Lower quality food..........

mjb

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#1
Spanky boarded last weekend while we were out-of-town. I had measured out his food for each meal and labeled the ziploc bags that I put each meal in for him. My husband dropped him off and forgot to take the food, so he ate their food which is Science Diet.

I knew he didn't care for the Sci. Diet prescription weight-reduction food, but that would have to be tasteless, especially with it being weight-reduction. I thought he liked Sci. Diet, okay, though. He has eaten their food before when I've boarded him.

About a month ago, I changed him to Taste of the Wild (from the prescription food for weight-loss). He gets a report card from the boarding facility, and they check off how he eats. He usually has 'piggy piggy' checked meaning he eats everything they give him. This time he had 'picky picky' checked off.

I would have thought getting to eat a lower quality food would be like a treat to him. I know I would rather, taste-wise, eat junk food than good-for-you food, and I had always thought that it would be the same with dog food...
that it would be like getting candy or hamburgers and french fries as opposed to broccoli and spinach, etc.

Apparently Spanky likes his TOTW because he's cleaning his plate every meal since he's been home.

I would say it could be from being in a new place, but he's very familiar with where he stayed, and he's always eaten well there before.
 

Zoom

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#2
I do'nt know about you, but I'd rather have TOTW and it's meaty goodness over SD and it's peanut hulls. :D
 

Toller_08

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#3
Last summer while I was visiting relatives, a cousin of mine offered Dance one of their dog's kibbles (Science Diet). Dance snarled at it and refused to even look at it after, lol. That's happened a couple of other times too with low quality food... and she's a dog who'll eat pretty much anything. So, it doesn't surprise me at all that he didn't want to eat. I know if I were a dog, I'd rather eat TOTW than SD any day!
 

SizzleDog

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#5
Sounds like Spanky is a health food nut... good for him! :D Ilsa would eat anything if offered, but Ronin is picky. Ilsa would eat poo with sprinkles if you told her it was food... ;)
 

Lizmo

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#6
Lizzie's like that too. She'd rather have her EVO or TOTW over some purina :p
 

lizzybeth727

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#7
I think it's just an individual thing. I've heard of a lot of dogs who like one brand over another, many times they'd rather the low-quality stuff, many times it's the higher-quality stuff. I personally am grateful when my dog likes the good stuff!
 

Laurelin

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#8
Summer does that with the treats the vet tries to give her. Actually all of them do. You can't get them to eat it.
 

mjb

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#9
Well, Spanky has been known to eat poop, so I'm not so sure he's all that much of a health food junky. He also will scavenge. They might have had better luck getting him to eat if they had pretended they were putting it out of his reach!!
 

mjb

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#10
Kharma is polite. She'll take it, and then wait until she's out of sight to spit it out.
I have seen Spanky be very polite. At the bank drive through, the teller gave him a dog biscuit. He doesn't like them, but he took it in his mouth and spit it out after we drove off....very polite.

But, I went through a Chick Fil A drive through, and the worker handed him a dog biscuit, and he wouldn't take it. Of course, the aroma of chicken nuggets was all around him. He was waiting for her to offer that. She never did, although she did pass a bag through with some in it!! But she gave them to me, and I didn't share:(.
 

Whisper

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#11
My dogs much prefer better quality food over crappy food. They like the meat and freshness of EVO over the corn and peanut hulls and byproducts and crap in other foods.
Wait, I take that back. That applies to Millie, but Lucy will scarf down anything that looks remotely like food.
 

mjb

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#12
I guess I've just wondered if the crap they put in low quality dog food tastes as good to dogs as the crap they put in snacks and junk food tastes to so many humans. I thought it probably did and that, if they are eating high quality food, getting a few days of SD might be like someone who has a steady, very healthy diet of baked chicken, steamed green beans, squash and broccoli most of the time would find it a treat to get a piece of battered, fried chicken and some gravy or french fries for a meal.
 

Toller_08

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#13
Kharma is polite. She'll take it, and then wait until she's out of sight to spit it out.
Lol, I wish Dance could be like that. Instead, when she actually does take it on those rare occasions, she'll spit it right back out at the person's feet and give them the most disgusted look.
 
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#14
They do add flavors, but I think the dogs just like superpremium better.

Buster is ok with Canidae, and ate the SD the other dogs were on for a week, but I learned to be VERY careful bringing Evo into the house. Buster and Lexi would fight as soon as they got a good sniff of it, they both wanted their meat!
 

noludoru

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#15
Middie pretty much eats anything... I haven't offered him any crappy stuff since I got him, except these dog treats that are primarily wheat gluten. He was so disgusted at them and wouldn't even go on his bed when I put them there.. and hell, they smelled fine to me. I'll have to offer science diet or something and see if he eats it. He completely ignores the crap in petsmart.... so.. maybe.

Sounds like Spanky is a health food nut... good for him! :D Ilsa would eat anything if offered, but Ronin is picky. Ilsa would eat poo with sprinkles if you told her it was food... ;)
Are you sure you'd even have to tell her it's food?

Last summer while I was visiting relatives, a cousin of mine offered Dance one of their dog's kibbles (Science Diet). Dance snarled at it and refused to even look at it after, lol. That's happened a couple of other times too with low quality food... and she's a dog who'll eat pretty much anything. So, it doesn't surprise me at all that he didn't want to eat. I know if I were a dog, I'd rather eat TOTW than SD any day!
OMG! She actually snarled!?!? Holy COW. Dance, you are my hero. <3
 

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