Wet Dog Food
The smell of wet or canned dog foods can be appetizing to dogs who aren’t interested in eating.
Wet dog food has nutritional and comes highly recommended when your dog isn’t eating due to healing from dental surgery or pain or if dealing with anxiety.
The food is quickly and easily consumed and digested. If you heat the dog food in the microwave a bit, it helps appeal to your dog’s sense of smell.
You can purchase wet dog food in cans or a pouch. You can also mix it with some dry dog food, a little bit of water, or even some baby foods. Just ensure that the baby food you use is safe for your dog to eat.
Baby Food
The great thing about baby food for a sick dog is the fact that it’s already blended to be easily digestible, and most of it doesn’t contain many additives, so it’s safe for your dog. It can be helpful to kickstart your dog’s appetite because it has an enticing smell.
Avoid baby food jars with garlic or onion since these flavorings or ingredients can be dangerous for dogs.
You also don’t want your dog to become too attached to the baby food because it might prevent your dog from returning to regular food once it feels better.
Add Broth to Your Dog’s Food
Adding warm broth to your dog’s food not only helps with smell and palatability (as will simply heating up their existing food). Adding broth adds additional flavor. If your dog isn’t used to getting broth and has become unenchanted with how their current food tastes, broth may be the just the thing to get them eating again.
Try hand-feeding individual pieces of your dog’s food to your pet. This may help to comfort a dog who isn’t feeling well and encourage them to eat. This process may take a while to accomplish completely, but hopefully, your dog will begin to eat out of their bowl after you’ve hand-fed them a couple of pieces.