[nagdu] any suggestions?

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Jessica,

Well, Mitzi is a very delicate eater, and has been since she was a pup.  If
I'm in a hurry for her to eat, it will drive me mad listening to her.  She
picks up a kbble or two, very daintily, and chews five times... crunch
crunch crunch... crunch crunch.  Pause.  Sound of kibble in bowl, then the
crunch.  Good grief!  I don't know if that's a poodle thing or what.  When
we moved in with Daisy and her dad, I had a heck of a time managing feeding
times because Daisy eats like a real dog.  They finally got it sorted out
sometime after we moved into this house...  Although I confess, we kinda
free feed.  Both dogs stay slim and trim, so they're not overeating.

When I first got Mitzi, the pet store where I got most of our gear gave us a
bunch of sample packs of the foods I was considering, so I was able to
observe which ones she seemed to like best...  So I fed her the Wellness
Puppy whatever...  Lamb and Rice, I think, until she was ready to switch to
adult dog food.  Come to think of it, sometimes I would add a bit of cottage
cheese or yogurt to it to make sure she ate and to give her some extra
calcium and probiotics.  Now that I remember, this helped us with the food
part of our bonding, because she was blasé about the kibble, but got really
excited about the yogurt, so I could at least feel like I was being the
"giver of food" and therefore nominally in charge.  /grin/  Actually,
Mitzi's really good in her role as pack beta, but she definitely has a mind
of her own.

Anyway, don't know if any of that is helpful, but that's how we did it.  I
also know her appetite varied a lot while she was growing.  She would pig
out and get all pudgy, and about the time I started to wonder if I should
worry about her weight, she would wake up the next morning all tall and
skinny. /lol/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jessica Pitzer
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 10:43 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] any suggestions?

Hi all,
So I've had rolo for about a week and a half. He's already grown like
woe. Anyway, as of current I'm feeding him this stuff called nature
chicken and rice, its something kind of local apparently and I get it
delivered for free. The problem? Well, I don't think rolo likes it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but when its feeding time, he's not interested, I
have to sit on teh ground and coax him to eat the stuff, he'll eat a
few kibbles and then that's it and so I'll have to talk with him, move
the bowl around, move the food in teh bowl, etc. and then he'll eat a
few more kibbles, but it seems that he doesn't like it, and sometimes
while eating he'll just shakes his head, not like an ear shake, but
just like a yuck kinda shake. I've loved everyones responses about
your dogs, its facinating to me that's for sure. I'm wondering what
you guys would suggest. I really do not want to go the raw way, not
because its bad, but to be honest it kind of groses me out, and others
I live with, so yeah. I'm open to dry, canned, freeze dries, pretty
much anything but raw stuff, so suggestions, would be fabulous.
Jessica and Rolo

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