# Feeding a toothless dog



## Jally (Nov 27, 2011)

Hi. This is my first post. I apologize for not introducing myself properly, I will do that as soon as I post this. I am desperate for help! Over the summer, I rescued a dog who was abandoned and abused. She is 8, is toothless due to abuse, and was skin and bones when I got her. She is now pleasantly plump and very very happy. Her old owners fed her dry dog food from Walmart. We have been giving her Natural Balance Grain Free and Limited Ingredients canned and dry. However, recently they (all of our dogs) have become itchy and uninterested in their food. So we decided to switch.

My dd is our dog food analysis guru so I followed her advice on feeding a homemade diet along with a dry food. Everything was going great until last night. Our toothless wonder had diarrhea all night long. It was horrible. 

Any suggestions as to why she suddenly has diarrhea? They've had ground turkey, pumpkin, and a tiny bit of brown rice. My bigger dog didn't seem to be as satisfied so I added the brown rice to my dogs' food. I also added a few drops of a fish oil capsule to each of their food. My daughter is feeding her guys the same thing, however hers are getting less of the homemade (and no rice) and more of the dog food because hers all have their teeth LOL My oldest one is 13 and losing quite a bit of her teeth.

Does anyone have any suggestions on to what kind of food is appropriate for a toothless dog? Keep in mind that I live in the boondocks and my only resource for dog food is a feed store and 1 Petsmart and 1 Petco. Very limited.

Thanks for all and any help! We appreciate it!!!


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## WheatenDaneMom (Nov 4, 2011)

When did you switch her over?


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

The rice or pumpkin could be irritating her GI tract. Maybe canned food? But that does tend to be more pricey. The kibble really shouldn't be too difficult as dogs swallow it whole. If the kibble pieces are big maybe smash them up?

To stay more natural, toothless dogs can eat raw just fine. Ground meat would be ok, or you can cut chunks of meat into bite-sized pieces. That's a lot of work to cut up meat though, and I'm not sure how to add bone to make it a complete diet.


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## Jally (Nov 27, 2011)

Michelle, they've been on this food for 2 weeks now. They've had pumpkin before with no upset tummies. Last night they had sweet potatoes and ground turkey and both still have upset tummies. They've also had sweet potatoes because it was in their NB food.

One of the reasons why I can't feed Pelos much dry kibble is cause she takes forever to eat it and gets more aggressive the longer it takes. However, maybe dry kibble only for a few days will help her tummy? 

Thanks for the suggestions!


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

Did all the dogs have upset tummies after that particular meal?

There could've been something bad in that batch of food if they've been eating it previously with no problems. This sometimes happens to my dogs. Whenever they BOTH have really bad diarrhea at the same time, I know that there's something wrong with what they ate (usually a bad batch of canned food). Never had this problem with kibble. Only canned or raw.


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## Jally (Nov 27, 2011)

lucidity said:


> Did all the dogs have upset tummies after that particular meal?
> 
> There could've been something bad in that batch of food if they've been eating it previously with no problems. This sometimes happens to my dogs. Whenever they BOTH have really bad diarrhea at the same time, I know that there's something wrong with what they ate (usually a bad batch of canned food). Never had this problem with kibble. Only canned or raw.


Nope, just 2 of mine. There are 6 total dogs eating the same thing or variations of the same thing.


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