Does your dog get tired of the same food?

paultf

I have 3 dogs so its economical to get a 15kg bag of food each time. I have mine on Burns chicken and brown rice.

Recently one of the dogs has started to get tired of eating the same food. She is eating the food but its taking her twice the time. I think she wants to make sure no-one else gets it! (I feed them twice a day and normally they clean their dish.)

So what should I do? The Burns helpline don't agree with adding to the food (like salmon oil or pasta) because the food is supposed to be complete. So I am thinking of getting a bag of fish and brown rice for variety.

I have seen posts where some people with multiple dogs give different food to each dog or they change the brand/flavour of the food every month or so for variety.

What do you think?

ppink

ourse definately did get fed up of it on the kibble. now I boil rice and chicken/liver/mince/etc for them and they get fruit and veg. They go bananas at feeding time now.
one in particular would take 2 mouthfuls of the dry food and dissappear but now he is like a demon for his food.
I cook up a load and freeze it so it is quite handy.

lorebringer

Every time we change a bag of food, we change the brand/flavour etc. (so, for example, they just finished a bag of Burns and are now on James Wellbeloved until it runs out and then they will be on another food). We had the same problems (dogs dilly dallying about eating after 2/3 bags of the same food) until we started doing this.

Perhaps buy another bag, of a brand that is strong flavoured, and mix it in (maybe a third of new food and two thirds of Burns) until you are done with all bags of Burns, and then change to another flavour or brand. I don't think there would be a problem mixing some extra stuff into the food for a while, but you may encourage fussy eating so be careful not to discourage them from eating plain kibble.

The slow eating could be down to another problem - the recent heat could be putting her off her food (this is common) so keep an eye out for anything that could be off and why she isn't eating as usual.

Outkast_IRE

we just mix in a tiny bit of whatever we are cooking that night and she wolfs it down then, if we cant do that them sometimes a little bit of a tin of tuna and keep the rest for other days later on in the week.

belongtojazz

I add a small amount of cod liver oil in the morning and when I think they aren't eating enough they get some rice with their evening meal That seems to work for us, they've been on the same food now for months.
The three terriers are on burns high oats and my springer has royal canin mature light.

paultf

Below is a reply I just got from Burns. (I probably am guilty of giving my dogs too many treats so I'll have to cut back on those. Plus I guess the amount of food to give to my dogs by cup - looks like I am going to have to weigh the food now.)

"Hi Paul,

Thank you for your recent e-mail enquiry.

The main reason a dog gets tired of eating a diet is the fact they are having slightly more food than they need and so are not really hungry enough to eat it. Many owners will then add something tasty to the diet which encourages the dog to overeat and so the cycle begins. It is a human concept that dogs get bored of food as we would not like to eat the same thing every day however dogs really don't mind.

My colleagues dog has been fed the Chicken & Brown Rice diet for 13 years without a change and still eats every meal with gusto. Although you are feeding your dog the 10 grams per kg of body weight this may just be too much for your dog and a reduction in the amount fed to 7 or 8 grams per kg of bodyweight may suit her better. I have a 13 kg Springer Spaniel who has 4 hours off lead running per day and only has 70 grams of Burns. She is just a dog who does not need as much food as we recommend and does very well on this amount.

How many Kelties do you feed? One Keltie weighs 8 - 10 grams and this should be taken into account with the daily feeding amounts. If you wish to try a different variety of Burns as long as the changeover is done gradually this should be fine. If you would like samples of the Fish & Brown Rice and the Fish & Maize diets I would be happy to send these for you. Please forward your full postal address to enable me to do this.

Kind regards
Becka Hutchens
Nutritional Advisor
Burns Pet Nutrition Ltd
Ferry Road
Kidwelly
Carmarthenshire SA17 5EJ
Tel 01554 890482
Fax 01554 891476

www.burnspet.co.uk "

Shanao

Tbh i would agree with Burns on this one. My dogs have never gotten sick of their food and I've always fed my dogs on the same stuff once I get a food that suits them. My current two are delighted everytime mealtime comes by even though they're getting the same stuff everyday. Like they said, I would reduce the food and see how that works out. Now and again when its very hot, they lose some of their appetite because they spend most of the day lying around in the heat and dont burn up as much energy so I reduce their feed.

Shazanne

ppink wrote: »

ourse definately did get fed up of it on the kibble. now I boil rice and chicken/liver/mince/etc for them and they get fruit and veg. They go bananas at feeding time now.
one in particular would take 2 mouthfuls of the dry food and dissappear but now he is like a demon for his food.
I cook up a load and freeze it so it is quite handy.

Hi. Could you tell me exactly what you cook, ie; quantities etc. And do you freeze individual portions? What way do you feed them the fruit and veg? Are they getting everything they need with this diet? I have one very picky eater - she has to be coaxed to eat most of the time. I think a diet like this might appeal to her. Thanks:)

tatabubbly

One trick I use with my girl is put her bowl down in the morning for 10 minutes, if she doesn't eat it, it goes back in the cupboard for an hour or two... she gets her food but it prevents her dilly dallying around eating. She's not a big eater as she's a small dog and has been on royal canin now for nearly two years now and i haven't needed to change!

Devi

Have to agree with burns and shano, a hungry dog would not turn down food. Id say a fasting day would sort it out. It’s not unhealthy for dogs (or humans) as long as there not puppies or pregnant, in fact it is recommended to fast your dog once a year anyway, gives there digestive system a day off.

ABajaninCork

Hi - I was wondering about this too. My Shih Tzu normally eats Burns. He used to be on Royal Canin as a pup, but the bigger dog food didn't agree with him.

I've got the Pork & Potato as well as the Lamb and Brown Rice. I also give him fish & brown rice as well as cooked hearts with the kibble. If I give him plain kibble, he leaves it as he thinks something better's coming along.

I try to be strict on the treats, but it doesn't help when my husband and his family insist on feeding the dog crap (things like corned beef and cabbage -WTF?:eek:). He gets a slice of toast in the mornings, and more brown bread and butter,as well as whatever he can ponce from the table (which I absolutely HATE). Then they wonder why he gets sick!!

I'll try the fasting one again. I've done it a couple of times, but then the dog gets what he wants from my husband or his family anyway...

ppink

Shazanne wrote: »

Hi. Could you tell me exactly what you cook, ie; quantities etc. And do you freeze individual portions? What way do you feed them the fruit and veg? Are they getting everything they need with this diet? I have one very picky eater - she has to be coaxed to eat most of the time. I think a diet like this might appeal to her. Thanks:)

I cook the rice in big batches and freeze it. The chickens I skin and remove fat and then I boil them and take them off the bone. With mince and liver i just boil them too. then divide out into freezer bags for mornign and evening rice and meat in each bag.
to be honest I am just at the stage with these dogs that I am sorting the quantities. Basically I am giving about 20% meat right now. I am talking to my vet about it and will see how they get on and increase it if necessary......I am not an expert in it by any means
we are a little all over the place as we have had digestive issues on the last kibble we were on and have not been able to give them any other since. at one stage they could only eat chicken!

I did see that my vet also has a food with egg as the protein so I may try them with egg also...they loves eggs.
The fruit and veg are easy with the girls as they both will eat anything so treats are generally raw carrot or apple. the boys need their's grated in:rolleyes:, so I grate in half a carrot into all their food every day.
rice at the moment is 3/4 to 1 scoop (2 cups I think)! morning and evening for the GSD's along with their carrot and chicken.
treats are all either veg or meat. i dont give them any regular treats any more.

So far their coats are coming back better and they are looking well.:)
ours also get gluscosamine and cod liver oil to help their joints.

The Sweeper

Hey ppink, glad to see you're doing that in conjunction with your vet. Where does the calcium in that diet come from?

ppink

The Sweeper wrote: »

Hey ppink, glad to see you're doing that in conjunction with your vet. Where does the calcium in that diet come from?

I am still at the point of sorting through the vitamin/nutrient requirements, but the chicken does have calcium in it, not sure about the phosporus.
Our primary aim over the last few weeks was to sort out the train wreck after the kibble and get them stabalised without diareahh.

I plan on sorting their main requiremnts through food, not additives. so they will be getting for example egg shells than a calcium tablet. thats the plan anyways:)