feeding our picky girl

[Bunny]

our girl is 6mons old and she is really a picky eater!!
has anyone feed their girland boys MERRICK DOG FOOD?
canned or dry? if so what did you think and did they like it and do well



thanks bunny's mom

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

Dogs are not born picky eaters, humans turn them into/create picky eaters.

A healthy dog will not starve itself, they simply learn that if they "hold out" their owner will cave in and do anything and everything to get them to eat so they end up with a whole lot better stuff than they started with.

Choose a food that is healthy (Merrick's is a good choice), affordable, and that you can get in your area, put the amount you're going to feed in the bowl, put the bowl down and walk away. Leave the food down for 15-20 minutes and come back and pick the bowl up. If she ate, great, if not, repeat this process every 12 hours (at 6 months she can be fed twice a day). I promise you, she WILL eventually eat and eat what you put in front of her. Also do not give extras, treats, anything else other than what you want to give her at every meal until she is steadily eating within that 15-20 minute time span for 1-2 weeks successfully.

A healthy dog will not starve itself, however I do warn it may take up to 4-5 days before she figures out you're not going to cave in and eats. She'll eat what you offer her when she's hungry.

But to answer your question, yes, Merrick's is a good food. My dog is allergic to it (and most other foods) so I do not feed it, but ingredient wise it is a good healthy food.

 

[TwoDogs]

Dogs are not born picky eaters, humans turn them into/create picky eaters.

A healthy dog will not starve itself, they simply learn that if they "hold out" their owner will cave in and do anything and everything to get them to eat so they end up with a whole lot better stuff than they started with.

QUOTE]

In general, I agree with this and think that many a dog's fussiness is owner created. However, I have a personal story that convinced me that sometimes, that isn't the case. My female can not tolerate venison. It gives her a horrible gurggling belly and causes her discomfort. How do I know this? She told me--by refusing to eat it.

When I first introduced a venison kibble mixed with her old food, she ate it willingly. Once I reached the 3/4 venison kibble and 1/4 old kibble mix, she started to eat it with less gusto. Eventually refusing the food completely, but still willing to eat the old kibble if offered. I did manage to coax her into eating a few more venison meals. That's when I actually really noticed the amount of gurggling her belly was doing. I stopped the venison and the problem disappeared. I truely believe that the venison caused her such stomach upset that she didn't want to eat it anymore. Could I have waited her out until she was hungry enough to eat the venison that so clearly caused her discomfort? Sure, but I wasn't willing to do that.

So, while in most cases of picky eating, I do think the owners are contributing factors, I also believe in listening to your dog and going with their "gut feeling". They might just be trying to tell you something.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

Dogs are not born picky eaters, humans turn them into/create picky eaters.

A healthy dog will not starve itself, they simply learn that if they "hold out" their owner will cave in and do anything and everything to get them to eat so they end up with a whole lot better stuff than they started with.

QUOTE]

In general, I agree with this and think that many a dog's fussiness is owner created. However, I have a personal story that convinced me that sometimes, that isn't the case. My female can not tolerate venison. It gives her a horrible gurggling belly and causes her discomfort. How do I know this? She told me--by refusing to eat it.

When I first introduced a venison kibble mixed with her old food, she ate it willingly. Once I reached the 3/4 venison kibble and 1/4 old kibble mix, she started to eat it with less gusto. Eventually refusing the food completely, but still willing to eat the old kibble if offered. I did manage to coax her into eating a few more venison meals. That's when I actually really noticed the amount of gurggling her belly was doing. I stopped the venison and the problem disappeared. I truely believe that the venison caused her such stomach upset that she didn't want to eat it anymore. Could I have waited her out until she was hungry enough to eat the venison that so clearly caused her discomfort? Sure, but I wasn't willing to do that.

So, while in most cases of picky eating, I do think the owners are contributing factors, I also believe in listening to your dog and going with their "gut feeling". They might just be trying to tell you something.

And also please note I said "healthy", if it was causing her belly discomfort, she had an intollereance or allergy to the food that would not be a considered a healthy dog.

 

[TwoDogs]

And also please note I said "healthy", if it was causing her belly discomfort, she had an intollereance or allergy to the food that would not be a considered a healthy dog.

I have an intolerance to broccoli. It causes me great intestinal discomfort. To look at me, I would appear healthy. I'm sure that if I went to the doctor, they would declare me overall healthy but advise me to stay away from broccoli.

I did not mean to refute your advice. By and large I agree that owners can be contributing factors in a dog's pickiness. I merely offered my story to illustrate that an otherwise healthy dog may refuse to eat a food for a perfectly good reason, not just because they are being picky.

Many people read this forum. To alot of people, "healthy" means "not outwardly or obviously ill". Like me after I eat broccoli, my dog was not outwardly or obviously ill, yet she did turn down the venison kibble. The average person would have seen it as a case of a healthy dog refusing to eat, perhaps incorrectly concluding that she just didn't like the food and was being picky. After all, when I decline broccoli at the dinner table, most people assume it's because I don't like the flavor.

My story was intended to encourage people to look a bit closer and make sure there isn't another reason that their otherwise healthy dog isn't eating the food before deciding that they are just being picky. Remember, loss of appetite (sometimes mistaken for pickiness) can be a symptom of an underlying, unnoticed health problem.

 

[TwoDogs]

To the OP:
Merrick is a good food and even the dogs I know that it doesn't sit well with never refused to eat it, so it must be pretty tasty.

All sorts of stuff can effect a dog's appetite though, and we could probably give you some better advice if we knew more about the situation. Is she refusing the food completely? Is she eating some but not finishing it? Does she eat some and come back to graze on the rest later? By chance are you training with treats and she is getting full on those and so not eating her meals? Could you be feeding too much and she is just not hungry at times? Did you switch food recently and, if so, were her eating habits the same with the other food?

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

I have an intolerance to broccoli. It causes me great intestinal discomfort. To look at me, I would appear healthy. I'm sure that if I went to the doctor, they would declare me overall healthy but advise me to stay away from broccoli.

I did not mean to refute your advice. By and large I agree that owners can be contributing factors in a dog's pickiness. I merely offered my story to illustrate that an otherwise healthy dog may refuse to eat a food for a perfectly good reason, not just because they are being picky.

Many people read this forum. To alot of people, "healthy" means "not outwardly or obviously ill". Like me after I eat broccoli, my dog was not outwardly or obviously ill, yet she did turn down the venison kibble. The average person would have seen it as a case of a healthy dog refusing to eat, perhaps incorrectly concluding that she just didn't like the food and was being picky. After all, when I decline broccoli at the dinner table, most people assume it's because I don't like the flavor.

My story was intended to encourage people to look a bit closer and make sure there isn't another reason that their otherwise healthy dog isn't eating the food before deciding that they are just being picky. Remember, loss of appetite (sometimes mistaken for pickiness) can be a symptom of an underlying, unnoticed health problem.

I understand. But outwardly my dogs look healthy too. But my girl has severe arthritis a bad knee, hypothyroidism, Valley Fever, liver disease, but she LOOKS and acts totally healthy. My other dog has severe food allergies as well as environmental allergies but to look at him he looks healthy.

Personally I base healthy on lab reports, allergies, food intolerances, and diseases. I have minor allergies, I'd and do say I am healthy however I do have mild allergies. There's always a "but" in there ya know.

I understand what you were saying, my clarification was really just that a clarification, many people think like you do, and so I wanted to clarify that when I say healthy, I mean healthy, no intolerances, no allergies, no hypothyroid, no medical, physical, or mental problems whatsoever.

It wasn't to demote your story, it was simply to clarify what I had said, and since it was too long to edit my post, I just had to repost.

Hopefully that makes more sense.

 

[TwoDogs]

I understand. But outwardly my dogs look healthy too. But my girl has severe arthritis a bad knee, hypothyroidism, Valley Fever, liver disease, but she LOOKS and acts totally healthy. My other dog has severe food allergies as well as environmental allergies but to look at him he looks healthy.

Personally I base healthy on lab reports, allergies, food intolerances, and diseases. I have minor allergies, I'd and do say I am healthy however I do have mild allergies. There's always a "but" in there ya know.

I understand what you were saying, my clarification was really just that a clarification, many people think like you do, and so I wanted to clarify that when I say healthy, I mean healthy, no intolerances, no allergies, no hypothyroid, no medical, physical, or mental problems whatsoever.

It wasn't to demote your story, it was simply to clarify what I had said, and since it was too long to edit my post, I just had to repost.

Hopefully that makes more sense.

Your two are lucky to have you. So much can go unnoticed if we don't look closely enough.

I'm glad there isn't a misunderstanding between us. I find that it's sometimes difficult with the written word to ensure that I haven't "said" something in the wrong way.

I understand why, but I still hate that we can't go back and edit our posts. I'm always wishing I could make myself clearer or fix my grammatical errors after it's too late.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

Your two are lucky to have you. So much can go unnoticed if we don't look closely enough.

I'm glad there isn't a misunderstanding between us. I find that it's sometimes difficult with the written word to ensure that I haven't "said" something in the wrong way.

Oh so very true on the typing and saying something wrong! Yes, looking at my two they look totally healthy and like nothing is wrong with them...until you feed my boy a food he can't eat and then he goes from white to red with welts and itches and it isn't pretty LoL, or until you look at a lab report on my girl and then the numbers aren't so pretty, or stop giving her her pain medication and then she limps, but properly medicated she looks and acts very healthy.

To the OP:

I agree that you would obviously have to access the situation. But if it's simply that she'll eat treats, other food, etc and is simply refusing the kibble, look at the ingredients, but more than likely she's simply enjoying her treats and other foods a bit more and holding out on you LoL.