6 month old pup, kibble taste test

antbkny · Apr 19, 2017

Ive had Henry on orijen puppy since he was about 10 weeks old. He has never really eaten it without toppers ect... Lately he just seems to be done with it, no matter what i add. So since its time for me to switch his meal frequency from 3 to 2, and start moving away from puppy food, i went to my local pet shop and picked up a few different kibbles to try. So far we've tried Orijen Tundra, Acana grasslands, Acana Lamb and apple, Fromm beef fritatta, Fromm chicken ala veg, Fromm Hasen Duckenpfeffer, Fromm Lamb and lentil, and Go! Sensitivity + Shine Limited Ingredient - Duck Recipe

The one he liked most was Go! Sensitivity + Shine Limited Ingredient - Duck Recipe, he cleaned the plate clean. Followed by Fromm beef fritatta, chicken ala veg and Acana grasslands. The others he wanted no part of.

My dilemma is the quality of food... According to ingredients, Go! would be a step down in quality compared to the Orijen.
Is this good food or do i need to move on and try raw? thanks in advance.

some pics

WINNER

Cbrugs · Apr 19, 2017

So I just looked it up on dogfoodadvisor.com and the duck formula only gets 3.5 stars. The turkey one gets 5 stars. If you are able to do raw, I totally would go that route. There are also brands like Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy's that are dehydrated raw. One of the HK mixes is one where you just add in a protein.

Alice Kable · Apr 19, 2017

Handsome Henry is a picky eater!!! Does he actually taste the kibble?

Jakeyjake · Apr 19, 2017

Maybe he just prefers the taste of duck. If that's the case maybe try THK grain free duck which is rated 4.5 stars on Dog food advisor.

2bullymama · Apr 20, 2017

What a great set up.... lucky boy! Cheli would have eaten every single piece of kibble!

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Cbrugs · Apr 20, 2017

If he likes the duck flavor, Zignature has a duck and they get very good reviews.

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antbkny · Apr 20, 2017

Cbrugs said:
So I just looked it up on dogfoodadvisor.com and the duck formula only gets 3.5 stars. The turkey one gets 5 stars. If you are able to do raw, I totally would go that route. There are also brands like Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy's that are dehydrated raw. One of the HK mixes is one where you just add in a protein.

yea, that 3.5 stars is my concern. i fed him the last of his orijen puppy this morning, topped with chicken and quinoa and he ate most of it. before this, i gave him one of the honest kitchen mixes and i added chicken but he wanted no part of it. so im on the cusp of the slippery slope. do i play hard ball (he eats what i feed him, if not starve) or do i try some other foods. i feel bad because he was up at 4am with diarrhea...

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Alice Kable said:
Handsome Henry is a picky eater!!! Does he actually taste the kibble?

yea, he actually sniffed and tasted them all lol

antbkny · Apr 20, 2017

Cbrugs said:
If he likes the duck flavor, Zignature has a duck and they get very good reviews.

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i will bring home a small bag today to try. luckily i have a great pet shop up the block that has all the high end foods. even 4 brands of raw (frozen and freeze dried)

2bullymama · Apr 20, 2017

I would go with either the Acana or Fromm

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davidh · Apr 20, 2017

The best food is one he will eat. GO isn't that bad of a food. We tried it when Henri went through the same thing, being a picky eater. We would find a food he liked, and then three days later he would ignore it. So if yours likes GO, then that's what I would go with for now. He should grow out of it in time. Henri took about a year and then he grew out of it. Now he scarfs his food up and wanting more. We currently are feeding FROMM Hasen Duckenpfeffer. They all love it.

Honeys Owners · Apr 20, 2017

I would make sure you stay away from toppers. Find a food he likes without toppers, and never give him toppers again. I guarantee he will be less picky of an eater in the future if he knows he gets his dog food plain. You can give him treats, but not in his dog food bowl.

antbkny · Apr 27, 2017

thanks all for your replies.
screw the kibble, ive decided that if i eat good, so should my boy. ive started transitioning over to raw (frozen primal) so far so good!

Cbrugs · Apr 27, 2017

antbkny said:
thanks all for your replies.
screw the kibble, ive decided that if i eat good, so should my boy. ive started transitioning over to raw (frozen primal) so far so good!

Excellent choice!

Joeturbo26 · Oct 22, 2017

antbkny said:
Ive had Henry on orijen puppy since he was about 10 weeks old. He has never really eaten it without toppers ect... Lately he just seems to be done with it, no matter what i add. So since its time for me to switch his meal frequency from 3 to 2, and start moving away from puppy food, i went to my local pet shop and picked up a few different kibbles to try. So far we've tried Orijen Tundra, Acana grasslands, Acana Lamb and apple, Fromm beef fritatta, Fromm chicken ala veg, Fromm Hasen Duckenpfeffer, Fromm Lamb and lentil, and Go! Sensitivity + Shine Limited Ingredient - Duck Recipe

The one he liked most was Go! Sensitivity + Shine Limited Ingredient - Duck Recipe, he cleaned the plate clean. Followed by Fromm beef fritatta, chicken ala veg and Acana grasslands. The others he wanted no part of.

My dilemma is the quality of food... According to ingredients, Go! would be a step down in quality compared to the Orijen.
Is this good food or do i need to move on and try raw? thanks in advance.

some pics

WINNER

Ant, lol I was just looking at older posts here and I stumbled upon this.... BABY HENRY! With a buffet hahaha. I’ve done the same for Rico lol. What does he eat now? Almost 2 years later and I’m still dealing with this picky one....

antbkny · Oct 23, 2017

Joeturbo26 said:
Ant, lol I was just looking at older posts here and I stumbled upon this.... BABY HENRY! With a buffet hahaha. I’ve done the same for Rico lol. What does he eat now? Almost 2 years later and I’m still dealing with this picky one....

Joe, Henry is a pain in the @ss!!. Weve been through a few different raw foods (primal, stella and chewys, darwins) frozen and freeze dried. And then about a month ago he just wouldn't eat any raw, so i broke out some of the go! kibble again and he dove right in. So for the past month or so thats what hes been eating along with toppers of either canned alaskan sockeye salmon from costco, ground beef or boars head turkey. Who knows what he will be eating next month! lol. Whats Rico been eating lately?

Joeturbo26 · Oct 23, 2017

antbkny said:
Joe, Henry is a pain in the @ss!!. Weve been through a few different raw foods (primal, stella and chewys, darwins) frozen and freeze dried. And then about a month ago he just wouldn't eat any raw, so i broke out some of the go! kibble again and he dove right in. So for the past month or so thats what hes been eating along with toppers of either canned alaskan sockeye salmon from costco, ground beef or boars head turkey. Who knows what he will be eating next month! lol. Whats Rico been eating lately?

Mostly bagels, gum, sticks, bugs, and paper cups he finds on the ground outside, but he will dabble in stella and Chewys raw coated kibble every now and then...... LOL.

I had no idea Henry was picky too! Rico has been a pain in the @ss since day 1 with eating, and I’ve tried everything you’ve mentioned except the Go actually.

I could have opened a Fromm food store at one point... I’ve done the whole totally raw, grinding bones and all, to the Ollie food shipped to my door, to the home cooked meals... with varying levels of success but all short lived.

The only thing that gets him to eat regularly is when I make my own homemade topper by sauteeing equal parts of ground chicken/pork with a few bags of spinach leaves and a sweet potato. I was making it in massive batches and vacuum sealing portions after his nose surgery because he was REALLY not eating at all at that point.

Since then, he was having some diarrhea and I figured it was too much for him so I honestly threw my hands up and said... no more! He’s not going to starve himself, he’s perfectly healthy .... and I just started putting out 1 1/2 cups of his stella and Chewys raw coated kibble every morning, he went a day with no food, didn’t eat the second day, and at around 8pm he started to graze on it—eventually eating it all.

It’s been about a month now that I’m being the strict bad guy, but like clockwork he goes ALL DAY without eating and by 6-8pm he will eat the whole bowl of just kibble. His poop has never been better lol.

CarrotTheFrenchie · Oct 23, 2017

Hahahahaha. I love this taste test set up. If I did this for Carrot, she would think she was in dog heaven and promptly hoover each and every dish. She is the least picky eater of all time!! I have yet to find a food or cigarette butt that she DOESN"T like. Curious to know if (like picky eaters) she will grow out of this with age!

antbkny · Oct 25, 2017

Joeturbo26 said:
Mostly bagels, gum, sticks, bugs, and paper cups he finds on the ground outside, but he will dabble in stella and Chewys raw coated kibble every now and then...... LOL.

I had no idea Henry was picky too! Rico has been a pain in the @ss since day 1 with eating, and I’ve tried everything you’ve mentioned except the Go actually.

I could have opened a Fromm food store at one point... I’ve done the whole totally raw, grinding bones and all, to the Ollie food shipped to my door, to the home cooked meals... with varying levels of success but all short lived.

The only thing that gets him to eat regularly is when I make my own homemade topper by sauteeing equal parts of ground chicken/pork with a few bags of spinach leaves and a sweet potato. I was making it in massive batches and vacuum sealing portions after his nose surgery because he was REALLY not eating at all at that point.

Since then, he was having some diarrhea and I figured it was too much for him so I honestly threw my hands up and said... no more! He’s not going to starve himself, he’s perfectly healthy .... and I just started putting out 1 1/2 cups of his stella and Chewys raw coated kibble every morning, he went a day with no food, didn’t eat the second day, and at around 8pm he started to graze on it—eventually eating it all.

It’s been about a month now that I’m being the strict bad guy, but like clockwork he goes ALL DAY without eating and by 6-8pm he will eat the whole bowl of just kibble. His poop has never been better lol.

Lol Rico and Henry must be long lost brothers. I havent had the guts to play hardball with him yet with the food. Its reassuring though that it worked with Rico. Where do you get your s&c raw coated kibble? ill have to get him some to try.

Joeturbo26 · Oct 25, 2017

antbkny said:
Lol Rico and Henry must be long lost brothers. I havent had the guts to play hardball with him yet with the food. Its reassuring though that it worked with Rico. Where do you get your s&c raw coated kibble? ill have to get him some to try.

It just got to a point where I couldn’t deal with it anymore... and was fully prepared to give in if he really didn’t eat LOL.

As for the Stella and Chewys raw coated kibble, it was so hard to find when it was first released. Now you can get it at almost any store that sells Stella and Chewys... there is also a store locator on their site that lets you see which stores carry it.

I always shop at chewy.com, but Stella and Chewys decided to not allow them to carry is because they want to “maintain brick and mortar relationships” and avoid big box stores since they’ve been acquired by PetSmart—which is so annoying.