# Ash - The stubborn



## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

Good luck. They learn fast what the good stuff really are. My won't eat store brought jerky anymore after I made them homemade dehydrated jerky and organs. But doesn't it feel so good when they are looking forward to their meals? I'm so glad Ash is recovering nicely. Strong little girl!


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

My babies said:


> Good luck. They learn fast what the good stuff really are. My won't eat store brought jerky anymore after I made them homemade dehydrated jerky and organs. But doesn't it feel so good when they are looking forward to their meals? I'm so glad Ash is recovering nicely. Strong little girl!


Missy is in love with this food. She is not at all food driven until now. I'm just not sure HOW MUCH I should be feeding them. They are usually free fed kibble. 


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

They were getting the cooked meals 3 times per day, but now I'm just doing 2 bigger meals. I'm just afraid they need more vitamins/calories than this. I don't know how cooked food compares to their grain free kibble. 


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## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

My still gets free fed with their Acana kibbles and the dehydrated jerky serves as 1 of their meals or sometimes as a midnight snack. I think you can go less on the homemade as long as their kibbles are still available to them when they get hungry. But I think Ash will probably just starve till her next homemade meal if she's not eating any of her kibbles at all now. Poodles are picky eaters IMO. Might be hard to go back to just plain kibbles again


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## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

PoodlePaws said:


> They were getting the cooked meals 3 times per day, but now I'm just doing 2 bigger meals. I'm just afraid they need more vitamins/calories than this. I don't know how cooked food compares to their grain free kibble.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


That's my concern too. That's why Gucci and Miu Miu still gets their kibbles. I think you will have to do a lot of homework if you are feeding only homemade meals to make sure it is balanced for them. I looked it up before when they were puppies and refused all kibbles and canned food even the pre made cooked dog food and I knew I couldn't do it. So happy that I finally found the Acana that they love.


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

To be safe, I'd add a probiotic, like Prozyme, with the food. It will assist them in getting all the nutrients. Sure the diet will be fine temporarily, and then just start transitioning her back over to the previous diet.


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

try giving a reduced portion of kibble well mixed into the cooked food. don't overfeed, because that's a free pass to be pickier (don't ask me how i know).


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I'd stick to feeding twice a day, starting with nearly all home cooked with a sprinkling of kibble, and gradually increasing the kibble and reducing the home cooked. A week or so of unbalanced diet is unlikely to do any harm, but after that you may need to consider a bit of research to make it more complete. I cook for mine using the guidelines on DogAware.com: Diet & Health Info for Man's Best Friend. The basic principles are:
*Sufficient calcium*: if you are not feeding bone add a source of calcium (eg half a teaspoonful of ground eggshell per pound of meat. Dairy does not contain enough calcium to do the trick).
*Offal*: add a little liver and other offal to the diet - around 10 15%
*Variety*: use different protein sources - different meats, plus fish (especially oily fish), eggs, etc, etc.

I buy complete mince (human grade) that contains ground bone and offal, and cook up five or six pounds at a time. I add about 20% vegetables by weight, but don't count those towards calories. Each dog gets about 90 - 100 g/3 - 3.5oz of this mix a day, plus treats. I reckon on about 35 - 45 g/1.25 - 1.5 oz of meat or fish, or one egg, per dog for each meal, feeding twice a day. Sophy weighs 3.75k/8.25lb, Poppy weighs 4.2k/9.25 pounds.


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

Omg. Ash is being quite the drama queen. I have added small amounts of her kibble to the cooked and if the sees the kibble, she won't eat any of the cooked. If I hide it under the cooked, when she gets to it, she will tump her bowl over. This is very frustrating. 


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

Oh boy. How about wet food? A yummy canned maybe?


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## hopetocurl (Jan 8, 2014)

I would talk to the vet to make sure it is ok...but at some point, you are going to have to get tough. Just give her the kibble and that's it. She will not let herself starve.m


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

i hope it's okay if i chuckle. your dog apparently has no trouble communicating with you!

which kibble are you feeding? sometimes that makes a difference, too. as many have said here, it's doubtful a dog will let itself starve, so you have to reach kind of a compromise or you will become a doggie dinner chef. my dog prefers people food, too, but i still put kibble in his bowl and usually he ends up eating most of it, though he also gets people food tidbits and is more likely to eat his kibble once he's sure he really has gotten his share of that. in my dog's case, it's my fault and i know it.


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

liljaker said:


> Oh boy. How about wet food? A yummy canned maybe?


She won't touch it. Even the kind she is usually in love with 


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

patk said:


> i hope it's okay if i chuckle. your dog apparently has no trouble communicating with you!
> 
> which kibble are you feeding? sometimes that makes a difference, too. as many have said here, it's doubtful a dog will let itself starve, so you have to reach kind of a compromise or you will become a doggie dinner chef. my dog prefers people food, too, but i still put kibble in his bowl and usually he ends up eating most of it, though he also gets people food tidbits and is more likely to eat his kibble once he's sure he really has gotten his share of that. in my dog's case, it's my fault and i know it.


This girl is something else. If I offer her the kibble she will tump the whole bowl over. 

She is very food driven usually. She weighs 13 lbs. she usually will eat anything! Not anymore. Not since the hospital stay. The only reason I started cooking for her is because she wasn't eating and I wanted her to have no problems healing. I should've been tougher on her. I feel I've made a horrible mistake. Lol. 


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## Wild Kitten (Mar 13, 2014)

PoodlePaws said:


> The only reason I started cooking for her is because she wasn't eating and I wanted her to have no problems healing. I should've been tougher on her. I feel I've made a horrible mistake. Lol.


or you can just be tough on her now that she has healed......... it's hard to be tough with an ill dog, and she needed the energy to heal .... I think you did the right thing for her at the time.


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## My babies (Aug 14, 2012)

PoodlePaws said:


> Omg. Ash is being quite the drama queen. I have added small amounts of her kibble to the cooked and if the sees the kibble, she won't eat any of the cooked. If I hide it under the cooked, when she gets to it, she will tump her bowl over. This is very frustrating.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Sounds like a smart little drama queen you get there. She's telling you she's not happy that there's kibbles in her bowl. I know it's frustrating for you but I had to smile thinking about it. She's a cutie with an attitude. Lol


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## PoodlePaws (May 28, 2013)

Good news!!!!!!!!
I put the dogs together in the big kennel so I could steam clean the carpets. And ash started eating the kibble that is in there!!!!!!' I'm sooooo happy  you should see how happy they are in there. Together at last. 


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

so ash was really on a hunger strike because of the separation but couldn't resist the home cooking!!!??? gotta love dogspeak.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

patk said:


> try giving a reduced portion of kibble well mixed into the cooked food. don't overfeed, because that's a free pass to be pickier (don't ask me how i know).


patk, I was going to suggest a similar strategy of mixing just enough that there won't be left overs or picking out the good stuff. I won't ask, but am dying to know your secret. Mine that led me to saying mix just enough to get everything eaten relates to when I switched brands of kibble. My dogs free feed, so I hid a small amount of the new food under the old. The sneaky beasts dug out all of the new stuff (blue buffalo) and left the old almost untouched. It gave Peeves an awful upset intestine even though old and new were both chicken based and the main reason for switching was to go grain free.

PoodlePaws I know you said she seems to be really averse to the kibble, what if you put some broth on it to soak it so it was less conspicuous? I am sure once you are sure she is really better you will have success. Be patient and consistent. A dog that is healthy will eat when it understands that what is there is it, but I know why you don't want to push it so soon after her surgery.


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

lily cd re said:


> ... My dogs free feed, so I hid a small amount of the new food under the old. The sneaky beasts dug out all of the new stuff (blue buffalo) and left the old almost untouched. It gave Peeves an awful upset intestine even though old and new were both chicken based and the main reason for switching was to go grain free.


i had to chuckle at this, too. my dog has certainly done the same. the most egregious example, though, was something i witnessed one day when i went to visit him in quarantine. there was kibble scattered on the floor of his run. i watched him take food out of the bowl and spit it out. what in heck was he doing? seems there was soft food on top of the kibble. he was sucking off the soft food and spitting out just the kibble! 

so mixing in new kibble with the one you're trying to replace doesn't work with every dog. what i do now is use a soft "appetizer" of some kind - scrambled eggs and brown rice or maybe a steamed flaky white fish and brown rice - and mix it in thoroughly so that my guy has to eat the kibble to really get to enjoy the flavor of the eggs or fish. eventually he may get only kibble in his bowl. but the truth is that he is 16+, blind and i'd rather baby him a bit. old age hath its privileges.


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## Constance (Jun 4, 2013)

All of this sounds so familiar and makes me smile but poodle pickiness is a problem! Ginseng wouldn't touch kibble and my goal with coco is to feed her only kibble and it is working. She doesn't eat much every day(I let it stand free as the breeder advised but my sister says no to this...) coco will crunch away at her kibble and we have gone through quite a few giant bags. She eats grain free taste of the wild, premium and expensive.

Sounds harsh, but I bet if you offer ash only kibble, he wiki eventually eat it. What a funny dog!


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