How to get a Picky Dog to Eat

You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but there is certainly a way to get your picky dog to eat!  And it doesn't involve dog food. It involves human food.

Meet Faye, our wonderful baby girl and the star of her own book, What Faye Loves.  Well, it turns out, one of the things Faye loves...is being incredibly food picky.  So for the first 3 years of her life we tried over 15 different kinds of dog food across all spectrums: dry, wet, raw, frozen, freeze dried, and even the order online kind (e.g. Farmer's Dog).  No matter what we did, she either turned up her nose at the new food right away or within days or weeks.  On the rare occasion, the food gave her diarrhea and we actively chose to try a new food, because that's not good for her.  She's now four years old and eating smoothly, morning and night.  She's been eating smoothly for upwards of six months now, but it took me months of having to hand feed her wet and frozen dog food at every feeding all while crying because she refused to eat and would vomit instead because she was hungry.  I felt like I had failed as a dog parent.

But I remembered when we would travel she would love and survive on bits of human food - steak, turkey, cheese, carrots - and so an idea popped into my brain. I thought, what if that's just what she wants to eat?!  And so I set out to try.

Now, if you find yourself in a similar situation, listen to your dog and your dog's system.  My perfect combo may not be your dog's perfect combo, but after a little trial and error I am certain you'll find the right mix!  We tried: cooked (but not seasoned) stead, eggs, turkey, and ham.  I already knew both of my dogs can't do chicken.  We also tried: buttered or olive oil roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash.  And we already knew she loved cheese and cooked (but again unseasoned) oatmeal.

So after much trial and error, Faye's new meals are:

THE STAPLES

- turkey (unseasoned, but you can buy the turkey breast fully cooked at places like Costco and Sam's.  Try to stay away from deli meat because of the added salt and deli-counter meat often has seasoning on the outside.  But if you like, you can also cook a raw full turkey in the oven.  again, unseasoned)

- buttered carrots, roasted in the oven at 350 for 30 min.  (Faye, being the wonderfully picky delight that she is, prefers the carrots peeled over the already sliced rectangular ones, so I get a giant Costco sized bundle of carrots and peel and cut and cook 6-7 carrots at a time.  I add about 2 tbsp of butter to that, and it usually lasts me 1-2 weeks.  She gets about 7-8 pieces per meal)

THE ADD INS

- sometimes I add in (1) cheese (2) cooked (but unsweetened / seasoned) oatmeal or (3) roasted sweet potatoes or zucchini, cut into chunks, and tossed in olive oil only, then baked at 350 for 20-50 min, depending on how much is in there and how long it takes to soften everything.

Best of luck to you and your picky eater!