When I first got my Whippet puppy I fed her Purina Pro Plan cause that's what the breeder was feeding her.  Well my fiancee at the time did some research and discovered that it's got all these fillers and stuff and decided we should switch to Blue Buffalo.  The dog took it it fairly quickly (it even helped with her gas!) but now all of a sudden, she won't eat it unless I hand feed her (and even then she won't eat it all) or I mix up real chicken in it.  So I'm worried, she's lost a lot of weight (relatively) and you can now see most of her ribs and vertebrae.

So can someone recommend me a relatively inexpensive healthy food without any fillers, by-products, or ingredients that you need a PhD in Chemistry to fully understand what they do?  By relatively inexpensive, Blue Buffalo usually goes for like $1.50/can at PetSmart so I'm looking to stay about that price.

P.S. Got her checked by the vet when this was first starting and she came up negative for worms.

ETA I'm kinda surprised that "recommended food for __________" isn't a sticky...

ETA something readily-available is big plus.

Kumpi is a pretty good food and in use by a lot of LE K9s up this way.





 

Flint river ranch

Abady, if you can afford it.

http://www.canidae.com It's a superb super premium dog food as well as http://www.eaglepack.com/ for another super premium dog food that's not corn and fillers.

Note what you're looking for, but I use Iams.

I give my dog the Holistic select formula from Eagle Pack, it seems to really good stuff, plus it's made here in Indiana.  A friend of mine that has 2 whippets gives them Natural Balance, another good holistic formula.  Both use either and/or both Chicken or Lamb as the main indrediant and have no fillers such as corn.

Now, not eating could be an indication something is wrong.  How long has this been going on?  Has anything out of the ordinary happened, changed your/the dogs schedule?  Have you talked to a Vet about this, might give them a call and see what is going on?

My friend with the 2 whippets, feeds his dogs in their crates, he adds some warm water to the food, after 15 minutes he takes what ever portion of uneaton food that is left and places it in the fridge.  The next feeding they are giving the remaining portion of food,  this normally works good with picky eaters because they realize they have to eat what they are given.  If you've been adding treats/people food to the bowl it could simply be that you dog no longer wants to eat just the plain dry food.  He also says standard weight for a whippet shows 2 ribs.  

Your miles may vary good luck.

This has been going on for probably a month, though she's been skipping breakfast for probably a little longer, but it hasn't been a problem until last month when we took her to the vet and noticed she'd lost 2 lbs.  She did go through a time where she was afraid of the bowl cause I've got an elevated bowl stand thing and a few times she's gotten her tags stuck and has literally run around the apartment flinging the bowls trying to get this thing off of her.  She did get used to eating that way again tho.

Nothing was going on BEFORE this started.  I mean, she'd usually wake up, go outside, and go right back to bed and barely lift her head when I filled her dish for breakfast and she'd stay there till I had to leave for work.  Since taking her to the vet, we've been waking up an hour earlier and going on a 1/2-1 mile walk in the morning (and 2mi in the evening).  The other thing's that's changed is that "mommy" (aka my fiancee) has moved away and stopped being my fiancee, but the dog doesn't seem to notice she's gone (plus, that happened AFTER we noticed the weight loss).  My fiancee at the time took her to the vet.  She had a low-grade fever and swollen glands and the vet suspected she may have a sore throat.  Gave her a script for antibiotics which she took, but no change.

Now, she does tend to eat more of her canned food than the dry stuff so I don't know what's up with that.

As for her feeding habits, food goes in her bowl almost first thing in the morning and it stays there till she goes in her crate for the day 45 mins. later.  That food (usually untouched) goes in the fridge till dinner where I add some.  Only a couple times I've slipped broken up puppy cookies and cooked pieces of chicken in there, just to see if she'd eat it (she did) which is why I think it's more an issue with the food than anything.  When we first switched her over, she'd inhale the food and lick the bowl clean, and now... ::sigh::

Yeah, you can see all her ribs.  I kinda figure I should get her a little bit of new food and see if the food's the issue...though I suppose I could also take her to the vet this weekend and see if it's medical, but like I've said she'll eat chicken and treats ok.

Try adding plain yogurt to it. That will normally get the most picky eaters to eat it.