Picky Eating Pei

[Sharpeigirl]

:roll: :roll: I'm haveing a devil of a time getting Sassy to eat her dog food. She'll take one bite, and then leave the bowl & never come back. Vet says she healthy, no medical problems or allergies. She eating Purina Little Bites dog food mixed with Purina Puppy Chow, but we're switching over to just the little bites ANy ideas on how to get her to eat more. She does get a few to many treats from Grandma :roll: But that never stopped her before

[pei obssessed]

Treats might be the culprit here--I started to top up the dry food with little bits of stuff, but just sometime... well, soon enough my spoiled monster wasn't eating her food without toppings :evil: Sooo... new rule is: dry food only goes down 10 min in the morning and 10 min at night, and if she doesn't eat it, she has a chance next time. Treats are also limited at bribe during off-leash walks :lol: And I have to say that I've solved the problem--she's now happily eating up all her food.
Also, please don't think I'm being nosy... but I'd change her food asap. Purina is a really horrible food whose first ingredient is corn, I believe--and many Shar-pei are allergic to corn & soy. She might not be eating it because the novelty of the food worn off and she just doesn't like it (because it's bad)... Mine hated Innova (which is a good food that I've heard lots of good things about), so after 1 and a half bags I just had to switch it--she's now eating a Prairie brand (Nature's variety) and she loves it. Another brand I've heard good things about is Wellness. At my petstore they give you samples of the health foods and you can see which one your doggie likes. But anyway, please consider changing her food to something that would be better for her... and sorry I'm being nosy :wink:

[Sharpeigirl]

Well we don't have alot of money, what would be something somewhat affordable, yet not break the bank & be good for her

[pei obssessed]

I too thought that feeding this health food is going to be far more expensive than the rest... but it's not that expensive and because the food is of better quality, you have to feed less of it.
If you wanna see what your local petstore has--check the ingredient list of different foods and see which food has as a first ingredient chicken, or beef, or lamb (not chicken meal, or chicken by-products), and the next 3-4 ingredients aren't corn or soy stuff.
sorry I can't be of more help, but maybe someone else knows of a cheaper food, still of reasonable quality.

[TDG]

chicken meal is fine. it's the ground, dehydrated product from whole chicken carcasses. if you see the "pure" meat ingredient (e.g. "chicken" or "lamb" etc.), it still includes over 70% water.

ingredients are listed in descending amounts of weight [b]before[/b] processing. the end product has most of its moisture removed, down to a content of around 10-12% in most foods.

if you start out with 1 lb of "wet" meat, you will have only about 1/4 lb worth of meat in the finished product, whereas the content of meat in form of meal stays the same. so a product can have "chicken" listed as first ingredient, but still consist of mostly corn and/or other grains after the final moisture content is reached. buyer beware.

the "bad" meals you definitely want to avoid are the generic types ("meat meal", "meat and bone meal", "___ byproduct meal" etc.). fish meal is neither here nor there - according to US coast guard regulations, any fish meal not destined for human consumption [b]must[/b] be stabilized with ethoxyquin. since the manufacturer does not have to declare additives they did not add to the food, you may buy a product that seems to be free of this artificial preservative at first glance, but it may still be in there. more trustworthy pet food companies, like for example eagle pack, obtain [url=http://eaglepack.com/pages/fish_meal_facts.html][b]special permits[/b][/url] or use non-generic fish in their products.

as far as quality and price goes, here is a little calculation example. for the sake of forming an unbiased opinion, i will leave out the names and brands of the two foods i am comparing. (as for the calculation: on average, 1 pound of dry dog food makes up about 4 standard measuring cups. sometimes it's more, sometimes less, i use this average to calculate if i can't find any details provided by the manufacturer.)

food A: $35 per 33 lb bag, says feed an adult 50 lb dog 1.75 cups per day
food B: $26 per 35 lb bag, says feed an adult 50 lb dog 4 cups per day
result:
food A: about $1.06 per lb and $0.46 to feed per day, 33 lb bag lasts about 75 days.
you would need [b]just under 5 bags per year[/b], putting you at [b]$175[/b] in feeding costs.
food B: about $0.74 per lb and $0.74 to feed per day, 35 lb bag lasts about 35 days.
you would need [b]about 10 1/2 bags per year[/b], putting you at [b]$273[/b] in feeding costs.

side note: this is a very generic example - how much you have to feed depends on age, metabolism, activity, environmental conditions and so on. i am just using this as an example to compare two food brands.

now you decide which food is going to break your bank, all the benefits of a high quality food with healthy ingredients completely aside. :)

[mouseatthebusstop]

Gladis won't eat her food unless I hand feed the first bits then off she goes
Try hand feeding

[pei obssessed]

[quote name='mouseatthebusstop']Gladis won't eat her food unless I hand feed the first bits then off she goes[/quote]
Isn't she playing you well, mouse?! :lol: You know, if you weren't there to hand feed her, she'd have to eat anyway :D