Having a dog who is a picky eater can be so frustrating! Especially when the food you want them to eat is full of nutrients and good things for their overall health. I am pretty lucky that 3 of the 4 in my house will eat most of everything. Then, there is Vegas my oldest boxer. I know compared to many other dogs he isn’t that picky, but he is picky enough that it can make it quite the headache to get him to eat certain foods.

Here are my top 4 tricks that has helped me with my picky eater.

1 – Keep introducing the adverse food.

I have had luck by continuing to introduce the food Vegas doesn’t want to eat. He will still put his nose up to it on some occasions, but with persistence he will finally try it. It also helps or him to see my other dogs eating it, he tends to get jealous he isn’t joining in on the food fun and will take a small bite.

2- Hide it in their meals.

This is as simple as it sounds, hide the food they don’t want to it. Hide it in their dinner, mix it all up so they don’t even know it is there. Start small, use small amounts of the “icky” food and mix it up. Depending on the food, this can make it undetectable.

3- The smellier, the better.

This is the most successful thing I have tried – stink it up. For example, Vegas despises green lipped mussels. I have tried many other tricks with no success, until this. My dogs tend to love really smelly stuff; tripe, fermented fish stock, fish oils, etc. By serving the contraband food in fish stock or oil, Vegas will gobble it up! I couldn’t get him to even eat Raw Vibrance food due to his hatred for green lipped mussels, I covered it up in Dr. Harvey’s fish oil and he devours it. Use what your dog likes!

4- Blend it up.

Vegas is all about food textures. For instance, he loves the taste of bananas but won’t eat them at varying stages of ripeness. He can sometimes stick his head up to certain organs that are so important in his diet. I like to blend items up and sometimes that is enough to get him to eat it. If not, I’ll blend it up with things I know he does like and throw it in his dinner or make treats out of them. One of my favorites is to take golden paste and blend it up with berries or fruits, he doesn’t even realize he is eating it! Sometimes using simple tactics to change the texture will get them to eat it, it isn’t the taste they stick their noses up to. Fruits, kefir, and broths are my favorite thing to blend foods with.

Extra: Tips for Giving Medications

Getting some dogs to take medications makes all of the above even harder. Many mediations taste bitter and if you dog is like Vegas, they can sniff them out of their dinners no problem. It is important to make sure that your dog doesn’t associate their dinner with bad tasting pills if they have an issue taking them. It could make them turn away from their dinner unintentionally.

• Many pills are in capsules that can be opened and mixed into food. Instead of mixing the pill into their food, I like to give it as a seperate little treat. I will use unsweetened apple sauce, pumpkin, yogurt, etc.

• Use coconut oil to cover the treat and give them a tasty little blob that is healthy for them too.

• I love using chicken hearts to hide pills. Simply shove it inside the ventricle or “tube”. Sometimes you might have to cut it slightly to make it bigger, or use a larger heart such as a turkey heart.

• Another tried and true tip from Dr. Julia Roach over at Our Five Dogs, take some ground beef and roll it up into a little meatball, place the pill inside and form the beef around it. Works like a charm!