Dogs

We recently had a cat pass that would go on hunger strike if the food he was fed wasn’t good enough. We have another cat that gave my OH the side eye cause the food wasn’t good enough.

Edit; shit. Just realised where I’ve posted.

We switched over to a raw diet maybe about 5 years ago. It's shocking how much more energy our dogs had, how much healthier they looked, and how small their poops got with less frequency. Kibble is mostly just waste with calories since a lot of the nutrients are baked out. With the raw food, they absorb a lot more so less waste comes out. It's definitely more expensive, but I don't plan to ever go to something else after having seen the benefits first hand.

We just adopted another rescue after our last boy passed in January. The shelter feeds all of their dogs the same kibble to keep things simple and not needing to deal with changing proteins and the mess that often accompanies it. Our long term dogs poops once or twice a day, doesn't stink, and almost her poops almost look like cat poop. She's a 70lb husky/pitbull/German shepherd mix for perspective. The new boy is a golden retriever/doberman mix per the people that surrendered him, but he looks more like he's a great dane in a big labs body. He poops 3-4 times a day, you can smell it from the neighbor's, and you need a small crane to pick it up. I just started the transition from kibble today. Oh, they also drink way less water because there's so much more moisture in the raw food vs super dry kibble, even though we keep full water dishes out for them at all times.

None of the above really addresses your topic, but raw food might be something to look into. The raw food we use is Raw Advantage. It's messier to prepare and kind of stinks like farts because of some of the stuff in it, but it's absolutely worth it imo.

We had a Rottweiler years ago that had to have both ACLs repaired and she stopped eating certain foods, so we went through a similar situation of swapping stuff until she would stop eating it. If she ever tasted the pain pills we tried to sneak in, she wouldn't even entertain the idea of eating that type of food again. All trust was gone. For pills, we've found wrapping them in a little bit of American cheese works great. If they are picky already, shoving it to the back of their mouth generally works and is easier wrapped in cheese instead of the raw pill.

Best of luck with your pupper.

We've found that when our rescue dog doesn't like to eat his kibble, that it helps his appetite a good bit to mix in around a heaping tablespoon of shredded cheese, and add some water to soak the kibble.

At first he'll go lap up whatever excess water, then he'll take a break and go lay down for a while. An hour or two later and the kibble bits are starting to stick together, so we'll cover his bowl with a butter tub lid (perfect fit for many round dog bowls) and give it a good shake to loosen the kibble back up.

He tends to take his time through the afternoon through evening nibbling every now and then, usually finishing his bowl before our bedtime, but not always. Sometimes we'll put just a few small bites of our dinner table scraps in with his kibble, no bones of course, to get his appetite primed, then he'll more than likely finish the whole bowl after that.

Good luck with your rescue pupper

Unfortunately you have already given your dog some of the most strong smelling and strong tasting meats to get him to eat, they are also really bad for the pancreas, so I would switch to ground chicken.

Try to see if your dog will eat cottage cheese. Then mix in some wet food slowly every day. Then add some shredded, or ground cooked chicken. You can also add chicken broth( MAKE SURE it doesn't have garlic or onion flavoring in it, hard to find in some places) for moisture and flavor.

This is how I got my super picky dog back on a somewhat normal dog food diet. Yes I still cook her more chicken breast every 4 days, but it's cheap and healthy for her.

If possible, shy away from fatty foods. I will boil about a pound of raw boneless lean meat, pull it out of the water and cook rice in it, then add the rice back in. That gets spooned into dog bowls to whet their appetites. Between three large dogs they each take about a large tablespoon between 2 meals daily. The food must go after a week.