We are at our wits end..................

[Lee Seidman]

We are at our  wits end,  Lexi has been a fussy eater and now that she has turned three we have tried everything.  She currently gets fed once a day a cup of Orijen and a half chicken breast, or roast pork, or hamburger on top of the Orijen. She picks out the meat and spits out the Orijen. We have tried every quality brand of Kibble and have donated tons of partial uneaten bags to the Humane Societty. She is only 37 lbs but is the sweetest gal ever.

In the morning the only thing she will eat is a couple of the dried chicken strips.  I am afraid of those because they have had some bad publicity and they are made in China. We have tried wheat free treats and she tries them once or twice and no good.  She will not eat any kind of biscuit. I would like to try adding a high quality canned food to the Orijen and eliminate some of the home cooking.  We tried some Taste of the Wild canned and she went three days without eating anything.

Can anyone suggest a really good quality canned food to suplement her Orijen....and a healthy treat for her breakfast      ..Please please please.

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There are a couple of different brands of chicken jerky that are not made in China. True Chews are made in Iowa by Tyson, and Trader Joe's sells chicken jerky made in the U.S.A. There are also Jones Natural Chews if you can find them near you, all U.S.A. ingredients. 

Check our Food Group Recommended Foods List, any of the brands there are fine. Most of them make canned foods. Solid Gold and Wellness are good, but there are many others.  

 

Here's a link to the Recommended Brands: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/recomme...

You can check their websites, all listed, to see what canned options are available.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

I know this has been a struggle for you and am sorry for that :(.  The brands we have used and liked are Mulligans Stew, Great Life and Tripett.  Tripett has always been our secret weapon, when all else fails it works here (some of our pregnant mommas have hit a time about halfway through when they will not eat for a few days),  Have you ever tried the Ziwi Peak?  Or maybe the freeze dried raw patties from Stella & Chewy's.  I am sorry if some of this is redundant for you.  Hoping for a solution as I know you are too.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Lee - I feel your pain. I have seen Lexi not eat!

My Charli is also a PIA with eating. She is 2 years old, 28" tall and weighs a whopping 42 lbs. She is so skinny it breaks my heart but 2 different vets told me that she is at a good weight!

I can barely get her to eat more than 1 cup of Evo a day. I made a monster with both girls. If I give them my home cooked foods, they eat. I tried to make my life a little easier with cooking over the summer and tried canned Evo - they might eat it 1 day and not the next. I put on shredded cheese and they eat 1/2 their dinner. If I put shredded chicken in they might eat 3/4.  They really want warm home cooked food. They will just have to wait. 

[BG and Gavin]

Oh my Dianne - just got the Tripett Lamb to try on Gavin.  That is one stinky and one ugly looking canned food!  However...he went for it.  In a big way.   Now if I could just clear my nasal passages lol!

[BG and Gavin]

Of course I am not sure how I expected all natural, no persatives added, grass fed, lamb stomach lining to look and smell lol!

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I tried it too and had to hold my breath when I scooped it out. Never again! YUCK!

[BG and Gavin]

Not sure why, but Gavin tends to go for Lamb in a wet food over anything else.  I have to do the topper thing too.  I hate to admit it, but I have resorted to buying a cheap cut of steak, cooking it up, cutting it into tiny peices and freezing it.  I take out a few at a time, warm in microwave with a bit of chicken broth and mix into kibble.  In the end, this method actually ends up being less expensive than canned food. 

[Lee Seidman]

thanks to all for your advice.  I am going to take every suggestion and try them, hope we find a solution. I also found a receipe and googled "how to make chicken jerky strips". I am going to try making our own to see how Lexi likes them. It looks easy, and even if I can find the Tyson jerky it is so expensive...it looks easy enough to make ?

than you all, Lee

 

 

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

I'm laughing sympathetically, Lee ... finding healthy snacks for these guys, especially if they have food issues, is a challenge. Like Lexi, Lachlan loves those chicken strips - and like you, I'm afraid of them.My Dainty Flower puppy has trouble with grains, too, so I have to be really careful with treats.

I finally broke down last weekend and bought a cheap food dehydrator to experiment with, thinking "hey, how hard can chicken strips be, really?" The sweet potato chews I made in it were a huge hit! I'll pick up some chicken this weekend and try making chicken strips with it.

[Lee Seidman]

that sounds great.  I looked at the prices on a dehydrator and they ranged all the way to over two hundred dollars. I am interested in knowing which one you have and if it worked well. I spend a fortune on the chicken strips with two Doodles. If making the strips is easy the dehydrator will pay for itself in no time. I wonder if they put some kind of flavoring on the store brands or if it is just plain chicken breast strips?

 Please let me know what you find out. Making them myself seems like a no brainer,  at least I know they are getting something as a treat that is healthy. When I looked on line all they said was to slice the breast in thin strips, trim any fat and put on a tray in the oven at 180 degrees for three hours.

Thank you, Lee

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

The one I bought is the Nesco American Harvest cheap one on Amazon. I didn't want to spend a lot of money without being absolutely sure it was something I would use regularly, so I went with the low end one that got great reviews. It was only $38. For that price I KNOW it'll pay for itself! I can see using it until it wears out, then probably getting something more up-market with more features and capacity. We'll see.

I think they use quite a bit of preservatives on the store brands. Seems like they'd have to in order to make them shelf-stable. The home-made stuff needs to be refrigerated (or frozen for long-term storage), I believe.

Making the sweet-potato strips was dead easy. I just scrubbed and sliced the sweet potatoes and tossed them on the dehydrator trays, turned it on and walked away. It took about four hours to make chewy strips and Lachlan goes nuts for 'em. The only difference with the chicken, I think, is that they recommend you heat it to 165F before putting it into the dehydrator for food-safety reasons. I'm going to try boiling with mine this weekend and will let you know how they turn out!

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Reporting back *grin*  Okay, I did the chicken today. It came out ... okay, not really what I was hoping for. More "dried lumps of chicken" than jerky. Lachlan likes 'em, but then he thinks a roll of toilet paper is a nice snack. My ultimate goal is something more jerky-like.

I've been reading about using a "jerky gun" (looks a lot like a caulking gun) and ground meat to make meat jerky (video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkjhrwV7qPU). Apparently you can use any kind of ground meat, so ground chicken or turkey should work. Just ordered the jerky gun, so I'll give that a try next weekend. Cross fingers and paws!