Not eating kibbles....NEED HELP!!

[luvmykanin]

Ok so Kanin has had lots of problems with eating dog food. We use to give him people food but vet told me to stop. He has had 3 allergy/steroid shots since Decmber. He got his 3rd one today. He has been eating his paws and scratching alot. The vet drew blood to check his thyroid, as some on here told me their dog had the same symptoms and diagnosed as hypothyroidism. So now I told the vet Kanin refuses to eat dry kibble. What can I do? I feel bad eating without him. He is use to eating supper with us. I always fixed him a plate. I have tried putting yogurt in his food, chicken or turkey fat free gravy, and nothing seems to work. He licks off the gravy/yogurt and spits the dry kibble out. Vet told me I had to be tougher then him (Kanin). But it breaks my heart to look at his big brown eyes, he looks so sad. He was on Iams and Vet told me to switch him to Science Diet. I did and no luck. He does eat the canned but not the dry. I learned on here Science Diet is bad, so I tried Canidae....he would not even try it, he smelled it and walked away. I have now turned to Chicken Soup. He likes this the best so far, so I am gonna stick with this. Any help is greatly appreciated. Vet told me that it wouldn't hurt him not to eat for a day, but it hurts me. I even mixed the dry in with the can and he still doesn't eat much of it. I put a can of chicken or turkey in with it and he eats the meat and leaves the kibbles. He is driving me CRAZY!! I just want my baby to stop itching and chewing. He is also very nervous. I think he has a severe case of anxiety. So now a waiting game. Depending on what the blood work shows, ny next step is an allergy test. Vet told me they can do that by blood, rather then having to stick him with many different allergens. So I am gonna do that if the bllod work doesn't show anything. thanks in advance for all the help!!!

 

[luvmykanin]

I am not sure if I posted this in the right forum. I am thinking maybe it should have been in the "feeding". Sorry if I did this wrong and if it needs to be moved, by all means go for it!!

 

[dieselhound]

OK, Tyler has bad allergies. Our vet has done everything under the sun for him. We went through allergy shots and even giving him a steroid pill everyday. We didn't like that and that lasted three days. We want to give him quality and quantity of a life. Steroids make him fat and takes time off of his life. The bottom line is something is wrong and we didn't want to mask it, we wanted to fix it. We started to use a holistic vet. She had suggested a home cooked diet. That has helped out. What you use is:
Twice a day Tyler gets 1 cup meat, 1 cup veggie, 1/2 cup of gains and you have to add calcium. The calcium comes in a pill form which you can split and sprinkle over the kibble. The calcium you use is 1200 mg per 2 cups of meat or 1 tablespoon of human food grade bone meal per pound of boneless meat. You only cook the meat but, still leave it pink. To feed Ty @ 66 lbs costs us about $1.50 to $1.75 a day. You can use any kind of meat. Maybe this will help you and get him to eat. Good luck

 

[fayebay1969]

If he can have peanut butter, try mixing that with the kibble. I had to do that when we ate steak for dinner the other night. Buddy insisted he should have had some too. I used it and he ate all of his kibble. Anything is worth a try. I hate seeing the pouty face also. It breaks my heart when I get the sad eyes.

 

[OurBabyChamp]

dieselhound, can you be a bit more specific?

our vet just put champ on a venison and potato diet for 2 months to try to rule out food allergies for his paw scratching/chewing. It's only been a week, but of course he is loving his food!!! He is still chewing somewhat, so we will see if it goes away or not. What i am wondering is, can you give me specific examples of what you feed him? what veggies/grain/meat combos? we are thinking that we might keep champ on this if it works but we know that we will need to add veggies and calcium. you've already been a big help, thanks.

 

[TossBranAbi]

The grains are the usual source of the allergy problems. Can you try a raw natural diet? It sounds complicated but once you get started on it is is pretty simple. Mine are on raw and love it and they look good. You can find more info in the BARF section.

 

[Checkers]

Look into a raw diet (BARF). It has helped so many people with allergy and not eating problems. Its the diet nature designed dogs to eat, so you cant get better than that

But if you do decide to do home cooking or raw, I would hesitate to tell your vet. He will probably put you off it :rolleyes:

 

[dieselhound]

We also tried venison and potato. We thought Ty was allergic to fish, so we went on a mad search for kibble that DID NOT have fish, that was tough. Unfortunately, that didn't work for Ty. As far as veggies,gains, and meats you can use ANYTHING in these categories. This is some of the things we use veggies: broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, spinach, and whatever else is green. We don't use corn or toxic things like onions. Grains- rice, barley, oatmeal, pastas, and things in that category. Meats- poultry, beef, and pork. We got Ty used to the diet before adding pork. Whatever you can consider a meat, veggie or grain is fair game. You can do it pretty cheap. When I mean cheap, I compare the expense to a good kibble. We have used: Solid Gold, Chicken Soup, Nutria natural choice ( lamb and rice), Natural Balance (duck and potato,venison and brown rice), and Innova Evo. To switch foods we had Ty on each of these at least 2 to 3 months at a time. Its been a lot of work.

 

[AJsMom]

I had a hard time getting AJ to eat when he first came here. I think he had been fed table scraps at his prior home and we wanted him to eat dry kibble. I tried mixing it with everything and he did the same thing - he would eat the "mix" and leave the kibble. I thought the kibble was too big (because he seemed to like the cat food...). Anyway - we switched around and he is now eating Flint River Farms Trout and Potato (I thought he had allergies because he got hot spots from the Nutro) and he LOVES it. I just mix a little warm water in it for some gravy. I don't know if he just realized that he was getting kibble and that's it - or if he actually really likes the FRF. Anyway - I got some samples from Chicken Soup and he seems to like that too so I think I will add that to the rotation. Also, I want to try Merrick because it makes its own gravy when you add water.

 

[dharmadoodle]

If that were me I would seriously turn to the BARF diet.