making dry meal more tasty??

[DumBlonde]

hi there, i've just switched my 13 wk old chihuahua onto a sensitive diet (purina pro plan) because he's been itching a lot but he doesn't seem to like it much. he's eating very little of it, but is still clearly very hungry cuz he tries to eat anything of mine. i've gotten into the habot of feeding him by hand just to make sure he eats something, but i don't want this to be the only way he'll eat!!

is there anything i can add to make the meal a little more tasty without upsetting his skin?

thanks

[jules77]

You could boil some chicken and pasta? Spinach is excellent for itchy skin, liquidised raw or you can buy it frozen.

[lankeela]

A 13 week old Chihuahua will only need very small amounts of food, and you need to make sure he gets regular meals or he could get hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels). Cooked minced chicken and rice, minced raw tripe, pilchards, any of those should satisfy him and not make him itch. Has the vet done skin scrapings or blood tests to see what is making him itch?

[doglady]

I wouldn't recommend hand feeding, especially at this early age. Never start doing anything you don't want to continue to do indefinately. Your dog will learn that if he doesn't eat, you'll hand feed him and then he'll do it more.

Be more hard-hearted. If he gets hungry enough he'll eat whatever food is there. Leave it down for 10 minutes at each meal time, then pick up whatever is left and don't give him anything else to eat until his next meal. He'll soon learn that he has to eat when he is given food, otherwise it goes away.

Obviously he should always have access to clean water.

Of course he wants to eat your food - dogs are greedy and they'll eat things they think will be nice!!

Have you had him checked for other reasons he might not be eating?

Also, I would say that if he doesn't eat, don't add yummy things at that meal, otherwise he'll learn that if he doesn't eat what he's given he'll get something nicer. If you're going to put extra bits in his food do it before you give him the meal.