Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:15 am Post subject: Help with feeding Please.
We have had Sam now for just over a month and he is 18months old i'm still having feeding problems.
When he went to the vets for his jabs she said she would like him to put on a bit of weight as his ribs do show slightly his weight is 26.55 kg.
The vet has advised us to feed him chicken with his food.
All sounds good so far but Sam has been allowed to get in poor eating habits by his previous owner he was what i would term as allowed to graze all day his bowl of food was just constantly available and topped up throughout the day. He is on Dry food(Wagg).
Trying to get him to eat a full meal is a nightmare I think I've tried everything so the vets suggestion for adding meat to get him to eat more sounded good.
Sam Won't eat the chicken raw mixed in ,he wont eat the chicken cooked mixed in he will on some occassions eat half of it so now i'm at a loss.
Sorry to go on but i'm welcome to any suggestions that may help Sam finish a meal.
How many times a day are you feeding him ? Have you tried soaking his dry food so it has a gravy with it ? Have you tried changing his food to another brand ?
I know when I had my springers, I had the problem of what ever I fed them they always looked and were skinny had real trouble putting any weight on them, it was then suggested I fed them a proper 'working dog' dried food, and this done the job..
I personally wouldnt give my dogs raw chicken but that's me!
I have problems with my 8 year old fussy dog.
Will he eat the chicken like treats if so what a training aid!
I dont know much about dog food other than the ones I've used Nutro and Chappie. More recently Nature diet, Burns and Autarky with hardly any success. Nature diet seems to be the better for him.
Often I have to resort to Tuna/Chicken with Pasta/rice just to get the little devil to eat something.
You said he sometimes gets through half a meal do you feed hime once a day?- is it worth trying two meals aday two halves.....
Hope you get it sorted as its such a worry- but just like the otherway round its important not to get too 'upset' by it - easily said I know!
Depending on the protein content of the food if his appetite picks up then you could increase the feed amounts and as you'ver only had him for a month time might just be all he needs and you can concentrate on getting his weight up when he settles more- hopefully we wont be seeing you ask for help to get him trimmed down in a year or two!!
I've done the soaking tried with water and gravy and he will not even touch it then.
I was feeding him once a day and have now changed this to twice again on the advice of the vet.
Now you mention food for working dogs, I had 2 labs when i was a child and we fed them firstly on vitalin when pups and then onto valu mix which are both for working dogs. i was only looking at both of these brands in pets at home yesterday and explaining to my O.H how i used to use this. It's such a shame though that it can only be bought in in 15kg sacks as i don't really want to be wasting it if he still will not eat it.
I may have to scout around to see if i can get in any smaller quantity and give it a try.
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