My dog is a "picky" eater.
By reinydawn
@reinydawn (11643)
United States
June 6, 2010 11:31am CST
Well, actually he's not, but it's so strange the things he WONT eat. The first dog food we had for him, he didn't care for, but ate it. The next thing we tried he liked better. Now we've changed the flavor and he LOVES it. Yesterday we decided to give him some canned dog food - we always use dry food - and he wouldn't eat it! He'd sniff at the bowl and walk away - like 4 or 5 times. We know he was hungry, but he didn't want the canned food. So we dumped it out and gave him his normal dry food and he scarfed it down! I've never seen a dog not like canned food before. He's also not that big on "people" food. If we drop something on the floor, he might sniff it, but never really eats it. It's kinda cool that we don't have to worry about him eating people food, but I still think it's strange.
Don't dogs usually want the "better" food in place of their food?
2 people like this
8 responses
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
6 Jun 10
Cookie is picky and many times won't eat even half her dinner. I'm quite sure it's because she has a sensitive stomach from mistreatment she suffered before I had her. At one point, the owner before me had to retrain her to walk because she was kept in a cage for 20 or more hours a day. Poor baby, but she's fine now, just a sensitive stomach.
Gus, on the other hand, will eat anything that doesn't eat him first! Veggies, fruits, meats, anything! I have to be very careful to keep food out of his reach. The only thing he doesn't care for is blueberries and tangerines. 
It's good your dog doesn't like soft food because a constant diet of it is very, very bad for their teeth.
It's good your dog doesn't like soft food because a constant diet of it is very, very bad for their teeth.1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
6 Jun 10
We're really the dry dog food kinda people, we just had this left over from our last dog when we were trying to find something she could eat. I'm just not used to this dog yet - it'll take a while to quit comparing him to our old dog.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
6 Jun 10
One more thing! Look at the ingredients on any dry or canned food you get him. If it contains "animal digest" do NOT get it. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_digest and it will tell you how disgusting this ingredient is. In short, you're most likely making your dog a cannibal from shelter animals' remains or other animals.
Most of the higher priced foods don't have this but Authority is a lower-priced upscale food that doesn't have it. I can afford Authority. But Gus and Cookie love the "Dog Gone Deli" Kibbles Variety Mix that Kroger puts out, $9.76 for 17.6 pounds.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
7 Jun 10
We are pretty particular about the ingredients, but I don't know about that one. I'll check into it and see if it's in our dog food. We use Natural Balance because it has very little filler.
@knewfy (82)
• United States
8 Jun 10
The only time my dogs will eat plain dry dog food is the first day when the package has just been opened. After that, the HAVE to have fresh scrambled eggs mixed in with it :-) . I got in that habit because my daughter raises chickens and always has a ton of eggs and so i don't have to pay anything for them. So with every meal (once daily is when I feed my dogs, in the evening) they get two scrambled eggs mixed in with the food and divided between the two of them.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
8 Jun 10
That would be great to get free eggs for that! I'm not going to spend money for it though....
@grayxenon (1313)
• Philippines
7 Jun 10
i think they act as people who are sometimes picky at foods,hehe i can't find a scientific or more detail explanations to it, maybe he's just so used to eating a specific food and would not want any other, our dog on the hand eat almost anything even not edible things..haha
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
8 Jun 10
Today my husband put some of the canned food on his finger then put it in the dogs mouth. WOW!! He sure did change after that - he loves the canned food now!
@blablablu (221)
• Indonesia
7 Jun 10
Well, my dog is a little bit different. They even like to eat vegetables (You read me : Vegetables) like cucumber and spinach. They also like some fruit like apple. I think it is highly related with the food pattern you gave since puppies.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
7 Jun 10
My previous dog ate fruits and vegetables also. I thought that was pretty strange at first, but if you buy good dog food it has fruits and vegetables in it also. But this dog just doesn't care for people food at all.
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
8 Jun 10
We're just trying to get rid of the canned food. He eventually ate it after my husband hand-fed it to him. Once it's gone we'll go back to just the dry food.
@kukueye (1759)
• Malaysia
7 Jun 10
my beagle is big eater basically will eat anything throw at him.But we train him to eat only dry food and dog biscuit,because wrong food make his hairy drop faster.The vet said it is always better to give him the same food he likes and not the change the brand once he is accustomesed with it.It is better also not to eat human food because it is sometime not suitable for dogs and slso will cause bad behaviour if u r eating he may jump on the dinner/lunch time, when walking in the park may chase or beg from food from strangers and such.
1 person likes this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
8 Jun 10
We wont get into the habit of giving him people food because our last dog had such problems because of that. Unless we have problems with the food he is eating now we won't change it again. I think he's happy with what he's got.
@pmbhuntress09 (1608)
• United States
6 Jun 10
My dogs are like that. In fact I have one dog that has lost 15 pounds in the past 2 weeks, because he prefers scraps over dog food, I hate to say it but we haven't had scraps and he refuses to eat the dog food, after awhile it spoils. So he ends up losing weight when he wont eat his dog food. I told my husband when he gets hungry enough he will eat it, but he still won't eat it. So today I cooked extra food just so he would have some scraps.
On the other hand I have one dog that will eat anything that happens to be in front of him, My old Chi dog that passed away 2 years ago, couldn't eat much because she had only 2 teeth left in her mouth, but she would not touch canned dog food, she would only eat hot dogs. She didn't want other scraps either it was just hot dogs.
1 person likes this
@Cutie18f (9551)
• Philippines
6 Jun 10
My dogs eat dog food only when I mix it with people food. Why? What's wrong with people food? It's what I feed them two times a day. They are not used to eating purely dog food. I think they too get bored with that. Sometimes I buy dog food and mix it with the food I give them but much of the time they eat the same food we eat.
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
7 Jun 10
People food gave my first dog horrible food allergies. It caused all kinds of skin problems with her and we ended up putting her on a raw diet. This time around - NO people food for the dog.
