Advice for a newbie please :)

Hello!

I recently adopted a 3 year old staffy from a couple who weren't looking after him as best they should. He was always fed very little and has always been fed only soft food. (Chub from lidl) My problem now is that because of his small diet he is a bit on the skinny side so I want to try and get some fat on his bones, however he's not interested in eating more and refuses to eat dry food (even when drenched in gravy... He can't be fooled lol) Also, he has very brown teeth, he is happy to let me have a look at them and there's no serious damage there yet but obviously I don't want them getting worse and want to hopefully clean them up and get them in a better state for him.
So, long story short, how do I get him to eat more, how do I get him to eat biscuits & dry food and what's the best avenue to go down with giving him lovely gnashers.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Hi there

Has he been to a vet for a check up yet ? I'm sure they will give you some pointers on help with his teeth. He could benefit from being on a good quality kibble if you can get him to eat it, we mix Rockys with a little cooked cooled chicken, you can also try sardines or a raw egg. The kibble can help to clean the teeth as will a stag bar, these are sold at Pets At Home

Please come and say Hi, we would love to know a bit more about you both:
https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

If I were you I would just pop him down to the vet for a once over, come and say hi

has he been wormed?

you cant make him eat more if you doesn't want to

get him some wainwright dry or fish4dog dry food

Yep he's wormed, flead & ticked. We have an appointment this weekend to get him registered with my vet and have a 'health check' I'll try him on some of the foods you have mentioned in the meantime though. Thanks

Try something from the list below, I can recommend Barking Heads this is what Rocky has. Would also add to the list Wainrights from Pets At Home and James Welbeloved which is more easily available:

http://staffy-bull-terrier.com/dry_food

Well done Rachel for giving Taz a good home.

It will take time to get him into full health, and obviously you must be guided by your vet, especially in regard to his teeth.

As for food, if he has been used to being fed a wet food, then at least at first you should get him onto a better one. My dog has never, from a puppy, taken to dry kibble and thanks to a fellow member on this site I tried Wainwrights Trays and have never looked back. Only now at 2 years old has he started to accept dry biscuits as a treat, but I can't see me trying to change over to completely dry food now as he is doing so well on Wainwrights Trays (I buy their packs of 3 different flavours, and give him 3 quarters of a tray a day, so he generally gets a bit of a different mixture every day).

Good luck to you both, and do let us know how you progress   

Pixee is also fed on wainwrights trays like Kuchar. She wont eat dry food either and is doing very well. She also has her stag bars. I also feed her http://www.petsathome.com/shop/smartbone-vegetable-and-chicken-dental-large-chews-3-pack-118269 for her teeth and she loves them, expensive but only now and then cos she cant have real bones from the butchers which are the best really, as they make her sick. And these too, http://www.fish4dogs.com/products/Sea-Jerky-Fish-Bones.aspx. Othertimes she has chicken from us.

What about feeding him on the same feed he's been on. But gradually add a small abouts of the feed you want him to have. Then eventually hopefully he'll be happy on that food on it's own.