Dog food Role Call, please!

Hi Everyone,

I'm just curious as to what all of you feed your Cavs, especially those of you who feed commercial foods (but please answer either way, of course, as I'd love to hear how many of us home-cook for our dogs.)

Daisy's breeder fed Purina Pro Plan Natural Selects Turkey and Barley dinner. I fed her that and then TRIED to switch her to numerous other more premium brands, including EVO, Wellness, Merrick, etc. No go. She literally will not even try any of them, though I dearly wish she would eat them. The ProPlan Natural Selects really does have a pretty good ingredient profile, though, so I guess I should just be happy with that since she eats it pretty well. It has no corn, and has lots of seemingly high quality meat listed as the first few ingredients. My latest attempt is Canidae Chicken and Rice. She doesn't like it either, so far at least.

She will not even try canned food, of ANY brand. It's like it grosses her out. She went on an eating strike last summer (resulting in ultrasounds, barium series, blood tests, etc), and the vet eventually kept her overnight and was amazed that she would not eat any of the 5 types of canned food he put in front of her. I eventually got her eating again by feeding her the Satin balls linked on this site several times. She really liked that, thank goodness! Picky little booger!

I sprinkle freeze-dried liver powder on her dry food, and she won't eat it without it (spoiled, I know). I also give her one chub of freeze-dried Nature's Variety Praire almost every day (lamb, venison, or beef). She eats those fairly reliably, but doesn't really seem to love them.

She also gets left over meats (if they're prepared in a healthy way) and vegetables occasionally.

So, what about you? Anybody feed Canidae? I've heard some good things about it online, and some scary things, too, unfortunately.

What scary things have you heard about Canidae? I have used it in the past and my daughter uses it exclusively.

I usually feed Merrick or Timberwolf. I have feed raw and homecooked too.

I feed Timberwolf Organics dry, and a little bit of canned Merrick. I switch Timberwolf flavors every bag. Just finishing up lamb and rice, and southwest chicken flavor is on its way.

I used to feed raw, but it became too expensive with four dogs. I used commercially prepared raw...Nature's Variety and used to order from A Place For Paws. I didn't feel I had a good handle on figuring out balanced nutrition, so I avoided preparing my own recipes because of it.

My four eat anything I put in front of them, probably because of the competition of four dogs. Maybe you should get Daisy a companion. It just may help her appetite!

I feed half Innova regular kibble (not Evo) and half home cooked. Its working very well for us. Zoey has had problems in the past with loose stool. Since switching her kibble and putting her on home cooked she hasn't had any problems.

Both of mine eat Primal frozen prepared raw. I rotate protein sources.

Sandy,

Here's the link: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/canidae.html

I know nothing about the site or its credibility. I just found it when I was googling Canidae. I didn't do anything like an exhaustive search, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't one of the dog foods recalled last March. Hopefully it was just an aberration, or the poster has an axe to grind or something.

I picked up a sample of Canidae chicken and rice yesterday from a kennel in town here owned by a show breeder of beagles. The guy there said that it is the only kind of food they sell, and the owner swears by it. I'm just always on the search for variety for Daisy (although she apparently does not value variety in the least), and for the most healthy food possible. I've heard lots of good reviews of Canidae, so I wanted to give it a try. She did nibble at it a tiny bit after it was in her bowl all day and she figured out that she probably wasn't going to be given anything else.

Daisy is a picky girl, that's for sure. I think the suggestion upthread to get another dog would probably cure her of her pickiness, but no matter how many times I bring it up, my husband is not going for it.

My guys diet is home prepared and based upon a BARF (bones and raw foods) model. They get a wide variety of meats plus dairy, fruit & veg, grains, eggs etc and of course raw meaty bones & big recreational bones.

Daisy is a picky girl, that's for sure.

Click to expand...

Honestly, this is the easiest thing in the world to rectify, if you only have faith. No healthy dog will starve to death by refusing to eat. You put the food down; you leave him alone & you take away any uneaten food 15 minutes later. End of story. When we first adopted Sonny, he refused to eat for 4 straight days. On the 5th day he gobbled his dinner down and has not looked back. Occasionally, but rarely he will turn his nose up at his dinner. When he does this, I invite my Boxer in to polish off, and Sonny gets offered nothing else to eat until the next scheduled meal.

Mine eat Royal Canin mini adult 27. I add a tablespoon of Merricks turkey dinner and mash it up well into the dry royal canin....and they gobble it up.

Sally was always a picky eater and we also tried many different foods but she'll now eat James Wellbeloved mixed with Nature Diet and she loves it. She's also great on it too with no loose stools or itching. Don't know whether you can get this in the US though. Hope you have some success soon.

Maija and Hermie used to be a nightmare to feed, now they eat Orijen with some Naturediet mixed in, once a day - they are 8.5 months. They're not crazy about it but they will eat it (occasionally they have an off day). I'm sure that Orijen is available over there (it's Canadian) but Naturediet may not be.
Good luck!

Royal Canin mini junior--she really likes it. We use part of her daily portion for training treats as well and the funny thing is that even if she's having a "won't go near my food dish" day she'll still be all over it for training.

Holly has Burns (chicken and rice) with occasional home cooked meals (chicken and veg) and occasional scrambled egg for breakfast

She turned her nose up at everything else!!

x

Barkley's breeder has me feeding him a mixture of Merrick Puppy Plate, Eukaneuba Small Breed Puppy, and a homemade secret recipe that has a turkey and rice base. He's a bit of a finicky eater but that concoction gets him eating. The breeder wants me to slowly wean him onto Merrick alone, with some raw later on.

i feed my cavaliers Nature Diet and put a little bit of pedigree mixture with it!!

Mine get a mixture, although, they only get this because they won't touch any pre-packed dry food and I won't feed out of a tin..

They occasionally get large raw marrow bones from the butchers, but only get to munch them for an hour or so in case of splinters.

Natures menu frozen nuggets with veg, Cooked skinless chicken breasts, tinned pilchards in tomato/oil sauce, raw green tripe (this makes up their staple diet), Prize choice frozen menus, the odd raw chicken wing or two (supervised), minced meat (frozen first then thawed), and I freeze up ice cubes of bio-pot yogurt which they get every few days.

hah! they probably eat better than I do.

I feed Kingston Canidae Chicken & Rice, and I love it! He had terrible stomach problems and the Canidae totally cured him. He's been eating it for almost a year now, and he seems to like it just fine. Of course, he'd choose a dog treat or an apple slice over his kibble any day, but I think most dogs are like that.

Maybe you could get several different samples of dog food, set them out in bowls, and see which one Daisy likes.

What do u think of Orijen?

Hi all,

I have been away for a while. I was told about Orijen last week and have been reading some very good things about their ingridients (NO GRAINS). Is anyone feeding their baby with Orijen?

I was actually impressed from what I read.

I have been feeding Royal canin mini junior to my babys and they like it and generally I have been happy with it too.


Yaron

Miles eats a home prepared raw diet consisting of raw vegetables, cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, flaked barley, and a variety of raw meaty bones such as chicken wings/necks, turkey necks, lamb riblets and beef necks, with a small percentage of organ meat, plus his supplements.

When I run out of my home made raw veggie mix (or when we travel) I usually substitute with the Primal raw frozen patties - he LOVES these! If he has to have kibble I feed him either Timberwolf, Primal (I think they make a kibble...) or Nature's Variety. He's so used to not having regular kibble that the few times I've fed it to him he's not sure what to do with it right away!

Mia gets NV raw medallions and frozen green beans and a little green tripe. I rotate protein sources, too. I also put some SG fish kibble (Barking at the Moon) in occasionally and she seems to like it. It took a while to find something she liked when she was little. She doesn't seem to be as finicky now that she's older.

Caraline said:

Occasionally, but rarely he will turn his nose up at his dinner. When he does this, I invite my Boxer in to polish off, and Sonny gets offered nothing else to eat until the next scheduled meal.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean Caraline, if Mia hesitates or is a little slow about digging in--Wrigley polishes it off, too. Otherwise he just stands over her trying to sniff her food while she's eating. This seems to be great motivation for her.

shippers said:

Sally was always a picky eater and we also tried many different foods but she'll now eat James Wellbeloved mixed with Nature Diet and she loves it. She's also great on it too with no loose stools or itching. Don't know whether you can get this in the US though. Hope you have some success soon.

Click to expand...

My Harvey who is coming up for 6 months is also on exactly the same two foods and we never have a problem with his toilet (only when he's eaten something he shouldn't though).