Okay, But How Do You Feed Your Dog? Featuring Jordan & Xaler

The ad campaigns can make it look so easy: you take out your pet’s food and you see their ears perk up. You place it in the bowl and set it down lovingly in front of your animal as they sit in polite anticipation. They immediately begin to feast as you stand back with a smile… life is so easy! While some of us luck out with food-motivated animals who would take a bowl of food over the oxygen they breathe, things don’t always go that smoothly.

Feeding a picky dog or cat can feel defeating at times. You wish they could comprehend just how much time, money and effort you spend on their diet, only to have them look back at you, somehow offended by your offering in front of them.

Three considerations can really improve this dynamic and make meal time more enjoyable for everyone involved: what you feed, when you feed, and how you feed.

First off is always going to be what you feed. A rotational raw food diet will pique your pet’s interest more than any bag of dry food. The same food day after day is boring enough for us; now just imagine having an even better sense of smell and taste, only to be let down with bland, ultra-processed kibble. Not only is it more nutritious, but when your pet eats raw it’s extremely easy to rotate brands, proteins, and textures before they get picky. Every day they will be excited to see what’s in their bowl this time.

You can make use of various toppers to increase palatability such as freeze-dried tripe from K9 Natural, bone broth (like from Nature’s Logic and Primal), powdered goat milk with various extras from Happy Days, and functional flavour shakers from Crumps and Northwest Naturals. Great around-the-house options include adding some warm water to their wet or dry food (more moisture is always good), or adding a raw chicken, duck or quail egg (the shell too, if you can smash it up a bit). Our quail eggs from Big Country Raw are a hot seller.

Secondly, when do you feed your pet? I don’t just mean the time on the clock, but what activities are

happening around mealtime? If you’re in a hurry to get out the door to work as you put down their dish, they might be more interested in what the commotion is than eating their food.

Hunting instincts run deep in their DNA. They are wired to track, chase, kill, and ultimately feast. By this logic, you might find success in taking your dog for a walk, followed up with a little chase or tug. This will emulate the actions of hunting for prey and making a kill, and will naturally stimulate the desire to feast.

And finally, how do you feed your pet? Setting the dish down unceremoniously might leave your dog or cat feeling uninspired to dig in. You want there to be a feeling of motivation or energy so they can’t wait to start eating. A little anticipation will get the digestive juices flowing. Another option is to make meal time a game and have them find their food. Hide their dish in the yard, behind a door, or up on a scratch tower or other pet-friendly surface. Using their senses to find it will make it feel extremely rewarding when they finally find the jackpot. Snuffle mats and slow-feeder bowls (like ours from Outward Hound) will also encourage creativity and help slow down fast eaters.

For my dogs, I make them sit and stay before I even put their dishes down. Then we go through 3-4 random tricks back and forth. Finally they maintain eye contact with me until I give them the “release” command so they can start eating. And if you can train your cat to do this too, please let us know how!

Give these suggestions a shot with your picky eaters, and just remember to keep it interesting and have some fun with it. You can do it!

Much love,

Jordan and Xaler

Jordan has over six years of experience in the pet nutrition retail industry, and over ten years of experience raw feeding his rescue dogs. His dogs Kai and Xaler are never happier than when they’re running in deep snow or splashing in the North Saskatchewan River.