Dog is on starvation diet. What to do?

Question

Ok, so I have a mexican hairless dog. He's 6 years old.
Usually I fed him all kinds of wet dog-food. But I found this diet to be bad for his teeth and overall not healthy.
We bought a couple of dry foods (different brands, mostly organic) for him but he refuses to eat that stuff.
I also slowly reduced his wet food consume.
He gets veggies, too. They seem to be somewhat liked.

I tried the mixing already. Didn't work.

I'm not switching brands all the time - I offered different brands at the same time to see what he prefers.
Hairless dogs can't have chewy bones cause of their teeth.

Answer 1

Keeps mixing the veggies in with the dry food. Dogs especially like green beans and they are very good for them. The dog will not starve itself. It will eat when it gets hungry. Maybe even put a treat or 2 in its bowl. Also, try to get the dog to eat on a schedule. Leave the bowl down for 15 minutes during that scheduled time. If he doesn't eat it, take it up and give it to him on the next scheduled time. He will learn that he has to eat what you give him and when you give it to him. Remember you are in charge! Good luck!

Answer 2

You can't switch your dog from wet to dry food at his age. Go back to giving him the dry food he's used to, and get him some good 'dental chewy toys' he can gnaw on and play with for his 'dental health' ... and for his 'good overall health' try feeding him less of his wet food ... and since you 'switch brands' all the time, keep doing that. You may want to either substantially lessen or even stop giving him the 'veggies' entirely before you take his 'dry dog food' away, though ... the veggies may be 'filling his stomach' too much, so he won't eat the dry food or 'mixed' food ... there are PLENTY of veggies in both dry and wet dog food, and he doesn't need 'people veggies' except as an occasional treat.

Answer 3

Imagine going from eating a steak dinner with all the trimmings to eating a stale bread and cheese sandwhich. This is what your dog is doing. Wet food is much better tasting than dry food but is not very good for you. You can try putting maybe a table spoon of wet food on to the dry food and mix it in really well to encourage the dog to eat dry food. Otherwise as hard as it might be you may have to lay down the law and not offer your dog anything but dry food and the dog will eat it within a day and a half when he is hungry enough. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Okay, it will take a while, but gradually put the dry food into the wet. Depending on the amount he gets, try adding like 1/4 dry to 3/4 wet for a week , then half and half, etc. If not try getting that gravy stuff Iams has out for dry food. Dogs love that. You could also mix in a good organic dog food with something like Kibbles and Bits. good Luck!

Answer 5

what you should do is mix the wet food with the dry so that he'll be interested in the dry kibble and slowly reduce the wet food until its completely out of his diet.. if this doesn't work, try this: Take the dry kibble and add a small amount of warm water and stir, this makes a gravy like liquid that is better than wet food, because its just water. If this doesn't work, you may just have to put the dry kibble in the bowl by itself with nothing else... It may sound cruel, but if he's hungry enough, he'll eat... He won't let himself starve.

Answer 6

I would talk to the vet about it to see if he knows anything that is good and good for your dog. He might even have some better advice than that. Or maybe you just need to try more types of food. If your dog still doesnt like the food after that though then i definitely would talk to the vet. Sometimes they have special foods for the dog. Thats what my dog eats!

Answer 7

Wow, have you gotten a lot of answers.

Have you tried the dry foods that require that you mix them with water? When we adopted a dog (friends moved and couldn't take her with them), she ate only the "wet" foods. We tried to switch her to dried ... and like yours she refused to eat the dry stuff. Our vet suggested we try the ones that "make their own gravy." It took a while for her to try it, but once she did, that was her choice and she ate that food all the time.

Since your dog eats vegetables, you can add them, and their liquid to the dry food along with the water.

Good Luck.

Answer 8

If you are really dedicated, you can cook his meals yourself. Feed him rice with a little chicken and maybe even some dry food mixed in with it. It's cost effective and better for him than store bought food. It really doesn't take that much time to prepare, just fix enough for a week and refridgerate it.

Answer 9

your dog is just picky i think if ur trying to get him on to dry food then put dry food in his bowl and add water to kind of make it mushy and then just take the water out a little bit everyday or u could just put water in his dry food and let him eat it like that because either way u do it it is way way healthier then just feeding him wet food

Answer 10

why dont you mix fruit with your food and maby you shoudnt keep changing foods it confuses the dog i read a book that said dogs can go for years with the same brand and maby you should try non organic cause dogs can be stobern