Food recommendations

[JudyN]

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What's he like on boiled chicken & rice?

 

[Mayblossom]

I’m the same with Lily, at 10 and a half, as long as she’s staying healthy and happy, she has quite a varied diet of anything I can get down her we’ve actually managed some dog food! Scrambled egg and ham is her favourite which she has a couple of times a week, she’s happy and so am I I’ve made myself stop fretting so much about her food habits as I’m sure she picked up on it before.

 

[Josie]

The problem is, all he wants is human food and I really don’t want to go down that road.
He would quite happily eat cheese or human sausages and I know he’s 12 and I want him to enjoy his food and his life but he really is just being naughty about it because I know that he’s starving!

Actually he did eat some of his food from my finger and also from a spoon!!

He picks out the chicken and leaves the rice @JudyN

I know this is my fault for chopping and changing his food, I don’t blame him that he doesn’t trust what’s in there.

 

[Kara 1]

If it were me then i would give him what he will eat ..

 

[JoanneF]

Is it the Hill's ZD he is refusing? It might just not taste good. What about going back to his preferred dog food and trying that with the tree bark powder supplement to see if the tree bark fixes the problem? Or like others have said, feed him what he likes.

 

[JudyN]

If it were me then i would give him what he will eat ..

Yes, but not if it gives him a runny bum - hence the need to get to the bottom (pun intended) of his problems.

Now, if he'll eat off your finger or a spoon, I wonder if you could spoonfeed him for a while and gradually drop bits into his bowl - or onto a human plate to try to fool him - till he's picking more and more off the plate. You could even try sitting at the table with a plate of it in front of you, see if he begs for it like he would for human food, and see if he'll then eat it happily when you offer him some.

As I see it, you have three problems: (1) to find the cause of his runny bum and fix that, (2) to find a reasonably palatable food that doesn't cause the runny bum, and (3) to work out whether he's refusing his food because he really doesn't like it, or he'd just prefer sausage and chips. And let's face it, who can blame him?

 

[Josie]

@JoanneF yes Z/D is off (don’t blame him looked awful) Tried mixing the powder with other food that he likes and he knew it was different so refused.

He’s just eaten some tinned meat - same company as his tray meat. Strange he refused the tray and this he ate! But he’s eaten so that’s a bonus.

Now to work on those three things @JudyN

Thanks for all your help everyone. It’s such a frustrating time and I think I just need to be patient and continue with one solid food source. It’s soooooo hard not to switch or try something different when he has such runny poos.


And I totally agree - sausage and chips sound so much better!!

 

[Jjohnd]

Josie
I cannot offer any possible solutions but you have my utmost sympathy. Full marks for remaining so upbeat about the problems. Let's hope that the problems pass quickly.

 

[Ari_RR]

When we have diarrhea lasting more than a day - we switch to boiled chicken + rice, and practically nothing else.. pumpkin pure a couple of times, but no treats, nothing else. If he doesn't eat much - that's fine as long as he drinks water. We may also give him pepsid (human med for stomach which seems to work quite well).

 

[Josie]

@Ari_RR he won’t touch rice and now he won’t even eat chicken

 

[Mad Murphy]

I have to admit that Benny went on a 'I'll eat what I darn well want' diet in his last months and we were happy to go along with it as long as he ate...Then we gradually mixed in a little of the steamed meals from a company called Renske and he ate those so we gradually increased the Renske ..

It is so hard to do the right thing /the best thing /the recommended thing when your dog says No thanks all the time.
We all talk about how important a good diet is and how we shouldnt spoil them with table treats etc but at times like this its heartbreaking and you just want them to eat ... With Max who was 60 kilo in his prime we ended up nearly bankrupting ourselves giving him steamed chicken breast or fresh Tuna because that was all he would eat but I would happily have starved myself to make him happy so I do understand..

 

[Caro Perry]

Will he eat sweet potato? It's my go to when Harri has a funny tummy. He likes the sweet taste and I add a little chopped chicken.

 

[Josie]

Thanks for that @Mad Murphy - it’s such a frustrating time and we’re trying not to be anxious around him but he’s bound to feel we are!

I can’t tell you how much I’ve spent on trying to get food he’ll eat.

He did eat some cooked cod earlier in a kong but then when I tried to give him some more he just spat it out.

He won’t eat sweet potato @Caro Perry I’ve tried that.

I know he’s playing me because he’d happily eat treats but I don’t know what to do for the best!

Hoping this hard time will pass soon

 

[JudyN]

'Accidentally' leave a plate of 'your' food (chicken, cod, whatever, with a tasty salt-free gravy, etc.) on a low table and leave the room?

 

[DixD]

My lurches were such food hounds, if someone came to the door, they rushed off to the kitchen to see I’d left anything on the counter. Stolen food seems to taste best, when it comes to dogs!

 

[Finsky]

Thanks for that @Mad Murphy - it’s such a frustrating time and we’re trying not to be anxious around him but he’s bound to feel we are!

I can’t tell you how much I’ve spent on trying to get food he’ll eat.

He did eat some cooked cod earlier in a kong but then when I tried to give him some more he just spat it out.

He won’t eat sweet potato @Caro Perry I’ve tried that.

I know he’s playing me because he’d happily eat treats but I don’t know what to do for the best!

Hoping this hard time will pass soon

Even chicken is recommended as 'neutral food', good for the poorly one, it can actually be the cause of a runny bum. I've had couple of dogs before that their digestive system just would not accept it even if their mouths did. My current pup seem be already showing signs of this issue again...and it doesn't matter if it is 'proper' chicken cooked or raw or as manufactured dog food with chicken content. The end result is always the same.
How about semi-raw diet that include some uncooked bones? Mine LOOOOOVE lamb chop/ribs few times a weeks and it keeps their poos in perfect order.
I started changing towards raw diet with my dogs as I got desperate not finding right kind of food that the dogs would agree eating...one day they would and next they would rather starve. I ended throwing so much uneaten food away and eventually they would stop touching commercial food altogether. Even home cooking was bit lottery if they would touch it when previously it was gobbled down.
And then one day when doing some food...I accidentally dropped raw piece of meat on floor and before I managed to clean it off, it was greedily snatched away and pair of brown eyes was asking if there was some more!
And rest if history. No more food issues...mine are getting theirs raw or slightly warmed but never thoroughly cooked anymore and boy do they look better for it too. Runny bum now does only tend to appear if they get some chicken...
It is painstaking progress to find what is causing the issues and what solves it....

 

[Josie]

Thanks @Finsky - I tried raw and it didn’t go down well at all. So I don’t want to go back down that route.

I’ve finally got him eating a semi kind of meal.
He’s having chicken sausages (lovely heck ones!) he won’t touch any other chicken product, whole meal pasta and broccoli!

He’s actually been excited to eat again and it’s lovely to see. I know it’s not dog food and probably not the best for him but I’m just so happy to see him eat

 

[DixD]

it sounds like it probably contains a lot more vitamins and minerals than a lot of dog foods!

 

[Mayblossom]

That sounds great Josie, so pleased he’s enjoying food again...makes us much happier too

 

[Josie]

That sounds great Josie, so pleased he’s enjoying food again...makes us much happier too

It really does. It’s made me so anxious and frustrated. However, now he’s decided he doesn’t want to eat the pasta and broccoli just the sausages ​