Eating homecooked food while on med, how to switch back?

Hi,

This post is a spin off of one I posted on the General Discussions board. It is in reference to my dog Meenah's recovery after being hit by a car the week before Christmas.

She has been on Cephalexin, an antibiotic, which she has to take three times a day with food. Ironically, the medication is suppressing her appetite and the vet had warned me it might. She was already a very picky eater when it came to dog food. On this med, she won't even look at her bowl if there is dog food in it. The vet told me to feed her rice, chicken, hamburger, whatever she will eat while on the med. So she has been getting three homecooked meals a day.

Once she is off of the Cephalexin, I would like to switch her back to eating dog food. But I'm afraid she is beyond spoiled at this point! How should I go about doing this? Does anyone have a similar experience with this situation?

By the way, I do occassionally try putting out kibble mixed with canned food and mixing a little kibble into her homecooked meal, but she will not eat it.

Thanks!

She is just eating real food -- that isn't spoiling a dog, it is just a different choice of what to feed.. Many of us normally feed a homecooked diet and it is no more 'spoiled' than buying a kibble... it just takes a small amount of additional effort.

If you want to transition her back to kibble, then reintroduce slowly. But if she actually is enjoying eating this diet, which she certainly seems to be as it has halted her reluctance to eat generally, why not continue to mix some homecooked into her kibble meals? I do this all the time. A diet of endless kibble is the equivalent of you being placed on Wheaties 3 meals a day -- so you get your vitamins and minerals but it is pretty dull and grim day in and day out. Some variety for an adult dog is healthier too than just the same thing in and out all the time.

There are all sorts of homecooked recipes in the Library section or simply mix in something nice like some egg, cooked meat, meat and rice, cooked veg etc.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that eating homecooking is bad. I just meant that to a dog eating one kind of diet, eating something else makes it difficult for them to accept their usual food.

I understand that eating high quality dog food (we're doing California Natural and Merrick's) is a good way to feed dogs, from what I've read. It works for me and my lifestyle as I am working full time and have three very active kids in addition to my beloved Meenah dog and frankly I have trouble feeding my human kids homecooked meals sometimes!! With that said, even when she was eating dog food before this whole injury, I would supplement with a little fresh and frozen vegies, chicken, beef, eggs pretty much daily, but it wasn't her main food source. So I totally appreciate your suggestion that eating homecooked foods is a wonderful thing for dogs. I can see how eating the same kibble every day is entirely dull, too! I alternate the canned food I mix in and I am buying Merrick's kibble which comes in a variety of flavors.

I will take your advice about mixing the kibble into her cooked food. In fact, my husband gave her half chicken & rice, half kibble this morning and she ate most of it! I checked out the recipes on this site as well and I am sure I can swing some of them pretty easily, like the soup. Perhaps over the weekend I'll make up a batch of it and freeze them in small containers to mix in with her kibble. I just feel like if I give her high quality kibble and canned foods, she'll get the proper nutrition.

Thanks!!