I'm going to have to put the dog on dry food, but what to do when he refuses dry food

[shinyshoes]

Money is very tight at the moment and we were giving the dog (2yo Jack Russell) dry to begin with on advice from the homeless dogs shelter we got him from.
He soon got bored of the MASSIVE bag of James Wellbeloved , so we fed him on wet.
Pedigree, casserole. we did this half and half, and he will pick round the dry and only eat the wet.

like I say money is tight and rather than buy 'value' no frills wet meat I want to put him back on dry but a decent ish brand that isnt going to break the bank.

We got a massive bag from Lidls but he refuses to eat dry now and it sits there for days (on my belief if he's hungry he will eventually eat it.) he's a dog for crying out loud and I wont have him dictate to me and starve himself to get his own way until he gets wet again .

How do I get him to eat dry again. I have mixed it with gravies and stocks, he's not interested it ends up in the bin and I end up going out and buying him wet food.

Enoughs enough we cannot afford it, I am eating off a side plate (I have also had a tummy bug) and I will not comromise my childrens portions to feed the dog.

Hi Shinyshoes, I only got my puppy at the weekend but he is already on dry food. My breeder recommended stirring a teaspoon of natural yoghurt in with it for a couple of his meals and he really wolfs it down when it has the moisture. Its meant to be very good for puppy digestion but I'm not sure about for older dogs. Just a suggestion though....

Our dog has dry food for medical reasons, and we put a little drizzle of oil on it to entice him to eat. Usually works. Failing that, he eats it when he's hungry!

We used to feed our two in James Wellbeloved dry food and they were very reluctant to eat it - I seemed to end up throwing most of it away. We then had to rehome my mum's puppy who had Bakers Complete Puppy food and my two decided they both liked that and would eat it. So we give all three of them that now. It has lots of different bits in it so maybe it is more exciting for them - I wouldn't say they eat it with relish but it does always get eaten. Ours don't like gravy put on their dry food either but do like oil - we give them oil that has been drained when we open a can of tuna fish and also buy them cheap tins of fish like mackerel for an occaisional treat and they really like that too.

I know how frustrating it can be though as I think my dogs would virtually starve themselves rather than eat something they didn't like - but then they go out in the garden and eat something horrible like the guinea pigs poo with great enthusiasm !!

Chappie Original is a cheap tinned meat that is recommended by a lot of vets. My sister's dog has all sorts of digestive problems and couldn't tolerate the expensive meat bought specially through the vet, so they suggested Chappie. He's been on it for 3 years now with no problems. It really stinks though! You can get huge cans of it - Asda and Morrison's stock it.

Just checked, and Tesco looks the cheapest. 1.26kg tin for 70p.

cheers all and combustibleLemon for finding that for me.

It certainly looks quite cheap

Chappie is fantastic. He's only a jack russel so depending on his weight, a 1.2 kg tin (less than £1) will last him 2-3 days.

now 45p is a day or less is not a lot to expect anyone to pay to feed their pet, regardless of income.

vets recommend Chappie and i feed it to mine and can't fault it.

He may be refusing dried food for a reason, my old dog hated it, it used to swell up in his stomach and bloat him to the point of real pain so I tried watering it and he hated it still as i believe he associated dried food with pain.

So don't assume he's trying to dictate to you, my vet said not all dogs are good on dried and to take mine off it.

Sorry x post.

Thwere you go, 70p for 2-3 days ish food is really cheap, cheaper than dried i bet!

My sister's dogs eat raw chicken wings - she knows somewhere where they sell them in bulk cheaply - would that be worth investigating? Hers used to have the dried food but apparently she was told that the raw chicken wings would be better for them.

I know nowt about dogs so if that's not helpful, please ignore!

chappie also do dry food, which smells far less vile and my dogs wolf it down! It might be a question of taste, though (and I've never tasted it!!!)...

Chappie stinks of old fish, but dogs love it and it's good for them. The small tin lasts 2 meals for us, but she only eats once a day.
She's on dried food atm, though and we add hot water to it and she eats it no problem (she never used to).