Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Her Pickyness
For the last few months with Sol we have been having fun trying to find a food that she likes that also does not upset her tummy. She liked our home-cooked meal, well she liked the turkey in our home-cooked meal, but the pumpkin & veggies didn't sit too well with her. So we transitioned her to Wellness. She liked the Wellness OK, but it was a bit much for her stomach. So we are now onto California Natural. In talking with our vet, he recommended a fish or turkey based food & recommended that chicken be a last resort. Well guess what? Of all the California Natural flavors we have tried, Salmon & Sweet Potato, Duck, Turkey and Chicken & Brown Rice, guess which one is the only one she will eat? The chicken & brown rice flavor! She turns her nose up at all the other flavors. And to make it worse, she doesn't just walk away, she sniffs the food in her bowl and then comes and stares at you, like, "I know you have something better. Come on. Give it to me."
So we have started mixing in some of the other flavors with the chicken & brown rice food. But that is a very tricky game. Every bit of hearing that pug must have had at one point in her life, must have went straight to her nose, because if you don't get the ratio of what she likes and what she doesn't like just right, she will refuse to eat. Plus, if you don't mix the food well enough you will find only the flavor she doesn't like still sitting in her bowl when she is finished. Oh, and don't even try to slip a pill in her bowl. She will find it every time! And she doesn't just eat around it, she will refuse to eat any more of her meal, after she has found the pill, like we have tried to poison her and now the rest of the meal may be tainted.
And the little girl gets 3 pills a day. In the morning she gets a pill for her arthritis and a pill to help her breathing, which she also gets in the evenings. So we have to sneak the pills in a treat. And get this, so far, we haven't found a treat that she will eat for more than two weeks. She gets bored and just refuses to eat the treat anymore, with or without a pill in it. In the beginning, we did the 'ole peanut butter trick. That worked like a charm, but she soon tired of the peanut butter. Then we moved on to hiding the pill in a puperoni. That worked for about a week and a half and then we moved on to hiding the pill in canned cheese (gross). Right now, we are using lunch meat and we have about a week left to come up with what we will use next.
The other bad part is that Sol does not like anything remotely healthy. I'm sure she would be happiest if we just went into Walmart and bought the cheapest dog food they sold. Heck, she had us feeding her canned cheese for awhile there! She sure does keep us on our toes.
