trying a new dog food

anyone out there have vegan dogs who are also picky eaters? maia is soooo not about food, it's kind of ridiculous. we have two cats in the house who may as well be goats (i often joke that avery in particular would probably eat a tin can if you gave him half a chance), but the dog is extremely blase about pretty much everything. this is nice when it means that she doesn't try to steal things off the counter, but very frustrating when you try to make her delicious meals and she's all, 'eh.'

when we first adopted her she was being fed some kind of lamb atrocity, so we weaned her off the rest of that bag and switched her over to vegan without any problems. she was actually pretty excited about the new food we were giving her (at the time, we were transitioning with natural balance, because it's carried at our nearby pet supplies store), because she didn't much care for the lamb atrocity. well, we would soon learn that after several meals, she doesn't much care for anything. ha!

after awhile, she absolutely refused to eat natural balance, so we decided to gift it to a friend and try something new. we went with evolution, and that went over like gangbusters, until it didn't. she never outright refuses it, but you can tell she gets less excited as time goes on. at one point, we switched to ami, which she thought was like the greatest christmas morning ever, until she didn't. again, she won't refuse it, but she also is much less excited about it than she was at first. 

right now we're in a pattern of switching back and forth between the two, hoping that by the time she gets bored with one, it will be time to switch to the other... but to be honest, i'd rather just find something she likes consistently over time.

so, we're giving v-dog a shot. it isn't available locally so i have to mail order it, but even still it's cheaper than evolution and ami, so that's a plus if she ends up liking it. i placed an order on thursday so i'm hoping it will be here soon. keep your fingers crossed that it tickles maia's fancy!

Comments

[la phoenicienne]

maybe she just needs variety so you will be stuck switching. i know i hate eating the same thing over and over...some dogs and cats must be like that too...?

[Amy]

My dog is the exact same way- the first time she tries a new food she will sit and lay down for pieces of it, as if they're treats! Then pretty soon she's ignoring it. I've accepted that she's just not excite by dry kibble, and use it as a good reason to free feed her. Her bowl is full all the time and she just eats when she's hungry (and she eats plenty then). It has worked well for us. Of course she still gets plenty of treats that she does get excited about- sweet potatoes and peanut butter, among other things. :)

[Sarah]

My cat is the same as she likes different flavours. =/ lol

[VeganFoodRocks]

My dog Gizmo is like that. Before I had her on a vegan diet she was extremely fussy. Then I switched her to homemade vegan food with some vegan formula Natural Balance mixed in and she loves it. I make her food in one month batches and freeze it in weekly portions, she's only 7 lbs so a little goes a long way with her. Every time I make a new batch I switch it up with different fruits and veggies so it's never exactly the same and now she never gets bored with eating.

[gladcow]

luckily, I only have to convince my kids to eat. The dogs, they are happy to eat any old thing up to and including the pan spray that lands on the floor (Lola) as well as toilet paper out of the bathroom trash (Lola) and 3 year old Halloween candy that you didn't know you had (Lucy)

They both eat Natural Balance. Long ago we made homemade food, but when I went back to full time out of the house work we stopped.

[Haley]

I used to get my chow to eat by mixing my dinner in with what he had. Somehow him seeing that we were eating the same thing would get him excited about it.

[Barb]

I tried V-dog, but it made my dogs gassy and one of them refused to eat it. Now, two of the 3 are on Natural Balance, but I "cut" it with Nature's Recipe (which is more soy/less nutrition) to try and save a little $$.