How to get my dog to eat its food?

Question

ok so i found out that my grandma who has alzhaimers (wrong spelling i know) has been feeding my 5 month old german shepherd baloney and hot dogs behind my back when i go to school.(no wonder he wont eat his dog food).i feed him Solid Gold wolf cub.so its none of that crap purina,or iams.my question is though,how to get him to eat his dog food?he is VERY VERY stubborn.this is the second time this has happened.the time before i held out on treats and gave him his food for 10 minutes,then took it away.with him barely eating anything.i know dogs can go a long time without eating but i just want to see him eat!anyway to get him to eat?i just give him the dry food with a milk bone.is there anything i can add on to make it more appealing to him?thanks

i know he'll eat the hot dogs and baloney for a fact.i dont know if i should mix it in his food or not...is there any danger in feeding him that?baloney and hot dogs?

Answer 1

What you do is this.. Take a bit of a weiner and cut it up in very very small pieces, mix it within his kibble, add a very very little bit of water so that the weiner taste mixes amongst the kibble.. Give him that to eat.. If he eats it, then tomorrow do the same thing, less weiner, less water.. Slowly wean him away from the weiners til he is eating only kibble..

Answer 2

You might want to add water to the food - this might make it smell better or even some canned dog food and mix it with the dry. But ultimately you need to put the dog on a schedule. Feed the dog 2 times a day - period. Offer him his food place it down where he sees it and can get to it. 15minutes the food comes up off the floor and is not offered food until his next time later in the day - period. He will not starve - if and when there is food around he will find out that he better eat while it is offered since there won't be any for a while - he will get hungry and he will eat - dogs are not stupid, yes he may thing if he waits long enough something better "might" come along but if the dog is now in your possession and there are no other freebies, he will eat - give it patience. And again he won't starve knowing there is food offered.

Answer 3

I don't know about dog nutrition, but I do know about cat nutrition and your cat will not be healthy on dog food. It doesn't contain taurine which is essential to a cat. Aslo I'm sure it's full of grain, which is basically carbohydrates and your cat can develop diabetes and become fat. You need to be strict for their own sake and feed them high quality species appropriate diet. Feed them at the same time in different rooms. Take the food away after 30 minutes if they don't eat it and refrigerate it. Try again in a few hours. No animal will starve itself just out of being fussy about their food. The cat would be harder to adjust, but the dog will give in pretty fast. Pour some tuna juice over the cat's food, it should make it more appealing. You can try mixing it gradually, but you need to make a change or you are risking your pets' health in the long run. More about cat nutrition here:

Answer 4

Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on the dogfood until he gets used to eating his food again, then you stop doing that. Worked great on one of my dogs. Put a note on the fridge warning your grandma not to feed the dog anything, you should be the only one feeding the dog. If you have to, get rid of all the baloney and hot dogs. Good Luck

Answer 5

Just dont make sure he doenst eat anymore human food and he will be forced to eat the dog food. My friend's mom always feeds their elkhound cooked beef liver/steak even filet mignon sometimes. Then when they were overseas and i was dogsitting, i wasnt going to cook a dog human food so what i did was melt some lard and poured it on his dry food, he loved that stuff. He would not eat the wet dog food no matter what, but giving him the larded up dry food with smaller doses of lard each time until you stop using lard completely should do the trick.

Answer 6

Your dog is still a puppy. I know you may not want to except it but its true. Puppys are children. make him eat his "peas", like your mother did. Dry dog food is the best when puppys eating habits are bad. Serve it dry with water on the side, and leave him alone. His stomach will kick in and you will get your wish. Oh", grandmothers always spoil their children. (Don't give into your dog. your the boss.) And he will always be your child and your protector with love.

Answer 7

there is nothing wrong with the meat if it is meat with no preservatives (kind of makes no since to get a wonderful food and then mix in what we were trying to prevent) My dogs get a bit of raw bison or beef with their food. try this and see how he likes it. just puree the meat and mix it into the kibble. You can cook it if you like. You can also try adding some salmon oil. this is tasty and good for them. and good job on finding a great food. my dogs did eat hund-n until my new girl just didn't like it. we switched to Merrick. its pretty neat. you can add a tablespoon or two of water and it makes it's own gravy. great for picky eaters and still all the great stuff like solid gold. they even have organic chicken for their kibble!

Answer 8

i have a shepard too and they are know to be quite picky about eating. mine included. the good news is they wont strarve themselves to death, but they can go days without eating. i used to get some canned food and mix alittle in, but he got tired of it after awhile and would not eat it after he got used to it. now i found something that has not failed me yet, and it is good for their coat and shrinks their feces and curbs their gas too (if that is a problem) i will put a spoonful of cottage cheese in his bowl of food when he goes a day or two without touching his food. i never liked putting treats in there, since they arent good to eat all the time, but the cottage cheese is vet approved (at least with mine). ive been using this method for more than a year and he still has yet to let a bowl of food sit for more than 2 seconds that has any cottage cheese in it.

in books by 'the monks of new skete' (who breed/train german shepards in upstate new york) they have all kinds of stuff to add to dogs food. including tripe, gizzards, liver, and they have recepies for home cooked dog food. i havent gone that far, and think their sugguestions are mainly for show dogs and super shiny coats. reguardless they have written some of the best books ive come across reguarding dogs, training, and living with animals in general. the titles i know of are "how to be your dogs best friend" and "the art of raising a puppy" both of which i think anyone who owns a dog can benefit from.

but cottage cheese is your gold standard for sure. just a spoonful or two.

oh and whoever said 'leave it out all day' is wrong. that only serves to train them to think food will be there whenever, so they will hold off. you should put it out for an hour, topps, then put it away. dogs are creatures of habit, so if they know they will have food at specific times, then they will eat it when it is put down.

Answer 9

my dog was very stubborn food too. we also feed it table food which we're not supposed to to but...i sat down with my dog and made sure he ate it one by one, i also rolled it on the floor, played a catching game, pretended it was a treat, and to make it even better add some chicken in his food. u can give ihm canned dog food which smells really bad or you can even add soup broth. dont give him grapes tho! u can give carrots and just fool around with those kinds of things. dogs can eat a lot of thinss xcept chocolate so have fun with his food. u can try another brand too. with my dog i went thru like 8 different kinds of food...anyway good luck!

Answer 10

Put some treats in there with his food....that always works for my dog. He is probably holding out because he thinks he might get something better (likea hotdog) but eventually he will realize that he's got to eat his food. Good luck! :-D