Suggestions for tasty kibble or other food for fussy dog

[Olddognewtrick]

Have a very picky 10 month old dog - to the point that if we’re playing a game or doing some training and he’s expecting a treat and gets kibble, he’ll just spit it out. He will eat wet food, but this gives him loose stools in anything more than tiny quantities, so we mix it with kibble and he’ll leave as much kibble as possible. Have been trying to have some dry food available in the morning so if he’s hungry he’ll eat it, and then he has the mixture in the evenings.

If he’s not feeling great (which seems to be relatively frequent! Unlike our old terrier who had the proverbial cast iron constitution) he just won’t eat - he’s on the skinny side naturally and loses weight really easily as well.

So looking for dry food that isn’t treats (we use 100% meat pate or dry treats from JR Pets) that is tasty enough to use for games/training as well as general meals. Any suggestions?

Ha do you have our dog?!?

We are about to try Millie’s wolfheart kibble as that’s been recommended, Eden was too but they only do huge bags and don’t want to risk her not eating it

So we feed Millie's Wolfheart but she won't touch it for treats/reward. And if you trick her by saying catch she'll spit it out! I don't think it's down to the food and she does generally eat it at mealtimes, she's just a big fan of variety so I buy alternative kibble for training treats for round the house. Currently using lily's kitchen, previously was using fish4dogs for that.

What are you currently feeding?

www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/crave-complete-dry-dog-food-with-lamb-and-beef-28kg

This stuff is great

One of mine will not eat dry food at all unless it is thoroughly mixed in with a wet food, and he has to approve of both (and gets bored easily so we have to rotate both types of food frequently). He always has wheat free dry, then Naturo, Burns, Butchers in gravy, or (shamefully, but it is his absolute favourite) Webbox chub roll mixed in.

What are you feeding now?

When it comes to training - you need to think of it like this. Dogs get kibble at mealtimes everyday, come rain or shine. So, why would they bother working/doing tricks for it when they know they'll get it at dinner time anyway>

Food for training needs to be much higher value - small cubes of chicken, doggy pate, fresh chicken, hotdogs, cocktail sausages etc. They need to be motivated to work for something they wouldn't normally get.

On top of that, many dogs don't like kibble as it gets a bit dull unless you mix it up - so you coul add warm water and mush it into a kong or a licky mat, mix it up with a really high value wet food, scatter it in the grass to sniff out, put it in a game and get him to find it. You need to make it desirable, basically.

For the dodgy stomach, chappie is a really, really good wet food option. It's cheap and very tolerable for the vast majority of dogs. Though be warned, it smells!

We started off feeding Tails as that’s what our old dog had (and loved). Newtrick was never so interested, usually tried to pinch the old dog’s food. Once the old boy had gone, thought I’d try something else - have tried Wainwrights puppy food (will barely touch it), one of the Millie’s Wolfheart flavours (will occasionally eat a few pieces), now have a Harringtons ‘just 6’ variety which again, he’ll nibble a few pieces. He seems to only eat about half the recommended amount of the wet and dry combined.

Yes, I think he likes variety. And we play lots of games and do lots of reinforcement so would rather not fill him up exclusively with treats - would like to be able to use more of a mixture. Will have a look at the Lily’s Kitchen dry food and fish4dogs.

Interesting to know about Chappie - have never really used wet food before as old dog was less fussy, and only got some a couple of months ago when he had a stomach upset and didn’t eat for days, and had been working on the assumption that more expensive was probably better, so will try that as well.

Butter box

So, why would they bother working/doing tricks for it when they know they'll get it at dinner time anyway

My pup will happily use a puzzle feeder to eat the same kibble that's in her bowl alongside. I'm not sure it's a simple as saying they won't work for it if they're fed it regularly.

The method of delivery is very important to our pup (and infuriating!)

Dry food in bowl - no
Dry food from hand - no
Dry food on floor - no
Dry food on floor after falling out a Kong - yes
Dry food in hide and slide puzzle - yes
Dry food stolen from on top of worktop - yes

I've just moved on from lilys kitchen to fish4dogs and mine is wolfing it down. I mix a bit of wet food through it as well. Any old grain free stuff, usually Naturo.

Mine is mad for Platinum. It’s a cold pressed semi moist kibble and it’s the most appetising smelling dog food I’ve ever come across. He is beside himself when I’m preparing it and definitely doesn’t behave the same for other kibbles we’ve tried. It scores highly for nutrition on All About Dog Food and isn’t ridiculously expensive. I think you can buy small sample packs which might help you with your discerning dog!

Ooh, sounds promising, thanks!

@glassofbubbles25 Eden bags start at 2kg so not huge. Stockists will often carry samples too.

@GuyFawkesDay oooh thank you!! Don’t know how I missed that! Hoping our fuss pot will like the semi moist stuff as she really doesn’t seem to like crunching on biscuits

If anyone’s interested, we’re two days into him loving Lily’s Kitchen so thanks for that suggestion.
I bought a puppy starter pack from Platinum and they sent some adult sample packs too, and they seem great and he likes that too. Also ordered a fish4dogs bag which hasn’t arrived yet,

We feed raw. Wilson's. they love it. And use Lilly's kitchen treats. The venison ones!

Fussy dog here also. I try and switch food around every 2 weeks or so as otherwise she gets bored with it and stops eating.
Currently, mixing with some tinned butchers loaf has been very successful (she has even been barking waiting for it to be served up).
Most successful dried food has been Dr John's Titanium, Autarky hyperallergenic and Harrington's Lamb.
Eden, Chudleys, Carnilove have all been a cepted for short periods before.

DH started asking today about how expensive it would be to just feed her steak pies as she seems to quite like the ones we had for tea 😆.

The best option we have found so far is to let her steal the cat's dinner (actually the cat's get exactly the same dry dog food and dog food tins as she gets, but presented 1m off the ground and in a cat bowl 🤔).

Good luck!

Be a bit careful about dogs eating cat food. Ours had some and I think it was a trigger for his pancreatitis as it tends to be higher fat.

When it comes to training - you need to think of it like this. Dogs get kibble at mealtimes everyday, come rain or shine. So, why would they bother working/doing tricks for it when they know they'll get it at dinner time anyway

ChenPup isn’t fussy, he’ll happily accept any food, including his regular kibble, in exchange for a trick or some work!

My fussy jrt chihuahua x is 11 years old and has turned his nose up at just about every dry dog food I've sporadically tried until just recently I discovered virbac. He LOVES it. It's an absolute first. I got it at the vets but I think it's available online. Has a teeny size kibble.