Okay, so the GF says make sure it's low sodium broth if you do the broth softening. And everyone has the right idea with slowly weening her over to straight dry.

The food our dog liked more when we switched her (slowly) over to it is Nature's Best made by Science Diet. It's not organic but the ingredients are really impressive.

 

She also says to get the dental cleaning done professionally for sure and then do home care with treats or brushing or special food or doggy mouth wash, etc. Also ask the vet about Oravet gel after the cleaning.

 

I say just leave it out and she'll realize that scraps are not an option. It's just a habit you have to break her of.

Innova is FAR better than Eagle Pack

WHENEVER you find something for as cheap as Kirkland brand chow, you need to step back and ask yourself WHY it is that cheap. Not to mention, the factory is is actually produced by (Diamond pet) had a HORRIBLE food recall a few years ago.

More info on food selection: http://www.geocities.com/rottndobie/...gjournal2.html

 

Innova all the way!!! Thats all we feed our dogs. Bryans dog is 14 years old we took her from his mom and dad when she was 10 and she ate nothing but table food and ruined her teeth badly we had to pull several. She refused to eat for about 3 days and then started eating the innova. Bryan tried to sneek her food but i caught him and said no she will eat soon enough. and sure enough she ate the dog food and is still eating it today.

 

Did you put her on a schedule?

 

Go to a Pet Food Express. They are a bay area branded pet food supply store that actually trains their employees about everything! I used to work there. They have buy 3 get 4th free all the time. If anything, u could go there to learn a bit then if you wanted, could go buy from somewhere else. But their knowledge alone is enough of a reason to buy from them.

If your dog is really picky on dry food, like maybe sniffs but not eats, u can try mixing what u have (like stated above) with Prairie Dog Food. After its cooked, its sprayed with a thin layer of fat of whatever the meat thats in the package. Great for pets brought off the street who arent used to regular feedings.

Dry dog food helps to clean the teeth, but the comment above about buying biscuits or treats that help to clean the teeth are an excellent idea. Especially dried bull d**k. You can get anything from 4" - 2ft and they last awhile.

General Idea about choosing a food:
Top 5 ingredients contain about 90% of the actual product; so pick something with very little fillers (rice, corn, and any kind of the above), and try and have the "fat" match the meat thats already in it. Try getting a product that has the actual Meat as the ingredient, try and pass on "Meat By Product". Two types of meat is fine, as long as its specified. No Walmart. No Safeway. No Iams. No Pedigree. Unless Science Diet has changed, its not the greatest product. Nutro isnt horrible, but they tend to have too many fillers.

A good measure on what NOT to get, go to Walmart, and find those $5 18lb bags and look at the ingredients. Some of it is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. Like, they dont specify what meat is going into the food (could be duck, chicken, pigeon, rabbit, raccoon, etc...) And its random so it could cause allergies to certain meats.

Any questions or suggestions on anything, hit me up with a PM and ill be glad to answer

EDIT: For the love of god, don't go vegetarian with your pets...Don't remove vocal chords (voice box), dont cut the tail, and don't pull the teeth (unless its necessary) or the claws... Some of the saddest cases we have had customers come in with vegetarian attitudes or de-clawing...

 

Most people do but i didnt with mine cus they are so small. We have 4 chihuahua's and 2 are 2lbs 1 is 4lbs and the one im talking about is about 10lbs. I put a bowl of food down and they help themselves. If i think they are going to over eat i pick the bowl up but for the most part they just eat 2 times a day. They put themselves on the schedual they are on.

 

My guy's schedule isn't like 6AM/6PM, it's breakfast when we get up, and dinner around 7:30ish, unless he starts complaining around 6:30, then I'll feed him a little earlier.

Also, if once you've had her for a while she goes through phases of being a picky eater, don't freak out. My guy will go for periods of wolfing down everything in the bowl, to only eating a few bites and leaving it. Our previous dog did the same thing. As long as they are staying at a steady weight, don't worry about it.

My advice comes from selling these foods for over 4 years. I'm out of that field now, and I wouldn't continue to push it if I didn't believe in the benefits as seen in both of my dogs (current one and previous one) as well as the numerous testimonials from customers.

 

Both Eagle Pack and Diamond Pets have their "crappy" formulas. Eagle's good one is Holistic Select and Diamond's is Diamond Natural.

Diamond Natural = Kirkland Signature Super Premium

Eagle Pack Holistic Select

Ingredients: Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Ground White Rice, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (Preserved With Natural Mixed Tocopherols), Pork Meal, Dried Beet Pulp, Anchovy, Sardine & Salmon Meals, Flaxseed, Dried Egg Product, Tomato Pomace, Menhaden Fish Oil, Carrots, Peas, Sun-Cured Alfalfa, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Quinoa (Organic), Blueberries, Apples, Inulin, Beta-Carotene, Cranberries, Dehydrated Kelp, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Yucca Schidigera Extract, DL-Methionine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, d-Pantothenic Acid, Niacin Supplement, Choline Chloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Biotin, Lecithin, Rosemary Extract, Inositol, Polysaccharide Complexes of Zinc, Iron, Manganese, Copper and Cobalt, Potassium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Lactobacillus acidophilus Lactobacillus casei, Enterococcus faecium, B. subtillus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus coagulins, Aspergillus oryzae, and Aspergillus niger.

Heres the link:

http://www.holisticselect.com/HS_Dog.html

DIAMOND NATURALS
CHICKEN & RICE ADULT DOG FORMULA

INGREDIENTS
Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, white rice, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), oatmeal, beet pulp, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, fish meal, potassium chloride, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Link for Diamond Natural:

http://diamondpet.com/products/diamo...dogs/dry_food/

 

Thanks again everyone.

We only buy the best (or close to) dog food. We like to keep our dogs healthy. My lab/whippet mix eats Canidae Senior and like I said earlier the King Charles has Innova dog food.

I tried to feed her the chicken broth (low sodium) with the dog food again and she just sniffed it. She wouldn't even touch it. BUT when I went out to BBQ she was running around me the whole time, so I put her in her kennel (she likes it in there anyways). A little bit ago I was upstairs changing and my mom caught her trying to eat off food of my nephews plate that he had set down on the coffee table. We put her outside for that.

She is really used to unhealthy, yet tasty foods, so it is going to be a pain to get her to eat.

It's frustrating.

 

Where the hell do you guys buy your dog food? I've never heard of any of this stuff. My dog is allergic to everything. I have to feed her Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance L.I.D. Limited Ingredient Diets. I also supplement Dinovite and Omega 3's cause once again she's allergic to everything.

Sidenote: For those who don't feed Dinovite it's great stuff. Help with itching, shedding, stink. She loves it...
http://www.dinovite.com/

 

Also, though her teeth may be dirty, I remembered that we gave her raw hide last week that she munched on fine. So it isn't the "hardness" of the food that bothers her... she's just doesn't like healthy lol.

 

Keep at it.

 

You still have to consider where the ingredients are coming from. Chicken from the USA is not the same as Chicken from China. Diamond pet food had a huge recall a few years back due to tainted ingredients. This was before the last major recall.

Oh, and Eagle was recently merged with Wellness and sold I believe to a holdings company. The new brand (I forget what it was being called) is most likely going to be sold in the near future, so watch out for new formulas.

Kirkland brand itself was also on the last major recall.

 

Where do you live?

We go to Western Ranch & Pet Supply in Vacaville, where I live. They have a good selection of good foods.