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Hi there

I have an Amstaff and he is 5 months old. When I got him from the breeder he was on Iams dry food and Advance puppy canned food. He will happily eat the canned food but he won't eat his dry. While I was at a friends house with him he saw a bowl full of a cheap supermarket brand of dry food and he loved it! He will not eat Eukanuba or a couple of other better brands either. Is it ok to go to the cheaper brand or should I ditch the dry all toghther? He gets chicken necks/frames, rice, pasta, kidneys etc on random days and he loves all that. The funny thing is that I can trick him into eating his dry by putting it in his Kong toy :rolleyes:

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Hi there

I have an Amstaff and he is 5 months old. When I got him from the breeder he was on Iams dry food and Advance puppy canned food. He will happily eat the canned food but he won't eat his dry. While I was at a friends house with him he saw a bowl full of a cheap supermarket brand of dry food and he loved it! He will not eat Eukanuba or a couple of other better brands either. Is it ok to go to the cheaper brand or should I ditch the dry all toghther? He gets chicken necks/frames, rice, pasta, kidneys etc on random days and he loves all that. The funny thing is that I can trick him into eating his dry by putting it in his Kong toy :rolleyes:

Personally I would never feed my dogs cheap dry food. I would persevere and find a way to entice him to eat premium. (if Kong tricks him he isn't that adverse to it) Try coating it in freshly cooked warm juicy meat like chicken or mince. Good nutrition is very important. If you decide to ditch the dry food you could try Billinghurst's BARF patties. My babies love it.

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You could try Coprice, I have always found it to be great and my dogs love it. Evene a friends dog that wouldn't eat dry food ate it. Depending onwhere you are in Melbourne you could get a 'sample' off me to try as it only comes in 20kg bags (but they only cost about $26 though)

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No worries, I just ran it past the criteria on that site and it got pretty good marks too, much better than the old bag of Purina One I have sitting in the cupboard. It has no colours or flavours, 100% au naturale and added omegas, kelp, etc too, also good for dogs with mild allergies as it is low in wheat products.

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Hmmm - I have a similar problem.

Zero won't eat premium foods (sniffs then walks away) and when we were told to persevere, Zero didn't eat for 4 days (my overweight husky would rather starve than eat most foods) and when he finally did eat, he just gets sick off them. The only food he will eat and not get sick off is Pedigree Naturals and Supercoat.

I'm going to try him on eaglepack and orijen though in the next few weeks and see if he'll eat them - if not it'll be back to pedigree naturals, chicken wings and frames and meaty bones!

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Hmmm - I have a similar problem.

Zero won't eat premium foods (sniffs then walks away) and when we were told to persevere, Zero didn't eat for 4 days (my overweight husky would rather starve than eat most foods) and when he finally did eat, he just gets sick off them. The only food he will eat and not get sick off is Pedigree Naturals and Supercoat.

I'm going to try him on eaglepack and orijen though in the next few weeks and see if he'll eat them - if not it'll be back to pedigree naturals, chicken wings and frames and meaty bones!

I don't think you will have a problem with Orijen as my boy thinks they are treats! :laugh:

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Don't the cheaper dry foods have a coating of fat sprayed onto them to entice dogs to eat them?? Maybe this is why. Sounds a bit like kids and junk food to me :-)

I had to perserve with Bonnie when I first got her, fussy, fussy small doggie!.....after two days of not eating what was put in front of her she changed her tune. Now she eats her high quality food that I choose for her with gusto (gutso too).

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Don't the cheaper dry foods have a coating of fat sprayed onto them to entice dogs to eat them?? Maybe this is why. Sounds a bit like kids and junk food to me :-)

I had to perserve with Bonnie when I first got her, fussy, fussy small doggie!.....after two days of not eating what was put in front of her she changed her tune. Now she eats her high quality food that I choose for her with gusto (gutso too).

Yep, sugars, fats, mostly rancid, as that is what appeals to their tastebuds... it's like eating McDonalds and KFC every day...

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My bigger dog went thru this phase as a pup- he'd leave his dry food, but guzzle all the raw stuff.

I wasn't up for a fussy eater, so just gave it back to him until it was eaten.

Dry food is still food of last resort.

I wouldn't worry unless your dog was underweight. If he's leaving it, he really might not be hungry.

Why not switch to a cheaper dry if he's getting plenty of nutritious raw stuff?

CAnned food is sometimes more appealing because it's moist and often has extra sugar added to make it attractive to eat.

I have a problem with cheap dry food making the bigger dog's stools horribly loose/huge (yuck!).

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Don't the cheaper dry foods have a coating of fat sprayed onto them to entice dogs to eat them?? Maybe this is why. Sounds a bit like kids and junk food to me :-)

I had to perserve with Bonnie when I first got her, fussy, fussy small doggie!.....after two days of not eating what was put in front of her she changed her tune. Now she eats her high quality food that I choose for her with gusto (gutso too).

Zero hit 4 days without eating and i couldn't take it anymore.

Then with the hills science diet, it was 5 days. He knows which foods will make him sick and he just won't touch them!

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Zero hit 4 days without eating and i couldn't take it anymore.

Then with the hills science diet, it was 5 days. He knows which foods will make him sick and he just won't touch them!

Good point Shell. I think if he has not eaten a particular food for that long, it's the food that's the problem, not the dog. That's not just fussy, that's straight out rejection.

I suspected that mine was being fussy, as she really did pick and choose and seemed to be heading towards "I only want raw meat", which was not on. Small dogs can be notorious for this I think.

Cheers, Helen

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hey guys, time for an update. I can happily say that he is now munching down his dry food :laugh: Its the last thing that he will eat from his bowl but at least he is! To get him to start eating it I cracked an egg into it a 2 or 3 times a week and he liked that and now I don't need to put anything in it. Here is a pic of him eating a dry biscuit.

100_1072.jpg

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I don't think you will have a problem with Orijen as my boy thinks they are treats! :cry:

Same! Mazza has been on it for a week and he loves it! In the space of 2 days he has gone from 4 poos a day to 1!!! Miracle food, and he nearly knocks himself out trying to do tricks when I open the bag, he thinks he will get it faster...superstitious little bugger :kissbetter:

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