We never give any bones to Pickles, I'm afraid it will splinter. Pickles isn't overweight but I wouldn't call him skinny either, lol. I do buy him bones to chew though. Dachshunds are known gluttons, they live to eat. That's why Pickles is so clever and smart. He watches my every move and knows my habits. He knows if I put lipstick on, I'll be going out. He runs to his bed because he knows a treat is coming.
Ella, my three year-old, won't touch people food. She loves chicken-based cat food but won't touch freshly cooked chicken or anything else we've offered her. She will eat debris that she finds on the floor but she won't eat meat that I've cooked specifically for the cats.
I got 2 different types of the 4-Health dry, and also different flavors of the canned, as well as some grain-free. They all seem to really like the canned so far. I will probably still have to continue the Kit n Kaboodle for the strays, so need to buy another storage container for the indoor kitties' dry, since I have the bird seed in their back up container. My indoor kitties usually have stomach issues when I switch foods, but I haven't seen any of that yet. Fingers are crossed. @Ken Anderson Do yours ever experience stomach issues? I didn't realize you were using so many different foods.
In 8 yrs Pickles has not had any stomach issues, not even diarrhea, so that's one reason I keep him on the Royal Canin.
Lydia, one of my 26 year-olds does, but she's very old. I didn't used to rotate so many different foods but one of the most common problems with older cats is that they don't get enough hydration, so the best way to do that is to feed them wet food. When they were younger, they'd get canned food only a few times a week, more as a treat. I don't expect that Lydia will be with us too much longer but am trying to keep her as healthy and as happy as I can for as long as I can. Since she tends not to eat, I have to rotate different foods in order to keep her interested. If I could figure out what her favorite canned food was, she wouldn't eat it if I fed it to her more than once a week. But most always, when I give her something she hasn't had for a long time, she'll eat it and she'll put on some weight. Overall though, I haven't had many stomach issues with my cats, but they free-feed kibble, and that's always Blue Buffalo. On occasion, I have bought a small bag of some other good quality kibble, but they seem to prefer the Blue Buffalo. Since they've done so well on it, I'll just stick with that. However, while they like the Blue Buffalo canned food well enough, if I gave them that too often, they wouldn't eat it. They don't like the Blue Buffalo Wilderness brands, which are all nearly all meat, but that's okay because they don't really need that much protein at their age anyhow. Ella, the young one, will eat a little bit of canned food, but she far prefers the kibble. Most days, she'll take a few bites of the wet food and then move over to the kibble, leaving the rest of her bowl for Cutie, the other 26 year-old, who is amazingly healthy for her age, apart from being deaf and taking Cosequin for arthritis. Changing from one food to another can cause stomach problems. The recommendation is to mix the old food with the new one for a while. Start with a 50:50 mixture for a week or so, and then switch to 75:25 for another week, then to the new food. I haven't had to do that, but that seems to help with a lot of dogs and cats.
They are definitely individuals. Ryan likes to nibble kibble, but I've cut back on that, and no longer leave it out 24/7, because I am trying to transition him to eating more wet food now that he's getting older. Also, if I leave it out all day/night long, Shannon will try to eat it, and since she's had so many teeth removed, that could cause issues. I do switch up the flavors, but they lean heavily toward fish. Since Ryan's been eating more wet food, his fur is getting glossier and is feeling softer, and he seems to be feeling a little better, because he's been more snuggly and affectionate.
I fill Pickle's bowl in the morning and that's it. He eats it when he feels like it. Water I always top off...but he has the bad habit of waiting til we go to bed to drink down a whole bowl. That's not good, cause I'll be up a few times letting him out. So before bedtime, I leave only a little water in his bowl. That seems to work and he's not dehydrated or even that thirsty because he doesn't make a mad dash for water when we get up.
Animals are strange ....Pickles won't touch a treat that isn't meat flavored like those milk bones or cookies for dogs But he has no problem with a people cookie. He also has an aversion to any toy that's made of rubber.
Yeah, even worse, Ella will do digging motions around something she doesn't like, which is probably her way of telling me that she thinks its crap that needs to be covered up. It's quite a brilliant way of communication, I suppose. When she doesn't like a canned food, she will make digging motions around both sides of the bowl before walking away, and she does the same thing when I offer her people food. She is also quick to tell me when Lydia has had an accident somewhere.