Tired of the same food

[Stacy]

I think this is an easy question. I think Maggie is tired of her food. She's been eating the same thing for a long time, and she's kind of blah on it. She's my most reluctant eater anyway.

She's eating Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Boost Beef. She's much more interested in the other girl's Fromm Whitefish and Potato. For Maggie's next bag of food should I just try the Instinct Raw Boost Chicken? Or should I transition her over to Fromm with the other two? She's done very well on what she's eating, she just doesn't want to eat it.

I'm thinking the Instinct Chicken, but at the same time it would be so easy if they all ate the same thing. The Fromm has grains, the Natue's Variety doesn't. The Nature's Variety is significantly higher calorie. I know I'm overthinking, but her next bag of food is going to auto ship, so I have to decide.

As usual, thanks!

[Stacy]

Also, oddly enough the chicken is more expensive than the beef. Just a few dollars, nothing I can't deal with, but I always thought the beef was more expensive!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I see that Instinct Raw Boost comes in beef, chicken, duck, salmon, and venison. We're going to leave the venison out of this for now, and look at the other options. If Maggie is showing interest in the Fromm Whitefish and Potato, that may be because fish based foods are more, shall we say, aromatic? Some dogs love fish; JD did. So I suggest you consider switching her to the Salmon Raw Boost formula rather than the chicken. I think she'd like it better. She's already getting chicken with her current food; chicken meal is the second ingredient in the Raw Boost beef formula. So if you switch her to the chicken formula, you're basically just eliminating beef but otherweise, not really introducing much in the way of new taste sensations, lol.

Yes, the Instinct is significantly higher in calories than the Fromm formula you're using. It's also significantly higher in protein and fat: 36% protein and 21% fat compared to 23% protein and 11% fat is a huge, huge difference. I wouldn't make that kind of extreme change if she is doing well with the current macronutrient profile. 

[Stacy]

Awesome! Thank you. Salmon has been ordered. I hope she loves it. It's kind of sad to see her look at her food and walk away. She eats it eventually, but she's not excited about it at all. It would be nice if she enjoyed her food, and it would be nice if would she would hurry up and eat so I don't have to try to entertain the other two while she gets around to it. She will absolutely not eat in her crate, and the other two would love to help her with her food.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

One more reason not to switch her to a lower calorie food...she'd have to eat more. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

As long as the vet doesn't say she's too thin, you can out-wait her with her food - just pick it up and save it for the next meal (that's my normal method with Ned).  If this really isn't what you want to do, take a couple kibbles of the the others'  food and put it in each bowl.  When we dog sit and feed that dog it's own food, I do this with Ned. First of all, because I have to control feeding 5 dogs in a timely manner, and second because I can guarantee that he'll eat it because Ned always wants what he perceives the others getting.  I give Clancy and Charlie Dausaquin but Ned won't eat it.  However, I have to pretend to put one into his food dish so that he thinks they aren't getting something he isn't. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

ROFL!!!!!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

He is a little prince, isn't he????  :-}

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Lol yes he is :)

Thankful so far that Riley is 0% picky.  She will eat pretty much anything (which is both good and bad lol).  I find stickers in her poop on a regular basis... 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I'm told by my granddaughter "that she'll outgrown the crayon poop."

[ks-man]

I thought I'd add to this thread rather than start a new one.  Cannoli is 7.5 months old and has been eating Fromm Puppy Gold since he was at the breeder.  He certainly seems to be tired of it; breakfast is a real challenge and we mix in some wet food (currently leftover RX food from the vet but soon to be something I picked up at Bentley's) to add some flavor.  Up to now he would eat his dinner quickly since he was so hungry but the last two days he took his time and didn't even finish dinner.

I want to try either supplementing it with something else or just switching entirely.  I'm not sure if I should stick with puppy food or else go to an all life stages food.  Should I stick with Fromm and change the flavor or try something else entirely?  He's had some sensitive stomach issues in the past which I've posted about but currently things seem to be OK on that front as long as he has his probiotic each morning along with some sweet potato or pumpkin.

Thanks for the help!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

So not quite a month ago, you posted about this: https://doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/puppy-stopped-eating-all-of-h...

Were any changes made since then?

I do think his growth has probably slowed down considerably. 

Instead of wet food, which I hate, I crush a few Stella & Chewy's Meal Mixer nuggets into Jasper's meals. I had a similar issue with him getting tired of his food and not wanting to eat, except that he came home from the breeder on an ALS formula, Fromm's Surf & Turf from the Four Star line, so it was easy for me to try a different formula in the same line. Honestly, it only helped a little. Adding the Meal Mixers is what really helped, and reducing the amount of food he gets overall. 
There are not many choices in puppy formulas, so if you want to try switching foods, I'd go with an ALS formula. He's getting to the age where you'd have to switch from puppy food anyway, so might as well try it now. No reason to change brands. Puppy Gold is a chicken based formula that does contain grains; since he has had tummy issues in the past, I'd stick with something similar. In Fromm's Four Star line, that would be one of the "A La Veg" formulas: Chicken a la Veg, which is very very close to what he's currently eating, Salmon a la Veg, and Duck a la Veg. I've had very good luck with salmon based formulas for dogs with sensitive tummies, both my own dogs and members here, so you might consider trying the Salmon a la Veg formula. Buy the smallest size bag to start. 

[Stacy]

Our puppies are about the same age - Willow will be 8 months on the 19th. She's been eating Fromm since I got her switched over to good food. She was eating whitefish and potato. We finished that bag and right now they're eating chicken ala veg and she's doing fantastic on that. I also switch it up with the salmon, but Willow hasn't had that one yet. I have noticed that Willow has slowed down a little bit on her food consumption. When she first came to me she was a food eating machine. Now she at least chews before she swallows. I agree with Karen, as their growth slows they just don't have quite as large a calorie requirement. She's still eating more than the adult recommended amount, but not quite as much more. 

Maggie is my girl who isn't a big eater, and I put a couple chicken pure bites in her food to entice her. I will say that she's eating better on the salmon. And I'm not sure if it's because she likes the salmon better or if it's just something new and different, but I do think switching it up was the right thing to do for her. Maybe it's just me anthropomorphizing, but I think they appreciate at least a little variety in their food. They definitely have treat preferences. It makes me laugh that some of the treats, even the ones I think smell good, they turn their noses up at. Apparently no treat at all is better than fruitables. I don't know why she doesn't like them, but Maggie isn't interested in them at all.