Food toppers?

[Nick Pietras]

Hi everyone - my ALD Gus has become a bit picky with his food in the past couple weeks. He is on Orijen (I rotate the formulas every couple of months) and top with a bit of boiled ground chicken. I also put a tablespoon of yogurt in his morning bowl. He has never been a ferocious eater and is surprisingly not really motivated by food. However, he's never had an issue eating his food. He still eats it, but he'll sniff it when I first put it down, walk away, and then walk back to it, nibble some, walk away, go back...and on and on until he's finished. Wondering if anyone has any tips for another easy topper I can use to change it up a bit and interest him. Is it ok to switch to ground hamburger instead of chicken? I only feed him the poultry and 6 fish formula of Orijen (Gus was not really into the red meat formula), so wasn't sure if it was the best idea to use red meat with it. Thanks!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Does Gus like veggies? Some dogs love them, and they're a healthy way to make their kibble more interesting.

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

Will Gus eat eventually?  Can you free feed him (i.e. put down his food for the day in the morning and let him eat when he wants to)?  It's certainly not bad to put some chicken on his food but if you keep putting something better and better on top you may wind up where he won't eat without a great treat on his food. 

Our doodle Kirby is a picky eater, but he will eat when he's hungry.  It's just not always on our feeding schedule.  Since we've been crating our other doodle due to an injury we realize Kirby does great when he eats on his own schedule. 

[Nick Pietras]

He does eat eventually. He's less finicky with his evening meal, and will eat all of it more quickly than in the morning. In the morning, he'll eat most of it, but not all of it. Its just odd because there was such an abrupt change - he just all of a sudden seem disinterested. I don't think its that he's not hungry, because he'll continually go back to his bowl and sniff...he just won't eat. I definitely understand your point about not wanting to get into the habit of putting something better and better in his food. I just feel bad - I want him to enjoy his food!

[Elizabeth & Cosmo]

I top-dress Cosmo's kibble (he is on Orijen, too)  with about a tablespoon of either yoghurt, plain canned sweet potato puree, or pure pumpkin puree, plus a few baby carrots.

Sometimes, I moisten the kibble with a little warmed beef or chicken broth (with no toppings), but I don't do it very often because it's more of a hassle. He boarded at a pet resort a few weeks ago, and they told me they moistened his morning kibble with warm water, and that he seemed to like it.

I also put his dose of evening primrose oil (1 500-mg softgel every evening) and fish oil (1 1200-mg softgel every other morning) right on top of the kibble and the top-dressing.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but he seems to like a little variety in texture.

I hope these suggestions help! (And you weren't suggesting _raw_ hamburger, were you? I would be concerned about raw hamburger, but I would think cooked hamburger should be okay to try.)

Good luck!

[Lynn Stoops]

Hi

 

I use Spike's delight food topper for Annie and Shiloh.  I feed Blue Buffalo and add Spike's Delight (all natural ~ tons of veggies, fruits, yogurt and chicken or salmon) to thier meals ~ they love it!  I am planning on switching (slowly) to Orijen staring this week.

 

 

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Easiest thing for me is chopped hard-boiled eggs. You can keep them forever in the fridge, and eggs are very good for dogs. Half a chopped hard-boiled egg contains only 40 calories and dogs love them. Plus, eggs are cheap.

[BG and Gavin]

I mix in about two tablespoons of canned dog food in the morning.  Gavin free feeds, however he has been know to throw up bile on an empty stomache if he does not eat something in the morning.  A tiny bit of shredded cheese also seems to peak his interest.  When we have meat for dinner and there is a little bit left over (chicken, beef or pork) I cut it up into tiny pieces and keep it in a freezer bag in the freezer and use this for a special treat - a few shreds warmed in the micro - and put that on top of his food.

[Richard Crowe]

I buy either Chicken Thighs or London Broil (when it is on sale for about two bucks a pound).  I make sure the chicken is washed and skinned or cut away any fat on the London Broil and cut it into cubes.  I cook one or the other (I don't mix chicken and beef) in a slow cooker along with carrots and either yams or sweet potatoes which I have also cut up in chunks.  After cooking for eight or more hours (I found that when I cut up the beef and veggies into smaller chunks, they cook faster) I bone the chicken (if I am using chicken for that batch) and puree the meat and veggies in a Cuisinart food processor.

 

A friend of mine does about the same thing for her Labradors but adds other veggies such as string beans since her dogs are a bit overweight.

 

I will freeze the result in several freezer containers and pull them out and defrost for kibble topping.  Usually a container lasts us for three or four days (nine Maltese plus Holly) and I usually get three containers worth from my full crock pot. I place a couple of tablespoons on the kibble.  In the evening I give all the dogs a treat and sit at the table and scoop out spoonfuls of the topping which they all eat directly from the spoons.  They all love it this way also.

 

ALL THE DOGS LOVE IT AND I AM SURE IT IS HEALTHY...

 

Back in the "old-days" before I realized that fat was bad for humans and dogs, I would put a spoonful of bacon grease on my Springer Spaniel's kibble about once weekly.  It was wondrous how her coat would become silky and glossy after eating the bacon grease.  For health reasons I don't do that anymore and seldom eat bacon myself.  However, I do get bacon withdrawals every once in a while.  Unfortunately, IMO, everything that tastes good to me happens to be bad for me...

[Michele Follger]

It seems like there is often concern about dood's who aren't enthusiastic eaters. Sunny has been a slow eater all of her life and I have never thought of that as a negative. Am I missing something? She eats all of her food eventually. Only occasionally skipping a meal. But she is a healthy weight and a very active dog. Seems like it isn't a concern, but since so many people worry about it, I want to make sure I'm not being to nonchalant about it.

[BG and Gavin]

For me, I just need him to eat in the morning because he won't do it on his own and then he barfs bile on the carpet, so I need to avoid that!  The rest of the day he is on his own and sometimes he eats, sometimes not.  Also he gets a large biscuit before bed (again to avoid the bile situation).

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You're not being nonchalant about it at all. A normal dog will not starve himself, and if he doesn't eat, oh well.

The problem arises when you have more than one dog in the house, and you cannot leave the food sitting out for the picky dog to eat on his own schedule, because the other one will get it. Or when you must get a dog to eat within a certain time frame, because you are leaving for work and the dog is crated and doesn't hasve access to the food for 8 hours, or some other scheduling issue. It's nice to have a dog who eats and gets done. But it certainly isn't anything to worry about if you have a picky eater. JD is the pickiest eater around, often skipping meals, and he far from underweight.

Of course, part of the reason some people are upset by a picky eater is because they have a need to derive pleasure from being a "nurturer", and food equals love to them. They need to see those they love deriving pleasure from food, including dogs. This is part of what leads to human eating disorders, and having counselled many humans who had food and weight issues, I have to say that your attitude is healthier for you and for your dog.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I think my concern comes from being told by Lucy's vet that she was underweight at 6 months old. Her latest exam, a couple weeks ago (at 15mos. old), I was told she was at a good weight at 48lbs. She'd been eating well the previous 2 weeks. When Lucy doesn't eat her meals or only a small portion of her meals her weight starts to slip off. So, I do worry about Lucy not eating, and I'm one of those who puts canned food and cooked sweet potato mixed into her kibble, but even then it doesn't always entice her to eat. Oh, and btw, Karen, Lucy DOESN'T like cooked eggs. There's always got to be an exception to the rule :)