Balanced Diet

[marbella]

My 4 month old puppy is a fussy eater... At first, she ate small amounts of her Blue Buffalo puppy kibble and wet food. Then, I started mixing it with boiled chicken breast or extra lean turkey... Now, she refuses to eat the kibble/wet food and will only eat the chicken or turkey. I've tried giving her carrots with her meals, but she leaves them in her bowl and picks out the meat.

Are there other foods I can include to give her a balanced diet, or are there other quality brands of kibble that taste better?

Thank you!
-Marcia

[rannmiller]

sounds like you have a typical carnivore on your hands!

You could always look into going the raw route, that's gonna be the best and easiest way to balance your dog's diet.

Otherwise, you'll have to buy calcium tablets for your dog so it gets the correct calcium-phosphorus ratio. And probably a variety of probiotics and multivitamins since all the nutrients and enzymes are being cooked out of the meat when you cook it. Or you can just feed your dog meat, bones, and organs and be all balanced easily.

[RawFedDogs]

Feeding a prey model raw diet would automatically balance your pup's diet. Check out my web page listed in my sig. If you have any questions (and you will) please ask.

[BabyHusky]

Sounds like your puppy is just picky and being a typical puppy. The bad thing is...your pup is training you.

Whether you decide to stick to dry food or convert to raw is fully your choice but your case is simply a pup thats picky (and most are). If you want to stick with a quality premium dry food, just give the pup the dry only. Trust me, once she gets hungry enough, she will eat the dry food. She may refuse to eat for a few days but she won't starve herself to death. Give her the food for 15 minutes then take it away, same time everyday. Soon enough, she'll learn that protesting won't work and she'll eat her food.

You can bring out some flavor in the dry food by adding some warm water.

[Forestwood]

if she is a larger breed, please don't give her calcium tablets like someone suggested, you can cause irreversible damage to her hips and joints. You created this situation by adding the chicken to her food. Now you need tough love, remove the scraps and just give her the kibble. She may refuse it for a few days but no dog is going to starve itself to death, once she gets hungry enough she will eat. And make sure you do not give any snacks between meals. A growing puppy needs to be on a very balanced diet, by adding things to the kibble you are throwing off the diet she is already on. If you choose to go raw then again, you need to make sure you are feeding the proper balance of nutrients for a growing puppy of her breed or you can cause major problems.

[rannmiller]

I only recommended calcium tablets because they said all the puppy was eating was chicken, which is NOT a balanced diet, it's all phosphorus and no calcium which can also cause irreversible damage to the puppy's bones, hips, and joints. So if the puppy is only going to be eating meat, it needs calcium too. That's why raw food is a better option, because the calcium (aka: bones) is already in the meat and the puppy can easily eat them to add calcium. Throw in some organs and you have a very well balanced diet.

[huskyfan]

Hi There,
Sounds like we had the same story. My pup was on blue buff and I also added chicken to her food. She was getting pretty picky and would not eat her kibble. Well to make along story short I ended up changing her kibble to orijen and you would not believe the difference! I stopped giving her chicken altogether which she doesn't seem to miss now that she LOVES this food. She actually howls after she eats it she is so happy. I believe that orijen is a better quality dog food and it really agrees with my pup!