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We adopted a senior Australian laddle a few months back (we already have shepherd and a border collie) as her family dumped her after 10 years because she is going on 12 and has serious dental problems. She was slat thin and not eating when we got her. In order to entice her to eat and make her food soft (they eat Natural Balance), I browned ground beef to mix with her food and poured beef broth over the lot. Of course, I had to give the other 2 dogs the same food so there wouldn't be any jealousy. The border collie had 5 teeth out himself so I thought his food should be softer as well.
Long story short, now I've ruined them for just plain dog food. I tried giving them their food with just the broth over it, but they weren't having it. The food ends up spoiled and mushy and I have to throw it out. Unless I have ground beef mixed in it, none of them will eat it. It will sit and sit and spoil. They don't even seem to want diced chicken, just ground beef!
Any suggestions? Have you had this happen and if so, what did you end up giving them? The ground beef is getting expensive.
Awww c'mon keep givin' 'em the ground beef.. hehe.
The standard advice on this is just give them whatever food you want them on, and leave it down for 20 minutes. If they don't eat, they miss a meal. They get another opportunity to eat at the next scheduled feeding. The claim is that a dog will not starve himself to death when food is being offered daily, he will eventually give in and eat. It is also sited that dogs and other canids in the wild "fast" or go without food for days when they fail to make a kill or scavenge a proper meal. I would not use this method myself, I'd give my dogs the damn beef & broth on their kibble if they liked it so much, but if you are dead set on breaking them of their beef habit, this is the standard method.
Just cut back slowly on the ground beef until you are only adding a very small amount. After that, you might find that it's not super expensive to add since you're only mixing a little bit in their dishes, or you may be able to eliminate it entirely because you slowly cut back to nothing.
Awww c'mon keep givin' 'em the ground beef.. hehe.
The standard advice on this is just give them whatever food you want them on, and leave it down for 20 minutes. If they don't eat, they miss a meal. They get another opportunity to eat at the next scheduled feeding. The claim is that a dog will not starve himself to death when food is being offered daily, he will eventually give in and eat. It is also sited that dogs and other canids in the wild "fast" or go without food for days when they fail to make a kill or scavenge a proper meal. I would not use this method myself, I'd give my dogs the damn beef & broth on their kibble if they liked it so much, but if you are dead set on breaking them of their beef habit, this is the standard method.
I would buy the ground beef on sale and freeze it.
Oh and mine are spoiled too. Kona was mad when we got Sophie so I put some parmesan cheese on her kibble to get her to eat, that was 10 years ago and they still have me trained well.
LOL, I was stirring cottage cheese into my dog's food "temporarily", and she and my other dog ended up getting it for the rest of their lives. There are a lot of us in the same boat! The dogs I have now eat straight dry kibble, but who knows what might happen in the future.
We adopted a senior Australian laddle a few months back (we already have shepherd and a border collie) as her family dumped her after 10 years because she is going on 12 and has serious dental problems. She was slat thin and not eating when we got her. In order to entice her to eat and make her food soft (they eat Natural Balance), I browned ground beef to mix with her food and poured beef broth over the lot. Of course, I had to give the other 2 dogs the same food so there wouldn't be any jealousy. The border collie had 5 teeth out himself so I thought his food should be softer as well.
Long story short, now I've ruined them for just plain dog food. I tried giving them their food with just the broth over it, but they weren't having it. The food ends up spoiled and mushy and I have to throw it out. Unless I have ground beef mixed in it, none of them will eat it. It will sit and sit and spoil. They don't even seem to want diced chicken, just ground beef!
Any suggestions? Have you had this happen and if so, what did you end up giving them? The ground beef is getting expensive.
Thanks
I don't believe that "human" food is bad for dogs because just about all of our dogs that died from natural causes have lived to be at least 17 years old. The longest one lived 21 years on pretty much 100% human food. If you want to change their diet though, just cut back each week, eventually they will get hungry enough to eat.
I don't believe that "human" food is bad for dogs because just about all of our dogs that died from natural causes have lived to be at least 17 years old. The longest one lived 21 years on pretty much 100% human food.
I totally agree. My dogs live very long lives. My peekapoo lived until 22 years. She refused to eat dog food. Cheerios were the staple of her diet in her dish, and she ate whatever we gave her from what we were eating. She ate fruit, vegetables, everything.
I do understand the OP's concern about cost. She is feeding ground beef to 3 large size dogs. That's expensive. The alternative solution would be to mix her nightly dinner leftovers into their food dishes to get them used to eating whatever is put in their dishes. This way she's not wasting money trying foods that they refuse. If offered a diverse diet of people food mixed with their dog food, they might end up happy eating whatever she gives them.
Awww c'mon keep givin' 'em the ground beef.. hehe.
The standard advice on this is just give them whatever food you want them on, and leave it down for 20 minutes. If they don't eat, they miss a meal. They get another opportunity to eat at the next scheduled feeding. The claim is that a dog will not starve himself to death when food is being offered daily, he will eventually give in and eat. It is also sited that dogs and other canids in the wild "fast" or go without food for days when they fail to make a kill or scavenge a proper meal. I would not use this method myself, I'd give my dogs the damn beef & broth on their kibble if they liked it so much, but if you are dead set on breaking them of their beef habit, this is the standard method.
I used the above method on my dog, and it worked after a couple of meals.
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