Picky Pomeranian

Question
QUESTION: I have two female poms, both spayed. One is three years old and the other is two.  The older one came down with Alopecia X in the past year. Her hair has not totally grown back, but she seems healthy and happy. My question is regarding appetite. We have tried: regular (canned) dog food; a vet-recommended diet where we cook the food ourselves; trying them on other foods to see if it's a taste issue.  While the younger dog eats a wider variety of foods, they both snub the canned food now - all brands. They will eat the dry occasionally, but not often enough to feed it to them everyday. The older one once had hypoglycemia so her breeder told us to make sure she eats something when she gets extremely picky or won't eat. We have tried gravy on the food, both dog gravy and human gravy. Sometimes it actually works, but not consistently. Can you recommend a type of food that has a better success rate with poms?


ANSWER: Hello How bothersome this is...my dogs went through a picky stage as well it drove me up the wall so I in turn changed to a higher quaility Dry only diet and now feed them twice a day in the morning and evening they eat it without fuss either. I can tell you and i'm sure you already know canned foods eally damage the teeth its very bad also if you don't brush there teeth daily when they are on canned foods I have seen so many dogs taken into the vets or(this is just between the times I've been in there with my dogs!) coming out from having rotten teeth pulled....this is from the owners neglegence as cannedfoods do really damage teeth quite badly.  . I can reccomend  these brands pelase check my website link: http://www.freewebs.com/dustycovens/dietfeedingfoods.htm

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Again and thanks for your wisdom!  How long did it take your dogs to "take" to the dry food?  Did they go through a few days of not eating? Most people I know say "if the dog doesn't eat it, too bad, she'll starve."  But I don't want her to go without for more than a day.  If canned food is that bad for them, I'm definitely interested in switching them over! I'm going to try one of your recommendations for the dry food.

Answer
Hello. Well if you check my profile you'll notice my dogs are not the really finicky breeds like toy dogs often are. I had my dogs on cheaper foods because of price(stuipid me i later relized that the cheap food the dogs eat more the more expensive they eat less so it evens out price anyway! lol) They were on peddigree at one time also authority via petsmart(I'm currently swiching my labrador retereiver to blue buffalo as well). My boston terreir was finicky as a puppy or i spoiled her I used to give her cnaned food everyday but soon stopped as well it was getting expensive...she needed hard kibble for her teeth and canned food makes poop too soft and hard to pick up! I then was free feeding my dogs my lab got very fat so that wasnt going to work either I said, I finaly decided I was going to shedual feed them and that was final...I simply broke thre emals up into two portions one morning and one evening...gave half in the morning(my dogs are crated for there breakfest to avoid them bothering the others food bowls) they got 30 minutes back then to eat the first two days they barely ate I must honestly say but everyday after that they just began to eat it as soon as I offered it and now clean there bowls day in and day out...they now need only 5 to 10 minutes to eat both times daily. Since doing this i have saved on food bills...my lab is no longer over eatting and has lost weight and my little dogs are eatting when its offered thats all that matters plus with hard kibble the good quaility stuff the poop is formed and easy to scoop up and the dog benifits from a shiny coat and healthy vitality.