[womanbsweet]

I started my Pomeranian on pedigree dog food from a until she was about 4 months old. But, she liked to pick out the lighter pieces and leave the rest. She prefers wet dog food but it makes her stools loose. Then I started combining the pedigree with bil-jac sensitive solutions until I switched her completely over. I felt the pedigree had too many fillers in it. Unfortunately, the weather here has been much to cold to take her out to exercise and I feel that she has gained too much weight. So I’m looking for another dry food that is as good as bil-jac (she doesn’t tend to like the round hard food even if I wet it for her). I tried Eukanka and she won’t eat it at all. Does anyone know of any good dry dog food that’s shaped like bil-jac or sort of moist like purina moist and meaty burger type.

[mountainhound]

Please dont feed any purina products, particularly moist and meaty. The reason is that they use certain chemicals and sugar in order to create moist appearance without using any actual meat. I suggest going to small holistic pet stores and asking for samples. We’ve had great success with small picky dogs and fromm grain free, primarily due to its small size and dogs tend to prefer grain free since its more meat based. Another trick that seemed to work that customers tell me is using stella and chewys patties and crumbling some of it on top of the kibble, or you can mix in a small amount of meat based canned food.

[Shasta220]

I will have to agree with mountainhound. They put lots of chemicals and sugars into kibble that is “chewy.”

I’ve never owned a tiny breed, so I’m not sure how common it is for them to be picky about the food like that. It’s possible that she’s gotten picky from overeating. How much do you feed her daily? If she’s gaining weight, then it’s probably too much. Also, if she refuses /anything/ crunchy (treats, bones, chews, etc.), then she might have a bad tooth, so maybe trying to have a look in her mouth and/or have the vet to an oral exam, just to make sure everything in her mouth is fine.

You’d probably benefit from getting samples from local feed stores, that way you won’t be stuck with a bag’s worth of food if she doesn’t like it. Also, try to leave the new food as an option for a while, not just set it down for a few minutes then pick it back up.

So just make sure you’re feeding her a proper amount so that she goes back to a healthy weight – don’t bother to buy the “light” foods either, they’re just fillers…and don’t feed her what the bag recommends, it ALWAYS suggest way too much (my dogs always get no more than 1/3-1/2 of what the bag says, and they’re a perfect weight). Check out a few different samples from your feed store, and try to find the brand on this site to make sure it’s a 4-5 star food.

If you’re still struggling with getting her to eat, then you could possibly mix some canned food with the dry, or add a little bit of water/chicken broth to the dry to make it moist.

[InkedMarie]

You said she won’t eat hard food; that’s not a bad thing. A high quality canned is better than dry. She’s a small dog, shouldn’t cost a lot to feed her. Pick some high rated canned to try. I have a dog on all canned & she doesn’t have loose stool. You should add a little canned to her dry, over a week or so, gradually go less & less dry to canned. There is also dehydrated such as a The Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy’s.

[Shasta220]

Ah yes, just noticed that you tried canned and it made her stool loose. InkedMarie is right, you don’t /have/ to feed her dry. What brand of canned did you feed her? If it’s a high-quality brand, then it shouldn’t give her runny stools except for possibly the initial transition (that’s how my guy is. No matter how slow the food transition is, he gets mushy stools for about a week).

I can’t emphasize enough how important dental care is when they eat only soft food. Not that I’m saying kibble keeps teeth clean, but soft food does nothing to clear any food buildup on the teeth. Having gross teeth pulled is no fun, trust me.

[slvet2]

Poms and most toy dogs are very selective about their foods. Most are fed tasty high priced canned dog foods, but more people are making home made foods-try recipes in How To Cook For Your Pet, c. 2009

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