Hi,

I was wondering what peoples opinions are on whether I should change my dogs food. He is 5 and half months and on wainwrights which he enjoyed until about a week ago. He started turning his nose up at it so we wet it and he ate that for a couple of days and then turned his nose up at it as well! at the moment we are perservering with it dry but adding a little bit of wet food to it which seems to be encouraging him but i'm not sure how long this will last! i would prefer him to remain on dry food and I don't want to change to anything more expensive than wainwrights. I did think of naturesiet but it seems pretty expensive and not easy to get hold of a sample! any suggestions?

Oscar is going through the same phase.

I e mailed Arden grange and they are going to send me some samples of their other flavours but the girl said it was really common at this age for them to get fussy and to just keep giving it to them.

I admit i have given in and am adding a tablespoon of natural youghurt to Oscars meals as he likes it and it is good for his gut (he is dairy tolerant though and not all dogs are)

Im may opinion, changing from one food from another, merely because the dog wont eat, creates more problems than it solves.

Wainwrights is very similar to JWB, so isnt a bad one to be on. How many meals a day is your dog on?

Id be inclined to try time controlled feeding. Place the food down for a set amount of time, say 20 mins, and leave it there. After the 20 mins anything that isnt eaten, is picked up and nothing else offered until the next meal. You dog will soon realise that it either eats whats offered or goes hungry. Mixing things and chopping and changing often creates a very fussy dog, as they realise that refusal gets them something new and tastier.

A dog wont starve itself, so dont worry about that.

Oscar was a fussy dog until he was about 7 months. If he didnt eat, he just went without. He now eats anything i put infront of him. I think its a phase many pups go through.

His he still on the puppy food, at that age he is ready to be on adult food?

At least two dogs that I feed went off the puppy mixes at around that age!!!

Many manufactures advise changing over to adult at 6 month!!! Wainwrights may be one of them! I know nothing about wainwright I add, other then it is PAH 'better' range!
DT

He is still on puppy food but we plan to change it when this bag runs out, also plan to cut out his lunch time meal soon too, thanks for the replies everyone.

my 7mth old collie is on wainwrights dry as well. It is her 3rd type of food as we had the same problem as you. She can go a couple of days without eating it so i have restricted any treats like pigs ears etc. We also added things to make it more attractive but were told off !! by the vet who said she would eat when she was hungry and she certainly is healthy enough. she was on 2 meals per day but because she does not eat we now just give her one meal.

If your dog is stilleating treats then it is just being fussy, our pup just decided that he didn't want puppy anymore about a month ago so he's on adult now at 9mths, he also stopped eating the lunchtime meal at 6mths so he's self regulating.

If you can't afford to feed Naturediet on it's own you can use it to add interest to the kibble - I share a pack between ours on their evening meal.

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