# Won't Eat New Food



## Ronin2016 (Feb 18, 2016)

We have had such hard time with Ronin and his food since we brought him home. He was on Raw for a long time, but then that got way too expensive, so we switched him to another raw food but that made him sick. We have since gone to the vet and the vet has put him in Royal Canin Hypersensitivy food that is working so far very well. Other than the fact that Ronin hates to eat the food. He ate it fine for the first 3 days we had him on it with no problems, then in the past 3 days he won't eat it. I checked his teeth, no problems, he's not lethargic or vomiting and no diarrhea.

I put hot water on the food to soften it a bit and he will eat some, but the only way to get him to eat it is if I put it in his crate when I leave in the morning for work and he eats it through out the day and at night just picks away at it. Any suggestions?


----------



## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Maybe the food isn't good? I was just reading about studies on dog foods and issues with mold with 98% of the food they tested.


----------



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Maybe he simply doesn't like it? There is a Purina prescription diet and a Science Diet. Try one of those. Is he maintaining his weight? Is he healthy? My dogs have 10 minutes to eat while I'm doing other things. If they aren't done or show no interest, the food goes up till the next meal. I don't coax or bribe them.


----------



## Ronin2016 (Feb 18, 2016)

Jax08 said:


> Maybe he simply doesn't like it? There is a Purina prescription diet and a Science Diet. Try one of those. Is he maintaining his weight? Is he healthy? My dogs have 10 minutes to eat while I'm doing other things. If they aren't done or show no interest, the food goes up till the next meal. I don't coax or bribe them.


I think he just doesn't like it. I'll ask the vet about the other brands you mentioned. His weight is the same, but he's only been on it for about 6 days. On Sunday I pulled up his food basically the whole day and he still didn't want to eat the next day. I don't want him to not eat for days.


----------



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Dogs can be stubborn but they are not going to starve themselves unless they are sick. Ask about feeding the canned food with the kibble maybe? They should have canned in the prescription.

I wouldn't add anything to the food. The whole point to that food is to limit ingredients and quiet the system down.


----------



## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

I agree, try to see if there is a different brand perscription you could try.

My dogs find Purina EN quite palatable. They also like Iams GI plus, which used to be the low residue. 

I recently switched the old girl from RC Hydrolyzed to Iams GI Plus. She ate the Royal Canin but eats the Iams MUCH more enthusiastically. She also no longer has bad breath, which she did on the RC despite frequent brushing which we have always done. I had niticed she had lost significant muscle mass, she just felt bony instead of muscular. I cant totally attribute this to the food because she was able to swim a lot more in the last month but she also appears to have put back on a little of the lost muscle. So far I am pretty happy with it.


----------



## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

those diets are rated among the worst .

Brands and Recalls
The original 2,223 dog food formulas we analyzed comprised 115 brands. But after reducing the number of formulas to 1,257, the number of brands dropped to 93.
Brands That Were Cut Because of Their Ingredients:

Cesar
Chicken Soup
Eukanuba
Fruitables
HI-TOR
Hill’s Prescription Diet
Hill’s Science Diet
Iams Veterinary Formula
Nummy Tum-Tum
Nutro
Nutro Ultra
Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets
Royal Canin
NRG
Breeder’s Choice
Natural Planet
Now Fresh
Nutro Natural
Indigo
Pet Naturals of Vermont
Himalayan Dog Chew
Of the 93 brands left, we went straight to their recall history to look for any major recalls, any significant controversies, and unusually high numbers of customer complaints and reports.

this report in full Best Dog Food Reviews and Ratings of 2016 - Reviews.com 
covered in this thread http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/feeding-our-puppy/667202-reviews.html


we have had a few very informative threads , which were viewed by a select few and then abandoned ---- yet, the information in these posts are valuable to many . 
Customized answers are not always necessary or possible.


----------



## Ronin2016 (Feb 18, 2016)

UPDATE: Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't get back to you in the past 2 weeks to give an update. It's been very stressful. Ronin would not eat his new food and went a week without eating. We tried adding things to it to make him like it but nope. The vet just kept saying to leave it and he would eventually eat. After a week I had had enough. I searched and searched for a new food and finally found one that is called GO! Venison Limited Ingredient (ingredients are below) and he has so far enjoyed it and is eating it with no diarrhea at all from the day we started it. He's been on it for about a week and a half now, and so far so good. However, he only usually eats in the evening, no longer at breakfast. But he will eat at about suppertime and will eat the entire daily recommended amount and is back to his normal self otherwise. Anyone else have picky dogs?

We are going to be seeing a new vet this Friday afternoon who has a bit of a better reputation in our area and has more experience (30+ years). We are planning on doing bloodwork to determine if there are any other problems going on as well.

Ingredients for new food:
De-boned venison, venison meal, tapioca, peas, pea flour, lentils, chickpeas, canola oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), dried chicory root, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, choline chloride, vitamins (vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, inositol, niacin, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (a source of vitamin C), d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, beta-carotene, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), minerals (zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc oxide, manganese proteinate, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, calcium iodate, manganous oxide, selenium yeast), DL-methionine, L-lysine, dried rosemary.


----------

