# Sully doesn't want to eat his food



## jamesp (Jan 29, 2009)

I'm the proud owner of a rambuntious little guy names james p sullivan castro moser, or Sully for short. He's seven and a half months old, full of joy and giving my wife and I a run for our money.

For the past couple of months we have been preparing food for Sully in the crockpot in lieu of all the warnings regarding commercial dog food. A typical meal consists of any combination of beef/steak, liver, deboned chicken, chicken gizzards or pig's heart mixed with carrots, celery, peas and corn. We usually add some brewer's yeast to control fleas, and a supplement powder our vet gave us.

Sully eats the homemade food faster than we can make it and let's face it, somtimes we don't want to cook for him at the end of a busy day. The problem is that, when the crockpot runs dry, he simply refuses to eat any sort of commercial food, except for cat food, of course.

Any suggestions on how to get this litlle furball's appetite back on track would be greatly appreciated.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Is it your intention to get him back on a commercial food or do you intend to prepare his food for his lifetime?


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Maybe you could meet him falf way for a transition period, and mix in a little canned food of the same type/brand as the kibble? Or Mix in a little chicken babyfood(no onions kind). . .


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## Popebendgoldens (May 16, 2008)

jamesp said:


> I'm the proud owner of a rambuntious little guy names james p sullivan castro moser, or Sully for short. He's seven and a half months old, full of joy and giving my wife and I a run for our money.
> 
> For the past couple of months we have been preparing food for Sully in the crockpot in lieu of all the warnings regarding commercial dog food. A typical meal consists of any combination of beef/steak, liver, deboned chicken, chicken gizzards or pig's heart mixed with carrots, celery, peas and corn. We usually add some brewer's yeast to control fleas, and a supplement powder our vet gave us.
> 
> ...


Sully is smart and is letting you know that he doesn't like the commercial kibble for dogs.

Why are you cooking the meat? I would also cut down on the veggies. 

Brewers yeast is fine. What type of supplement are you giving? I would also recommend giving a fish oil capsule for Omega 3's. 

Pat


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## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

Some people do prepare homemade food daily, but I can't imagine doing that for a lifetime. What do you do when you go out of town for a few days and can't take your dog with you?

I have mine on Natural Balance dry dog food, but I also mix a couple of small spoons of canned with it just to make it more interesting for her. I would think yours would take to can food with no problem and then you can slowly mix the dry with it over a period of time. Some people simply feed their dogs canned food period.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

I feed raw - way less work for the most part than what you're doing. Instead of deboning and mixing meats and veggies then cooking, it's just take out something to thaw, add supplements and serve. The dogs do well on it and I have done this for about 15 years now.

A good book to get is by Ian Billinghurst - 'The Barf Diet'. It's to the point, has good information and takes a day to read at the most, so for getting started it's great. 

As for getting him to eat, put the food down, wait 15 minutes, put any uneaten food away till next mealtime. He might skip a meal or two but then he'll learn to eat what he's given. If you keep trying different foods, offering bribe items like grated cheese or gravy, he'll learn to wait for them. They're pretty smart that way.

My two year old at the moment has started barking in her kennel when she's fed, glaring at me the whole time when I check to see what she's doing. Just about the time I'd be taking her uneaten meal away she grabs it and eats it. :doh: Like she knows...

I may have to give her one minute then feed it to the others if she keeps up that game.

Lana


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## Ash (Sep 11, 2007)

Put the food down for 10 minutes if he does not eat pick it up and try at the next meal. I had a dog like that and with almost every case the owner creates the monster. Feed a good quality kibble, ensure its not expired and a little tough love.


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## capa (Jan 7, 2009)

Of course he is going to hate commercial food, for him it's probably like for people hating cafeteria or hospital food. Our dog's vet once told us that when cats refuse to eat they could die, they are stubborn like that. You don't have that problem with dogs. Yours is just telling you he prefers what you cook, there is no other issue involved.
We started cooking for our dog weekends, during the week he eats commercial dry food.


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## jamesp (Jan 29, 2009)

Thanks for all the feedback. As this thread was started very early in the morning I forgot to mention that we do add barley and rice to his diet for carbs.

Wrt a raw diet, it is something I have been introducing over the last few weeks and is met with great results. The supplement our vet gave us was in an unmarked bag (she gave it to us as a comp) and we were simply told to add a teaspoon to his meals.

Introducing kibble into his food worked at first, but he learned pretty quickly that kibble is easy to pick out of a bowl and bat about on the tile floor. Removing the bowl after ten minutes of puppy stubbornness once resulted in him not eating for three days -- that we know of.

We don't mind cooking for the little bugger most of the time. Between the large crock pot, the deep freezer and my wife's portioning and bagging skills, things usually run like clockwork. I guess I'm hoping there is some magic dry formula out there that would hold his attention. Just to offset the nights we need off lol.

I apologize if my posts are lengthy, but I tend to get quite verbose when talking about my puppy. I'm sure you all know what I mean.


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## jamesp (Jan 29, 2009)

> A good book to get is by Ian Billinghurst - 'The Barf Diet'.


Yep. He eats that too.


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## Goldilocks (Jun 3, 2007)

I do a variety of home cooking plus raw for my Golden and I know exactly what you are talking about. For those busy days I use "The Honest Kitchen" dehydrated raw food. Check out www.thehonestkitchen.com for more info. Basically it's dehydrated human grade food to which you add warm water and allow it to sit for 10 mins before feeding. All the vitamins and minerals are in the product and it is complete and balanced. I have used almost all the varieties and some smell so good I would consider tasting them. They have two products "Thrive" and "Embark" which are suitable to feed to growing puppies. We have used both and I highly recommend the product. "Fit-Dogs" in Toronto are a large distributor of the product and have the best prices (www.fit-dogs.com). The price list is on the website.


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## Popebendgoldens (May 16, 2008)

msdogs1976 said:


> What do you do when you go out of town for a few days and can't take your dog with you?


I have been feeding raw for 10 years and usually go on vacation at least once per year. When I do, I have the food prepackaged for my pet sitter to thaw out and feed. It's easy and there is very little clean up after wards.

Pat


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