Is She Fussy Or?

[Cheeka]

My 1yo German Shephard has been refusing to eat her bikkies, she eats all of her fresh/loaf meat but always leaves her biscuits. She is quite thin and really needs to fatten up. She is currently on Hills Science Diet for active dogs as she's always on the go (we have just put her onto this in the last 2 days) - is it normal for some dogs not to want bikkies or is their some type of appetite stimulant I can give her to improve her appetite? She gets approx 400g of loaf meat a day plus sardines & eggs a couple of times through the week. She will eat the bikkies if they are mixed in with the sardines but she gets sick of the sardines pretty quickly if fed to her continually. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Cheeka

[Guest Ams]

Was she eating her previous kibble and only started this since you changed kibble? When changing kibble it is recommended you do it very gradually by mixing their normal food with the new stuff slowly increasing the amount of the new over a week or ten days until they are eating all new food. Dogs are creatures of habit and don't necessarily like a changing and varied diet like we do. Abruptly changing kibble can also lead to tummy upsets.

Take away the option of choosing. Only give kibble and only leave it down for about 20 mins. If she hasn't eaten it, take it up and do not offer again until the evening meal. Dogs can go for up to three days without food so don't stress too much if she repeatedly refuses to eat it. (Easier said than done - I know this from experience).

The loaf is yummy and I refer to it as "icecream" here. So like most kids they will leave the main meal in preference to icecream.

[sas]

It's not unusual....kibble is boring...sometimes they need a change or a taster in with it.

[Cheeka]

Thank you for your replies - she wasn't keen on the last lot of bikkies either but mainly ate them because our other shephard did. The other shephard is no longer with us so she has chucked the towel in altogether with the bikkies. I will try to persist with them as it a brand new big bag = quite $$$, I might try different types of soft meats that will mix/stick to the biscuits better to try and disguise them.

[Dogsfevr]

How much dry are you giving her??

Made advice feed her what she will eat providing its good for her .I would gather she isnt getting enough food anyway.

For example my 2 yr very active dog gets daily

2 cups of pro plan salmon/sensitive skin/half kilo of raw mutton/2 slices of tuckertime & about 5/6 chicken necks.

He gets other things added but that is his normal daily intake.That at present with the current warm weather maintains his weight at 35 kg,the last few mornings he has been getting brekkie as its been colder so you could add another half kilo of meat.

[Cheeka]

She gets two cups of the Hills Science Diet Active Dog bikkies daily, 400g of Loaf Meat daily (have been upping it to twice a day so up to 800g of loaf) 1.5kg of woolworths chicken necks (spread out over a week) plus eggs and sardines. She also gets a weekly bag of bones.

[Dogsfevr]

She gets two cups of the Hills Science Diet Active Dog bikkies daily, 400g of Loaf Meat daily (have been upping it to twice a day so up to 800g of loaf) 1.5kg of woolworths chicken necks (spread out over a week) plus eggs and sardines. She also gets a weekly bag of bones.

I would say not enough bulky food.

GSD can be sensitive so adding food can be a slow process but i never weigh foods,i give what the dog needs & 800g isnt alot .

For me with youngsters on necks 4 kg is a week worth plus mutton,dy etc.

My show GSD many years ago would get a 2 cups of dry & up to a 1kg of raw mutton plus necks

[Cheeka]

The two GSD I had before her used to live off the smell of an oily rag so to speak and were always well conditioned on a lot less food then what this current girl gets - but having said that they always ate there bikkies up. She is due for her immunization this month so will see what vet says about her.

[dianed]

I,d say she is being a typical shepherd. Why eat dry kibble if you can eat nice tasty things like chicken necks, roo mince and other goodies. My 2 gsd,s are not keen on kibble at all, I have tried various brands over the last few months even resorting to putting some cat kibble on top of the bowl( they ate it then). They prefer their 4x2 biscuits, I have an open container and they help themselves to them after they have had their raw food each night.

[Cheeka]

Hi there Dianed - what are 4.2 biscuits?

[persephone]

info on 4x2 bikkies

have you tried giving her mutton/lamb flaps? they are fairly fatty, and chewy, and usually well accepted . They are often used to put weight on dogs.

[dianed]

The ones my two eat are called Dogpro made by Hypro in Sydney. oven baked, no artificial colours , flavours or artificial preservative?. Main ingredients wheat meal & meat meal, they have 3 or 4 a day. I buy them at the local produce store, they also like the other brand mentioned but these are a $6 cheaper at $23 for 10 Kgs , plus they like them better.

Like you I have tried different bags of kibble ranging from Royal Canin, Uncle Albers, Great Barko (which they liked but no longer stock in my town) Coprice to Optimum. I gave up and now feed chicken necks, fresh pets mince, bones & the 4x2,s if they want to top up. My 2 refused to eat those meat loafs.

Edited April 21, 2010 by dianed

[Nekhbet]

hypro products are firstly grain on the list and DO contain preservatives. They're also cheap and has the smell of sawdust (we had a bag explode at work). Just cheap extruded pellets.

Wholegrain cereals, real meat and meat by-products derived from beef, mutton/lamb and chicken, cereal and vegetable by-products, vegetable oil, iodised salt, essential vitamins (Incl: A, D, K, E, B1, B2, B6, Pant, Nic, Biotin, B12, Choline, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Anti-Oxidants), essential minerals (Incl: Zinc, Copper, Iron, Potassium, Manganese, Iodine, Cobalt, Selenium, Calcium, Phosphorous), preservatives, antioxidants and whole egg.

meat by products are not meat. They're all the other parts of the animal including feet, feathers, guts etc.

Up the raw content and add lamb flaps, chicken carcasses, meat offcuts, pet mince etc and a good dry food as a base. Meat loaf as well isnt really weight lifting comparably. If you want weight you need to feed good quality ingredients and whole foods, not just grain based fillers because they're cheap.

[~*Shell*~]

If you've moved her onto hills very recently, it could be that she just doesn't like the taste. My boy will turn his nose up at hills and he's a complete guts normally. We had a vet tell us to persist with it but after 5 days of him not eating at all (and crying because he was hungry), we threw in the towel and moved him onto a different kibble. He's now on artemis maximal grain free and he loooooves it.

[Cheeka]

Thanks heaps! She really doesn't like these biscuits she ate a small amount on the third day when we persisted with them but went back to not eating ;) We are now trying her on a lot more raw fatty meats and just using a small amount of the Hills kibble to mix through until it's all gone. i'm hearing good things about the Great Barko kibble I'm pretty sure our local produce stocks this so might give that a go?