's so untrue. With Gingerbread, he had ONLY ever eaten kibble. As he got to the end of his puppystage he got pickier. I still gave him ONLY kibble for about 4 more months and like I said he was underweight.

I heard one theory on why little dogs are more often picky eaters. It was that small dogs have fewer scent receptors (due to the smaller surface area of the nose) and therefore not as keen sense of smell. I don't know how much truth there is to it, but since dogs go mostly by smell rather than taste, it made sense to me.

Am I the ONLY one on the face of the planet whose dogs eat what they are given, WHEN they are given it?

Nope. Until recently, mine ate everything that I put down, when I put it down. Emma has come down with a case of the pickies, but fasting for a day is always a good cure for those[] She did get a full, $300 blood workup over her pickies, and she's in great shape. She's just being a brat. She seems to be getting over it, after a couple of weeks of picking at her food.

And mine are the infamous SMALL dogs, LOL. Teenie's even toy sized! She's only 9" tall. She scarfs anything that doesn't scarf her first. I love it!

Ugh, I've had so many people tell me Willow's fussiness was "behavioral".  And, it turned out NOT to be. 

I heard one theory on why little dogs are more often picky eaters. It was that small dogs have fewer scent receptors (due to the smaller surface area of the nose) and therefore not as keen sense of smell. I don't know how much truth there is to it, but since dogs go mostly by smell rather than taste, it made sense to me.

Since it seems small dogs are most often the picky eaters, that could be the reason.  hummm, that could bear some checking out.

quote:

and she did but I didn't realize it was the reduced calorie formula until we had already bought it.

Are you serious?!! Were you in the store with her?

 
I was in the store with her but she held the food as I was busy holding on to the dog's leashes. Is this bad even if they are eating? Pedro almost ate ALL of what was in his bowl tonight (the NB).. I was so proud. I'm picking up more of the NB later this week seeing as I only got a 5lb bag it will be gone soon, I will make sure it's just the regular Ultra. Will it be okay until they run out or should I just give it to my dog who is heavier and get the chi's the regular?

I heard one theory on why little dogs are more often picky eaters. It was that small dogs have fewer scent receptors (due to the smaller surface area of the nose) and therefore not as keen sense of smell. I don't know how much truth there is to it, but since dogs go mostly by smell rather than taste, it made sense to me.

 
I've heard that same thing. Also on Royal Canin's website, for the Chi food it says this;
 
The Chihuahua is especially demanding because its sense of smell is less well-developed than that of a larger breed dog - the small area of olfactory membranes means that it has fewer receptor cells.