Yummy Kibble For A Slightly Fussy Eater

[Remarkabull]

Re the RC - I was told by a rep that after the food is cooked it is sprayed with extra smelly stuff including some of the fatty liquid that is drained out during the manufacturing process. It is irresistable to most dogs because of it's strong odour, not sure how good it is for them though. Personally I don't like alot of the ingredients and don't think it's much better than Science Diet.

[WreckitWhippet]

Science diet puppy has whole grain corn as it's first ingredient, at least RC Junior 32 has dehydrated poulty meat listed as the first.

[aussielover]

I wonder what RC put in their kibble to make it so palatable? maybe the doggie equivalent og MSG hehehe

Ha! Probably, given how popular it is.

Anyway, I'll give it a whirl.

Hills is definitely not popular here at DOL but Elbie's been so happy, healthy, shiny-coated _{and firm poo-ed} (very important! ) on it that that there never seem to be any need to switch. Will see how the monsters like Royal Canin.

well, you know what, mindy is doing fabulously on PAL puppy *gasp*

She actually gets 1/2 raw 1/2 PAL and her poos are so much better now!

she is as shiny as anything now and has a nice sleek coat, where as before her coat was a bit rough and dandruffy.

[Genabee]

I have a dog that will eat anything, so no kibble taste issues here.

I know it doesn't aid in the training side of things, but what if you were to mix in some sardines or wet food? I originally didn't want to go down the path of wet food, but due to skin issues, I have added a little bit in to G's diet. She'd give 'Hoover' a run for his money! I might have to rename her... Dyson perhaps?

[lilli_star]

Oh no Wizzle. G is a fancy lady- she'd have to be Miele

KTB, as you might remember, Miss Roo became a fusspot after the Advance large breed wasn't agreeing with her. We tried Eukanuba, but she didn't like it much except when covered in sardines. She now eats RC Labrador junior and loves it. Having said that though, she'll eat Pal puppy biscuits too :D

[misscoco13]

I have a very fussy Shih Tzu girl...she would live on chicken necks if she could I have been on the look out for a kibble that both of them like (other one being a baby Beagle girl, 11 weeks).

So...I bought Advance Puppy, and they both like that. Even the big girl (shih tzu) has a little bit of kibble under her chopped up chicken necks, for balance as she tends to get constipated without it :D

Then I got some samples of Uncle Albers and Great Barko....both of them hated it. Even the beagle walked away :D

Yesterday some samples from Eagle Pack arrived. This morning they tried the puppy sample, and even shih tzu ate all of it, and she normally hates eating breakfast! Baby beagle just hoovered it down :D Tonight we went for the small breed sample.....same reaction....both of them gobbled it up! The samples were both the Holistic EP. I will be huntng down a supplier - tried to buy it online last week but they were out of stock where I normally shop. My husband think the vet sells it, so I'll check that out.

Oh, and they also both hate Natures Gift kibble now....they did eat some once, but now they hate it :D Fussy dogs!!

But throughout these trials their "output" has been normal so no upset tummies :D

[koalathebear]

Hoover must have realised that KumaAkita's onto his evil plan! Tonight he ate his kibble very willingly. Proof is

. Perhaps it's just a matter of being hungry enough.

[Guest belgian.blue]

Hoover must have realised that KumaAkita's onto his evil plan! Tonight he ate his kibble very willingly. Proof is

. Perhaps it's just a matter of being hungry enough.

He's adorable!!!

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Perhaps you could try Nutro?

[WreckitWhippet]

I hope the hand feeding was a joke, as you are you going create a hell of a lot more problems by doing that.

I feel sorry for him, he's been raised on raw, then you expect him to eat dry that is made from corn, no wonder he turns his nose up at it.

[Nekhbet]

I have an overwhelming need to tape his ears too

put it in his bowl, if he doesnt eat it nothing at all until the next meal

in a few days he'll eat what is put in front of him. Saying that Hills ... rubbish. RC is a nice rich food comparably.

[Max#1]

How big are the RC biscuits (or kibble) pieces?

When I was considering what's best to feed I didn't like how the puppy food was always such small pieces.

Like KTB I like to sometimes use meal times as training times and having such small biscuits makes it hard.

[Nekhbet]

which breed? RC has many different products, if you go on their website they usually give a picture of the kibble

[ravenau1]

Science diet puppy has whole grain corn as it's first ingredient, at least RC Junior 32 has dehydrated poulty meat listed as the first.

That's weird, I was looking at a bag of Royal Canin Junior Maxi just the other day and it definitely had corn (maize) listed as the first ingredient, and dehydrated poultry meat second. I wonder if it's changed, or I was looking at an old bag or something.

ETA: My mistake, just looked on the website and there are different ingredients for Junior Medium than Junior Maxi

Medium:

Dehydrated poultry meat, animal fats, wheat flour, maize lour, maize, dehydrated pork protein, beet pulp, wheat, hydrolysed nimal proteins, maize gluten, minerals, fish oil, yeasts, soya oil, fructooligo-

saccharides, DL-methionine, yeast extract (source of manno-oligosaccharides), gg powder, taurine, marigold extract (source of lutein)

Maxi:

Maize, dehydrated poultry meat, L.I.P* vegetable protein isolate, maize gluten, animal fats, L.I.P* animal proteins, maize flour, hydrolysed animal proteins, minerals, beet pulp, soya oil, fish oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, syllium husks and seeds, egg powder, L-lysine, hydrolysed yeast extract (rich in mannan-oligo-saccharides), DL-methionine, taurine, hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin), marigold extract (rich in lutein).

Edited October 21, 2010 by ravenau1

[wuffles]

I didn't really like the look of the RC ingredients at first, either, but the results seem to speak for themselves... I tried another brand that I thought had better ingredients, but there was an immediate decline in condition so I went straight back to RC.

[Max#1]

Might have to give RC a go - though I can't find any pictures of the kibble. From the information on the website I'd go for medium-junior.

Edited October 21, 2010 by Max#1

[koalathebear]

I hope the hand feeding was a joke, as you are you going create a hell of a lot more problems by doing that.

I feel sorry for him, he's been raised on raw, then you expect him to eat dry that is made from corn, no wonder he turns his nose up at it.

We use mealtimes for training so he'll get some of the portions in a bowl (that he waits for) and the rest as rewards for various commands/tricks. We also use a tucker ball and muffin tins and other fun ways to get food to try to make it all more interesting. Neither dog gets fed kibble for doing nothing. It's what we did with Elbie and worked well at keeping him occupied and entertained so we're doing the same with Hoover. Brekky there's often less time so it's usually food down, wait, eat but dinner we like to use for training, especially as I work during the day so I usually only have 'dog time' before I leave for work, mealtimes and on the weekends.

As to raw ... well, he'll still get bones and lamb flaps, but his diet will be mostly kibble. Elbie seems fine with it so Hoover will have to adjust, I fear. We're picking up some Royal Canin and Advance to see which he likes better. The breeder was ok with him switching to kibble as long as he still got bones.

ETA: Out of interest, what problems does hand-feeding cause?

Nekhbet: He's only 3 months! His left ear is likely to go up first and then the right, but I admit I do love his flopsy, wonky ears. Also, my monsters have "symmetrically" wonky ears ...

Edited October 21, 2010 by koalathebear

[Max#1]

I'm also curious about hand feeding.

We had a mini-poodle growing up who was sooooo fussy. She turned her nose at basically everything, and seemed to be able to survive on air and water. We never hand-fed her because that encouraged her to eat - and then she wouldn't eat from her bowl.

Max, on the other hand, gets hand fed while working for his dinner. I'm conscious that as a working-breed type dog, he needs to feel that he's been working to be happy. I often will play ball with him before meals, because of the way he gets so into it - that's his work. And then working for his food as well, seems to 'work' well for us keeping him stimulated and happy. I do alternate (and sometimes just throw his dinner across the lawn so he has to find it) and will put his food in a bowl and he'll just as happily eat it. If he started not eating it out of a bowl then I might reconsider.

[wuffles]

Might have to give RC a go - though I can't find any pictures of the kibble. From the information on the website I'd go for medium-junior.

Sorry, I can't remember what size the medium junior kibble is You can probably feel it in the bag though if you go to the shop. The medium adult kibble is quite large.

[Niques]

ETA: Out of interest, what problems does hand-feeding cause?

I'm also interested to hear. I can probably count on one hand the number of times James has eaten dry food out of a bowl since he was 16 weeks old. I can see how it could reinforce picky eating, but Hoover doesn't sound like a picky eater?

KTB, James likes Nutro. I will qualify that by saying that he's never actually eaten another brand and is a labrador so would probably like all dry foods. But, for what it's worth