Prefers treats over regular food

oliwa

Snickers was never much of an eater, even when I first got her she never would clear her bowl. She would eat a little, go play, eat some more, go lay down, etc. I leave her bowl down for about 1 hour in the morning, and about 1.5 hours at night. She is gaining weight and is a very healthy and happy (and lazy) Basset.

Recently I've noticed she is less and less interested in her food. I think she prefers the treats I give her for training, going potty outside, the kongs, the chewy sticks, etc that I give her to keep her busy at night. The treats I give her for training is actually soft dog food. I buy a big roll of it (looks like salami) and cut it up into bit sized morsels so I feel better that I'm not feeding her "doggy junk food".

My thought is that she doesn't like her primary dog food. I'm currently feeding her Iams Large Breed Puppy and I'm going to slowly switch her to Orijen Large Breed Puppy starting tonight.

I'm anxious to see how she will react to the new food and will post updates. In the meantime, is this common? Even when I try to use the Iams as training rewards she sniffs it and ignores it. Does it sound like she just doesn't like it?

Mikey

You know-it could be the food is not to her liking-or that she prefers and is getting full from her other treats. So long as the food your using to train is healthy that's fine In fact a lot of trainers portion the whole days food into training throughout the day instead of having meals (though I'm not sure i'd want to eat MY dinner in small bites all day lol).

I definitely recommend switching to Orijen though-it's way healthier imo and I have not met anydoggie who didn't like it

oliwa

It was definitely her food. I tried the Orijen last night (1 cup Orijen, 1 cup Iams) and she ate all the Orijen and left the Iams alone. She ate a little bit of the Iams, but I think it was purely accidental.

Criosphynx

yeah, she sounds bored with it to me...Are you using those natural balance sausage things? Those rock

If you take some of the treats and bag them up with the kibble, and shake 'em around, the kibble will smell a bit more interesting to her...or at least it should!

Mikey

heheh Mikey did not touch his old food when we did the switch to orijen-there was no slow switch there-just old food spit out around the bowl

Ditto Crio-bag the treats with food We have fish treats with Mikey's other treats and they are way more interesting

oliwa

I'm actually using Petsmart's house brand soft dog food...Pet Botanics Chicken & Rice. She prefers it over the Iams and Orijen for training. I looked at the label yesterday and it was only 12% crude protein so much more "junk" in there than even Iams, but I figure it is dog food so it's better than feeding her a bunch of dog biscuits.

I've heard this trick before. My puppy trainer said you could try it with an old pork chop, or chicken breast, and I tried it with a piece of sausage from the grill. She at her Iams pretty quickly when I did this (several weeks ago). My concern with that is I don't want her to get used to it and not want to eat her kibble because it doesn't smell like a pork chop. I'd like her to eat her kibble because she likes it...now if I train with kibble that might be a very good idea. Not sure if you meant for training, regular feeding, or both.

Lol...yeah...she isn't cooperating with the gradual change. It's as if she doesn't read these forums.