Advice about dog feeding (1 Viewer)

[Mark and Mindy]

Before I ask the question, I have 2 dogs - a border terrier (Poppy) (spayed female) and a schnoodle (Harry) - Harry is a schnauzer/poodle cross, F1 - poodle shaped body with long legs but deeper chest and heavier schnauzer bones - mum was a poodle and dad was a standard schnauzer.

I'm having feeding issues with Harry, mostly, he is generally disinterested in food and has to be persuaded to eat, is easily distracted and quite prone to wandering off before a meal is finished. I've noticed that he's losing weight and his coat has lost its glossy shine. He's active, Mark walks them for just over an hour every morning, decent paced walk, he also has some full on playing sessions with Poppy in the daytime.

I would prefer to feed them on a wet/dry combination, and we've finally got the dry part sorted as Lily's chicken (neither of them like any other flavour dry). The wet is proving to be a major headache as although he's more than happy to tuck into our food - chicken, beef, lamb, tinned tuna or salmon, smoked salmon, cheese etc he's not interested in any kind of wet dog food and we've pretty much tried them all!

Poppy isn't so keen on the dried food and usually eats the wet, mixing the two together doesn't help as she's more than capable of removing all the wet from the dried and spitting the dried out.

So the question is what should I be doing, or even what am I doing wrong?

These aren't our first dogs, first was a Schnauzer (like a vacuum cleaner when eating), second was a Welsh Terrier (a bit picky but he liked Bakers so that's what he had, lived to 15.5).

 

[Speve]

We have a terrier a bit like that but we’ve learned that he will eat when he’s ready and that can be any time day or night we used to worry that he was skinny but the vet has told us he’s a good weight and fit and told us to carry on as we are.
We also have a working Cocker who eats his grub in a few minutes and any one else’s if it’s around.

 

[Head Gardener]

Don't know how old Harry is, but I'd have him in the vets on Monday and ask for "Pre anaesthetic bloods". Won't cost a lot and gives a quick baseline. I reckon you need to know there's no nasty underlying problem before you try changing anything else.

We have a rescue girl who was a walking skeleton when she came to us and it was hard for the first few weeks only to give her a little food (five or six times a day) to build her up slowly, and every bowl was inhaled at the rate of knots! Six years on she's spoilt rotten and no longer starved - and often behaves in the way you describe with Harry. We have concluded she's just not hungry enough some of the time. Some days she eats very little, and a couple of days later she's built up an appetite and clears everything in sight.

Sounds like neither of yours really care for dried food, perhaps you give that a rest; just 'cos you might like to use it doesn't mean they are going to want to eat it! I use 90% meat, no grain, wet food for Daisy, cheapest way of buying is Subscribe & Save from Amazon (sadly, cheaper than getting it direct from Devon where it is made).

But you will get as many different answers to your question as there are dog lovers. Maybe you feed the dogs in different rooms for a while?

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[Mark and Mindy]

Poppy is 5 and Poppy is 3, going to the vets is a good idea, he was there a couple of months ago to have his annual injections and the vet said that he was a good weight as we always weigh them whenever we go.

I can't leave food down for Harry to eat later if there's a wet element as Poppy will eat it for him! Mark has fed them in different rooms, but somebody has to stay in the same room as Harry or off he goes and waits by the door for somebody to rescue him, and then he doesn't eat as he's too anxious, but that's something else entirely.

I think that taking them off dried food makes sense, and will try that. I'm going to try putting it down for a set period and then take away if it isn't eaten because if I go out of the room the one who is eating will eat the other's portion and generally speaking Poppy is great at "helping" Harry!

I definitely haven't tried Forthglade although I've seen it in the shops, but not sure which one I've seen - had a look at their website and it either seems to be the 90% meat or 74% meat and no grain on either - I'll stay away from the one with brown rice.

 

[Cat53]

My Max was very uninterested in dry food....and it’s because of him I eventually switched to raw. Now he eats. I vary the proteins for every meal so all the dogs have a huge variety. It’s lovely to see four sets of eager eyes and four heads down whilst they eat. It’s gone within about two minutes. I wouldn’t feed anything else now.

 

[adt]

Our dogs all went off dry food at the same time and put it down to a change in recipe. We went to homemade and never looked back.

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[Mark and Mindy]

I tried raw just the once, and neither of them were keen, a rather large amount of sniffing from a distance and big eyes looking back at me with disbelief...

@adt is it raw homemade?

 

[adt]

No, I have one who won’t touch raw so I Home cook a mix of chicken breast, beef mince, veggies, egg ( including shell ), rice and a little pasta.

I used a calorie counter to get the mix right.

I used to make different meals, with different meats and fish but now it’s just an all in one pot and they love it.

 

[Mark and Mindy]

No, I have one who won’t touch raw so I Home cook a mix of chicken breast, beef mince, veggies, egg ( including shell ), rice and a little pasta.

I used a calorie counter to get the mix right.

I used to make different meals, with different meats and fish but now it’s just an all in one pot and they love it.

That's interesting, my two like "human food" and by that I mean plain cooked mince, chicken, beef etc, in fact what you put into yours would be considered as a treat by them.

Would you be willing to share your recipe?

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[Shrimp]

I’ve had dog in the past, I grew up with dogs-parents always had dogs of one sort or another and all were keen on food, mention supper and they were always sitting waiting!
This JRT we have now isn’t driven by food at all, she is better about her meals now but still doesn’t go mad at the food. She comes when called-mostly-sits and waits until she’s told she can have it then she’ll sit and wait a bit longer until she feels ready then she will eat but usually without any speed. There’s no way you can train her with treats either, she will work for a while then just goes off & does something else!
All animals are different maybe your dog doesn’t like his food bowl or where it’s put, maybe he wants to eat at a different time, could be anything or just his temperament!
Would defo check with vet tho.

 

[adt]

That's interesting, my two like "human food" and by that I mean plain cooked mince, chicken, beef etc, in fact what you put into yours would be considered as a treat by them.

Would you be willing to share your recipe?

No problem, we tried all different recipes to vary it and settled on a one pot that they enjoy, sometimes vary it by putting a bit of sausage, cheese, etc on top.

This feeds a Dobermann bitch and 2 mini poodles for 2 days:

800-900g chicken breast ( we sometimes use a whole cooked chicken instead)
500g beef mince ( with a higher fat content)
150-200g of offal (ox heart or liver) or a pot of frozen chicken livers
Veg, normally carrot, white cabbage and peas. (I do this by eye but is probably around 5-700g)
The shell of the egg ground in a mortar and pestle

This is all chopped and cooked together, at the end add a whole egg and mix in (we then clean the shell and leave it to dry for the next batch)

75g of rice
75g of pasta
Cooked and then Added to the hot mix and helps soak up the juices.

Occasionally add a teaspoon full of cod liver oil

I then have tubs that are the right size for a days portion for the dogs and gets Split morning and night.

 

[lorger]

We've just changed Toby's food as he never looked like he enjoyed it . Lorraine notice an ad on FB for a company called Tails.com they're doing a promotion just now where you pay £1 for a months supply. Toby is a Jack Russell who will be ten soon, when we first have him the food we thought the portion was to small. After two weeks he still loves it and seems full of life, we're bloody knackered walking him

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[poki]

I have used Tails.com before but one of the borders liked it ..the other one wouldn't touch it My Bullmastiffs had raw Tripe and Arden Grange mixed in, plus raw chicken carcasses and raw Lamb ribs.

Have you had Harry's teeth checked?

 

[Mark and Mindy]

No problem, we tried all different recipes to vary it and settled on a one pot that they enjoy, sometimes vary it by putting a bit of sausage, cheese, etc on top.

This feeds a Dobermann bitch and 2 mini poodles for 2 days:

800-900g chicken breast ( we sometimes use a whole cooked chicken instead)
500g beef mince ( with a higher fat content)
150-200g of offal (ox heart or liver) or a pot of frozen chicken livers
Veg, normally carrot, white cabbage and peas. (I do this by eye but is probably around 5-700g)
The shell of the egg ground in a mortar and pestle

This is all chopped and cooked together, at the end add a whole egg and mix in (we then clean the shell and leave it to dry for the next batch)

75g of rice
75g of pasta
Cooked and then Added to the hot mix and helps soak up the juices.

Occasionally add a teaspoon full of cod liver oil

I then have tubs that are the right size for a days portion for the dogs and gets Split morning and night.

I like the sound of this and would have to work out the calorie needs for them both. Do you freeze it or is it always a fresh mix every couple of days?

 

[Mark and Mindy]

I have used Tails.com before but one of the borders liked it ..the other one wouldn't touch it My Bullmastiffs had raw Tripe and Arden Grange mixed in, plus raw chicken carcasses and raw Lamb ribs.

Have you had Harry's teeth checked?

His teeth are all good, the vet is very pleased with them (on both dogs), on his recommendation they have a small dentastix every day - they have them at lunchtime and I get the green ones as they seem to prefer them. Neither of them suffers with bad breath either.

We were talking about the feeding issue this morning and Poppy's coat isn't as nice as it has been/should be, it does seem to be a bit dry - I have her trimmed very carefully every 16 weeks, she could still be stripped but due to her hair growing outwards so that she looks like a walking orange ball on legs which makes her incredibly hot all the time we have her trimmed down to the length of the undercoat but not into it, its only been the last few weeks when I've particularly noticed that her coat is very dull and dry to the touch.

Looking at your avatar at your dogs, Poppy isn't exactly a lean machine - she's not a runner but more of a potterer, she's also larger than most females we've seen - she's somewhat on the chunky side, with a longer body. We've tried various ways of cutting her food, but it makes her so miserable that we would be reluctant to reduce it any further - snacks are kept to an absolute minimum....

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[adt]

I like the sound of this and would have to work out the calorie needs for them both. Do you freeze it or is it always a fresh mix every couple of days?

Because it is only every two days we just give it fresh but we do make multiple batches for going in the van and freeze it.

 

[poki]

The dogs in my avatar are Bullmastiffs, Butty our border is a speyed border terrier and she has always been a chunky stocky girl, and since she was speyed about 6 years ago piled on the pounds, so she has been having Arden Grange light and has lost almost 2 kilos over 18 months.. she has a small handful in the morning on its own and a small handful mixed in with a nature diet for her dinner..Glad Harry's teeth are ok, have you tried to soften his biscuit by soaking it or as others have said mix a little of your table scraps in his food....I did have one Border who always ate much better if we held his food bowl up for him in our hands so we used to raise it for him on something as we found out it hurt his neck if he ate from floor level ...

Silvia

 

[Mark and Mindy]

Because it is only every two days we just give it fresh but we do make multiple batches for going in the van and freeze it.

ah, that's what I wanted to know

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[Mark and Mindy]

The dogs in my avatar are Bullmastiffs, Butty our border is a speyed border terrier and she has always been a chunky stocky girl, and since she was speyed about 6 years ago piled on the pounds, so she has been having Arden Grange light and has lost almost 2 kilos over 18 months.. she has a small handful in the morning on its own and a small handful mixed in with a nature diet for her dinner..Glad Harry's teeth are ok, have you tried to soften his biscuit by soaking it or as others have said mix a little of your table scraps in his food....I did have one Border who always ate much better if we held his food bowl up for him in our hands so we used to raise it for him on something as we found out it hurt his neck if he ate from floor level ...

Silvia

woops, I'm never really sure about dogs in avatars!
The vet says that Poppy is on the upper end of just about all right, so she if she could lose a bit more then it would be good for her, but if she doesn't then we're to keep her at her current weight.
We had a Welsh Terrier who just didn't get on with a bowl at floor level, once we raised it a bit and gave him his food on a plate rather than a bowl then he was all good, we realised that he didn't like the clanking of his tag on the side of a bowl.

This morning they just had wet food, three different varieties put in different piles in the bowls, Harry has gone onto a temporary bowl in plastic as he doesn't like the metal one, Poppy will eat off anything! She liked it all and he didn't like one, so we can definitely say that he isn't going to wolf it all down, he's the thoughtful one.

I'm liking the idea of @adt of making our own food, obviously not in such large quantities even though Poppy could eat a Doberman sized portion without any effort.

 

[Langtoftlad]

As I feed Kerry raw, I'm not sure if this is any help... but I was wondering if this supplier of raw minces might be an economical source of meat for you to cook in your recipes?
Make life more convenient perhaps

Most of their minces are "balanced" 80% meat 10% offal & 10% bone.
Aware that general cooked bone is a big no no for dogs but I wonder how much harm minced bone could do ?

 

[Janine]

Following on from a previous comment, my old cocker spaniel got spooked by his metal food bowl.

I got him a nice china bowl from the charity shop and he started eating again!

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[poki]

woops, I'm never really sure about dogs in avatars!
The vet says that Poppy is on the upper end of just about all right, so she if she could lose a bit more then it would be good for her, but if she doesn't then we're to keep her at her current weight.
We had a Welsh Terrier who just didn't get on with a bowl at floor level, once we raised it a bit and gave him his food on a plate rather than a bowl then he was all good, we realised that he didn't like the clanking of his tag on the side of a bowl.

This morning they just had wet food, three different varieties put in different piles in the bowls, Harry has gone onto a temporary bowl in plastic as he doesn't like the metal one, Poppy will eat off anything! She liked it all and he didn't like one, so we can definitely say that he isn't going to wolf it all down, he's the thoughtful one.

I'm liking the idea of @adt of making our own food, obviously not in such large quantities even though Poppy could eat a Doberman sized portion without any effort.

Hmmmm he may well just be a picky dog or he has you on a good thing lol...Maybe if you find something he likes if you cook for him hopefully he will be ok ..Butty will eat anything but not raw food...mind you this hot weather tends to give some dogs a poor appetite,i always reduce the amount I give in the summer ..
Silvia

 

[DaveandJen]

We had similar problems and found the wet food supplied in trays by the company in the link below mixed with dried food worked a treat.

Composition
Chicken (min.73%)
Brown Rice (4%)
Peas (3%)
Carrots (1%)
Salmon Oil (0.5%)
Seaweed
Minerals
Prebiotic - Fructooligosaccharide
Yucca.

https://www.symplypetfoods.co.uk/dog/wet-trays/chicken-adult-tray

 

[rangi]

A dog gets bored pretty quickly with the same food every meal. In their natural habitat they are scavengers, tiz only humans that have stuffed their natural feeding habits up over the last 10 millennium or so.
Varity is the key to a heathy Dog!
If your dog walks off from a bowl of food tiz cause he's bored!
Liven it up!
Raw chicken mince, grated carrot, Sardines, or eat the Sardines yourself and save the oil to drizzle over it's food, same with Tuna!
Pasta, mixed with tinned fish.
Want to give your dog a real treat?, is it a reward? want to stop them bark bark bark when you leave them at home alone? Give them a raw, YES FOLKS RAW, frozen Chicken wing, It's like giving a child an Ice cream. A lot of folks will say that's a no no! As above, a Dog is a scavenger by nature. If they find a dead bird, they will eat it! Note! dead bird is not cooked! Nor should their chicken wing be.
Brisket Bones is another treat for them.

Just think of yourself, would you like the same stuff day after day?
Nor does your Pooch.

Dry food, no matter what it says on the packet is unhealthy crap, It fills the dog up is about all it does. Varity is the key.
If a dog has the right Diet, then it's stools should be a light colour almost white, unfortunately not many are.

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[Mark and Mindy]

As I feed Kerry raw, I'm not sure if this is any help... but I was wondering if this supplier of raw minces might be an economical source of meat for you to cook in your recipes?
Make life more convenient perhaps

Most of their minces are "balanced" 80% meat 10% offal & 10% bone.
Aware that general cooked bone is a big no no for dogs but I wonder how much harm minced bone could do ?

I had a look at the food, but I'm wondering whether the minced bone could end up being sharp cooked splinters and so not a good risk to take - shame really as it does look good with the offal pre-mixed in.

 

[Podney]

Give it some tripe.

 

[rangi]

Give it some tripe.

YEP! Forgot that! our Dogs loved raw tripe especially the "Honeycomb" sort.

Mind you! While serving it up to them I used to take a square or two myself

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[Langtoftlad]

I had a look at the food, but I'm wondering whether the minced bone could end up being sharp cooked splinters and so not a good risk to take - shame really as it does look good with the offal pre-mixed in.

Are you going to Lymington by any chance... quite happy to let you have a pack for you to check out if you like...
Obviously it's your call but the mince is quite fine so I doubt the bone would splinter... but of course meat reduces as it's cooked so the bone pieces might be relatively big bits .

They do meat only minces too .

 

[Mark and Mindy]

Are you going to Lymington by any chance... quite happy to let you have a pack for you to check out if you like...
Obviously it's your call but the mince is quite fine so I doubt the bone would splinter... but of course meat reduces as it's cooked so the bone pieces might be relatively big bits .

They do meat only minces too .

woops, didn't notice that... won't be coming to Lymington any time soon although my M-I-L's family are all down in "The Forest", in fact both sides are from there or Southampton - thanks for the offer though

I'm going to cook up a homemade batch tomorrow - or at least a couple of day's worth to see if they like it, and if they don't then Mark can have it... I asked him if he had any food preferences for next week and he said "you put it in front of me and I'll eat it" such temptation, wonder if he'd query it!

and get a different bowl for Harry, not metal and not the one he's using at the moment as that's a travel bowl and lives in the grab and go bag for when we're out and about.

 

[Popeye]

What an amazing resource MHFun is!...........

........by the way I give my bitch housekeeping, not too sure what she eats! (sorry, couldn't resist it)

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