A Sophisticated Palate

Our dog is a picky eater. Or so we have thought. When Zeldie came to us, the breeder sent her with a ziplock baggie size supply of food. This was the source of much consternation for me because the vet had said not to change her diet for at least 2 weeks. Instead, we had to start mixing her food immediately. We originally started her on Science Diet Puppy formula. Initially, our plan was to feed her that until she turned a year and then start her on something less expensive. Soon though, her skin became dry and itchy. She would scratch at her skin until her hair fell out and it would bleed and scab over. She apparently could not tolerate the grain and by-products used in most commercial dog foods. It took us some time to figure this out. Sometime during September, at least 3 mos. after she arrived, we learned about food allergies for dogs. It didn't take long for us to put two and two together to determine Zeldie had food allergies. We did some reading and decided that we needed to switch her to a more allergy and wire-haired coat friendly fish based food. We decided on Halo Spot's Stew Salmon formula. After all of the reading we had done, we were very excited about this formula. Zeldie was not so much so but we didn't notice. We proudly served her the food. We watched as she sniffed at it indecisively and reluctantly nibbled a few bites. We were satisfied. We kept giving it to her. Even though she rarely ate a full bowl. Even though when we gave it to her she would turn over her bowl. Even though when we left it in her crate she would bury it with her blanket. Even though when we went to our friend's house, we couldn't keep her away from the Pedigree. Even though, by the time we got to the bottom of the bag, she would snub it all together. We thought, "Our dog is so quirky. Look at how funny she is turning over her bowl." And, "Our dog is such a picky eater, she doesn't like stale food." We thought, "Our dog is so thin, it must be because she gets so much exercise at doggie day care." If Zeldie has thoughts they were probably somewhere along the lines of, "Idiots! In what other way can I tell them how much I hate this food." This past week, David went to buy the Halo and they were out of it. Flat out of it. And we were out of it. Flat out of it. So, under duress, he picked up a bag of the Wellness Ocean formula which is a whitefish based dry dog food. We fed it to our picky eater hoping for the best. And surprise of all surprises, she ate the whole bowl all at once as fast as she could, like any other dog I have ever known. We stood there in awe watching her eat. She must have been famished after having been starved for a year. She has been eating the Wellness for a few days now and she has finished every last bite of every last bowl. Every time I see the shiny bottom of the dog bowl, I have to admit, I am simultaneously fascinated and overjoyed. If she could have only told us she preferred whitefish to salmon, perhaps she wouldn't have had to wait so long for us to catch on.