Appetite stimulation

For more than a week now, we’ve been following the advice we got last week from Beckie Hein, the puppy program manager for CCI’s Southwest region. When told about Kyndall’s hunger strike, Beckie didn’t sound too worried but suggested we should try mixing her kibble with hot water or warm beef broth. We’ve been using the latter, and all the kibble in the bowl has been disappearing shortly after we present it.

Kibble au jus doesn’t look all that appetizing to me, but Kyndall apparently finds it tolerable.

But it’s occurred to me that more trouble might be looming when Kyndall begins her Advance Training next month. Once she’s in the kennel up in Oceanside and is fed only dry food, won’t she turn up her nose at that? So last night I emailed Beckie again and asked if we should try at some point to get her back to eating dry food.

She answered promptly, saying, “I would see if you can slowly wean her off of the beef broth and onto just a bit of warm water added.” That would be easy enough for the kennel staff to duplicate, she said.

So I guess we’ll try that. But we’ll wait a few days. If she continues to eat the moistened dog food, that will be great. But if not, it will break my heart to see her staring mournfully, reproachfully, at a bowl full of morsels that she can’t bring herself to consume.