Marty is a picky eater...Need some dry food advice

[Tinglee]

Marty is about 6 month now, weighing in at approx 19-20 pounds but still looking pretty slim. He's a big tall boy. Since we have gotten him as a pup at 8 weeks, we have tried out different things for his diet. We thought he may get tired of eating the same kibble everyday (we were suggested Nutro puppy formula, which now we learned is not so fantastic. ) A couple months after we got him he didn't eat much kibble which concerned us so we thought we would add some wet food. We went with Nutro wet food, lamb and rice. We only mixed in about a spoonful of with the kibble. He enjoyed this and ate it happily but we still had our hesitations about the wet food.

About a month and a half ago we decided to give him some real meat to mix in with his kibbles. We continued on with the Nutro puppy formula (we bought the largest bag at the time and didn't want it to go to waste). He enjoyed this since we cooked it (no oils obviously, just on the pan) until rare and added a bit of water to make a 'wet gravy' and poured it into the kibbles. We feed him 2/3cup kibble + 1/3 chopped red meat 2x a day.. We also give him several treats in between meals to tie him over, and also for training. His stools has been fairly consistant but on the smelly side. We also notice that he kind of stinks after a few days of bath and don't know if this relates to the food we gave him. I sometimes also put in some boiled sweet potato which he devours up.

We read that other than RAW, kibble is the way to go? But Marty is very particular with his kibbles and won't eat them now unless things are mixed in. We got a few trial packs of some kibbles including California Natural, Taste of the Wild and Premium Edge and he didn't care for any of them. Perhaps its the flavour.. not sure.

Today we decided that we wanted to test the waters with Orijen after hearing some great reviews on it. We bought a small bag of the RED MEAT and gave him the recommended portion for dinner. He ate it all, surprisingly. However, his stool came out incredibly runny but less foul smelling.

Is there any reason for this? Have I changed his diet to abruptly? Would you recommend that we continue on with Orijen alone and wait til the stool hardens up or go back to our original cooked meat + Nutro? I am really not sure since he seemed to enjoy his Orijen meal. HELP.

[JenniferJuniper]

If you still have some of the Nutro on hand, you may want to try mixing it up with the Orijen and transitioning him slowly. Otherwise, I would continue on with the Orijen and give him some time to adjust, but discontinue if he continues to experience loose stool/ digestive upset.

P.S. Marty is a very handsome boy! :)

[JenniferJuniper]

Also, canned pumpkin (plain/unsweetened and preferably organic) is your friend. A tablespoons or two of this creamy, orange stuff, added to your dog’s food, will help soothe gastric discomfort and firm up his stool beautifully.

[Hellas]

Hi

You should always change kibble gradually over a period of at least one, or even two weeks. So, I would recommend going back to what you were feeding, exchanging about 1/4th for the new kind. Don't increase the amount of the new kibble until the stomach stabilizes. The gradually increase.

This is if you're intent on serving kibble. I feed my pugs an all raw diet these days and they thrive on it. They love it so much they jump and do spins as soon as I take the food out of the fridge. We're in Sweden, and there are several different brands available here with ready to serve raw food that can be bought frozen. I don't know if there are any US brands though. We used to give them kibble and I prefer this in every way. My dogs have more energy and perfect stools.

[pugtown]

Marty is about 6 month now,...

We read that other than RAW, kibble is the way to go?

Actually canned food is better than kibble...try topping the kibble with different canned foods for variety.

Dr. Karen Becker: The Best and Worst Types of Dog Foods (Video)