[JulesB]

Betty is fussy too and will eat a few biscuits and then walk away. Some days she clears the bowl but very rarely. The good thing is that she is cheap to keep in terms of food!! I've tried a number of foods and she is the same with everything other than fresh meat or cheese. Now I give her some fresh meat or frankfurter sausage with her food and also often add half a carrott chopped uip as she loves this too. I don't worry too much as she isn't losing wieght and has loads of energy and a shiny coat so I figure all is well!!

I think its difficult as you worry that they don't like the food whereas I've come to realise that they are just crafty monkeys who realise that you worry and if they don't eat there food they get nicer stuff instead!!

 

[JulesB]

I know Applaws food has been mentioned on here previously and, as like anything, am sure it works well for some dogs but not others, however I thought I would give it a try as Betty has resorted to not eating any of her biscuits in the last three or four days. I bought a 700g bag and brought it home, stuck about 20 pieces in her bowl and she ate all of it! Then put another 20 bits in there and she ate it all again!! Going to take her out for a walk later and then give her another bowl of Applaws for her dinner and see if she eats it again, if she does I will be VERY impressed as she hasn't cleared a bowl of food in months!! Also I am going to stop giving her meat or carrot with her food and if she finishes her food then I will give her a couple of pieces of meat so that she learns she has to eat her food first - lets see how that goes too!!!!!

 

[JulesB]

Applaws was the first dry food I tried for Dylan when I first got him. The ingredients are pretty good - it was the best I saw until I came across Orijen, which is a bit better. Dylan ate it ok (he eats everything!) but for the first few days I had him he had a bad tummy which I was trying to clear up, and the Applaws seemed to make it worse. It wasn't until he went onto Natural Instinct that his tummy cleared up. But it's definitely one of the better kibbles. Hope it works for you.

I'd like to try Natural Instinct but don't have ba big freezer and need something that its easy for the dag walker to feed for those days when Betty is at hers longer than normal so its finding that balance. I was going to try Orijen awhile back but the guy who owns the local pet shop told me it was really expensive for what it is and that other brands were better value for money and equally as good.

It's all trial and error isn't it in the end! I know dogs that are prefectly healthy yet eat food that here isn't a chance I would feed to Betty!! I think when they are smaller its easier to get them decent food as they don't need as much so the cost is so much less!!!

 

[JulesB]

Not sure if this is common or not but Betty had been getting more and more fussy over recent months with food. She was spayed a week ago and other than for the first 4 or 5 days when she wasn't that bothered with food, she now seems way less fussy and has been eating Applaws dry food or Natures Diet wet food whereas before she's only eat wet food! Its great to see her much more excited by her food though so am not complaining!!!

 

[JulesB]

Yeah I was told to watch for her putting on weight too! I've only let her eat a bit more for now as she had lost a bit of weight when she was weighed before the op from the last weigh in (back in January) and as she barely ate for 3 days she was starting to look a bit scrawny!! What I want to do with food going forward is give her dry Applaws food in the morning and Nature Diet in the evening so that way if she gets fussy with the Applaws again I know she's at least having one meal a day she is eating.

I think I do underfeed her in general because she was so fussy it was a waste to put the full amount down that I got used to only giving her a bit. With the Nature Diet she still gets only 200g a day when they recommend 300g as I don't want to not be able to give her treats or have her get chubby!!

 

[JulesB]

Sarah there is so much to read and so many choices!! I went for Applaws as a dry food as it didn't have cereal in it and started feeding Natures Diet as my dog is quite fussy and this is the closest to BARF I can get without going down the BARF route which I don't have the freezer space for so wouldn't be easy for me to do.

The irony is that you can give the dogs the best food possible and then still some of them are such fussy buggers they will only want to eat the cheapest junk!!!

Don't be fooled into think that just because a bag of food costs a bit more for 2kg that it costs more to feed your dog as sometimes the quantity of what they need to eat each day is less so keeps the costs down. I've tried a number of foods now before finding what works for Betty!

 

[JulesB]

A friend told me about another BARF diet supplier called Basils Dog Food. The website is www.basilsdogfood.co.uk

May be worth a look for those of you doing BARF. I only have a tiny freezer so would have to find somewhere else to put a new freezer if I was going to try it!!!