[armylife29]

Got a 3 month old geman shep. Mix. She won't eat the iams puupy food that we bought her. I have tried everything from mix can food, adding cottage cheese, adding eggs and still won't eat. She will eat table scraps but don't want her to keep eatting this. I want her to eat her dog food. She is starting to look very thin. I need help!

[labman]

This is why I am so insistent that tempting a dog with rich food is nearly always the wrong thing to do. You are quite right, she needs to be eating a dry dog chow. It will take a lot of will power on your part now. You just have to cut out all the other stuff , and wait her out. See https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/i...tml#post254171

[jenniferapril]

Dear Army Life,

Have you tried another brand of kibble? Perhaps your puppy just doesn't care for the Iams. Regarding mixing in cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, etc. This is perfectly fine and healthy. Dry food alone isn't a "balanced" meal despite what the pet food industry wants you to think. Would you like to be fed a bowl of dry cereal twice a day every day?
Variety not only tastes better but is better balanced overall.

Especially with the recent pet food recall, more and more people are turning to home prepared diets for their pets and many rave about the health benefits. Try Dr. Pitcairn for more information on this approach. You might mix in some healthy leftovers into your pet's dish with or without kibble to see if he'll eat those.


The other possibility is that your puppy is sick. Is he otherwise acting normally? He could have worms or something else that would make him lethargic and lose his appetite. When did he last get checked at the vet?

Best of luck to you!
Eskie Lover, Jennifer April

[labman]

So Jennifer, you seemed to left out your background in dogs in your profile. How have you come to know enough that anybody should listen to your advice? Do you have one shred of scientific evidence to back what you say? If so, you would the first of, who knows how many, that I have challenged. Scientific evidence is not a link to a website ranting and raving about ''bad'' ingredients. How many X-Rays does Dr Pitcairn have of year old dogs that grew up eating his diet? How many litters has he X-rayed every one? Perhaps you thought you could flimflam a bunch of average dog owners at AMHD.

''Regarding mixing in cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, etc. This is perfectly fine and healthy.'' Those are all high in calcium. Too much calcium is as bad as too little
and it needs to be in right ratio to phosphorus. Suggesting such for a growing German Shepherd is a terrible idea. Do you care that such advice could screw up a dogs hips?

''Dry food alone isn't a "balanced" meal despite what the pet food industry wants you to think.'' That is an outrageous lie. I have personally seen thousands of dogs thriving on Pro Plan.

''Variety not only tastes better but is better balanced overall.'' You have some figures for the amounts of nutrients in such a diet?

''more and more people are turning to home prepared diets for their pets and many rave about the health benefits. '' Yes there are a couple of them on another web site I am active on. They have their own websites where it is convenient to purchase hard to find items you need.

'' You might mix in some healthy leftovers into your pet's dish'' A great way to kill you dog from pancreatic disease.

''The other possibility is that your puppy is sick.'' I address the issue of health in my sticky.

I have better things to do this morning than take time to point out the errors in your post. Such junk science is entirely too common on the net. Those people knowingly spreading dangerous ideas to sell their products are worse than those running puppy mills. Everybody is free to post whatever ideas here they want. I am free to give the facts.

[Puppy Owner]

armylife29 - I am a relative novice to having dogs but had some issues with my lab pup eating at first and was sorely tempted to give him rich treats as he was getting seriously skinny and had already had a pretty bad start after his mothers milk dried up! I posted on here and got some very good advise from labman which I implemented and I now have (2 weeks after) a healthy filled out puppy that loves his food and is rapidly catching up to his list weight!

It does take a lot of will power to do it, and seeing a hungry pup not eating can be sole destroying, I found soaking the food in warm water helped and making sure you ate first (found this simulated his appetite, and re-inforces his place in the pack) making sure he was offered absolutely nothing (no treats or left overs) apart from his food and also making sure he was reasonalbly calm when I fed him so he was not distracted by toys etc.

I personally would trust labman and the experts who make the food - just my opinion.

[Poly]

Hello Labman:

Two of the things I like about your advice is that (1) you don't tolerate foolishness, and
(2) you insist that people back up their broad statements with actual data.

I've learned a lot just from reading your answers. I hope you keep it up.

[macksmom]

It does take alot of will power to do it, and seeing a hungry pup not eating can be sole destroying, i found soaking the food in warm water helped

My puppy had the same issue, and was simply solved by doing this :) Even the puppy chow wasn't small enough, or soft enough for him to quite handle yet. Add a little warm water, just enough to soften the food and that should help :)

I also had to do this with my kitten when she was little :)

If you give your puppy alternative food, they will come to think that if they refuse to eat their puppy/dog food that you will always offer other food.