I don't know what to do!!!

[PONDOROLMS]

What do I do with a finicky eater? My dachshund will not eat anything I feed him. He is not sick. He is stubborn. He does not show signs of depression. He only wants table food and I wish to break him of it.He will not eat any commercial food. He nibbles at it and will not finish. He has gone many days without eating!!!!HELP!!!!I am frustrated!!!!!!Leonard

[Mark]

Hi Pondorolms and welcome to the board,

A Dachshund stubborn? /ubb/smilies/lol.gif Thank goodness my kids have never had people food of any kind, but maybe we can be creative here. Does he/she like peanut butter? If so, try heating a small amount (it should melt) and blend it into the dog food. Peanut oil may work just as well. Try introducing a small amount on the tip of your finger first to give him/her a "taste for it". If not, Science Diet use to make a gravy-like additive for food for fussy eaters. I'm not sure if they still do because I don't like Science Diet products, but in this case it may "kick start" the eating process.

Does he/she eat treats? Maybe crumbling some up and mixing in the food would help, too. Is the food you've tried listing meat as the first product and is there a yummy gravy in it?

I presume that you've asked your vet and that's been of no help.

Is it a boy or girl? How old? What's her/his name?

Keep us posted on your progress and I'm sure some of the resident food experts here on the board will have additional or better suggestions than I do.

Good luck,

Mark

[Owen's Mom]

Here's my suggestion... As long as your vet has determined that there are no health problems and your dog is simply being picky... Here it is straight: Your dog is playing you like a violin /ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif It knows that you'll break at some point and give it the yummy table treats. Kibble is always going to be 2nd to people food in a dachsie's eyes, so you simply have to say no /ubb/smilies/eek3.gif

I'd be sure you're feeding a good quality food (see the "Do you know what's in your dog food" thread down the board a little) and ask questions of us about good food. Then... Put down the food for 20 mins in the a.m. and pick it up after 20 mins. Put it down again in the evening for 20 mins, then pick it back up. If the pup doesn't eat, it won't starve (trust me). Do this again the next day and I'll bet by the end of the 2nd day the dog will eat. Owen had been known to go a day or two without eating, by the end of the 2nd day he'd eat every last crumb.
Don't leave the food out for free feeding, it's really not a good idea.

Something else you can do is feed raw foods, a home made diet. It takes some time, but it's worth it and Owen NEVER skips a meal these days!! Here's a link to what has been named "The Recipe" and is a great way to start your dachsie on a raw diet. http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/1848/recipe.html Don't forget, dogs are carnivores and are built to eat and digest raw meat and bones.

Hope this helps!! /ubb/smilies/bounce.gif
~~Amy & Owen /ubb/smilies/facelick.gif~~

[Penny's Aunt]

I'm going to approach this from another angle. While there's nothing wrong with high-quality dog food & it's convenient to feed, it isn't the only option around. Dogs must get tired of smelling all the good food we eat, & they have to eat dry chunks.

Why do you want to feed dog food? (This isn't a trick question.) Do you think the dog is not getting the right kind of nutrition from the table food he's getting, or do you not want to fix something special for him, or do you just want to simplify things by feeding dog food?

Sometimes people forget that dog food didn't always come in cans & bags. If you fix good, nutritious food for yourself & your family, there's no real reason why the dog can't eat that.

Basically, what a dog requires is food that consists of 1/3 meat, 1/3 vegetables, & 1/3 grains. The more of it that is raw, the better (even for us!). But not raw grains.

Keep the fats to the minimum (a little is okay, but don't feed the dog all the steak fat while you eat the steak). And easy on the fried foods, it can be hard for a dog to digest.

And no chocolate or sweets, as little onion as you can (too much can cause anemia), no salty things like pickles & olives (or not much).

Unless the dog is sensitve to them, there's nothing wrong with yogurt, cheese, milk, cooked cereal (not airy, sugar-puffed), brown rice (white doesn't have much nutrition), etc.

Watch for allergic reactions, such as diarrhea, itchy skin or red ears (inside) or hives. Some of the foods most likely to cause allergies are fish, soy, corn, wheat, eggs, dairy products, but a dog can be sensitive to nearly anything, just like a person can.

Just use common sense. And if you really want to get into it, there are many websites for alternative diets for dogs.

[Owen's Mom]

I agree with Penny's Aunt... It's such an excellent point she made about what did people feed their dogs before kibble was invented (only about 60 years ago). Though I think there is a difference between "People food" and "Table Scraps". I feed Owen People Food such as raw organic hamburger, veggies, eggs, chicken parts, organ meat etc. I don't feed him table scraps though... They tend to be too high in saturated fats (fat in general is VERY important to dogs, they drive their energy from fat, not from carbos), added sugars, added salt etc.

According to Billinghurst, who wrote Give Your Dog A Bone (the BARF Bible) and Schultz, veggies should comprise maybe 20% of a dog's diet and grains are not necessary at all. It's totally a hot issue and a very debated one among BARFer's... To feed grain, or not to feed grain. I've opted to cut it out. I was adding brown rice (cooked) to Owen's ground beef mixture when I first started feeding raw... The thing is, the rice came out the same way it was going in. I decided (through this very scientific exploration of Owen's stool /ubb/smilies/lol.gif) that he probably wasn't getting much nutrition out of it if it looked the same coming out as it did going in. So, now I subscribe to Schulz's view on grains. However, he get's doggie biscuts still, so he's still getting grains in one form or another.

/ubb/smilies/bounce.gif I love talking about doggie nutrition!! /ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif/ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif/ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

~~Amy~~

[WOTANSMUTTI]

Howdy and welcome!

My "furkid" is Wotan and he can be a picker and a grinner just like your pup. Wotan can ignore his dish for up to 3 days (feeding on the outside doggies' kibbles when he thinks no one is looking).

A good way to "crank-start" those stubborn dachsies is to put a little bacon grease on the kibs or meat juices. They can't resist that. /ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

Also-cut down on the treats. I know, it's sooo cruel and the L@@K you'll be getting when the table crumbs don't fall right- but it'll help encourage the dog food being more flavorful. /ubb/smilies/facelick.gif

Switch dog foods now and then for variety.Remember-dog's tastebuds are few but their nose and greed works overtime...

/ubb/smilies/bounce.gif good luck!

[Krista]

I totally agree with the raw food diet philosophy. Unfortunately it would be very hard to do for me because there are no good butcher shop nearby and organic products are very hard to obtain and EXPENSIVE unless they are in season at the local farmer's stands and markets. I know that in different localities these things are not a problem. So I feed Rudy Flint River Ranch kibble and if we are eating meat, I saw some raw beef or chicken for him and add it to his kibble or replace one of his meals with it. He also gets raw fruits and veggies as a snack. He loves baby carrots, a raw potato slice, or a bit of watermelon or apple.

Flint River Does make a product called dry water that you add hot water to, to make a warm meaty gravy type meal that is complete in nutrition, but it won't keep teeth clean. It couyld probably be used in conjunction with a dry kibble though.

good luck. Don't worry Dachsies WILL eat if they are truly hungry. I would just offer an am and pm meal for a certain time as Amy suggested and go from there.

[Penny's Aunt]

Krista's comment about kibble keeping teeth clean brings up another "scientific" discovery of mine: When I worked at the vet, I noticed my dog's teeth were getting some tartar on them, so I sat her up on the dental table & used the electronic scaler to clean her teeth back to pearly-whites. (She was probably the only dog that would allow this without anesthesia.)

At that time, she was on kibble with some meat. So I started to give her a large Milk Bone every day to keep her teeth clean. She loved her "Milkies". A year later, her teeth were back to being coated with tartar. The Milk Bones hadn't make one iota of difference.

Now, I know that Milk Bones aren't the hardest of this type of "tooth cleaner", but they are harder than kibble.

So, if a Milk Bone can't keep the teeth clean, how can kibble? And I know kibble is touted as a tooth cleaner, esp when served dry. (Krista didn't just pull that out of the air!)

Anyway, if your dog likes a good food that makes gravy, it may not matter at all to his teeth. If they're going to get scummy, they're just going to do it.

[Mrs.F]

/ubb/smilies/blushie.gif confession time....
When Penny was younger I was ridiculously indulgent (as opposed to slightly indulgent now) and we gave her "little tastes" and "just a little bite"s of what ever we were eating. We all had a grand time but it wasn't long before we'd created a monster! Penny wanted nothing to do with dog food (and believe me I tried plenty of different flavors and brands) and she was a real pain in the neck whenever we were eating.
I felt guilty depriving her, but finally stopped the people food cold turkey. (We're such softies that we ate out the first 2 nights because we were afraid we'd give in.....)
Anyway, when there was nothing else to eat Penny decided that the old kibble wasn't that bad after all. We left her dish down all day, and we kept it full. She nibbled now and then when she got hungry (or when a paranoid family member would sit down by the food dish and pretend to eat out of it) and after a week or so she was back into the doggie food routine.
She didn't get sick (although I felt that she lost a few ounces) and was back to normal within a week once she realized that holding out for other food wasn't getting her anywhere.
Good luck Leonard! This whole issue is probably much harder on you than it is on your dog!
Heidi

[Krista]

As to the teeth cleaning thing....

Well I don't think that hard kibble is enough to actually keep teeth clean tartar free, But I do think that if the same dog ate kibble for a year vs. soft food for a year that the teeth would be cleaner. I personally brush Rudy's teeth, but I know many dog owners do not. No brushing and a primarily soft food diet together would most likley be worse than kibble and no brushing. Also, the raw foods diet is really supposed to be the best at keeping teeth clean when raw bones are given, the calcium and chewing action is really good those toothies. Of course -like people - some dogs are just more prone to tartar and teeth problems than others....

If you are interested in some of the super premium all natural foods available - many of them are mentioned and have websites given in that post -do you know what is in your dogs food.

[wireweiners]

Sometimes, adolescents will go through a picky phase. I know Wheeler did. I went through a period with him where I was getting down and hand feed him a piece at a time. When he hit about 4 years old, he started eating like a pig. I feed Pro-Plan kibble. I got a couple of lambs from my sister and had them processed into lamburger. I cook this up into "dog stew" and add it to the kibble. I think toys like the hercules bone, dental dinasours, etc. are better than milk bones for keeping teeth clean.

[Dukey's Mom]

I'm getting in on this late. I give my guys a marrow bone every 1 to 2 weeks. It is great for their teeth, plus they love them.

I get them in meat section and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. If you try this, make sure you get the large marrow bones, not the other splintering kind. Your pups will thank you. Guarenteed to keep them busy for a bit.

Andrea

[WOTANSMUTTI]

Oh! What spoiled little dachsies we have!
/ubb/smilies/dizzy.gif I buy the smaller cut marrow bones and we either broil them for a few minutes or put them on the barbeque, with garlic powder of course... /ubb/smilies/facelick.gif

[Owen's Mom]

<FONT COLOR="Green">Text</FONT c>Ok, I know it makes us Humans feel better to cook things before we give them to our beloved furkids... But just know, it's not at all necessary. Until canids gain the use of opposible thumbs, they'll still be designed to eat and digest raw meat safely /ubb/smilies/eek3.gif You're always increasing the risk of a bone splintering when you apply heat. Just a little BARF word for the day /ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

Who Love ya? Owen does!! /ubb/smilies/facelick.gif

~~Amy~~

[Mrs.F]

Whew! I was starting to feel a little bit guilty about tearing off the grocery store cellophane and plopping the raw, red bones down on the kitchen floor! Thanks for that BARF word for the day! /ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

[tayers]

Since we are talking about cleaning teeth, does anyone have any suggestions on brushing. It takes an act of Congress everytime I brush Sadie's teeth. She loves the bath, but hates the brush.

[WOTANSMUTTI]

Wotan says: Raw is fine for those who don't know better. Broil a marrow bone,lay it next to a cold raw one and see which one YOUR dachsie picks!