For the Finicky Eater!

[The Food Group]

I remember a post a while back about the freeze dried raw food "Stella & Chewy's".  I was at the Pet Depot and there it was on the shelf.  I decided to buy a small bag to see if Bailey might chow down and finally get an appetite in the morning.

Sure enough, she loved it.  Now, when she hears me preparing her breakfast, she runs down the stairs and waits beside me.

It comes in cubes and is freeze dried.  I started of with her regular kibble and broke up 1/4 cube, and put a small bit of water on top, then mixed it in.  I want to still use it as a food topper, but also want to feed her something healthy. 

[Julie, Boomer, Milo & Casey]

Roberta - I would crumble one small bite/patty on my dog's kibble as well - that was the only way I could get him to eat twice a day (rather than graze).    I stopped buying it because of price (seemed to keep increasing).   A new freeze dried product just came out by dogswell.com called Nutrisca and its less expensive but appears to be just as good (better?) and both my dogs LOVE it.   I'm crumbling one "bite" (which is a small piece) on their kibble every morning and evening and they both finish their bowls of food.   The retail at our local store is $25.99 but a $6 off coupon is printed on each bag (from the manuf) as its a new product so I stocked up.   Doggiefood.com had a coupon on black Friday so I bought some for less than $20/bag.   Just thought I'd share as it sounds like your finicky eater is alot like mine until finding these products.  :-)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Be careful with Dogswell, some of their products use ingredients from China. That's why the price is lower, but it's not worth the risk.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I looked at the Nutrisca website, and it says "Made in USA". But I do know their jerky and other treats do come from China, it's just tested and packaged here in the U.S. "Made in the U.S." doesn't necessarily mean the ingredients come from the U.S., they can import meat or whatever from other countries and make the food here, so I would send the company an email or call them and ask if any of the ingredients come from foreign countries, and if so, which ones. A company with nothing to hide will tell you. A company that you want to stay away from will cite "Proprietary Information". If you hear those words, stay away from the company.

[Julie, Boomer, Milo & Casey]

Roberta/Karen - I was going to add a disclaimer "ask Karen before purchasing" - LOL!  I looked at the bag (& looking again this morning) and it doesn't say on the bag where they are made but I saw the American Flag and where they are distributed from (Calif).   From there, looked online and saw the 5 star Dog Food Advisor rating.    Seems so misleading to NOT print on the bag that they are made in China.   I'm going to look at their website because things like this need to be printed.  Thanks, Karen for staying on top of these things!!   :-)

 

 

[Julie, Boomer, Milo & Casey]

Karen - another question.    I'm looking at the dogswell website and the Nutrisca product  http://nutrisca.dogswell.com/ says made in the USA.  Is it possible that some of their foods have products from China but this particular one (Nutrisca) does not?    How would I find this out?  Their statement that its made in the USA seems very deceiving, if its not.   Thanks again.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Julie, the best thing to do is to email or call the company and ask specifically where the ingredients in a particular product come from. It's very possible that the Nutrisca product is made in the U.S. from U.S. ingredients. There are many companies that use both U.S. ingredients and ingredients that are outsourced.

I have communicated with Dogswell in the past about their chicken and duck jerky, and in fact used it for several years, because I was assured both in writing and verbally that while the poultry does indeed come from China, they inspect, test, and package it in their facility here in the U.S. But I was seeing too many variations between one package and another, and after all the reports about jerky from China over the years, I decided the risk just wasn't worth it.

So knowing that they do import poultry from China, I am naturally cautious about their products. Again, the Nutrisca products may be perfectly fine and safe, but i would want reassurance of that.

I do the same with any product I am going to give JD, unless I already know that that particular company doesn't ever use ingredients from overseas.

[Julie, Boomer, Milo & Casey]

Karen, thanks.  I'm going to call tomorrow!  

[Maria, Ton & Zoe]

We had good results with Stella and Chewy crumble mixed in Zoe's food.  She was picky-eating Orijen and/or Ziwipeak and refused all others.  I switch the base kibble every two weeks as she gets "bored" of food and stops eating.  If I would not add anything, she gets a couple of pieces and leaves, comes back, takes some more then stops...  In the end she eats 1/4 of what the package says.  She never seems hungry, but she is skinny and did not gain any weight from 5 until 8 months.  At 7 months I decided to look for add ons to make the food more attractive.  Now we are crumbling 1/2 patty of Stella and Chewy in her regular food at each meal time and this gets her to eat most of the regular portion.  Once in a while we give her a can of sardines (in water) smashed and mixed with her kibble.  This way she gets close to eating ~ 3/4 of the recommended amount per day and started slowly gaining a bit of weight, she seems to have covered her bones a little.