# Puppy doesn't like his food...



## .wesss (Feb 7, 2012)

I also can't seem to find a good treat he likes either! 
I tried milkbones, and those seem to hard for him to chew, and I tried a recommended food roll, but it's a pain because I have to keep cutting it up.


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## .wesss (Feb 7, 2012)

I just realized I posted this in the wrong section too. Oops. Sorry guys.


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## plumcrazy (Sep 11, 2009)

.wesss said:


> I just realized I posted this in the wrong section too. Oops. Sorry guys.


No problem! I moved it...

Barb


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## .wesss (Feb 7, 2012)

plumcrazy said:


> No problem! I moved it...
> 
> Barb


Thanks!!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

He could be teething - have you tried softening the kibble with warm water or unsalted chicken broth?

I've found the best, and probably safest, treats are just meat. A chicken breast, poached, cut up and frozen will make dozens, and bits can be stuffed into a Kong along with his kibble to make a long lasting chew toy, Same with a slice of roast beef, or a scrap off your steak, or any other meat you are cooking. If you are vegetarian, people swear by dehydrated sweet potato slices (but my two hold out for the carniverous option!). There are lots of recipes for homemade treats on here if you search - Liver Cake has proved very popular with many dogs.


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## Arborgale (Dec 11, 2011)

You are not alone! I have not found a good treat for Rosie either. She turns up her nose at them, or will politely take it and then place it on the floor and walk away. The only thing I know she loves is cheese, but that is a pain. You can't carry cheese out on walks, it gets all yucky! I would love to find a good "stable" treat to carry around with us while we are training on walks. 

Rosie does not eat that well either, even though I put chicken and broth on her kibble. I thought I'd figured it out by exercising her real good right before I fed her, but that did not work last night or this morning. Oh well. Sometimes she eats well, sometimes she takes a bite, and sometimes she fasts. I remember my last minipoo was pretty weird with food too. I guess they have better self control with food than I do. They will eat what they need to survive and leave the rest. 

I'd be interested in hearing how many others have the same issues and what training treats people suggest (that will stay clean in your pocket).


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## .wesss (Feb 7, 2012)

fjm said:


> He could be teething - have you tried softening the kibble with warm water or unsalted chicken broth?
> 
> I've found the best, and probably safest, treats are just meat. A chicken breast, poached, cut up and frozen will make dozens, and bits can be stuffed into a Kong along with his kibble to make a long lasting chew toy, Same with a slice of roast beef, or a scrap off your steak, or any other meat you are cooking. If you are vegetarian, people swear by dehydrated sweet potato slices (but my two hold out for the carniverous option!). There are lots of recipes for homemade treats on here if you search - Liver Cake has proved very popular with many dogs.


Wow thanks! I was hoping you'd chime in. And yes, I do believe it is him teething because it looks hard for him to chew, and it falls out of his mouth. I'll try the chicken broth today! I hope he doesn't get to used to it though and wont eat without it. I noticed that it looked rather unusual that he wasn't devouring his food like other puppies would. 
When are the puppies usually done teething?


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## .wesss (Feb 7, 2012)

Arborgale said:


> You are not alone! I have not found a good treat for Rosie either. She turns up her nose at them, or will politely take it and then place it on the floor and walk away. The only thing I know she loves is cheese, but that is a pain. You can't carry cheese out on walks, it gets all yucky! I would love to find a good "stable" treat to carry around with us while we are training on walks.
> 
> Rosie does not eat that well either, even though I put chicken and broth on her kibble. I thought I'd figured it out by exercising her real good right before I fed her, but that did not work last night or this morning. Oh well. Sometimes she eats well, sometimes she takes a bite, and sometimes she fasts. I remember my last minipoo was pretty weird with food too. I guess they have better self control with food than I do. They will eat what they need to survive and leave the rest.
> 
> I'd be interested in hearing how many others have the same issues and what training treats people suggest (that will stay clean in your pocket).


It feels nice not to be the only one! I want to find small chewy treats that he'll like, and that are pre broken up, like little pieces. The rolls of food I'm cutting up he loves them, but they are super messy to cut and put in my pocket. 
And I'm with you. Jeffrey is the opposite of me. As a 21 year old male, I'm starving 24/7! lol


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Cairo came to me on kibbles and bits, oh man! I switched him to solid gold lil bits, and he wasn't eating it well at first, so I added water to it to bring out the smell and flavor, he's eating it enthusiastically now while it's dry. Give that a try!


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## PaddleAddict (Feb 9, 2010)

I would skip the Milkbones, read the ingredients. Ugh. "Meat and bone meal," hmmmmm.... I wonder what kind of meat that is?


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

Put a little bit of canned on top of the kibble to get him to like i -- and, after noticing your post, you may want to put some on a cracker too while you are at it!. May work.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Easy, clean treat idea - tube of cheese! Stick it in your pocket, to treat dog unscrew the lid and let them take a few licks, then replace lid. Primula claim not to add salt, other than the "melting salts", whatever they may be.


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## Arborgale (Dec 11, 2011)

Is that like squirt cheese in the aerosol can?

I guess string cheese might also be an alternative if I kept it in the wrapper.


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## Scooter's_Mom (Feb 1, 2012)

PaddleAddict said:


> I would skip the Milkbones, read the ingredients. Ugh. "Meat and bone meal," hmmmmm.... I wonder what kind of meat that is?


I work in a feed mill where we make bulk feeds for cattle, horses, sheep, goats and rabbits and some other "farm critters". We do purchase and use meat and bone meal in some of the feeds. A reputable company, following all requirements, would not use a restricted product. However, that being said, restricted just means the source of meat/bone meal, not necessarily from which part of the source. If meat/bone meal were listed as a primary ingredient, I'd be leary myself. Even any meat meal....I would look for one that lists a specific meat, such as beef, veal, lamb, chicken, etc.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

No really, milkbones aren't good quality. ^


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## Scooter's_Mom (Feb 1, 2012)

I didn't mean to imply that I thought that Milk Bones were good, just that some meat/bone sources _can_ be a good source of protein. It's all about the source of the protein. Sorry if I wasn't clear.


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## Ginagbaby1 (Aug 1, 2011)

Casper still does this same exact thing where he walk away from most treats or will pick them up in his mouth, walk away and find a spot to drop it in. I've posted many threads asking for help regarding his picky eating. I have found that what works best to get him to eat is to add a TBS or two of a good topper. For us it's usually canned food in different flavors/textures such as Wellness or Nature's Variety or some boiled turkey/beef. Since it's only a bit of meat on top, a little goes a long way. 

The treats that I have found that he likes best are Wellness Pure Bites (in beef but they have chicken too), BB Wilderness Salmon Wild Bites, Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats (salmon and sweet potato. 

When he was younger we also used the Zukes Mini Treats. They have a few different flavors and are the perfect training treat size.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Oh, my bad, carry on!


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

I've always been mystified by those who have animals they characterise as 'picky' ... all my animals, horses, dogs, cats, have always licked their bowls clean. Then again, I think food is important, so try to make it as interesting as possible.

I feed a mix of wet/dry food (NatureDiet + Acana kibble), and supplement with all sorts of things: table scraps, yoghurt, cottage cheese, eggs, grated cheese, olive oil, sardines or mackerel, chicken broth, etc. Food is important to dogs, and I think it's important to be aware of that. If mine ever turned up his nose at his dinner bowl, I'd be rushing him to the vet :smile:.

As far as treats, I use boiled chicken, liver cake, hot dogs cut into tiny pieces, cheese, etc. I keep small plastic sandwich bags to put treats in, which protects pockets. When we are training boring stuff, he likes his kibble enough that I can use that.

For a less-messy cheese, you might try parmesan or romano cut into teeny tiny cubes. It's very hard, so less messy, but it is strong smelling, which dogs like!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Primula cheese - not sure of the US equivalent?

http://www.primula.co.uk/tube_orginal.html

But messy pockets aren't really a problem - Sophy gives mine a thorough clean out as soon as we get home (and checks any polythene bags very thoroughly, just in case - I have learned not to leave spare poo bags in my pocket if I don't want to find them full of small holes!)


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## Arborgale (Dec 11, 2011)

Thanks fjm! I have never seen anything like that before. I'll have to look around the dairy case to see if we have anything similar here.


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## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

Milkbones are very calorie dense and a low value food so they would be near the bottom of my list. There is a dearth of good quality dog treats. The ones that are high quality are so expensive. I tend to make my own - grilled chicken, pork tenderloin ect. which is messy. I have a treat bag which I wash out all the time which is a pain but at least he is getting good quality food. I have bought the ingredients for fjm liver cake 3 times and each time I had some disaster happen and not been able to make it. Perhaps 4th time will be the charm, from the ingredients it looks like a winner.


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## PaddleAddict (Feb 9, 2010)

Scooter's_Mom said:


> I didn't mean to imply that I thought that Milk Bones were good, just that some meat/bone sources _can_ be a good source of protein. It's all about the source of the protein. Sorry if I wasn't clear.


And my point was that I would like to know what my dog is eating. "Meat" can be any meat or mixtures of meats. For one thing, my dog is allergic to chicken, so I could never feed him anything that was called "meat." Also, I just see that as a sign of a cheap, low-quality food/treat for my dog. 

There are so many great treats out there with much better ingredients, not to mention all of the healthy, yummy real foods people have mentioned here like cooked meat, cheese, etc.


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## .wesss (Feb 7, 2012)

Solved the problem... I found that in my small town a pet supply store sells Orijen! Oh my gosh.. he loves it. He eats it incredibly fast. Thanks for all the help guys and gals


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

Glad he found something he loves! A dogs favorite time of day is meal time. They should enjoy it. 

You can always buy some canned meat and mix a quarter of the can in it with some warm water. Presto. He'll love his food.


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## lrkellly (Jan 6, 2012)

Sprout is also extremely picky. He eats Acana small breed puppy, but he wouldn't eat Taste of the Wild, Candidae or Royal Canin. - it took me a while to find something he likes.

For treats he is also really picky. However, if you can find dehydrated liver you might have some luck there. I've also had success with dehydrated chicken strips. The bonus with these treats is that they don't go bad and they are really healthy.

If you're training him it might be worthwhile to cut up some cheese into small portions. I combine cheese and ground beef to use as a treat in Sprout's obedience class. The benefit of his attention offsets the messy hands.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Do be careful with dehydrated chicken - wonderful stuff if you make your own, but most of that available commercially comes from China, and there are very serious concerns about it - see the Treats thread.


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## lrkellly (Jan 6, 2012)

Thanks FJM - I looked for a treats thread with this info but I couldn't find it. When I search 'treats' a ton of threads come up...
Could you give me more info on where I could find this thread?

Also I buy Chewmasters by Celebrity - Chicken Strips. Apparently they are from China (which I did not realize) but the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) routinely checks the factories.

I would love to know more information, and now I'm thinking that perhaps I should buy local gizzards etc and dehydrate them myself...


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

This is the thread: http://www.poodleforum.com/29-poodle-health/17764-treat-warning.html#post219571

I'm looking to make my own, too - mine love it, but there have been too many reports of problems for me to feel comfortable giving it to them.


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## samplephile5 (Feb 22, 2012)

Lots of good advice in this thread but it seems like there's a little too much pooch pandering. I know but they're so cure, right!?
Well we just switched Murphy to Fromm© after eating royal canin since we got him (he's 1 year old now), because we wanted a more natural/organic diet.
At first he would not eat it, walking away after the first smell.
But after a day or two of taking his bowl away he reluctantly became hungry enough to eat it. It was slow going the first couple of days, but now he loves it.
I'd say stick with what you think is best and your dog will learn to like it.
Stay strong!


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

I never think of it as pandering ... dogs have so little control over their lives, it feels like it's our responsibility to make things like food appealing. I'd be bored and reluctant eating plain porridge every meal ... might keep me alive, but I wouldn't get much enjoyment out of it. I like seeing my dog twirling in joy at dinner time! There are so many options available now that weren't 20 years ago; it's very easy to find a good quality food that the dog enjoys.


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## samplephile5 (Feb 22, 2012)

You're right, but It's also our job to give them what's best for them. Would you rather give a 5 year old candy instead of vegetables just because she likes more?
My point was that the dog actually really enjoys the food now. He just took a while to warm up to it. It's the best of both worlds, happy and healthy.


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## stardoc (Jul 18, 2011)

Cant's help with kibble choice, I was feeding mine home made food and just decided to switch to kibble. But the treats are kind of easy. I find that both cat and dog love treats with just one ingredient listed. So ducktenders are the best - they are just dried duck breasts, easy to break into smaller pieces for small treats and larger for a big treat. Both go nuts for it. Cat liked dried salmon bits. And my latest favorite for toy poodle is smoked pig ears cut into strips. We don't even experiment with anything else.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Do check the origin of the treats, stardoc. After the recent reports of serious issues with dried chicken from China, I am very wary of any treats or foods originating there (and unfortunately most of the dried treats do).


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## stardoc (Jul 18, 2011)

fjm, good point. I always make sure to buy the treats made in Canada. The brand I go for is Vitalife. I'm afraind I'm very biased when it comes to buying food for ourselves or our pets and I would never buy any food made in China. What can I say, I'm a snob and a half.


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