Hi. My mixed Wheaten Terrier Sheba is about two years old and she doesn't eat regularly. When I brought her home from the shelter she didn't much like the food given to me by the shelter. After trying a few different brands I finally got Sheba to eat Beneful puppy chow and Kal Kan puppy food mixed together, twice a day. She does tend to leave her food alone before eating but now she'll leave it so often that by the time her second meal comes around there's still a lot left from the first meal.

I don't want her eating human food, I speculated Sheba might have been fed that by whomever owned her at first and I have a small problem with a neighbor who sneaks food to her on occasion. I need advice, I don't want to starve her until she eats what I have. Any ideas?

your dog will going to get used to it.. she's going to eat when she gets hungry..

Originally Posted by skwearl

After trying a few different brands I finally got Sheba to eat Beneful puppy chow and Kal Kan puppy food mixed together, twice a day. ... I don't want her eating human food, Any ideas?

Skwearl, what is your objection to human food? Does your dog not deserve to eat real food?

Sheba is making a wise choice NOT eating her food. Have you read the ingredients?

Beneful is mostly just corn. The next ingredient is chicken by-product meal.

Do you know what can legally go into petfood under the label chicken by-product meal? Basically anything that comes from a chicken that's NOT actually meat is fair game. Some may argue that it could also contain chicken meat, but if that were the case, why don't they list it as chicken meat or chicken meal? Because it's not.

What about the generic ingredients like "animal fat" and "meat meal"? Ever wonder just what animal those ingredients are made from?

Well, basically any kind of animal that has been deemed unsuitable for human consumption can be used to make "animal" fat or "meat" meal. Things like road kill, diseased stock, stillborn calves, cancerous parts removed from animals being butchered for human consumption, even euthanised dogs and cats are used. They all get sent to a rendering plant and boiled into a mush. The fat gets skimmed off and sold to pet food companies for use as "animal fat". The rest gets ground up, dried and made into "meat meal".
Doesn't sound very appealing does it?

You may be inclined to say, "well, it's still fat or it's still meat protein". True, but there's a reason that these animals are not being processed for human consumption. Because they were deemed unfit. Pets and downer animals are euthanized using pentobarbitol and may have been medicated for diseases, these medications are not distroyed by the rendering process. Tests have been done and pentobarbitol has been found in pet foods. Still like the idea?

And what about those pretty coloured kibbles? Food dyes in pet foods are there to appeal to the human consumer, it has no value to the dog. In fact, many food dyes used in pet food are banned from use in human food because the are known to cause cancer.

Skwearl, I've done a great deal of research about what goes into dog food and I strongly believe that if more people knew what really goes into commercial dog food, there would be a lot less dogs being forced to eat it.

I could go on and on, but I hope you get the idea. Please, PLEASE, do some research of your own and put some thought into what you are feeding your beloved pet.

Here's a link to a harsh, but pretty accurate, description of many problems with commercial dog foods. truth about pet food, pet food ingredients, toxic grains, by products in pet food, human grade pet food

I would encourage you to One of my favorite little books about dog food

One of my favorite books is "See Spot Live Longer" by Steve Brown. It's packed with information to help you navigate the confusing world of commercial dog foods and it's under 200 pages. You should be able to find it at your local library.

I'm quite certain there's nothing wrong with your dog, it's the food.

Stop just leaving her food down all the time. When it's meal time, put her food down and give her ten minutes to eat it. If she doesn't, pick it up and put it away until her next meal time. She'll figure out "If you snooze, you loose" pretty fast.

I adopted a 6 month old standard Dachshund many years ago. He'd been fed people food exclusively. Not table scraps, mind you. His elderly owner fixed him a plate of the same food she was having; steak, burgers, fried chicken. With all the fixings.

The first time I put down a bowl of dog food, he pushed it down the basement steps and gave me a "This is a joke, right?" look. No more food for Mr. Ralph until that evening. Repeat of the morning's performance, except he didn't get to push it down the steps, because I closed the door. Next day, same thing. On the third day he would have eaten rocks if I'd put them in his bowl. After that, Ralph ate with no hesitation whatsoever.

your dog is actually adjusting to the kind of food you are giving. you must give the the favorite ones.