Doodle Won't eat dry food anymore

[TrevorDoodle]

My doodle was boarded at someone's house for 2 weeks while I was on vacation. Now he will
not touch his dry food which is Chicken Soup for Large Breed. I also tried feeding him some dry Merrick Cowboy Cookout with no luck. I never had this problem before he was boarded. He eats Merrick canned food fine. Wanting to save money, I cooked him a whole chicken with brown rice, carrots, and peas. I tried mixing the cooked food with dry and he tried to eat around the dry. I don't mind cooking for him, but I do want him to still eat his dry food. I don't even know if the cooked food has all the nutrition he needs and how much he needs to eat of it. I'm also scared maybe something is wrong with his dry food and that is the reason he doesn't want it. What should I do?

[fergie11]

I'll be watching these answers because I'm having ths problem with Fergie. I do a lot of cooking for my doods and Fergie is eating less and less of the dry - even when mixed with home cooked. Lately she won't eat anything of the kibble is in it. I figure she get hungry enough soon and eat anything. Probably my table.

[Jeannine]

I do cook for my dogs. I do around 80% of meat, 10% of brown rice and 10% of vegetables. I give them 1 capsule of fish oil and 1/4 tsp of Seagreens Powder.

Lynne, who is the expert in that domain, kind of teach me how to cook for them. They loves it very much.

I also give them some dry food occasionally so if they have to be board they will not having problem to adapt. So they have the dry foods in the morning and the home cook food for supper. They are both in perfect health.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, this will definitely not help you save money, but I guarantee he will eat Orijen. It is like doggie crack. It doesn't even look or smell like normal kibble. It's expensive, though.
The other solution to me would be to "top" the kibble with some chopped eggs, grated cheese, or other small particle type people food that can't really be eaten around. Just a sprinkling used to work for me when Jack was pulling his picky routine. Once he started eating the topping and getting some of the kibble, he seemd to find his appetite.
Cathy, LOL about the table!

[Lee Seidman]

I agree that Orijen is the best dry food that you can buy. Lexi will not touch any dry food no matter how we mix it...she actually spits it out. We give her canned food mixed with the dry and still have to add a burger or chicken breast to get her to eat....she will go several days without eating unless she gets her way.....spoiled DOODLE! But she is healthy, give her pet tabs and we love her!

[Cindy and Mandy]

Mandy is also a little picky on her kibble now. She would eat it right up but the past few days she picks at it. I feed her Taste of the Wild. I also fed her Chicken Soup as well and she did the same thing towards the end of that bag. I don't know if she gets bored with it or what. Maybe I should buy both and alternate now and then. I have added yogurt to her kibble and that helped for that feeding.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Several of us have been switching kibbles with every bag, or alternating between two kibbles from one day to the next. That does seem to help. Jack will love one food for a few days and then lose interest. It really isn't so surprising that they get tired of the same thing every day, like we do....to borrow an analogy from the raw feeders, if they were wolves in the wild, they wouldn't be catching the same food every day, lol.

[Bev and WILLY]

Willy and LiLi are not picky eaters, they seem to love anything I feed them, but if I mix a little cottage cheese in their kibble, they become ravenous and gobble it down like they're in a race. I think that the cottage cheese is hard to pick out from the kibble and they really, really love the cottage cheese.
I also add Wild Alaska Salmon Oil to their kibble, which has a strong smell and they love that too. But the days they get cottage cheese is the big winner.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

if he is still being picky about his food you might want to replace the old food with a new bag..if he still does not touch his dry...take a little plain yogurt and mix it over top..about 1 tblsp. should do...you can slowly use less yogurt as the week goes on...or you can keep him on it..very good for dogs anytime...

[Amanda and Wheatley]

Ok I know this isn't exactly what you asked but my puppy had a problem where she wouldn't touch her dry and she only ate a little even when we did add canned food. Now she still doesn't eat dry but will gobble up canned. I asked a professional back in the day what may be causing her to be so picky and this is what he told me:

A healthy dog WON'T starve itself, but this takes far longer than one day. It may take several days. Each time you change food (especially if you add anything intended for people, like chicken), the dog may investigate; if what's in the bowl is very tempting, even a sick dog will at least attempt to eat it. If you add something tempting each time the dog refuses its own food, you are training the dog to WAIT for the addition. Random addition of more desirable foods creates an even stronger response in the dog, meaning she will remain hungry far longer.

Have the veterinarian explain to you what to expect in terms of physical development in this breed mix, and have the puppy tested for parasites (which can reduce weight and significantly upset a puppy's stomach.) There is a nutritional supplement the veterinarian can give you that can prevent weight loss and ensure the fact that this neonate is receiving adequate nutrition for health purposes, should the puppy require this in the vet's estimation. Meanwhile, feed the puppy three times daily; leave the food available for an hour at a time; don't add anything to it or show any anxiety regarding how the puppy reacts to the food. Your anxiety around meal time is easily detected by the puppy
(who observes your body language constantly) and may be contributing to the problem. Make the appointment with the vet tomorrow. If the puppy has intestinal parasites, the vet will treat them. If the puppy is otherwise healthy, you need to relax and let nature take its course. NO healthy dog starves itself but it takes time to undo whatever has caused this behavior.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amanda, the dog in question is not a puppy; I found the "advice column" where this expert gave you the reply you quoted above, and I think there is also a problem with her having misunderstood your point, since she seems to think you expect a young puppy to weigh 75 lbs, lol.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:5OefmvIY9vsJ:en.allexperts.com/...
Also, an expert on behavior is not necessarily an expert on nutrition, as we have clearly seen with the veterinarians who are very skilled with medical issues, but don't have a clue about food.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

The cooked food does have all the nutrition he needs! There is nothing wrong with adding real chicken, beef and other ingredients to a dogs diet. It is a myth, begun by the commercial dog food companies about 50 years ago to get us to believe that only thier food was "complete and balanced." Especially today...that is a lie that can kill. Dogs are not designed to live on dry bagged foods exclusively for their entire lives. Yes, they will eat it. Yes, they will survive, but healthy? That is debatable.

Before the advent of commercial dog food, dogs ate meat, caught themselves or scavenged and they ate the table scraps of their owners. The people who believe table or people food is bad for dogs are perpetuating that myth. Dogs should not be eating only bagged dry commercial foods for their entire lives. Protein from real meat, some veggies and a little grains is what dogs should be eating to live a long life. Look at the ingredients of a bag of any dog food. What is some of that stuff? What is a by-product? Did you know most dry foods are extruded or so overcooked and over processed that there is barely any nutrients left? So the DF company adds it in. Is that how people should eat their entire lives? No! and neither should dogs.

Vets are also not the experts in canine nutrition you may think they are. They get very little education in nutrition and what is offered is taught or paid for by, guess who? Big DF. Scholarships are given to vet schools and kick backs are given to vets for foods they sell in their office. So who can you trust? Yourself. Educate yourself and read some books on canine nutrition and don't take anyone's word for it.

Karen and I and others have spent a year researching and building this Food Group. It's all here, you just have to read through the posts and discussions. Many of us homecook for our dogs, I have been doing it for 2.5 years. No vet visits, no smelly ears, no loose poops, no problems that will arise with eating only dry or one kind of food always. Read through and please understand that feeding REAL food is healthier and why dogs 20, 30+ years ago lived longer than they do now.

It is a myth that dogs should not eat REAL FOOD. Don't buy into it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If there's one thing I have learned during this past year of researching canine nutrition, it's that there is no one "right" way to feed a dog, and reliance upon one particular food or method of feeding is a mistake. In the past, I fed the same dry dog food day in and day out for years, and my dogs did fine and lived to ripe old ages.
Then the way the world does business changed, I made a dear friend whose standard poodle died from the Chinese melamine in the recalled Iams food, and my old ways of providing nutrition for my beloved companion underwent a radical change as I set about educating myself in this previously simple matter of feeding a dog. I expect there will be still more changes as I continue to learn.
Jack is an extremely picky eater, and I am the kind of person who hates to cook and loves simple, routine ways of doing things. Jack is fed mainly high-quality premium kibble with people food added very randomly. There may be no "extras" in his bowl for a week, and then eggs, fish, meat, or lima beans added three or four days running. I depends what I have on hand, what I am eating myself that day, and what is going on with him. His kibble is changed often. I had a very hectic weekend, so kibble was the easiest menu choice for us these past two days. Tonight he had a new flavor Orijen, this morning he had the old flavor Orijen, last night he had Fromm's with some chopped egg added. Tomorrow he might get a salmon filet in his dinner bowl. Some days he licks his bowl clean, and other days he leaves half his food untouched. Both extremes happen regularly whether he gets plain kibble, "people food", or both. I used to be afraid that adding variety would "spoil" a dog for eating convenient kibble. Now I think it's fun and keeps mealtime flexible & interesting for both of us.
With a young puppy, I might be worried that he was not getting enough nutrients. But Jack was an underweight 64# adult dog when I adopted him, and he now weighs 80#, has wonderful firm stools and a very healthy digestive system. We will never be dependent on one method of feeding again.