Create a Treat-Based Pet Food “seasoning” to Trick Fido Into Eating
I’ve been blessed (or cursed?) In my life with an exceptionally intelligent terrier named Tucker. He has a ton of food allergies so he has to eat this special dog food without wheat and chicken products and we decided to buy him a salmon flavor years ago. About six months ago, a tragedy occurred in our house when his bag temporarily ran out in the store. Naively, I took a bag of the same brand of white fish food instead. A fish is a fish, isn’t it? NO. No, it’s not like that.
The first day I served him new food, he turned over his bowl. On the second day, when I did it again, he turned the bowl over and put a food rack on it. Day three, while I was still trying to avoid punishment for this whitefish fiction, he pushed his bowl of food across the room to the trash can and then picked up random trash and placed it on top of his food in the bowl. With that, I finally got a message and made a special trip to the country store so that his salmon could return.
For an animal that wants to eat every discarded burritos, chips, and sandwiches on the road during morning walks, my dog has a particularly selective taste, which means getting him to eat something new is a little tricky.
He’s definitely not unique. Animals, like humans, get used to their favorite tastes and don’t want to change. When you actually plan to change food (I didn’t plan), you can try slowly mixing the new one with the old one so they don’t catch on to what’s going on until it’s too late.
When you need to make a sudden change, Reddit user ucffool has an interesting idea: crush the treats and put them in an old seasoning bottle, then use that to “season” the new food with a flavor you know your pet already likes.
Their post suggests using and making a seasoning specifically for cats, but I think it will work for just about any animal. Adding a light dusting of the flavor they enjoy can have the same effect as mixing new food with old one and make the transition to something new (or trick them into eating the only thing they had in the store). …
If seasoning doesn’t work, there is always a first route to every dog’s heart: peanut butter.