# How do I get my dog to eat more while being boarded?



## Shiningsummer (May 24, 2010)

I may be going on a trip soon, which means Molly will get boarded at her daycare while I'm gone. I've boarded her there before and they follow the feeding schedule I give them, but the last time I picked Molly up afterwards she was SO skinny. The problem is that she won't eat some of her meals. She has this problem at home and at daycare, but it's even worse when she's at daycare because she runs around all day and burns so many more calories. So skipping meals + burning more calories = a very skinny Molly. For one thing, I realized that I should increase her food allowances while being boarded to help offset the extra calories burned. Right now at home she gets 2 cups of food in the am and 2 cups in the pm. To get her to eat, I mix in some homemade beef mixture that she loves and she eats almost every meal now.

*So I guess my main question is, how do I get her to eat all of her meals while being boarded at daycare*? I don't want to give them just her kibble because she probably won't eat it, but I don't want to give them the homemade beef mixture and make them heat it up and mix it in with her kibble. I've tried mixing in canned food before, but she just licks off the canned food and spits out the kibble!

Any suggestions?


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Shiningsummer said:


> I may be going on a trip soon, which means Molly will get boarded at her daycare while I'm gone. I've boarded her there before and they follow the feeding schedule I give them, but the last time I picked Molly up afterwards she was SO skinny. The problem is that she won't eat some of her meals. She has this problem at home and at daycare, but it's even worse when she's at daycare because she runs around all day and burns so many more calories. So skipping meals + burning more calories = a very skinny Molly. For one thing, I realized that I should increase her food allowances while being boarded to help offset the extra calories burned. Right now at home she gets 2 cups of food in the am and 2 cups in the pm. To get her to eat, I mix in some homemade beef mixture that she loves and she eats almost every meal now.
> 
> *So I guess my main question is, how do I get her to eat all of her meals while being boarded at daycare*? I don't want to give them just her kibble because she probably won't eat it, but I don't want to give them the homemade beef mixture and make them heat it up and mix it in with her kibble. I've tried mixing in canned food before, but she just licks off the canned food and spits out the kibble!
> 
> Any suggestions?


A lot of places will accomidate special diets, so I would bring the beef mixture along and ask if they'd be willing to heat it up for her. They might charge you a bit (some places will, some places wont) and just tell them that she comes home thinner than you'd like without it, and you'd like to try this as well.


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## Melissa_Chloe (Dec 31, 2008)

Canned food or goodies mixed in work well, or get them to try hand feeding her or adding water. We have some dogs who come into work that won't eat the first day but they quickly realize they should eat their meals and if they don't eat we add canned food/warm water/sit with them and hand feed them ... whatever it takes to get them to eat.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Melissa_Chloe said:


> Canned food or goodies mixed in work well, or get them to try hand feeding her or adding water. We have some dogs who come into work that won't eat the first day but they quickly realize they should eat their meals and if they don't eat we add canned food/warm water/sit with them and hand feed them ... whatever it takes to get them to eat.


Boiled chicken is a huge hit here, as well as yogurt


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## PatchworkRobot (Aug 24, 2010)

I work at a boarding facility and when dogs dont eat (if they don't have any allergies) we have a few different mix-ins that we add such as yogurt, chicken or beef broth, and a very watered down wet food. These will cover the kibble instead of just adding separate bits that the dogs can eat separately and it usually works.


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## Shiningsummer (May 24, 2010)

Well, this is interesting information. Thanks for your advice! I never thought that the daycare staff might have their own tricks to get a dog to eat. I'll ask them what they can do or what they might have tried with Molly in the past. 

She doesn't have any allergies, I just feed her grain free foods because her skin issues have improved so much on it. It would be great if the daycare employees could add something in to her food to get her to eat, but it just seems like so much of a hassle for them. Another possibility that I'm looking at is transitioning Molly to some canned food just before her boarding and then taking her back off of it after. I think this would just make it easier for everybody instead of heating food up and mixing in this or that. I'm pretty sure she would eat canned food without a fight, I just feed kibble because it's cheaper. I just have to find some pretty inexpensive but decent canned food. I think I found it, it's called Whole Earth Farms Adult dog food and it's only like $16.00 for a 12 pack. It looks like good food and it's grain free!  I might try her on that and see how she does.


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## PatchworkRobot (Aug 24, 2010)

Switching to canned will probably make the food thing easier, I know a few owners that do that when they board their dogs. If you don't want to do that though I definitely suggest asking the employees what they can/will do. Also, I'd suggest doing this before she's boarded instead of the day of.


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