Q&A: Feeding dry food
1 October 2001
Expert advice from Bailey’s nutritionist Katie Lugsden on keeping your pet in peak condition
Q. I’ve just acquired another dog from a friend who has moved to Australia. My dogs have always been fed dry foods and look very well on them, but the new one just won’t entertain the idea of eating them. I don’t want to have to buy a different food for just one dog. What would you suggest?
Tracy Summer, North Wales
A. It’s likely that your new dog has never encountered dry foods before and so probably needs a gradual introduction to them.
If the dog has been used to tinned foods then start off by feeding mainly tinned food and putting less than a handful of the dry food in with it. Once she is eating everything up then introduce a little bit more of the dry food and slowly decrease the tinned food.
This process may take several weeks to get to the point where you can remove the tinned food altogether.
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It may also be worth trying different dry foods, although this will obviously mean changing your other dogs diet as well.
Try a dry food that includes a poultry fat coating rather than a sugar-based one as these tend to be more palatable. Given time most dogs become happy eating dry food and I’m sure yours will be no exception.
