My B's Pick & Choose Which Kibbles to Eat Out of Their Food! Grrrr!

[JazzysMom]

Jazzy was getting 1/2 cup of food a day and barely maintaining a good weight. I don't feel that is sufficient to maintain good nutrition–she may be getting the calories she needs to get by each day, but not, IMO, the vitamins and minerals she'll need.

Jazz eats Nutro Natural Choice Lite at this time. She is only getting 1 cup a day, and maintaining her weight.
She is a good-looking dog, has a great coat and poops three times a day generally, so none of those have ever been issues for me. That much was the same even on the puppy food. She is a good looking dog, and healthy. And I want to make sure she gets the nutrition she needs to stay that way for another 13 yrs or so.

[nomrbddgs]

Boy, that is a small amount! Her thyroid is good, I imagine??

[JazzysMom]

Yeah, I had that tested when she went in for her spay.

[nomrbddgs]

Dang!!! That really sucks that she can't eat a lot! I mean, I wouldn't want to eat cardboard either!!

[JazzysMom]

Okay, so tonight I mixed a little Pedigree Lean Lamb and Rice canned food in w/Jazzy Nutro kibble and she ate it all up. It was 1/2 cup kibble with maybe 1/4 cup canned. Ahh, I think I may have solved my "problem".
If I do this twice a day, and if she doesn't start gaining weight on it, I'll feel much better about her eating habit.

{Had to put Keoki outside while she ate because he was VERY put out that she got the canned stuff, LOL}

[tanza]

My girls only eat 1 cup a day?…. mixed with some veggies or some other stuff, but not very much of it..., have ever since they were just past puppy stage.....

[JazzysMom]

Well, when I say Jazzy "eats" a cup a day, it's really that she is "given" a cup a day. She only eats about half of her food.

With the canned mixed in, she is eating her entire meal and so will be eating maybe 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups a day. I don't mix veggies and stuff in her food; those are given as occasional snacks. So probably, Jazzy gets about as much food in her meals as your girls do. I'm comfortable with something in the area of 1 - 1/2 cups of food, but not less than that.

[Quercus]

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[JazzysMom]

The issue w/Jazz was that when she was eating puppy chow she was only eating 1/2 cup a day and barely maintaining weight {she gains weight easily}.
That was just not enough food, so we switched to a light food, and were putting 1 cup out a day for her, but she doesn't like it and so would not eat it. It was really an issue of self-regulating for sufficient intake, but a LACK of intake!
She'd pick a bit and leave the rest. I started adding a bit of lean canned food so that she will eat. She's currently eating about 1 cup of kibble w/2 large TBSP of canned food mixed in – she gets 1/2 cup + 1 heaping TBSP twice a day.
If she starts putting on weight {she's currently a nice 21 lbs}, then I'll cut a bit back on the kibble.

I'm good w/that.

[Quercus]

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So you mean, it wasn't enough food in volume to make her not feel hungry, still? 'Cause clearly it was enough food in calories because she would start to gain. But I totally get it if she was so hungry from lack of volume that she needed more.
Maybe that is why she is so crabby She hates dieting....I feel her pain!

[nomrbddgs]

@Quercus:

I have noticed that Querk needs to eat MUCH less since his neuter…he used to eat about 1.5 c...now 1 c seems to be a little too much. It seemed to drop his metabolism almost instantly.

Shadow was like that as well, plus he has a neuter coat now-in the winter he looks like a Shiba Inu and now his coat has turned from black to brown/black with a dark black stripe right down the middle of his back!

[tanza]

@nomrbddgs:

Shadow was like that as well, plus he has a neuter coat now-in the winter he looks like a Shiba Inu and now his coat has turned from black to brown/black with a dark black stripe right down the middle of his back!

Has he not shed that "neuter" coat as you call it? I know that it is pretty common within a 1 to 2yrs after spay/neuter that they will get a really, really heavy coat and then blow it…. and I have found with mine that one they have done that heavy coat and blowing it... they go back to their regular coat...

[nomrbddgs]

Hasn't blown it yet. I'm going to give him a bath this w/e to see if I can get rid of some of it. Mind you-he's been staying in the air conditioned house til recently. Ever since I started taking him to the Chiropractor he's been playing inside the house and starting to go outside more to play-this will probably help him blow the coat.

[JazzysMom]

@Quercus:

Maybe that is why she is so crabby She hates dieting….I feel her pain!

LOL, you may be right. She's been so down and crabby for weeks.
After two days of getting the canned mixed w/her kibble, and actually EATING a cup of food a day, she is FEISTY today!

She was playing w/me like she hasn't played for months – down on the floor, doing that "play stance", running, jumping, flipping over, wrestling. I haven't seen this in a long time, and I've missed it!

I also noticed that she hasn't been snarking at Keoki when he walks up while I'm petting her. She's like my old Jazzy today. I hope it's because she's finally feeling full and happy and I hope it sticks!!

[tanza]

@JazzysMom:

LOL, you may be right. She's been so down and crabby for weeks.
After two days of getting the canned mixed w/her kibble, and actually EATING a cup of food a day, she is FEISTY today!

She was playing w/me like she hasn't played for months – down on the floor, doing that "play stance", running, jumping, flipping over, wrestling. I haven't seen this in a long time, and I've missed it!

I also noticed that she hasn't been snarking at Keoki when he walks up while I'm petting her. She's like my old Jazzy today. I hope it's because she's finally feeling full and happy and I hope it sticks!!

Wasn't she in season not to long ago? And now just recently spayed? Hormones during and after being in season can really make these girls strange and it can change from year to year… and now that she is spayed, she is losing all those hormones...

[JazzysMom]

Well. . . it has been months since she was remotely playful with me, and getting crabbier all the time with the other dogs; long before her last season and the spay. It's hard to timeline it, but I do think it relates to the fact that she was just not eating.
Not to say that the spaying didn't have any effect, but that most of her behavior change had taken place over a long period of months.

[tanza]

@JazzysMom:

Well. . . it has been months since she was remotely playful with me, and getting crabbier all the time with the other dogs; long before her last season and the spay. It's hard to timeline it, but I do think it relates to the fact that she was just not eating.
Not to say that the spaying didn't have any effect, but that most of her behavior change had taken place over a long period of months.

Well regardless… good that she is feeling better and more playful...

[lissthor]

I sometimes think different runs of kibble must taste different. Or the company changes an ingredient source and it doesn't taste right to them. Our cats and dogs were all eating California Natural for quite a while, and really seemed to like it. But about 6 months ago when we brought new bags home no one would touch it. The cats outright refused to eat it, the dog ate it grudgingly.

Since we figured they might know something we didn't, we switched brands. The dogs are getting Timberwolf venison and rice kibbles and seem happy to see the bag come through the door again. The cats are now on prescription food for kidney issues.

[mrbhayn]

Mine was a bit picky at first. Didn't like this or that. She does like to eat an occasion green olive W/the pimento pit, though! As for kibbles, I tried her with some of the Kibbles and Bits brushing bites brand and she loves the stuff. Not picky with that at all! I gave her some of the reg Kibbles, and she was picky there. She tried iams dry once when I first got her that my sister swore by, and didn't take to that at all.

[Vanessa]

It took us a year to figure out why our dog would be picky with his food. We used California Nautral, Wellness, etc. Eventually we realized that our little guy was allergic to gluten. Finally we checked out Evo and our little guy is eatin it right up with no problems. He is filling out and looking more like a 1 year old boy Fingers crossed he will stick to this brand :p