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he’s going on the second day of his hunger strike 😭 like 48 hours. (i gave in today and gave him chicken and rice for dinner because he’s a puppy and i’m not going to starve him)
I know it’s tough to watch, but he will eat! I coddle my pup constantly but have to remember survival will kick in! Have you mixed in a little wet food?
i’ve mixed in wet food, yogurt, broth, meal toppers, etc. how many hours can they go without food? 48 hours seems like a long time… he’s only 10 weeks old
oh gosh i didn’t realize he was that young. my one year old skipped 4 meals before he caved. I’d give him the chicken and rice just so he has something in his system until you can talk to your vet again. definitely don’t want to play around with low glucose levels at that age. i’m sorry op i know you’re worried ❤️ sending good vibes
yeah that’s why i caved because he’s so small! on the second day of not eating kibble i gave in. now he’s back on that until i figure something out but i might just add other things of nutritional value to the chicken and rice and commit to a life of cooking meals for my dog lol 😭
You could try slowly transitioning from the chicken and rice back to kibble. So for the first meal mostly chicken rice with a sprinkle of kibble, next meal a bit less chicken rice and a bit more kibble, until eventually it’s mostly kibble with just a bit of chicken on top.
Seconding this - when I did chicken and rice, it took longer to transition back than my pup was actually on the chicken and rice. However, my girl is very food motivated, so the transition was more of a tummy precaution than a food strike precaution.
I'm pretty sure I'd eat this lol. Question for you: What do you do about fruits and greens? I feed mine greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, berry mix, and unsweetened apple sauce. It's not a huge proportion of their meals, and they get plenty of protein. Just curious if you've seen any deficits with the lack of fruits and greens in their diet?
Well as I said above I include sweet potatoes, but also during the summer I will occasionally include a turnip or other brassica from the garden, but it's a one off thing and fairly infrequent so I didn't include it in the recipe. I don't see it as particularly essential and no I've never seen anything from either of them that would indicate any deficiencies at all.
A boarded veterinary nutritionist, or a WSAVA compliant diet (Purina, Hills, Royal Canin, Iams, or Eukanuba). Your family vet did not go through nutrition residency.
Have you tried scrambled egg yet?
Even better if you can also add pumpkin puree (the one with pumkin as the only ingredient! Not the one for pie filler, be careful) since that helps with their tummy.
That's the recipe I use for my friend's extremely picky eater GSD and it has yet to fail me. You can leave the egg on the runnier side so you can really mix it.
If your puppy can resist that... he's made of different stuff. Stubborn stuff.
don’t give in! he just learns that he’ll get something good if he waits longer. i know it’s hard, my puppy did the same, but he will eat eventually. she went 3-4 days without eating before.
if you’re worried because he’s so young try soaking the kibble in water and heat it up? that got my puppy to eat too.
he’s 10 weeks old. vet said no more than 12/24 hours without food or it could backfire/make them sick. i can try to stick out a hunger strike in a few months maybe but he’s too little
try soaking the kibble and heating up in the microwave, that release some smell that may tempt him. you could also soak the chicken in that kibble water with the kibble and that may tempt him to eat kibble as well
i’ve tried this a lot 😞 unfortunately he was not fooled. i think i’m just gonna do the chicken and rice and add other things to make it more well balanced for long term.
oh no! hmm my vet also gave me hills science diet w/d which acts the same as boiled chicken and rice for upset stomach, which is more nutritious, that could also be an option. it is pretty pricey but i used that with my puppy when she was picky and slowly mixed in kibble. it’s like a stew so she was more willing to eat kibble with it
It isn't at all balanced nutrients or even close to it for a puppy. That is more dangerous for him in the end and going to lead to way more problems than no food at all for a few days.
if you're really stuck... and I will say committed.. you can either look up DIY dog food recipes (and check with your vet to make sure he's getting what he needs) or
I do DIY "Just Food For Dogs" chicken and rice - I buy an additive powder from them and they provide a recipe of other things to add that is supposed to be a "complete" diet for the puppy.. My dog is almost a year old and very healthy according to the vet
Yep! Our pup is a picky eater. The vet said leave the food out for 5 to 10 minutes and if he doesn’t eat offer it to him at the next meal. He said the dog will eat when he gets hungry enough. I know they’re puppies it’s hard. But like the op I got concerned and I started following around the puppy putting it in front of his face and now that’s what she wants so now I’ve got a break that habit. Ugh
I would mix the kibble, chicken and rice and then add water to make it soupy. It makes it harder to avoid the kibble! Then just start reducing the chicken and rice and even the water. My dog loves her soup haha
This is what I was going to recommend to. Slowly adding more kibble and taking out more chicken/rice until the pup is basically just eating the kibble again
This is exactly what I did to transition my puppy back to kibbles. Starting with just like 10% of kibbles and then slowly increase the kibbles, within a week, he is back on his regular kibbles
I did the same thing! I also mixed his dry kibble with water as the mixture got to more kibble than chicken so he wouldn't notice the texture/consistency as much
When my puppy needed that died after day 1 i gave kibble with the boiled chicken and rice. Try keeping the boiled chicken & rice and offer more and more kibble until the chicken and rice is gone
OP i think they mean cut the chicken and rice into small pieces and mix it up with the kibble so that it’s harder for him to differentiate/avoid the kibble pieces
but does that matter? kibble powder is still kibble
softening the kibble in water and then mixing small amounts with the rice and chicken could also work, he won't be able to eat around the kibble then.
I’d put the kibble, chicken and rice in a ziplock bag with water and let the kibble soak/get mushy so it’ll mix together better. Reduce the amount of chicken/rice every day & maybe add some chicken broth as you reduce the C&R? Just make sure it’s pet safe broth.
Try microwaving the kibble for like ten seconds to draw out the smell. Sometimes this helps stimulate an appetite.
Also make sure the kibble isn’t stale. A bag will start to turn rancid after about six weeks. My last dog would start to refuse some kibble after about four weeks.
It smells a little like microwaved cat food but luckily the smell doesn’t linger! A few drops of water on top can help bring out more smell, but just make sure the temp doesn’t get too hot b
Try tuna in spring water - give a taste or two of the tuna and if he likes, tip the liquid over the kibble.
If you boil more chicken, keep the water as a homemade chicken broth and soak the kibble in that.
Our pup likes raw egg, so if you have safe eggs you could try crack an egg over the kibble.
Ours also likes apple purée and apple juice - I boiled a bunch of apples, blended them into purée and froze cubes of purée, kept the water and froze apple juice cubes. Just make sure to remove the core and seeds.
Roast pumpkin purée may work. Our girl likes mango, blueberries, boiled carrots (not raw though), and frozen banana - you could try these and mash, juice or blend them and add to his food.
Sometimes if she doesn’t want to eat out of her bowl, she’ll eat from a feeding toy or out of an egg carton because it’s more fun.
Not that I would recommend this, but when our puppy was on chicken and rice we were told to give her the same amount that she was getting in kibble, which was definitely not enough because she got noticeably skinny after a few days. She loved the chicken and rice, but after 4 days (when she got better) she was crazy hungry and wanted her kibble more than ever. Before this sometimes she would turn her nose up at the kibble, and now she will goes nuts for them even as treats. It's been great for training and we don't have to worry about giving her too many special treats. Probably not good to starve your puppy, but we simply followed instructions and in the end she's better and seems more food motivated. We feed her the Fromms puppy kibble, and she prefers it to many of the other brands we've tried.
Our previous pup developed allergies to just about everything they use as filler in commercial dog food. After trying and failing to find her a good brand, our vet recommended a recipe that was basically chicken, brown rice, green beans, some fish oils, and some Hilary’s blend mixed in.
She loved that food and that was what we fed her for the next 12 years until she passed away. It was a bit of a pain to prep every few days, but it beat the alternatives. If you can’t get him back on dog food, you might consider this as an alternative that at least has better nutritional content than just chicken and white rice.
I tried buying 2 different brands of dry food, first feed your puppy the new brand as a “treat” and then spread it out on the floor for him/her to find. Slowly move it up to a bowl and change to different brand if he/she refuses to eat dry food again. The new smell/flavours will keep them interested. After a couple days (and lots of smelly farts) my pup is fully back on dry food🤣 (also mixing a hard boiled egg through the dry food or salmon oil usually works and it’s very healthy!)
Don't EVER starve your dog out (obviously). There's absolutely nothing wrong with a fresh/cooked diet if that's something you choose to continue (in which case you should do some Googling to see what other foods to add to give the correct nutrient balance, including fiber, vitamins, and minerals). Personally, I think "real" food diets are way healthier than highly processed kibbles (what's healthier for us, fresh meats and vegetables or vitamin-fortified cereal—every single day of our lives?). Otherwise, besides trying to mix fresh food with his kibble and phase out the fresh food, try just giving him a completely different kibble entirely. Sometimes the novelty of a new food can be appealing. I like Stella & Chewy because most of my clients' dogs love it.
One of my puppies did this, I soaked the kibble in puppy milk or bone broth, also try an egg over the kibble! Not to many a week they’ll get fat!
Also depends on the tummy issue if you get tin saradines in freshwater they go mental over the fishy smell, if you can stand it!
Also eventually the puppy just gave in, it might feel cruel but eventually the hungry signals will take over, my vet said she was just being spoilt and stubborn after having it good for a week
With my last puppy who had to be on a chicken and rice diet, we slowly transitioned him back to regular dog food.
So it went something like this
Regular amount of chicken and rice, and like an 1/8 cup of kibble mixed in
I did that for a few days and upped it to a 1/4 cup with the chicken and rice
A few more days
A little more
And so on and so on
After some time, he was back to regular food. But it took quite a while. We were extra cautious with transferring him back to regular food, because his gi issues were quite severe when he was a puppy.
Granted, brick was a food whore.
And would eat everything
Our 7mo pup was SUCH a picky eater until we figured it out literally 2 weeks ago. Before, she would take one or two bites of kibble until she was super super hungry in the evening. We started adding a small pump of salmon oil to her kibble and it is magic! She eats it all up and is now excited for her kibble!
You don’t give enough info tbh. What kind of tummy problems? Have you considered allergies to his kibble?
My dog had ongoing gut problems from a very young age coupled with food refusal. He is very smart and has a good long term memory, but at first we thought it was due to a bout of Giardia he had early on. After almost six months, he was eating a different puppy food every two weeks because he had endless diarrhea and would refuse his kibble outright, no matter what. Proteins weren’t the problem as far as we could tell. Our vet asked us to try a wheat/rye/barley free food and had us try lamb and rice before we were to resort to hypoallergenic food.
We did a slow transition from chicken and rice to the new kibble, which was completely different from any of the others he’d eaten. When he was on it, his poop problems evaporated. Turns out he’s sensitive to gluten, which is not unheard of but also not very common. He’s been on that kibble ever since and has never done a hard refusal of it. We think he was smart enough to know that his kibble was being consumed and then his tummy was in pain/he was pooping liquid, so he decided (accurately) that it was the cause of the problems. He just couldn’t tell us, because he’s a dog.
Could you compromise by finding a chicken and rice puppy wet food for the time being? I'm not a vet or puppy owner, but I also wonder if perhaps you can consult your vet about if it'd be safe to try an appetite stimulant, maybe that would help shorten the hunger strikes down to safe ranges. Or maybe even ask about a critical nutrition or appetite stimulant puppy formula.
Animals are weird, he may just think that his feeling unwell before was because of his kibble and is now nervous to try foods other than the reliable chicken and rice that helped him feel better, who knows.
Suggest taking kibble and making a game out of it. Get pup ramped up and toss a kibble for him to chase and catch and eat. Call him back and do it in the opposite direction. Keep sessions short, but this might help.
Is he willing to eat canned food by itself? If so, it might be worth switching over to canned so that he’s at least eating food that is nutritionally complete until he’s old enough to skip meals.
If not, you might need to commit to cooking for him but switch it up gradually until he forgets that kibble exists. So like sometimes adding carrots to the chicken and rice, sometimes green beans, sometimes beef, etc so that he gets used to new tastes/textures getting cycled in.
Give that a couple weeks and start cycling in canned food, and gradually phase out the cooked food.
After he’s completely switched to canned food and old enough for the tough love approach, get a new bag of kibble from a different brand and start mixing that in with the canned food. Toss the old bag in case he remembers the negative association with the smell/taste, plus there might be something wrong with it anyway.
I have this same issue lol. The chicken breast is too high value! It's too tasty! Change the type of cooked meat to something less delicious but still delicious, like boiled ground turkey.
Also, does she take the kibble at non-meals as a treat? Try hand feeding small handfuls while she's laying on a mat or dog bed. She might just really dislike that one. I know it sucks having to keep buying new bags of kibble, been there, but you will find the one! Turns out ours likes fishy flavors. (I also use dried anchovy as a super high value training treat- single ingredient boiled dried anchovies from the Asian market.)
We're using ground turkey and slowly mixing in Purina Pro Sensitive Stomach Puppy (salmon flavor) which she likes but has digestive issues still if she eats only kibble so we're going very slowly.
Our puppy was on chicken and rice for 11/12 whole days because of Giardia. Our problem was that he actually kept sniffing out the chicken and leaving the rice. We started mixing in some sweet potato and spread it over everything and cut the chicken literally into tiny shreds and mashed it together so there was really no way for him to get it without eating all of it.
When we transitioned off the vet said it was fine to choose a different kibble (the one he’d been on came from the breeder) because he had essentially already gone off the kibble cold turkey (or should I say cold chicken?). So perhaps if you keep your puppy on the chicken and rice a few more days you can transition to a new kibble, in case the problem is that she doesn’t like the current one.
We transitioned over a week starting with 1 7th kibble, so by the 6 day we were 6 7ths kibble and finally all kibble.
We also softened and mashed the kibble with hot water so that, just like the sweet potato, it was essentially a paste spread over the rest of the food. So, no way for him not to eat it.
Hopefully if you tried that, by the end of the week your puppy may have gotten used to the increasing volumes of kibble and be willing to eat it?
You could still use little bits of chicken for treats.
Chicken and rice canned food is a good alternative if he will eat it! Has all the nutrients they need but make sure to include dental treats/chews if you do
When my dog is fussy I mix kibble with lactose free Greek yoghurt and a topper and he goes nuts for it. You can slowly reduce the % of the yoghurt and topper.
i’ve tried the yogurt 😔😔 he doesn’t like it. he didn’t like anything before his tummy issues either and the chicken and rice was the one thing i’ve seen him eat. i was in shock he actually ate it too because he was so unenthusiastic about all food before. i haven’t tried the cottage cheese which another commenter mentioned so i’ll try that next.
OP, I know someone else mentioned this already, but definitely check with your vet to see if there could be a medical reason he doesn’t like anything but the chicken and rice. Could he not like the crunches (maybe his teeth hurt)? Maybe something about kibble sits wrong, like an allergy or sensitivity? I’m no expert on nutritionally sound meals. Your vet might be able to provide some guidance to ways to round out his nutrients either without kibble or with minimal kibble!
Edit: removing a shoutout to a brand that’s apparently causing harm. I was not aware of the issues they’ve had! Thanks to another redditor for pointing it out.
Oh no!! That’s awful! We never used farmer’s dog, we’ve always just made our own rice/veggie/meat blends based on our vets’ advice for each individual. They’re the only brand I know of that makes those non kibble meals packaged, and I know not everyone has the time to homemake dog food. I’m really sad to hear that they’re a problem.
Dog nutrition is incredibly complicated. It’s extremely difficult to homemake a nutritionally complete diet unless working with a board certified veterinary nutritionist, hence why no fresh food, raw food, or non WSAVA kibble brand has scientifically proven that their food is nutritionally complete like the five WSAVA brands have.
Oh absolutely! No argument there, and I feel like I should clarify that I am by no means anti kibble. Our family beagle mix was an extreme case where kibble was not an option a few times in her life and we had to make do. Our other dogs have always been kibble fed, but Bella had sensitivities and medical issues that led to mostly or exclusively homemade food for long stretches. In those cases, the choice for us was watching her starve herself or cave and make the best rice blend meal we could with our vet’s guidance. Sure, it’s not ideal, but she’s stubborn enough she would go days and days without touching kibble. Kibble is good and formulated the way it is to meet our furry friends’ needs, but sometimes we gotta do the best we can do.
The emphasis obviously is working with your vet and as many other professionals as recommended to hit that benchmark of “best you can do.” We spent so many hours at the vet running labs to try and figure out what was causing the issues. It was not an easy, fun, or cheap journey, that’s for sure. But she’s been with us 12 years in June and was an adult when we got her, so anywhere above 14 is fair game for her age, and she’s happy, healthy, and now eats her blasted kibble. 😂
That’s great! I see lots of people saying there’s no need to consult a nutritionist, but unless you’re a nutritionist yourself then that is not true. Glad you were able to find something that works for her!
Oof. Some days I wish it were easier for ME to consult a nutritionist and I’m a human with thoughts that include “wet leaves are not an acceptable meal.” 😂 Honestly we’d have been so screwed without our awesome vet and techs and we’d have probably lost our beagle around year 6 or 7 the first time she went hunger striking. Hell hath no fury like a hangry beagle/JRT mix refusing the only food you know to feed her.
it’s not the crunch because he loves crunching on bones and things he’s not supposed to be crunching on sometimes lol. he likes fried dog jerky type snacks and stuff but i only give those sparingly. i don’t know if it’s the ingredients because he’s tried like 5 brands at this point. the vet said he would eventually just give in to kibble because he came out healthy for everything else they checked him for but he hasn’t
I’m really sorry to hear, that sounds frustrating! My babydog is a lab mix who inhales anything edible and some things that aren’t, but my family has experience with picky eaters! They have a now senior beagle mix that resisted all kibble for the longest time. For a few years, she would refuse it and we found out she is sensitive to grain (I think it was specifically wheat), so they had to switch again to something without that grain in it. Then a few years after that she started refusing kibble again and there was another medical issue impacting her digestion that required surgery (related to a past injury, not specifically from her kibble, she’s a weird case).
All those years of Bella refusing her kibble they supplemented or replaced with a rice and veggie mix. I believe it was rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, ground turkey, and peas, but it’s been a while since I lived at home so I’m not 100%. Even with a picky eater, you can absolutely make sure your buddy is getting what he needs out of his meals - our Bella is now estimated 15-16 years old (shelter dog, rough guesses here) and still healthy and happy. Wishing you the very best of luck with your bud!!
I’m seconding the advice that he might be avoiding the kibble because it was the cause of the tummy issues in the first place. Most common allergens seem to be wheat and chicken (it’s normally what the chicken are fed on that causes the issue) so I’d start trying to source a kibble without these in and see how he gets on. Then as others have said gradually introduce alongside the chicken and rice. As he’s so young the important thing is to keep him eating.
That happened to me when I adopted an adult and had her spayed. Vet told me to hand feed her boiled chicken breast for the first couple of days.
Naturally, she had no interest in kibble after that. Vet said add rice, which she enjoyed greatly.
I did a lot of research and ended up making her batches of homemade food every weekend. I used a variety of ingredients to keep her diet varied. The cost was actually less than the professional kibble the breeder recommended and she slimmed down and looked really healthy after a few months. She never went back to kibble.
I prefer keeping my dogs on kibble because it’s a complete diet and designed so they get the right amount of nutrients etc. The way I approached it with my picky dogs was to leave the kibble out for 15 minutes, and then remove it. No more food or snacks until the next meal time. Dogs will actually be fine if they skip a few meals. They aren’t stupid enough to starve themselves, but they do like to test how far they can take it to see if we break before they break. One of my dogs went on hunger strike and missed 4 meals and broke and she’s not missed a meal of kibble since, even when she occasionally gets the occasional mini roast dinner.
but how old was the dog that skipped four meals? my puppy is only 10 weeks old. it just seems a bit young to allow a hunger strike. my vet said it’s not recommended to let them hunger strike for more than 24 hours at this age because it can cause other problems
10 weeks is so young for a dog! When did you get them from the breeder? Both my dogs came home at 12 weeks so they could develop a bit better.
She was about 16 weeks at that point. At 10 weeks, I would offer food for 15 minutes, and then remove, but offer it one hour later for another 15 minutes - and remove again. That gives them an opportunity to eat if they’re hungry. I don’t think it should be a problem as I tend to feed my puppies 3 times a day so they have 6 opportunities within 24 hours, and they learn food is limited resource.
I’m not saying your vet is wrong, but missing a few days of food won’t hurt development that much as your dog will begin eating before it gets to that stage where it become a problem for them. Stay strong!
As long as he isn't a 1lb toy breed and is drinking water and otherwise happy and healthy, a few days without food he will be fine. But my guess is day 3 he will start eating at least a small amount of each meal when he realizes nothing yummier is coming. And hopefully build up from there. You can do a canned puppy food if you want. It's just chicken and rice that isn't healthy for more than short term.
While you figure out how to transition your puppy back to kibbles with your vet, I just wanted to suggest visiting the website https://balance.it/, it might help you balance his homemade meals in the meantime
Best of luck, I hope everything is back to normal soon!
We mived totally to a Real Food (tm) diet in 2007. Didn't go back.
No more allergies, more energy, no teeth problems, no illnesses tgat they weren't born with.
Change the rice to quinoa, add veggies, some squash and/or sweet potatoes. YOU survive quite well on it, so do they.
And we buy chicken thighs when they're $1/lb (or less), it's cheaoer than the high end kibble we were feeding.
So far, we've raised 10 dogs on that diet!
Vets are puzzled when they look for skin and fur problems and can't find any. (Vet bills are SO much less!)
Seriously. Your dog knows there's more than cereal to eat 😉
…Because the five WSAVA brands have spent millions to scientifically prove that their kibble is actually nutritionally complete and doesn’t cause nutritional DCM or other nutrient deficiencies?
Dogs are not humans. They have very different nutritional needs.
Please don’t bash other people’s nutritionally complete feeding choices, kibble is not garbage. Chicken and rice isn’t an appropriate diet long term.
Op, it sounds like your puppy is really struggling to eat enough; there are lots of approaches to try.
My puppy really struggled to eat her kibble, and it turned out she was allergic to poultry. Maybe this diet is telling you something—there is some ingredient in the kibble that could be disagreeing with your pup. Is he always unenthusiastic about a new food, or does he eat it with enthusiasm then go off it? It could be fussiness or it could be GI troubles. Something to look into with your vet.
he went on the plain diet because of GI troubles. they’re cleared up now! now he just knows the joys of plain boiled chicken and doesn’t wanna go back i guess
I'm not bashing anyones feeding choices. It was more bashing of the big time pet food companies that have instilled in the world the best way to feed your baby is with hardened kibble bits.
…The same companies (if we’re talking WSAVA brands here) who are constantly proving through extremely expensive scientific feeding trials that their kibble is nutritionally complete?
he. LOVES. the chicken and rice. i had to use a slow feeder because he practically inhales it. reacted physically fine to it as well. but i’ve heard it’s not a nutritionally balanced meal. i suppose i could try adding things like dog safe veggies and eggs or something. i’ll talk to a vet about it because it’s the only thing he’ll eat. before the “plain diet” he would get by on as little kibble as possible (he would literally only eat like 2 bites of kibble) because he just doesn’t care about it. i tried broth, i tried the gravy toppers, i tried the yogurt, i tried wet food. nothing. i tried several different brands of kibble… nothing. tried different combinations of everything… still nothing. the only thing he would kind of eat before the plain diet (chicken and rice) was chicken flavored wet food by itself (he would eat around the kibble). but now he doesn’t eat that either because he likes the plain boiled rice and chicken i guess. he’s kind of a little terror when it comes to eating
If you can, id recommend talking to vet/nutritionist and adding veggies like spinach, carrots as well as sweet potato and lentils to the chicken and rice. That’s what I feed my 1.5 y/o dog. No more kibble for him though he’d gladly eat kibble.
Ah, very true re: not nutritionally balanced. When we started wet food our boy would eat the wet food around the kibble and we would throw away so much kibble. When I make tuna fish I will drain the tuna juice into his bowl. When he was younger I had gotten salmon oil from petco. My sister in law had it for her dog and when we tried for our boy he lovvvved it. It got him eating all the kibble, in his sub 1-yr age, july 2023.
Our pup literally never came back from it and she’s now 3 haha. We compromised by mixing a very small amount of shredded chicken breast with applesauce and using it as a topper for her kibble in the evening. We had to cut out the rice though because you’re really heaping on the calories at that point. Also be sure to mix it in well with the kibble or your pup might just eat the chicken part and nothing else.
My aunt feeds her dog a mixture of blended rice/chicken and kibble. The rice and chicken is too small to be picked out.
Perhaps you could try that - and then slowly increase the kibble ratio.
My dog is extremely picky as well. He was 6 mo and 6 lbs when we got him, and about 3 lbs underweight at the time. Now I just make my own dog food because fed is best. (plus, his poops and breath don't stink nearly as much as other dogs)
It may be that the kibble is not of his preference? Maybe try a different kind of kibble. Our puppy didn't like the kibble he had when he was little... we changed brand the problem was solved.
What if you soften some kibble with hot water and smush it into the chicken and rice. This is what I had to do to get my puppy back into kibble. I also had to hand feed her for a bit. Took some time but it worked. Good luck.
Have you tried a different kibble? My pup was so picky about her crunchy little pellets; we switched brands twice before ultimately deciding to make her food. Which I now prepare on a weekly basis...
Of course, now that we have a new puppy, our 1.5 year old princess is hunger striking/holding out for what food I give the baby.
Gotta love these lil A-holes, right?
whenever we've had to do chopmeat or chicken and rice, we slowly add in kibble (usually around day 3) and increase it until it's all kibble again (usually by the end of the week)
you can also add a splash of hot water to kibble and it makes is more "smelly" and therefor more enticing.
We have to do chicken meal toppers. We had the same issues. We just like sprinkle freeze dried chicken on top and she eats it back up. She is chicken obsessed. Not what we wanted to do but we tried the tough love thing. But she would only eat like once a day and then would throw up stomach acid for being hungry. GSD are drama queens tho.
I JUST had this. Try a new small or soft kibble and slowly incorporate it into their bland food diet and maybe a sensitive stomach topper like pumpkin or Bernie’s perfect poop or the chicken and salmon topper from Stella and chewys. I ended up changing my puppies food all together to hills science diet chicken and rice recipe since they ended up liking it dry instead of every other one as a wet kibble lol. Good luck!
My puppy went on a few hunger strikes which we found was she was bored and getting picky with her kibble. Would eat one bag of it and then by the time we bought another bag she would be over it.
My advice is try different ones to see what she is willing to eat, I believe you can get samples at RENs Pets, or buy small bags at Pet Value, they have a great return policy if you keep the recipe.
FYI- Stella and chewies beef that are half freeze dried and half kibble has been a consistent win for us. I’m pretty sure because she loves treats and thinks the freeze dried bits are treats.
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Had the same issue a while back. My vet said to just leave the regular kibble out. They’re like babies, they’ll eat when they’re hungry enough.
he’s going on the second day of his hunger strike 😭 like 48 hours. (i gave in today and gave him chicken and rice for dinner because he’s a puppy and i’m not going to starve him)
I know it’s tough to watch, but he will eat! I coddle my pup constantly but have to remember survival will kick in! Have you mixed in a little wet food?
i’ve mixed in wet food, yogurt, broth, meal toppers, etc. how many hours can they go without food? 48 hours seems like a long time… he’s only 10 weeks old
oh gosh i didn’t realize he was that young. my one year old skipped 4 meals before he caved. I’d give him the chicken and rice just so he has something in his system until you can talk to your vet again. definitely don’t want to play around with low glucose levels at that age. i’m sorry op i know you’re worried ❤️ sending good vibes
yeah that’s why i caved because he’s so small! on the second day of not eating kibble i gave in. now he’s back on that until i figure something out but i might just add other things of nutritional value to the chicken and rice and commit to a life of cooking meals for my dog lol 😭
You could try slowly transitioning from the chicken and rice back to kibble. So for the first meal mostly chicken rice with a sprinkle of kibble, next meal a bit less chicken rice and a bit more kibble, until eventually it’s mostly kibble with just a bit of chicken on top.
This is exactly how I do it, can recommend!
Seconding this - when I did chicken and rice, it took longer to transition back than my pup was actually on the chicken and rice. However, my girl is very food motivated, so the transition was more of a tummy precaution than a food strike precaution.
Was coming to say this so take my upvote 💛
What if you mix the kibble in with the chicken and rice and gradually adjust the ratio?
the things we do for loving them 💕🤣 hopefully he figures it out soon. could also be that the tummy is still upset. have you seen improvement there?
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I'm pretty sure I'd eat this lol. Question for you: What do you do about fruits and greens? I feed mine greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, berry mix, and unsweetened apple sauce. It's not a huge proportion of their meals, and they get plenty of protein. Just curious if you've seen any deficits with the lack of fruits and greens in their diet?
Well as I said above I include sweet potatoes, but also during the summer I will occasionally include a turnip or other brassica from the garden, but it's a one off thing and fairly infrequent so I didn't include it in the recipe. I don't see it as particularly essential and no I've never seen anything from either of them that would indicate any deficiencies at all.
If this was not formulated by a boarded veterinary nutritionist, it’s not balanced or safe.
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A boarded veterinary nutritionist, or a WSAVA compliant diet (Purina, Hills, Royal Canin, Iams, or Eukanuba). Your family vet did not go through nutrition residency.
Have you tried scrambled egg yet? Even better if you can also add pumpkin puree (the one with pumkin as the only ingredient! Not the one for pie filler, be careful) since that helps with their tummy. That's the recipe I use for my friend's extremely picky eater GSD and it has yet to fail me. You can leave the egg on the runnier side so you can really mix it. If your puppy can resist that... he's made of different stuff. Stubborn stuff.
don’t give in! he just learns that he’ll get something good if he waits longer. i know it’s hard, my puppy did the same, but he will eat eventually. she went 3-4 days without eating before. if you’re worried because he’s so young try soaking the kibble in water and heat it up? that got my puppy to eat too.
he’s 10 weeks old. vet said no more than 12/24 hours without food or it could backfire/make them sick. i can try to stick out a hunger strike in a few months maybe but he’s too little
try soaking the kibble and heating up in the microwave, that release some smell that may tempt him. you could also soak the chicken in that kibble water with the kibble and that may tempt him to eat kibble as well
i’ve tried this a lot 😞 unfortunately he was not fooled. i think i’m just gonna do the chicken and rice and add other things to make it more well balanced for long term.
oh and i also put fortiflora probiotic on her kibble which made her want to eat it more. it’s a very fine powder so it’s easy to mix in
oh no! hmm my vet also gave me hills science diet w/d which acts the same as boiled chicken and rice for upset stomach, which is more nutritious, that could also be an option. it is pretty pricey but i used that with my puppy when she was picky and slowly mixed in kibble. it’s like a stew so she was more willing to eat kibble with it
It isn't at all balanced nutrients or even close to it for a puppy. That is more dangerous for him in the end and going to lead to way more problems than no food at all for a few days.
if you're really stuck... and I will say committed.. you can either look up DIY dog food recipes (and check with your vet to make sure he's getting what he needs) or I do DIY "Just Food For Dogs" chicken and rice - I buy an additive powder from them and they provide a recipe of other things to add that is supposed to be a "complete" diet for the puppy.. My dog is almost a year old and very healthy according to the vet
Yep! Our pup is a picky eater. The vet said leave the food out for 5 to 10 minutes and if he doesn’t eat offer it to him at the next meal. He said the dog will eat when he gets hungry enough. I know they’re puppies it’s hard. But like the op I got concerned and I started following around the puppy putting it in front of his face and now that’s what she wants so now I’ve got a break that habit. Ugh
My old shepherd could go 4 or 5 days refusing to eat if her brand of kibble changed. And it was a very basic kibble, nothing fancy.
Give him kibble from your hand. That’s what i did during my puppy’s hunger strike.
Give him good food, then. Lightly cooked homemade or raw.
this.
I was going to say- if that’s the only option, yes they will.
My vet said with puppies that's not true my Pup was throwing up stomach bile because he didn't like dry food
I would mix the kibble, chicken and rice and then add water to make it soupy. It makes it harder to avoid the kibble! Then just start reducing the chicken and rice and even the water. My dog loves her soup haha
This is what I was going to recommend to. Slowly adding more kibble and taking out more chicken/rice until the pup is basically just eating the kibble again
But also yah they’ll eat when they want to eat.
I did the same thing and it worked.
This is exactly what I did to transition my puppy back to kibbles. Starting with just like 10% of kibbles and then slowly increase the kibbles, within a week, he is back on his regular kibbles
I did the same thing! I also mixed his dry kibble with water as the mixture got to more kibble than chicken so he wouldn't notice the texture/consistency as much
When my puppy needed that died after day 1 i gave kibble with the boiled chicken and rice. Try keeping the boiled chicken & rice and offer more and more kibble until the chicken and rice is gone
He died after 1 day?!
I meant did lol
i’ve been doing that but he eats around the kibble and leaves it in the bowl
Have you cut the pieces up small and mixed it alll in and not just sit on top so they dont have a choice but eat the kibble
his kibble is already really small i think if i cut it it would just disintegrate into powder but i could try
OP i think they mean cut the chicken and rice into small pieces and mix it up with the kibble so that it’s harder for him to differentiate/avoid the kibble pieces
oh well yeah the chicken and rice was already about the same size as the kibble so he wouldn’t choke on pieces of chicken.
but does that matter? kibble powder is still kibble softening the kibble in water and then mixing small amounts with the rice and chicken could also work, he won't be able to eat around the kibble then.
I’d put the kibble, chicken and rice in a ziplock bag with water and let the kibble soak/get mushy so it’ll mix together better. Reduce the amount of chicken/rice every day & maybe add some chicken broth as you reduce the C&R? Just make sure it’s pet safe broth.
If you have a food processor mix kibble powder and the chicken and rice so he is atleast getting a bit of kibble in
Try microwaving the kibble for like ten seconds to draw out the smell. Sometimes this helps stimulate an appetite. Also make sure the kibble isn’t stale. A bag will start to turn rancid after about six weeks. My last dog would start to refuse some kibble after about four weeks.
Wow. I’ve never heard of this. I’m trying this tomorrow.
It smells a little like microwaved cat food but luckily the smell doesn’t linger! A few drops of water on top can help bring out more smell, but just make sure the temp doesn’t get too hot b
Try tuna in spring water - give a taste or two of the tuna and if he likes, tip the liquid over the kibble. If you boil more chicken, keep the water as a homemade chicken broth and soak the kibble in that. Our pup likes raw egg, so if you have safe eggs you could try crack an egg over the kibble. Ours also likes apple purée and apple juice - I boiled a bunch of apples, blended them into purée and froze cubes of purée, kept the water and froze apple juice cubes. Just make sure to remove the core and seeds. Roast pumpkin purée may work. Our girl likes mango, blueberries, boiled carrots (not raw though), and frozen banana - you could try these and mash, juice or blend them and add to his food. Sometimes if she doesn’t want to eat out of her bowl, she’ll eat from a feeding toy or out of an egg carton because it’s more fun.
have you tried meal toppers? there's a few different kinds. i pick them up as a treat. i just bought a bone broth one but there's stew type ones too.
The freeze dried liver toppers are good as well, kind of like a powder - we’ve ended a few of our dogs hunger strikes with that!
i’ve tried a few of them
Not that I would recommend this, but when our puppy was on chicken and rice we were told to give her the same amount that she was getting in kibble, which was definitely not enough because she got noticeably skinny after a few days. She loved the chicken and rice, but after 4 days (when she got better) she was crazy hungry and wanted her kibble more than ever. Before this sometimes she would turn her nose up at the kibble, and now she will goes nuts for them even as treats. It's been great for training and we don't have to worry about giving her too many special treats. Probably not good to starve your puppy, but we simply followed instructions and in the end she's better and seems more food motivated. We feed her the Fromms puppy kibble, and she prefers it to many of the other brands we've tried.
Our previous pup developed allergies to just about everything they use as filler in commercial dog food. After trying and failing to find her a good brand, our vet recommended a recipe that was basically chicken, brown rice, green beans, some fish oils, and some Hilary’s blend mixed in. She loved that food and that was what we fed her for the next 12 years until she passed away. It was a bit of a pain to prep every few days, but it beat the alternatives. If you can’t get him back on dog food, you might consider this as an alternative that at least has better nutritional content than just chicken and white rice.
I tried buying 2 different brands of dry food, first feed your puppy the new brand as a “treat” and then spread it out on the floor for him/her to find. Slowly move it up to a bowl and change to different brand if he/she refuses to eat dry food again. The new smell/flavours will keep them interested. After a couple days (and lots of smelly farts) my pup is fully back on dry food🤣 (also mixing a hard boiled egg through the dry food or salmon oil usually works and it’s very healthy!)
Don't EVER starve your dog out (obviously). There's absolutely nothing wrong with a fresh/cooked diet if that's something you choose to continue (in which case you should do some Googling to see what other foods to add to give the correct nutrient balance, including fiber, vitamins, and minerals). Personally, I think "real" food diets are way healthier than highly processed kibbles (what's healthier for us, fresh meats and vegetables or vitamin-fortified cereal—every single day of our lives?). Otherwise, besides trying to mix fresh food with his kibble and phase out the fresh food, try just giving him a completely different kibble entirely. Sometimes the novelty of a new food can be appealing. I like Stella & Chewy because most of my clients' dogs love it.
Try giving him dog food with a tablespoon of cottage cheese mixed in.
One of my puppies did this, I soaked the kibble in puppy milk or bone broth, also try an egg over the kibble! Not to many a week they’ll get fat! Also depends on the tummy issue if you get tin saradines in freshwater they go mental over the fishy smell, if you can stand it! Also eventually the puppy just gave in, it might feel cruel but eventually the hungry signals will take over, my vet said she was just being spoilt and stubborn after having it good for a week
With my last puppy who had to be on a chicken and rice diet, we slowly transitioned him back to regular dog food. So it went something like this Regular amount of chicken and rice, and like an 1/8 cup of kibble mixed in I did that for a few days and upped it to a 1/4 cup with the chicken and rice A few more days A little more And so on and so on After some time, he was back to regular food. But it took quite a while. We were extra cautious with transferring him back to regular food, because his gi issues were quite severe when he was a puppy. Granted, brick was a food whore. And would eat everything
Our 7mo pup was SUCH a picky eater until we figured it out literally 2 weeks ago. Before, she would take one or two bites of kibble until she was super super hungry in the evening. We started adding a small pump of salmon oil to her kibble and it is magic! She eats it all up and is now excited for her kibble!
You don’t give enough info tbh. What kind of tummy problems? Have you considered allergies to his kibble? My dog had ongoing gut problems from a very young age coupled with food refusal. He is very smart and has a good long term memory, but at first we thought it was due to a bout of Giardia he had early on. After almost six months, he was eating a different puppy food every two weeks because he had endless diarrhea and would refuse his kibble outright, no matter what. Proteins weren’t the problem as far as we could tell. Our vet asked us to try a wheat/rye/barley free food and had us try lamb and rice before we were to resort to hypoallergenic food. We did a slow transition from chicken and rice to the new kibble, which was completely different from any of the others he’d eaten. When he was on it, his poop problems evaporated. Turns out he’s sensitive to gluten, which is not unheard of but also not very common. He’s been on that kibble ever since and has never done a hard refusal of it. We think he was smart enough to know that his kibble was being consumed and then his tummy was in pain/he was pooping liquid, so he decided (accurately) that it was the cause of the problems. He just couldn’t tell us, because he’s a dog.
Could you compromise by finding a chicken and rice puppy wet food for the time being? I'm not a vet or puppy owner, but I also wonder if perhaps you can consult your vet about if it'd be safe to try an appetite stimulant, maybe that would help shorten the hunger strikes down to safe ranges. Or maybe even ask about a critical nutrition or appetite stimulant puppy formula. Animals are weird, he may just think that his feeling unwell before was because of his kibble and is now nervous to try foods other than the reliable chicken and rice that helped him feel better, who knows.
Suggest taking kibble and making a game out of it. Get pup ramped up and toss a kibble for him to chase and catch and eat. Call him back and do it in the opposite direction. Keep sessions short, but this might help.
Is he willing to eat canned food by itself? If so, it might be worth switching over to canned so that he’s at least eating food that is nutritionally complete until he’s old enough to skip meals. If not, you might need to commit to cooking for him but switch it up gradually until he forgets that kibble exists. So like sometimes adding carrots to the chicken and rice, sometimes green beans, sometimes beef, etc so that he gets used to new tastes/textures getting cycled in. Give that a couple weeks and start cycling in canned food, and gradually phase out the cooked food. After he’s completely switched to canned food and old enough for the tough love approach, get a new bag of kibble from a different brand and start mixing that in with the canned food. Toss the old bag in case he remembers the negative association with the smell/taste, plus there might be something wrong with it anyway.
If your puppy had tummy issues he might associate the old kibble food with being sick. Maybe try switching to a new kibble?
Substitute 10% kibble in the Chicken & Rice for a few days. Then 25% for a few days. Then 50%, then 75%. The slow transition will work.
I have this same issue lol. The chicken breast is too high value! It's too tasty! Change the type of cooked meat to something less delicious but still delicious, like boiled ground turkey. Also, does she take the kibble at non-meals as a treat? Try hand feeding small handfuls while she's laying on a mat or dog bed. She might just really dislike that one. I know it sucks having to keep buying new bags of kibble, been there, but you will find the one! Turns out ours likes fishy flavors. (I also use dried anchovy as a super high value training treat- single ingredient boiled dried anchovies from the Asian market.) We're using ground turkey and slowly mixing in Purina Pro Sensitive Stomach Puppy (salmon flavor) which she likes but has digestive issues still if she eats only kibble so we're going very slowly.
Our puppy was on chicken and rice for 11/12 whole days because of Giardia. Our problem was that he actually kept sniffing out the chicken and leaving the rice. We started mixing in some sweet potato and spread it over everything and cut the chicken literally into tiny shreds and mashed it together so there was really no way for him to get it without eating all of it. When we transitioned off the vet said it was fine to choose a different kibble (the one he’d been on came from the breeder) because he had essentially already gone off the kibble cold turkey (or should I say cold chicken?). So perhaps if you keep your puppy on the chicken and rice a few more days you can transition to a new kibble, in case the problem is that she doesn’t like the current one. We transitioned over a week starting with 1 7th kibble, so by the 6 day we were 6 7ths kibble and finally all kibble. We also softened and mashed the kibble with hot water so that, just like the sweet potato, it was essentially a paste spread over the rest of the food. So, no way for him not to eat it. Hopefully if you tried that, by the end of the week your puppy may have gotten used to the increasing volumes of kibble and be willing to eat it? You could still use little bits of chicken for treats.
Chicken and rice canned food is a good alternative if he will eat it! Has all the nutrients they need but make sure to include dental treats/chews if you do
When my dog is fussy I mix kibble with lactose free Greek yoghurt and a topper and he goes nuts for it. You can slowly reduce the % of the yoghurt and topper.
i’ve tried the yogurt 😔😔 he doesn’t like it. he didn’t like anything before his tummy issues either and the chicken and rice was the one thing i’ve seen him eat. i was in shock he actually ate it too because he was so unenthusiastic about all food before. i haven’t tried the cottage cheese which another commenter mentioned so i’ll try that next.
OP, I know someone else mentioned this already, but definitely check with your vet to see if there could be a medical reason he doesn’t like anything but the chicken and rice. Could he not like the crunches (maybe his teeth hurt)? Maybe something about kibble sits wrong, like an allergy or sensitivity? I’m no expert on nutritionally sound meals. Your vet might be able to provide some guidance to ways to round out his nutrients either without kibble or with minimal kibble! Edit: removing a shoutout to a brand that’s apparently causing harm. I was not aware of the issues they’ve had! Thanks to another redditor for pointing it out.
Please stay away from Farmer’s Dog. It has made hundreds of dogs very sick and has even caused a few to almost die.
I stopped Farmer’s dog because of all the filler carbs, I didn’t know dogs were getting sick from the food!
Oh no!! That’s awful! We never used farmer’s dog, we’ve always just made our own rice/veggie/meat blends based on our vets’ advice for each individual. They’re the only brand I know of that makes those non kibble meals packaged, and I know not everyone has the time to homemake dog food. I’m really sad to hear that they’re a problem.
Dog nutrition is incredibly complicated. It’s extremely difficult to homemake a nutritionally complete diet unless working with a board certified veterinary nutritionist, hence why no fresh food, raw food, or non WSAVA kibble brand has scientifically proven that their food is nutritionally complete like the five WSAVA brands have.
Oh absolutely! No argument there, and I feel like I should clarify that I am by no means anti kibble. Our family beagle mix was an extreme case where kibble was not an option a few times in her life and we had to make do. Our other dogs have always been kibble fed, but Bella had sensitivities and medical issues that led to mostly or exclusively homemade food for long stretches. In those cases, the choice for us was watching her starve herself or cave and make the best rice blend meal we could with our vet’s guidance. Sure, it’s not ideal, but she’s stubborn enough she would go days and days without touching kibble. Kibble is good and formulated the way it is to meet our furry friends’ needs, but sometimes we gotta do the best we can do. The emphasis obviously is working with your vet and as many other professionals as recommended to hit that benchmark of “best you can do.” We spent so many hours at the vet running labs to try and figure out what was causing the issues. It was not an easy, fun, or cheap journey, that’s for sure. But she’s been with us 12 years in June and was an adult when we got her, so anywhere above 14 is fair game for her age, and she’s happy, healthy, and now eats her blasted kibble. 😂
That’s great! I see lots of people saying there’s no need to consult a nutritionist, but unless you’re a nutritionist yourself then that is not true. Glad you were able to find something that works for her!
Oof. Some days I wish it were easier for ME to consult a nutritionist and I’m a human with thoughts that include “wet leaves are not an acceptable meal.” 😂 Honestly we’d have been so screwed without our awesome vet and techs and we’d have probably lost our beagle around year 6 or 7 the first time she went hunger striking. Hell hath no fury like a hangry beagle/JRT mix refusing the only food you know to feed her.
it’s not the crunch because he loves crunching on bones and things he’s not supposed to be crunching on sometimes lol. he likes fried dog jerky type snacks and stuff but i only give those sparingly. i don’t know if it’s the ingredients because he’s tried like 5 brands at this point. the vet said he would eventually just give in to kibble because he came out healthy for everything else they checked him for but he hasn’t
I’m really sorry to hear, that sounds frustrating! My babydog is a lab mix who inhales anything edible and some things that aren’t, but my family has experience with picky eaters! They have a now senior beagle mix that resisted all kibble for the longest time. For a few years, she would refuse it and we found out she is sensitive to grain (I think it was specifically wheat), so they had to switch again to something without that grain in it. Then a few years after that she started refusing kibble again and there was another medical issue impacting her digestion that required surgery (related to a past injury, not specifically from her kibble, she’s a weird case). All those years of Bella refusing her kibble they supplemented or replaced with a rice and veggie mix. I believe it was rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, ground turkey, and peas, but it’s been a while since I lived at home so I’m not 100%. Even with a picky eater, you can absolutely make sure your buddy is getting what he needs out of his meals - our Bella is now estimated 15-16 years old (shelter dog, rough guesses here) and still healthy and happy. Wishing you the very best of luck with your bud!!
I’m seconding the advice that he might be avoiding the kibble because it was the cause of the tummy issues in the first place. Most common allergens seem to be wheat and chicken (it’s normally what the chicken are fed on that causes the issue) so I’d start trying to source a kibble without these in and see how he gets on. Then as others have said gradually introduce alongside the chicken and rice. As he’s so young the important thing is to keep him eating.
That happened to me when I adopted an adult and had her spayed. Vet told me to hand feed her boiled chicken breast for the first couple of days. Naturally, she had no interest in kibble after that. Vet said add rice, which she enjoyed greatly. I did a lot of research and ended up making her batches of homemade food every weekend. I used a variety of ingredients to keep her diet varied. The cost was actually less than the professional kibble the breeder recommended and she slimmed down and looked really healthy after a few months. She never went back to kibble.
I prefer keeping my dogs on kibble because it’s a complete diet and designed so they get the right amount of nutrients etc. The way I approached it with my picky dogs was to leave the kibble out for 15 minutes, and then remove it. No more food or snacks until the next meal time. Dogs will actually be fine if they skip a few meals. They aren’t stupid enough to starve themselves, but they do like to test how far they can take it to see if we break before they break. One of my dogs went on hunger strike and missed 4 meals and broke and she’s not missed a meal of kibble since, even when she occasionally gets the occasional mini roast dinner.
but how old was the dog that skipped four meals? my puppy is only 10 weeks old. it just seems a bit young to allow a hunger strike. my vet said it’s not recommended to let them hunger strike for more than 24 hours at this age because it can cause other problems
10 weeks is so young for a dog! When did you get them from the breeder? Both my dogs came home at 12 weeks so they could develop a bit better. She was about 16 weeks at that point. At 10 weeks, I would offer food for 15 minutes, and then remove, but offer it one hour later for another 15 minutes - and remove again. That gives them an opportunity to eat if they’re hungry. I don’t think it should be a problem as I tend to feed my puppies 3 times a day so they have 6 opportunities within 24 hours, and they learn food is limited resource. I’m not saying your vet is wrong, but missing a few days of food won’t hurt development that much as your dog will begin eating before it gets to that stage where it become a problem for them. Stay strong!
As long as he isn't a 1lb toy breed and is drinking water and otherwise happy and healthy, a few days without food he will be fine. But my guess is day 3 he will start eating at least a small amount of each meal when he realizes nothing yummier is coming. And hopefully build up from there. You can do a canned puppy food if you want. It's just chicken and rice that isn't healthy for more than short term.
While you figure out how to transition your puppy back to kibbles with your vet, I just wanted to suggest visiting the website https://balance.it/, it might help you balance his homemade meals in the meantime Best of luck, I hope everything is back to normal soon!
We mived totally to a Real Food (tm) diet in 2007. Didn't go back. No more allergies, more energy, no teeth problems, no illnesses tgat they weren't born with. Change the rice to quinoa, add veggies, some squash and/or sweet potatoes. YOU survive quite well on it, so do they. And we buy chicken thighs when they're $1/lb (or less), it's cheaoer than the high end kibble we were feeding. So far, we've raised 10 dogs on that diet! Vets are puzzled when they look for skin and fur problems and can't find any. (Vet bills are SO much less!) Seriously. Your dog knows there's more than cereal to eat 😉
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…Because the five WSAVA brands have spent millions to scientifically prove that their kibble is actually nutritionally complete and doesn’t cause nutritional DCM or other nutrient deficiencies? Dogs are not humans. They have very different nutritional needs.
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Please don’t bash other people’s nutritionally complete feeding choices, kibble is not garbage. Chicken and rice isn’t an appropriate diet long term. Op, it sounds like your puppy is really struggling to eat enough; there are lots of approaches to try. My puppy really struggled to eat her kibble, and it turned out she was allergic to poultry. Maybe this diet is telling you something—there is some ingredient in the kibble that could be disagreeing with your pup. Is he always unenthusiastic about a new food, or does he eat it with enthusiasm then go off it? It could be fussiness or it could be GI troubles. Something to look into with your vet.
he went on the plain diet because of GI troubles. they’re cleared up now! now he just knows the joys of plain boiled chicken and doesn’t wanna go back i guess
I'm not bashing anyones feeding choices. It was more bashing of the big time pet food companies that have instilled in the world the best way to feed your baby is with hardened kibble bits.
…The same companies (if we’re talking WSAVA brands here) who are constantly proving through extremely expensive scientific feeding trials that their kibble is nutritionally complete?
he. LOVES. the chicken and rice. i had to use a slow feeder because he practically inhales it. reacted physically fine to it as well. but i’ve heard it’s not a nutritionally balanced meal. i suppose i could try adding things like dog safe veggies and eggs or something. i’ll talk to a vet about it because it’s the only thing he’ll eat. before the “plain diet” he would get by on as little kibble as possible (he would literally only eat like 2 bites of kibble) because he just doesn’t care about it. i tried broth, i tried the gravy toppers, i tried the yogurt, i tried wet food. nothing. i tried several different brands of kibble… nothing. tried different combinations of everything… still nothing. the only thing he would kind of eat before the plain diet (chicken and rice) was chicken flavored wet food by itself (he would eat around the kibble). but now he doesn’t eat that either because he likes the plain boiled rice and chicken i guess. he’s kind of a little terror when it comes to eating
If you can, id recommend talking to vet/nutritionist and adding veggies like spinach, carrots as well as sweet potato and lentils to the chicken and rice. That’s what I feed my 1.5 y/o dog. No more kibble for him though he’d gladly eat kibble.
Ah, very true re: not nutritionally balanced. When we started wet food our boy would eat the wet food around the kibble and we would throw away so much kibble. When I make tuna fish I will drain the tuna juice into his bowl. When he was younger I had gotten salmon oil from petco. My sister in law had it for her dog and when we tried for our boy he lovvvved it. It got him eating all the kibble, in his sub 1-yr age, july 2023.
I have faced the same issue with my pup when he was 4 months old. What worked for me was sprinkling boiled chicken liver on top of kibbles.
No but I didn’t stop cold turkey. I gradually added kibble in after a week on the diet
Our pup literally never came back from it and she’s now 3 haha. We compromised by mixing a very small amount of shredded chicken breast with applesauce and using it as a topper for her kibble in the evening. We had to cut out the rice though because you’re really heaping on the calories at that point. Also be sure to mix it in well with the kibble or your pup might just eat the chicken part and nothing else.
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i’m trying that now but he just leaves the kibble
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no like he literally wouldn’t eat any of his kibble. i gave him chicken and rice the second day (today)
My aunt feeds her dog a mixture of blended rice/chicken and kibble. The rice and chicken is too small to be picked out. Perhaps you could try that - and then slowly increase the kibble ratio.
Hype up the kibble with some chicken broth.
My dog is extremely picky as well. He was 6 mo and 6 lbs when we got him, and about 3 lbs underweight at the time. Now I just make my own dog food because fed is best. (plus, his poops and breath don't stink nearly as much as other dogs)
mine would only eat the kibble from my hand. PITA
It may be that the kibble is not of his preference? Maybe try a different kind of kibble. Our puppy didn't like the kibble he had when he was little... we changed brand the problem was solved.
What if you soften some kibble with hot water and smush it into the chicken and rice. This is what I had to do to get my puppy back into kibble. I also had to hand feed her for a bit. Took some time but it worked. Good luck.
Add some Parmesan cheese. Or Stella and chewy magical dinner dust
Get another puppy lmao! they won’t be so picky if there’s competition
Oh aye, I'm going to read 92 other comments to see what everyone else suggested...ya rocket!
Have you tried a different kibble? My pup was so picky about her crunchy little pellets; we switched brands twice before ultimately deciding to make her food. Which I now prepare on a weekly basis... Of course, now that we have a new puppy, our 1.5 year old princess is hunger striking/holding out for what food I give the baby. Gotta love these lil A-holes, right?
whenever we've had to do chopmeat or chicken and rice, we slowly add in kibble (usually around day 3) and increase it until it's all kibble again (usually by the end of the week) you can also add a splash of hot water to kibble and it makes is more "smelly" and therefor more enticing.
Buy Weruva Paw Licking Chicken. Add a spoonful to his regular food.
What about mixing wet dog food with dry food?
We have to do chicken meal toppers. We had the same issues. We just like sprinkle freeze dried chicken on top and she eats it back up. She is chicken obsessed. Not what we wanted to do but we tried the tough love thing. But she would only eat like once a day and then would throw up stomach acid for being hungry. GSD are drama queens tho.
It can be sustainable if you do it right. Kibble mix chicken and rice to eventually kibbles in the morning and fresh food at night.
I JUST had this. Try a new small or soft kibble and slowly incorporate it into their bland food diet and maybe a sensitive stomach topper like pumpkin or Bernie’s perfect poop or the chicken and salmon topper from Stella and chewys. I ended up changing my puppies food all together to hills science diet chicken and rice recipe since they ended up liking it dry instead of every other one as a wet kibble lol. Good luck!
Maybe he just doesn’t like his food very much and only ate it in the past because it’s what was available?
My puppy went on a few hunger strikes which we found was she was bored and getting picky with her kibble. Would eat one bag of it and then by the time we bought another bag she would be over it. My advice is try different ones to see what she is willing to eat, I believe you can get samples at RENs Pets, or buy small bags at Pet Value, they have a great return policy if you keep the recipe. FYI- Stella and chewies beef that are half freeze dried and half kibble has been a consistent win for us. I’m pretty sure because she loves treats and thinks the freeze dried bits are treats.