Dog wont eat dry food well

[MuleyFever]

Does anyone have suggestions on a dry food that your dog just loves to eat? I am having issues getting my dog to eat coming off an illness. He will eat what he wants to eat but that list is very, very small at the moment and his preferences are not sustainable long term and don't include your normal dry food. He still begs for treats.

To be clear I am looking for sought after dry kibble suggestions. Please don't suggest wet foods or mixes, we have gone down many roads already and I am just looking for dry kibble suggestions. I currently have 3 different kinds of food out and he will nibble at one but its not going great. I don't want to keep buying food he wont eat. Wondering if some of you have had a similar experience and found a food your dog just loves and easily prefers over other foods. The foods I have now are Victor Professional, Loyal Life (both of which he has had in the past) and Instinct (which he picks at).

 

[Jason Snyder]

I had trouble with my older dog eating purina pro plan sport. I’ve since switched to Inukshuk and they eat that very well. I had very good luck with Victor Hi Pro also.

Is this a hunting dog? Mine are very high performance and I feed them like athletes.

 

[Mountain_Life]

I'd suggest buying the cheapest coop dog food available, put it in a dish and move on. When faced with that or nothing our dogs always chose cheap dog food.

 

[TSAMP]

I had trouble with my older dog eating purina pro plan sport. I’ve since switched to Inukshuk and they eat that very well. I had very good luck with Victor Hi Pro also.

Is this a hunting dog? Mine are very high performance and I feed them like athletes.

Same scenario for me.

 

[MuleyFever]

I had trouble with my older dog eating purina pro plan sport. I’ve since switched to Inukshuk and they eat that very well. I had very good luck with Victor Hi Pro also.

Is this a hunting dog? Mine are very high performance and I feed them like athletes.

He is a Weim but just a house dog. I had him on Pro Plan a while ago and he got sick and wouldn't touch that food after that so I switched him to Victor. That was a couple years ago.

 

[KurtR]

I feed kinetic and my dog has a sensitive stomach and worked well for him. I know a bunch of people switching to it with good results. That said my dog would eat anything put in front of him.

 

[MuleyFever]

I'd suggest buying the cheapest coop dog food available, put it in a dish and move on. When faced with that or nothing our dogs always chose cheap dog food.

Long story short my last dog got really ill at end of life. I had to force feed for a while and the only thing that dog would eat after trying everything was Purina Moist and Meaty. I figured maybe this dog would eat it and sure enough he will eat it up. That garbage is like feeding McDonalds so I am only giving him a little in the morning to keep the eating breakfast habit going.

 

[LookinforDirt]

My dog went through a phase where he would not eat his dry food. I used to fake taking something out of my pocket and act like I was putting it on his food. He got all perked up and would eat it. He caught on eventually and quit falling for it. So then I dribble a little coffee over the top of it and he wolfed it down. Eventually he got past whatever it was and started eating it normal.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

My dog went through a phase where he would not eat his dry food. I used to fake taking something out of my pocket and act like I was putting it on his food. He got all perked up and would eat it. He caught on eventually and quit falling for it. So then I dribble a little coffee over the top of it and he wolfed it down. Eventually he got past whatever it was and started eating it normal.

A black lab I once had would not eat any dry foods very well and she was a fairly skinny athletic dog that I had trouble keeping weight on to begin with. I figured out that all I had to do was crack an egg over the food, or sprinkle a little shredded cheese on top. Bacon grease also worked well. It was a bit of a hassle to always add something to "make it special" for her but without it she either wouldn't eat or wouldn't finish her food completely.

 

[MuleyFever]

Again, not looking for the "we added this to the food" ideas. I have been dealing with this for a bit and need to get him back to dry kibble.

 

[Runwilderness]

My previous dog went through something similar. Switching foods or flavors was recommended but did not work. We then had a vet recommend a probiotic (Proviable-DC) and after a week or two she started eating again and we never had another issue until she passed. It is an ‘add on’ but far cheaper than buying bags of food that go to waste.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Have you switched to those foods after the illness?

My last dog if she got sick like really sick, not just a little hack up.
I think she attributed it to the food and would never eat that flavor again, maybe the same brand, but not that flavor.

If you have reintroduced those after the illness then idk.

 

[MuleyFever]

My previous dog went through something similar. Switching foods or flavors was recommended but did not work. We then had a vet recommend a probiotic (Proviable-DC) and after a week or two she started eating again and we never had another issue until she passed. It is an ‘add on’ but far cheaper than buying bags of food that go to waste.

He is still on a probiotic from the vet but I plan to keep him on one until he gets back to normal.

 

[199p]

put some water in with it and crack an egg on top made a huge difference for my picky eater.
A little left over grease or bacon fat on top as well

 

[MuleyFever]

Have you switched to those foods after the illness?

My last dog if she got sick like really sick, not just a little hack up.
I think she attributed it to the food and would never eat that flavor again, maybe the same brand, but not that flavor.

If you have reintroduced those after the illness then idk.

That is the theory. His original food he was on when he got sick he would nibble at up until a few days ago. I tried the Victor again, which was his previous food, and he ate it for a day but then stopped, I think he threw up once after he ate it but don't remember. This Instinct food I bought just to see if a different food would work and he is eating at it better than the others. This makes me think that if I can introduce a new food he may eat but I don't want to just keep buying randomly if maybe others have found a universally easy to feed food.

 

[bdan68]

Dry kibble is garbage. Not real food. I don't blame dogs for not wanting to eat it. My dog gets lots of eggs and real meat with a tiny bit of dry dog food mixed in.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Is he losing weight? If not I wouldn't worry too much, he'll eat when he wants. If he's losing weight and won't eat you may want to get some labs drawn and see if something's off from the blood work. My almost 12 year old Lab is apparently diabetic and pretty severely so. She pretty much quit eating for several weeks so I ended up switching her to a raw food diet and she gained 7 lbs. Took her to the vet for some other things and she popped crazy high on their sugars test as well as what their equivalent to A1C is can't remember what it's called. Vet said the kibble was probably making her feel sick because of the diabetes so she didn't want to eat it. I had coincidentally already switched to the raw food recently so vet wants to do another round of labs to see if anything changes. We were also giving her tons of snacks all the time so stopped that.

 

[jenkinsd]

Kibbles steak and bacon, add a little bit of tallow (cooking oil) and mix.

 

[willtim]

Have you checked his mouth for sores, broken or loose teeth, etc?

 

[MallardSX2]

Mix its food with canned green beans.