VERY fussy eater

[brentlake]

I have a 1 year old border terrier cross Jack Russel who is incredibly fussy with food. He won’t stay on one food for longer than a week or so. I’ve tried all the techniques in the book… putting the food down for 15 minutes, lifting it up til the next meal if he doesn’t eat, I’ve tried all sorts of brands and types but he is a stubborn little terrier and I’m at wits end now. I don’t know what to do.

He’s a bit on the lower side of his weight category so the vet recommended I add things to his kibble that will get him to eat just to get his weight up, but I don’t know what to do from then on. He’s on a very high quality dehydration raw kibble (expensive!) which il happy for him to be on and the bag is about to run out and I don’t know if I should get more or try l, yet again, a different food. He won’t eat it by itself, only if it has wet food mixed in or liver flakes or tuna. I’d really prefer to not have to do this forever.

He’s otherwise very healthy and happy and cheeky.

Am I naive to believe that my dog can eventually just learn to eat what I give him without me having to stress about it every meal time?

 

[genab]

@brentlake Have you tried free feeding? Basically, leave the food out and your dog can eat when it's hungry. It takes a dog a few weeks to acclimate to new food, so changing it up weekly is not ideal. If your dog isn't eating it's food, try mixing wet food into the kibble, or using "meal toppers" for dogs (basically like gravy you put on dog food to help give extra nutrition for fussy eaters).

If that doesn't work, you can try other types of dog food (ie: raw food, home-made dog meals, freeze dried, frozen, etc). This route can get costly and time consuming, but I'm mentioning it to illustrate that there are lots of options out there.

Lastly, try to find a pet store that has a great return policy. Mudbay and All the Best Pet Care have a wonderful return policy, they will take back a half finished bag of food and give you a full refund, and they donate the uneaten portion to animal shelters. I'm not sure if those stores are where you are located, but see if you can find something similar. Good luck!

 

[bella_k]

@brentlake Just a thought.. maybe he's picky because you keep switching foods?

 

[brentlake]

@bella_k I only switched his food in the first place because he went off the one I gave him when was younger… he got worms which put him off his food but I didn’t know it was worms at the time, so I bought him new food because I thought he had an allergic reaction to the first food. But ever since then it’s been a nightmare getting him to settle on a food

 

[somberry]

@brentlake Our girl was a bit fussy when she was a pup. We’ve just accepted that we have to mix in a bit of wet food to make it more interesting. She also gets tinned fish in oil, she’s a big dog and a 50p can will last a free days. She just needs a bit of smushed up fish in oil mixed with the kibble.

We also found that the food she didn’t like usually was food that upset her tum.

 

[somedayiwill]

@brentlake Same problem here I went with meal toppers and it works like a charm. Either that or bone broth both work great.

 

[eyeq]

@brentlake My fussy boy does best when I top his food with freeze-dried chicken. I cut it up for treats, but because i do that I end up with crumbs that I can then use on his food. Otherwise all he’ll eat straight is pedigree which isn’t exactly the best food, even then he doesn’t eat it all

 

[savvy41716]

@brentlake Bennie is fussy with food, we've started just leaving his bowl down, used to do the 15 minute thing when we had multiple dogs. I also use his kibble as treats when we're on walks.

 

[brentlake]

@savvy41716 It’s just so disheartening. This food he’s on now is really really good and he honestly loved it at first. He’s just gotten bored of it and is expecting me to give him something new. He won’t even have it as treats on walks. I want to be persistent though and show him that this is all he’s getting. I did contemplate free feeding him but so many people are against it. There’s just so many opinions and it’s so confusing I don’t know what to do

 

[savvy41716]

@brentlake When I say free feeding I mean he gets a measured amount of food left out all day for him to eat at his leisure. Since we have no one else likely to eat it, I don't see why it would be a big deal. When we had 2 dogs it was bowls down then up so there wasn't one fat dog He doesn't eat fish based foods (all our other dogs loved that) or wild based meats. I was having to add some freeze dried turkey or favourite veg to entice Bennie but he seems to have settled. Have you had him checked for something upsetting his tummy? Also, grocery store food (Purina) is often very tasty, much like human prepared foods. If he likes it, as long as you control how much he eats, that could be worth exploring.

It's hard I know, and worrisome.