Candis.a Posted December 8, 2009 Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 I know that sibes can be notorious for being picky eaters and our Brynn is the queen of that. Probably since she was 7-8 months she's been going through times that she won't eat. We feed our sibes raw mountain dog food, supplemented with kelp and fish oil capsules and raw eggs. They also get raw meaty bones. Well Brynn stopped eating that, so we tried plain raw chicken leg with back attached, which she ate for a couple of weeks. The she stopped that. I've tried making my own ground meat food with various things in it. She refuses organ meat now, she used to eat a little when she was younger. (she's now about 17mo old) We even went to dry food (I really did not want to do that) after I tried playing hard ball with her and she didn't eat for four days. The vet said she's healthy, no worms. She's energetic and otherwise normal. Well, she was more stubborn than me and I gave in. She ate the dry dog food (In to the Wild) for about a month then stopped that. Any suggestions would be appreciated as to how to manage a picky eater instead of being managed by one The other sibe, Ava eats fine, no problems. Brynn's weight is fairly steady even with her sporatic eating patterns (just under 50 lbs), but she feels skinny and I can feel every rib and vertebrae on her. The vet says she's fine, just really lean. Any food suggestions would be great. Thanks Candis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arooroomom Posted December 8, 2009 Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 What do you think of her weight? Do you think she's starting to look too skinny? Most vets (that i've come across anyway) are useless in the weight department. Unless the dog is emaciated or obese beyond belief. How much exercise is she getting? Is she on an open feeding schedule? My Cheyenne pulled this stunt for a few months. It drove me crazy. I started tricking her into eating. Having her run through commands over and over and "treating" her with dog food. But the thing that stopped it immediately was something kind of strange. I'm not saying to do this... but Cheyenne hasn't missed a meal in the last month since this. I came home to my brother mashing dry kibble into a meal type consistency. He added water and made it into small balls. Put one in her mouth and held her mouth shut. Forcing her to swallow. Sounds cruel but every time dinner goes down she wipes her bowl clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca_&_me Posted December 8, 2009 Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 To be honest this is how Ive been feeling about Chewy for a long time, since he was about 4 months or so. He stopped taking his usual food and would eat some foods for a week or two and then just stop eating until I got something else for him to try. I have gone through so many brands of food and now managed to get something he will eat all the time. Now my 2 are on The Honest Kitchen Embark food, and Iams natural kibble. I doubt I will be able to stay on the honest kitchen food without the suppliment kibble as they dont stay full for long on the embark food by itself. I do however love that he has been on it for 5 weeks now and is still taking it every time i put it down for him. Its a bit pricy but overall I consider it worth the cost as I was upset about seeing chewys ribs alot. The vet said he was gaining weight just fine and that he was fine and healthy but he just looked too thin to me, so I just kept trying diff foods til I found honest kitchen. Their food is very healthy, but if you arent careful they will want to eat twice as much as they should, lmao. Ive decided to only put down 2 and a half cups of embark each day and 2 to 3 cups of kibble and so far hes doing great with that and looking a bit more "meaty" as a boy should! lol. I think you can get Honest Kitchen food shipped to you in canada, and if you so choose you can add the raw meats to it...you should see chewy scarf down some chicken or turkey when I put it in his bowl of embark, hahaha. They have several kinds of great dog foods to choose from, for pups and adults. Heres the website: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/index.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candis.a Posted December 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 What do you think of her weight? Do you think she's starting to look too skinny? Most vets (that i've come across anyway) are useless in the weight department. Unless the dog is emaciated or obese beyond belief. How much exercise is she getting? Is she on an open feeding schedule? My Cheyenne pulled this stunt for a few months. It drove me crazy. I started tricking her into eating. Having her run through commands over and over and "treating" her with dog food. But the thing that stopped it immediately was something kind of strange. I'm not saying to do this... but Cheyenne hasn't missed a meal in the last month since this. I came home to my brother mashing dry kibble into a meal type consistency. He added water and made it into small balls. Put one in her mouth and held her mouth shut. Forcing her to swallow. Sounds cruel but every time dinner goes down she wipes her bowl clean. Well, if she eats regularly for a few days her weight/feel seems fine and when she's good she's at 50lbs. After about three days on and off for a couple of weeks of not eating regular meals, she loses about 3-4lbs and feels and looks very skinny. And actually the vet we go to has a team of alaskan huskies of his own, so he seems to be pretty good with her weight. He suggested rotating food, trying different brands, adding, mixing different ones, all that didn't work for very long. As for exercise, both dogs get 45 minutes on the treadmill at a steady run with a water break every 15 minutes. They walk us every day for an hour and we hike for 18km every saturday. For feeding, I have been feeding them on a set schedule in the am and pm (their daily food is divided up for two portions and that is based on their weight of 2-3% of total body weight for maintenance or 5% of tbw for weight gain). If I leave the food out, the other dog eats it all, so that isn't an option. We have however given Brynn her chicken leg in the dog house when we put them away at night for her to eat whenever she wants to, but often we find frozen chicken in the am. I took your advice and starting "treating" her with bite size pieces of chicken for commands yesterday and today, which got her daily meal in to her without much of a struggle. So I'll continue with that as long as it works, it's fun for her and I and it gets her eating. I really don't care what others say about her controlling us Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahNukka&Shadow Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 My Nukka has been off her kibble for a few weeks now and we have just discovered that chopping up and carrot in her kibble makes her eat the lot! So I've been doing this the past few days and its worked every time! Dunno if thats just my strange girl, I know some dogs arnt fond so you could try her with different veggies/fruits and see what she likes and then add it to her food? Adding a little bit of water and warming the whole lot in the microwave for 30seconds aparently works quite well too although I havnt tried this myself just a friend whos having the same prob with her Mal. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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