Dog Food They Really Like
We’ve had problems with finding food that satisfies two requirements:
- Gizmo and Gadget must LIKE the food.
- The food must not cause either Gizmo or Gadget any type of gastrointestinal problem. (No vomiting or diarrhea)
For a long time, we fed them Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul brand dog food. They liked it as much as any dog likes dry dog food. However, occasionally, Gizmo would vomit — maybe as often as once per week. So, we started trying different foods. Changing foods in itself can cause problems, most notably, diarrhea. To combat this problem, we would mix something like Science Diet Sensitive Stomach or canned pumpkin into their food. Ultimately, even if we got them adjusted to the food, by the time this happened, they’d get tired of the food, not eat it, and beg for food (more than usual).
This became an even bigger problem when we started giving them less food, twice per day (for Gadget to lose weight) because when they don’t like food, they pick at it during the day. If there’s only a limited amount of food and they know it, they’ll still pick at it, but they also get a little bit territorial — well, Gizmo gets territorial and doesn’t let Gadget eat his share. Because of this, the ideal situation is one where we can put food down twice per day and have them gobble it up right away.
Here’s our solution. We’re now giving them limited portions of canned food only, twice per day. Also, we rotate which canned food we give them. We’re using Innova EVO and Wellness brand canned food. Both of them come in several flavors with similar ingredients. Wellness comes in flavors like Chicken+Sweet Potato, Lamb + Sweet Potato, and Whitefish + Sweet Potato. Innova has no grain options, duck, venison, etc. My point is that both come in several flavors and that they’re similar enough so as to not cause digestion problems. The rotation of flavors keeps them interested in the food — they never get “bored of eating the same thing over and over.” They both gobble up their food right away because they like it!
The cans say to give a certain amount of food per dog weight, but we’re giving less than that, for several reasons. First, they aren’t very active. Their day consists of following us from room to room, barking a bit, and one approximately 20 minute walk. Oh, plus some sleeping, snuggling, and begging for whatever bits of our food they can get. Second, we’re trying to get Gadget’s weight down. Having a few less calories than necessary is good when we want him to lose weight.
Gadget’s weight is down, though I’m not sure how much. He’s looking slimmer, and he doesn’t get as hot as he used to. Because of this, he is now sleeping in bed all night, as opposed to his previous “hop out of bed and go sleep on the tile floor in the bathroom to cool off.” He still doesn’t jump up on the bed by himself (he can do it, he just doesnt) — though I think this is more because he’s scared to jump than because he thinks he can’t do it.
What do you do for feeding?
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