Monday Dog Blog: Gourmet Puppies

Gourmet Dinner! Some kibble, chicken, frozen green beans and butternut squash.

Finding food that dogs will eat, like and digest well doesn't always come easily. With Asher, it took us almost a decade to discover why he was a 'thrower upper'. What we attributed to other factors, such as anxiety, turned out to be food allergies. 

Just as with my own body, I'm convinced that finding the right food for our dog (or dogs) can be a process, and it's really important to place value on the types of food we are giving our little guys.

Tovah Rose has been a tough puzzle to solve over the past four years, whereas Gershwin is willing to eat any type of kibble! He's like a little Hoover. 

Sup-Sup-Supper Time!

We have FINALLY found foods that Tovah does well with, and it is such a huge relief! Most all of the credit goes to Mom, who has been in pursuit of finding something that Tovah Rose will want to eat.

Tovah Rose has always been a picky eater. She would snub her nose at meal time. She would act as if she was not motivated by food. She would often look at the food as if it made her nauseous to even think about eating it. It reminded me of how I would react to food when I was nauseous. She would skip eating some days. We'd keep trying to lure her to eat with all sorts of toppings. We'd put her in her crate to eat so she could have time, space and quiet. 

She also struggled to poop. She would strain for a long time. Her poops were hard. Gershwin's were always soft, no matter the type of kibble he got.

We went so far as to think that perhaps she had a more serious health condition going on such as Addison's disease (which she, thankfully, does not). She has an unusually slow heart rate. This is likely just her 'normal', but in combination with not eating well, we were worried.

Dining on the Patio

We tried all of the high end brands of kibble. We tried frozen raw food. We tried soft foods as toppings. We tried human food as toppings. We tried the stuff you buy to sprinkle on dog food to entice dogs to eat. We tried Ketchup and Parmesan cheese. Sometimes we had to buy the special high protein canned food just to get Tovah to eat something.

We were desperate.

The times when Tovah Rose would go 36 hours or more without eating stressed us out.

Was she sick? Was she just being obstinate and we should just 'wait her out'? What was going on with our delicate little flower?

I Took This Shot Because Folks Have a Hard Time Distinguishing T and G.  You Can Really See the Difference in Their Markings and Size Here!

Mom kept plugging away. She'd come home from each trip to the pet store with a new kind of kibble to try. Was it the type of protein? The grains? The size of the kibble? Was it the texture?

Finally, she remembered how our neighbor had fed her dog baby food in his old age and it had helped Drew a lot.

I remembered that pumpkin was a great source of fiber for dogs and recommend for them.

So, Mom started using a small-sized kibble (the Wellness brand), some frozen raw food as topping, frozen green beans (I added these because G loves to eat, but he needs to watch his middle. :)), and frozen blueberries (also a great source of nutrients and fiber, plus G wants to be like his brother, Buddha). 

The magic solution, though, was a spoonful of baby food in the bowl--either butternut squash, pumpkin or carrots. 

We really think that what Tovah needed was to be pooping better and more easily, and that because she wasn't 'going' very well, she wasn't very hungry.

Obviously, There are Still Some Foods They Kids Reject!

Now, Tovah comes running to her bowl for breakfast and dinner. She also comes running for her afternoon snack of kefir, and is always licking her lips in anticipation of snack time. 

She never skips meals. Sometimes she checks to see if Gershwin has left her any kibble or kefir.

And don't forget biscuits at bedtime!

It's a complete and total turn around.

This Sight Makes Our Hearts Happy

At this point, what matters the most for Tovah Rose seems to be the added fiber in the baby food. I'm not sure she would care what protein or size the kibble is at this point. But, we've got a formula that's working and we are going to stick with it! The puppies are getting a great, healthy meal, and we'll take it!

Thank you to Mom for her persistence and problem-solving. She keeps ALL of us fed well and eating right!

Happy Monday!

Blessings,

Emily