Picky labrador

[Briocheandbrie]

I seem to own the exception to the rule..... Our 1 year old lab eats v little of her food and I worry that she isn't eating enough. She was started on Royal Canin Labrador puppy food from weaning by her breeder and we have stayed with it, but need to change. I do mix some chicken/beef/salmon in but she's great at picking it out and ignoring the nuts. We have tried wet food and she completely refuses it.

Any recommendations? Would prefer to stay dry, not raw.

TIA

Is it fresh each day in the bowl and is the bag properly sealed so it stays fresh between servings?
Is the bowl clean? Our lab wouldn’t eat if her bowl was dirty. So if we’d put a bit of wet in, she’d eaten it all, we couldn’t then put another scoop in without washing her bowl.
Have you tried a different flavour?
If our lab was a little off the food we would occasionally stir a cup of tasty gravy over it & mix it in to make sure she’d eaten enough. Not all the time obviously.
Are you measuring/weighing correctly? Maybe she’s eating enough but you are giving too much?

I had a Labrador that was fussy and found out she had stomach ulcer so a bit like humans do, you get acid and feel nauseous and don't fancy foods. We didn't go down the raw food route as I couldn't handle the raw food. It sets off my OCD but we found our Labrador loved oily fish. So we would pour the tin of fish and oil over her food and she loved it. We also fed her first meal thing with scrambled egg and then most days she would then eat whatever we gave her at night. Over time things improved and she turned into a typical bin raiding Labrador. 😂 good luck!

How often do you feed her?

Our very ungreedy dog definitely improved when I reduced her to one meal a day..

It wasn't my choice or preference but she definitely ate better on the one meal.

@thistimelastweek Same, typical fussiness of the border collie, typical tendency towards leanness of a sighthound, doesn’t like eating in the morning, she gets fed after her evening walk, once she’s had a good run and some training.
She won’t eat unless she’s exercised enough, and “enough” is entirely up to her and varies on any given day.

Thank you for the replies 😁

Her bowl is cleaned after every meal as I found that really made a difference. If her food is in the bowl from morning she won't touch it later in the day. The dog food is stored in an airtight box, I'm the only one who feeds her so I know the box is tightly closed and not damp.

She does like fish so I put sardines in with her food occasionally, but have tried salmon oil and gravy which she doesn't like. The drier the better.
She is fed twice a day and only eats half a cup to a cup each time. it's not anywhere close to what she should be eating. She does get a dental chew and a few dog biscuits (snapped into small pieces) during our daily walk but no table food

She is lean but not noticably underweight, 25-26k at 12 months. Vet not concerned. Plenty of energy

Our lab self-diets. When she’s full or having a fat day she leaves it or just snacks. Weird, but she’s awesome.

She will still eat jerky & treats.

Maybe try some fresh chicken & rice, or light food. Find what she loves to eat.

I mix tinned & dry food. I use allaboutdogfood and only buy quality products.

Mine have had Autarky or Burns food and gobbles it down.

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Maybe she’s like my dog and self diets. If the vet isn’t concerned, that’s a good sign.

its also been hot weather and my pets have less appetite - as do i - when it’s hot.

+1 for Autarky for labs (some have better ratings than other on allaboutdogfood, I think the salmon ones are better).

also Lily’s kitchen.

We feed our lab Millies Wolfheart after exhaustive trials as to what suited her seemingly insecure digestive system. She is not food orientated at all sometimes will not eat breakfast until lunchtime. Then every couple of weeks she seems to gain the appetite of a cart horse. We gave up worrying as long as she is a good weight, active and can play / work.

We feed our fussy lab essentials. We put her on that at a year and she eats it consistently if not enthusiastically.

Royal Canin is not good despite many reputable breeders sending puppies out (including mine) with bags and deals on it.
My Lab iturned out to be sensitive to chicken but messed about with the R C food. I mixed tinned tripe through it to use it up then swapped to a fish -based food . No pickiness since.

I'm not a lab owner but I do walk a fussy Labrador. He has quite a few allergies which doesn't help, but I've found the best way to get him to eat is to make him work for his food.

I take his normal kibble on walks and use it to reward him for recalls, having his lead put back on, getting in/out of the car nicely, waiting etc. He absolutely wolfs it down, yet put the same food in his dish and he'll sniff it and walk off.

So, I would try and "ditch the bowl" and see if he responds to things like scatter feeding, snuffle mats, kong wobblers etc.

Have you tried something like Orijen which has a high meat content?
Or she might be better on cold pressed biscuits like Gentle or Feelwells. Mine gets these because they are more easily digested.

Re the dental chews, you would be better giving her a more natural chew like identifiable bits of animals chews. Mine has tripe, rabbits ears, fish skins, tendons, chicken feet, beef tails... They are dry obviously so might suit yours.

Vets seem insistent on recommending chicken allergy foods with hydrolysed chicken, for some reason; they suggested the same (but hills brand) for my aunt’s dog, it didn’t work, frankly, chicken is chicken, best to change the protein source entirely, and you made a great choice with fish because mammal based foods tend to source the organs through wherever is cheapest, meaning chicken can make it into the food regardless of the flavour name on the bag, and they’re not required to declare protein sources below a certain percent. Fish based foods tend to be just fish, so they’re a great option for specific protein sensitivities.

We’ve got a fussy one. He especially objects to dog food. He’d eat pasta carbonara all day.

He is slim and self-limits his diet. But we’ve found stirring a tin of sardines into kibble makes it irresistible.

I have been really worried about how scrawny he is, but the vet is never concerned and he’s very healthy, so I just let him get on with it now.

Mine even reacted to dried chicken liver. Vets are fixated on chicken. Recommended diet for the squits? Chicken and rice. Er, no. I keep white fish fillets in the deep freeze as an acceptable alternative. It's not the dogs, it's the way chicken is produced.

@Spanielsarepainless https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7041975/#:~:text=However%2C%20another%20diet%20containing%2078,of%20the%20dogs%20%5B2%5D.
40% of dogs still reacted to hydrolysed proteins of chicken liver

Thanks for that. That's very interesting.

We have a picky lab too He's two now and is a lot better than he used to be. We got him a puzzle feeder with lots of little compartments with lids and we hide the food in them and he has to find it. We made a game of throwing food on the floor (dry) he has to find it. We changed his very expensive hydrolysed chicken food to Autarky We put salmon oil from Costco on his food and as people have said, tins of sardines in oil and mixed-half a tin of wet food into his biscuits and a touch of warm water to moisten them . Another thing is we put probiotic granules or paste onto his food

Somehow these things have worked for him as he's a good average weight for his size and healthy and eats 2 meals a day now - although he might leave his breakfast til the afternoon some days.

millies wolfheart here to... currently riverside flavour for 2.5 yr old springer...but have tridd a few flavours...lots if fish based ones and they do test packs... call them and you can talk about your dog..