I live in South Africa and have a 2year old miniature daschund. I would dearly love to get her off tinned wet food. She was a very picky eater but I have now managed to give her some wet food in the morning and pellets at night which she now eats with relish, Can I try and wean her off the wet food as I find it expensive? Also how much should she have per day. Thanks Louise

There is no reason why your small dog cannot eat a good quality dry food for both feedings. The amount she should eat would be on the package. For taste though you could mix a small amount of the canned in with your dry. However, be careful, these little dashunds gain weight at an alarming rate if not kept at a good ratio of physical acitivty and feeding. Their little long bodies cannot carry much weight, and being long, hip displaysia could develop.

Tick

Thank you so much I do keep an eye on her weight and keep her active with a good walk every day. Thanks again Louise

Hi Louise, my dogs also do not like dry dog food, they only eat wet.
I have only just managed to get them to eat a small handful of dry for breakfast.

This will sound mean but if your dog does not eat the dry for breakfast then do not offer an alternative, she will eventually learn that the only thing she gets of a morning is the dry food.

Another way to encourage eating dry is to mix a handful in with the wet food, at first they try to pick out the wet but eventually some just eat the whole lot.

Yet another alternative is to soak the dry and get her used to the taste.
I mix about 1 cup of dry to about 1/2 cup of hot water and soak for half an hour.
This makes the food very soft and they are more liekly to eat it, each meal soak the dry for less amount of time and this will gradually make it less soft until you no longer need to soak it.

Dry/hard food is very important in a dogs diet as it helps to keep their teeth clean.

See my sticky.

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Originally Posted by labman

See my sticky.

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You might want to provide a link as a lot of new users do not know what "stickies" are.