# How to make dry food appealing?



## precious_tan

To all the smart Hav owners, I need some advice, suggestions, ideas, ...

I decided to stop feeding Precious Instinct Raw when she was six months old and she will be seven months soon. Now Precious is not too interested in her kibbles, she wasn't a big fan of kibbles anyway. 

When I switched to new brand kibbles, Precious will eat, but only for a couple meals. Then she loose interest in the kibbles again. I am 3 brands food on hand to rotate now. I think this is all my fault, when she wasn't eating, I am afraid she will starve and I added in some interesting food for her. Then Precious will eat up all her food.

So, should I be more strict? No treats no whatsoever adding to kibbles, just given food two times a day, AM and PM same time out for an hour. If Precious refuses to eat, she will have to wait till next meal. May be she will learn in a few days and start eating up her food?

If the above strategy does not work, please give me advice, suggestions, ideas, ...

Thank you so much.


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## Lizzie'sMom

why did you switch from instinct raw? I am sure that the kibble is truly unappealing to her now. If the cost was prohibitive to keep her on the raw and you are going to keep her on kibble I would add canned food to it or some chicken, scrambled egg etc. Kibble is the least healthy option to feed your pet.


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## TilliesMom

why did you switch!? I agree with Lizzie's mom!!
It would be like us eating PRIME RIB with cheesecake for dinner every night for 6 months, then someone saying opps sorry, you can't have THAT anymore, but here, here's some dried salty fritos, for every.single.meal.forever.
If you really can't go back to the raw, or even canned, I would definitly add something to the kibble to make it more appetizing!


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## narci

TilliesMom said:


> why did you switch!? I agree with Lizzie's mom!!
> It would be like us eating PRIME RIB with cheesecake for dinner every night for 6 months, then someone saying opps sorry, you can't have THAT anymore, but here, here's some dried salty fritos, for every.single.meal.forever.
> If you really can't go back to the raw, or even canned, I would definitly add something to the kibble to make it more appetizing!


Ummmm Fritos :hungry:


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## TilliesMom

LOL, ya I love fritos too, BUT imagine eating them for every meal. forever. after the 2nd or third meal I'd be dying for some chili with those fritos!!


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## precious_tan

The reason I am eliminate raw from Precious diet is energy related. When Precious is too energetic, she tends to nip. Precious likes to jump and nip my 5 year old daughter. My daughter's shirts and pants all have holes. I know Precious just want to ask my daughter to play with her, but Precious used the wrong way to ask. We are training her consistently, but the improvement is progressing very slowly. After I stopped the raw, Precious does seems a little bit calmer, she still will nip here and there, but at least she was not jumping up and nip. 

I read a lot about the good thing about raw, I am also hesitate to eliminate from her diet. But with the nippy issue, I would like to give it a try. I will try to add in more interesting food to the kibbles to make kibbles appealing for Precious. 

Thank you all.


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## Lizzie'sMom

I hope someone with more knowledge will chime in, but I certainly would not switch from a food he loves and thrives on to one he obviously does not like. I cannot believe that his behavior is anything more than being a puppy. Lizzie was a HORRIBLE nipper and will still nip at my college age daughter when she comes home for attention. We spent a lot of time "ignoring" her when she would nip to get the point across that the behavior was not acceptable. I would look into training. Hopefully Dave will see this tonight.


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## Luciledodd

Dogs don't have near as many taste buds as humans. And the dog will start eating the kibble after 2-3 days. Mine lasted a couple of days. They will not starve themselves. Personally the nipping is just puppy behavior in my mind and you have to correct that another way other than changing the food. But again if you want the dog to eat kibble, then it will eat kibble when hungry. I feed my dog kibble along with raw meat or cooked meat depending on what I am having for the evening meal. But if she doesn't eat her kibble, I withhold the meat that day. She always goes to her kibble bowl after she figures out that she is not getting anything from me and finishes her kibble. That is usually about bed time. They are smart little critters.


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## Becky Chittenden

We feed dry dog food and the dogs that are more picky get a spoonful of canned mixed in and a bit of water (kind of makes a gravy). Unless she is a "die hard", she'll eat when hungry. About the nipping (grabbing), I've learned that the dogs that do this (younger like your dog) need a verbal correction and praise when they don't grab. Also, make sure your child doesn't run or clomp near the puppy until the problem is over.


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## DeeDee

Here's a tip I picked up elsewhere on the forum when I brought my puppy home and it worked for me --- grate a little bit of a Natural Balance dog food roll onto the dry food, mix and serve. Fortunately Kiki's not as picky now as she was then ...


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## davetgabby

You have to decide what food you want to feed and stick to it. If you want to feed raw or home cooked be sure you know what you're doing to get it balanced and thorough. Here' a link to biting article. http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3249


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## precious_tan

Thank you all for your advice. The nipping part we are very consistently correcting her, and we can still tolerate it when she just nip lightly while the kids are playing with her. The kids don't mind her laying down, rolling on belly type of light nip. It was the jumping up nip that we don't like. For Precious, jumping and nipping is a way of inviting to play, that includes pulling on shirt and pants. Sometimes while she is jumping while nipping, scratches from her teeth on the kids' skin. I am not sure it was me or it did happen, Precious is less jumpy and nippy, she will still jumps, but less nippy. So, up till now, I am quite happy with her behavior improvement. I want to keep her away from raw to see if this helps in our situation, energy wise. I understand just plain kibbles is less appealing to Precious, thus I add in some cook meat, veggies, fruits, yogurt, etc to "stir fry" her kibbles. Precious is actually quite enjoying the variety she gets, she used to just get raw and kibbles. Now she gets kibbles and variety, and the variety depends on what I have in hands. She is always by my side when I am preparing dinner, I love to see her anxious face waiting for the mix in variety.


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## Anne Streeter

Luci has spells when she ignores her kibble. The problem is always solved when I drizzle 1 or 2 teaspoons of the "juice" from water packed canned tuna over it. She has not turned that down ever! The only drawback is that she smells a little fishy until I wash her whiskers.


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## TilliesMom

Anne Streeter said:


> Luci has spells when she ignores her kibble. The problem is always solved when I drizzle 1 or 2 teaspoons of the "juice" from water packed canned tuna over it. She has not turned that down ever! The only drawback is that she smells a little fishy until I wash her whiskers.


LOL, ya, Tillie gets fish OIL everyday... she always smells a little fishy...


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## Missy

I agree that you need to choose a food and stick with it. I do not think the food has anything to do with her nipping and jumping however. In fact,kibble notoriously has more carbs and would give her more bursts of energy. Also, if you do decide to stick. With kibble,be careful on in-between meal treats.... A little dog can survive on treats Which taste good, and refuse to eat the kibble. 

Regardless of the food I would teach precious a word and behavior for play. For instance getting her to sit or lie down before she gets to play. Use play as a reward for calm behavior.


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## lfung5

My guys have been eating the raw since puppies. I never noticed that it made them hyper. In fact, my guys are quite the opposite. They are the laziest bums you will ever meet. I contribute that to their long walks. I don't think it's the food. High protein is good for a puppy who have a lot of energy. I don't think it makes them more energetic though. If you want to stop the biting and jumping, you might try training and longer walks. My guys have always gotten 30-60 min off leash walks since they were pups. Because of this they were never destructive. They were too tired to get into trouble


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## wynne

i sprinkle some shredded cheese on it and it really helps Maya.


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## Lsprick

In the morning I drop a tablespoon of non-fat plain yogurt on top of their kibble.


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## precious_tan

I noticed after I stopped the raw, Precious is more interested in her kibbles, because of the add in. Precious used to get half of the small chunk of raw each meal with kibbles. Sometimes when she just ate the raw and no kibble or very little kibble. Sometimes she would wait till she was more hungry before she ate up her raw. After I stopped the raw, to make food more appealing I add in different things in her meal. I thought the kibbles is more nutritious because I purchased those that have vitamin add in. But after reading adding home cook ingredient is a great alternative, so I started to go into food that I can add in her kibbles. Now Precious licks up everything in no time, not one kibble left. Sometimes we have to be in somewhere and feeding time swift earlier she licked up every single kibbles as well. Precious enjoys her meal more than ever. This is something I did not expect from stopping the raw. 

Whenever weather is nice, Precious get to get out to walk or run. But sometimes when the weather is too cold or too wet, she plays ball or fetch at home, sometimes some home made agility training for her or chase. The problem of jumpy and nippy usually happens early morning when I am busy getting breakfast for the kids. After a good night sleep, Precious is up to some playing but we all are busy. Precious is more jumpy and nippy with my 5 year old, Precious thinks my daughter is her litter mate. Precious behaves when she is around me or when I am at her sight. When she is left alone with my daughter, that is the most problem time. Precious misbehaves may be 20% of alone time with my daughter, other than that the two loves each other. My trainer told me it is very hard to train when I am not around, whenever I heard my daughter screamed I came right out. When I came around, Precious already sat down or laid down looking at me, sometimes my daughter showed me the scratch. I am at the end of my wit, so I am willing to give anything a try to see if Precious would play more gently with my daughter. 

We love Precious very much, especially my daughter, she gets upset even Precious went to groomer. We are constantly finding a balance way so that everybody is happy under the same roof.


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## anaacosta

My Leyla's 8 months old now. How do I know when it's time to start weaning her off puppy food?


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## The Laughing Magpie

Sometimes what works for one dog will not work for another, my Lhasa never listened to our verbal corrections until we started using separation as a form of correction, everytime he would do the unwanted behavior we would say "no jumping" and remove him from the room, we would not lock him away, just stop his play and put him somewhere else. 

I feed both dry and canned, I give thim a good quality kibble (we are using Orijin, life stages fish) and a good quality canned about 1 table spoon mixed in really well, this way they have a bit of variety.


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## HavaneseSoon

I can't remember if I have already posted. We use dry kibble and I cook up a pot of chicken and vegetables, brown rice and freeze by a small spoonful. I mix this spoonful with a little water and this is shared between the boy's dry kibble. I think I have a good month and half prepared.


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## anaacosta

What a great idea, Linda! That sounds so doable. Thanks so much for the advise!


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## davetgabby

Lsprick said:


> In the morning I drop a tablespoon of non-fat plain yogurt on top of their kibble.


yeah Leslie, watch out for anything low fat. If it contains Xylitol , it is toxic to dogs. They don't need sweetened yogurt BTW.


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## krandall

davetgabby said:


> yeah Leslie, watch out for anything low fat. If it contains Xylitol , it is toxic to dogs. They don't need sweetened yogurt BTW.


I stay away from all non-sugar sweeteners with Kodi, just because I worry about the others too, but I don't think Xylitol is typically used to sweeten yogurt... I think that's usually a gum and candy thing. All the yogurt containers I've read (and rejected<g>) have been sweetened with either aspartame or Splenda. I know that KODI doesn't need sweetened yogurt, but I don't buy yogurt primarily for him. I DO want to know that it's safe to let him lick my dish when I'm done!:biggrin1:


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## davetgabby

Right, Karen, dogs don't need sugar at all. But Xylitol is becoming more and more used by companies all the time.


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## HavaneseSoon

*Chicken Soup*



anaacosta said:


> What a great idea, Linda! That sounds so doable. Thanks so much for the advise!


Don't forget....NO ONIONS!!!!.....I do not salt/pepper. Last batch I just made consisted of whole chicken (Baked) deboned and cut into bite size pieces, baked sweet potato, hand full green beans (chopped fine), yellow squash, zucchini, 3 or 4 carrots, 1 cup brown rice (cooked). I shread the squash, carrots to cook easily.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add, rice, sweet potato, chicken. Then cool, put in refrigerator to let that rice soak up, you should not have too much liquid, so go easy on the water while cooking.

On a covered large cooking sheet (covered with plastic wrap), I take a small spoon and drop mixture onto the cookie sheet. Place in freezer, let harden, then freeze in freezer bags. I use those special freezer bags you can remove the air from (it makes the food last longer).

Oh! I remove one frozen spoonful portion, place in feeding dish, defrost in microwave a few seconds, add a little water, divide between two dishes (2 Havs), add the dry kibble and mix. Make sure it is not hot when served.

Happy Cooking!


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## ClaireVoyant

Linda, thanks ever so much for posting this recipe. I'm going to cook some up today. Is there a particular reason you use a sweet potatoe rather than a russet? Isabella has some staining on her beard I'm trying to get rid of and fear the carrots and sweet potatoes could aggravate it, but if that's not been your experience, I'm in 

. . .my son's nose turned orange when his favorite food was carrots as a baby LOL


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## TilliesMom

I think most staining is NOT caused by direct contact with food, but it rather a yeast infection of sorts on thier hair in moist areas. You could try adding a probiotic to her food. Or if you have tried everything and can not get rid of it, Angel Eyes or Tylan powder can be used as a last resort to treat the staining. I had to do that when TIllie was about 8 months old because her staining was SO bad. 
As for the potato question... sweet potatoes are INFINITLY better for us and our dogs over regular white potatoes. The sweet potato is FULL of good vitamins and fibers... in fact I think the actual starch is completely different because my hav is actually allergic to potatoes, BUT has sweet potatoes (pureed in measured amounts) as part of her regular diet, everyday. 
hope that helps!


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## ClaireVoyant

It does help tremendously, Tammy . . .thank you . Off to research Tylan powder.


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## TilliesMom

good to hear! 
some people do NOT 'like' the Tylan powder as it IS a mild antibiotic, but in extreme cases I don't know if anything else actually works!


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## lfung5

HavaneseSoon said:


> I can't remember if I have already posted. We use dry kibble and I cook up a pot of chicken and vegetables, brown rice and freeze by a small spoonful. I mix this spoonful with a little water and this is shared between the boy's dry kibble. I think I have a good month and half prepared.


Brady's mom also shared a similar recipe. I make it in a slow cooker. I don't add the rice, but add Dr Harvey's veg to bowl to the slow cooker at the last 10 minutes. The dog's love it added to their meals.


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## havdogwilltravel

My darling little girl has 3 cat brothers so... a little dollop of canned cat food absolutely makes the kibble a treat.


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## ClaireVoyant

I made a batch of this for Isabella . . .using small ice cube trays to freeze then place in freezer grade Ziplocks. Isabella LOVES it! It's helping her transition to Orijen which she's not wild about.


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## AKathy

I refuse to play that game. Stella gets dry food and if she doesn't feel like eating it, I don't worry about it. She'll eat when she gets hungry enough. I used the same strategy with my kids when they were growing up and neither of my DDs or any of my dogs ever starved themselves.


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## HavaneseSoon

Awwwwwww Kathy..... Let us cook for our Havs.


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## HavaneseSoon

ClaireVoyant said:


> I made a batch of this for Isabella . . .using small ice cube trays to freeze then place in freezer grade Ziplocks. Isabella LOVES it! It's helping her transition to Orijen which she's not wild about.


So glad Isabella likes her new addition to her food. Watch her stools, if they start getting loose, lighten up the amount of chicken/vegetable you give her.


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## ClaireVoyant

I've no doubt our precious dogs will eat when they're hungry . . .but there's nothing wrong with improving the taste of their yucky kibble with something they might find more appealing. I cooked for my kids too, but loved them enough to ensure what they were eating was not only nutritious, but tasty as well. And, after all, this IS the Alternative and HOME COOKED forum 

Linda, I actually did lighten up, slightly on the greens and increased by the same amount, the rice, just to keep that from happening. So far, so good . . .knock on wood LOL


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## HavaneseSoon

Jack is having tummy problems, (loose stools), so I have lighten up the amount of food and chicken/vegetable mixture today. In fact, I gave Jack a half serving of kibble today, but he did not want to eat, so I let Dexter have the 1/2 serving. 

Sometimes, it is good to let the tummy rest from food for a day, they will eat when they are hungry. He will be hungry tonight and I will give him a little serving of food tonight. No vomiting, thank goodness.


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## Prissy

*how to make dry food appealing?*

Prissy get dry food 
which we mix with pedigree, chicken, beef or lamb.
That was the base of her daily diet, 
with time we slowly improved her meal.

Since *we* eat brown bazmati rice at least once a week 
as well as organic wheat spaghetti and sweet potatoes, 
we make enough and keep in the fridge to add to her diet, 
alternating rice/spaghetti, and a slice of sweet potato.
We found out that she loves the spaghetti, 
& she is crazy for rice and sweet potato.

I mash the sweet potato & mix them well with the dry food, and the rice
warm it 15 to 20 seconds in the micro wave 
and add a coffee spoon of olive oil.

She watch me prepare her food 
and patiently wait for everything to be ready,
she then sit and starts eating as soon as i tell her to. 
She takes her time eats with great satisfaction, 
which encourages me to prepare tasty meals for her.

I take pleasure preparing food for us, and it takes very little 
to make her food a pleasure for her.

michael


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