If you have to change your pet's food for health reasons, the new ration may not be accepted immediately. We would like to give you a few tips below that you should try with fussy pets. However, if there is no dietary background, you should never change your pet to a food that it does not like to eat and even has to be persuaded to eat.
Our tips for fussy animals:
Offer the food warmed up. Then it immediately smells much better.
Many dogs are helped by feeding by hand and offering fresh food again and again throughout the day. Here you must be careful, however, that you do not spoil your four-legged friend!
Sometimes it is enough if you mix in highly palatable food. For example, a little liver (max. 0.5 g per kilogram of body weight), egg yolk, tasty and calorie-dense food such as Royal Canin Recovery or Hills a/d from the vet or baby food (meat jars) are well suited.
The addition of flavored water can also help:
- Use the meat broth from boiling off the meat: You can add the broth (approx. 1:2) diluted with water to the feed so that the feed is mushy to soupy.
- Add 1-2 tbsp tuna or sausage water to 100 ml water and stir the mixture into the feed.
- Puree 1 tsp liver sausage in 200 ml hot water and add the mixture to the feed.
If you feed carbohydrates, you should cook them together with the meat. This way they take over the flavor of the meat and are better accepted.
Adding a little honey also works for some dogs. You can also lightly salt the ration, provided your pet does not suffer from high blood pressure.
Many dogs and cats also like to eat food with Optisolo Vitamin B Complex powder mixed in. It is tasty and can improve feed intake.
If your cat does not like the new diet food and previously liked a certain dry food, you can grind about 5-10 kibbles of the favorite dry food and mix it into the diet food.
Another option is to use rumen meal. Rumen meal acts as a "natural meat flavoring" and dogs find the smell very pleasant. You may offer your dog 1-4 tsp per 10 kg body weight of rumen meal dissolved in warm water mixed in with the daily portion. This may help with the desired feed intake.
If acute nausea is involved in the decreased feed intake, the use of anti-nausea and appetite stimulant medications could be considered. For more information, contact your family veterinarian.
You can find out how to carry out a change of feed in our article "Feed conversion the gentle way" under "good to know". You can find recipes to prepare yourself in under "Recipes".
image credits: © Giel Bildwelten - Nr. 040201