Anyone else with very picky dogs, tips pls

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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My dog is 14yrs now, she has always been a very very picky eater since I had her at 3yrs old. She was a rescue dog and was skeleton thin when
I got her, I put her on five small meals a day and she slowly gained weight, she was under 10kg when I took her on and most of her life she's fluctuated between 12-14kg (she's whippetxcollie but whippet in build).

We've always had issues with her eating, she just isn't bothered about food. She's had tests but always been normal, recently had bloods and all fine. Until fairly recently she was on dry JW food with grated cheese on top, some days she'd eat it and some days she wouldn't but recently she's had to go onto various meds due to arthritis and urinary incontinence and the only way I can get her to take them is on JW wet food. That's fine I don't mind her having them although you have to feed alot and they're expensive. It's the amount I need to feed her that's the issue, I simply can't get her to eat 3-5 pouches a day even by splitting it into 4 meals. She's also having JW puppy food mixed in as higher in calories but she won't always eat this if I do it!

I need any tips as her weight has dropped to 11kg, I've done all the normal tricks after 11yrs of having her. I think her previous owners had made a thing out of her eating as I can't even say do you want your breakfast to her, she'll just hide under the kitchen table and won't look at her food bowl!
 
Does she like eating meat? You could try supplementing with RAW. Raw chicken wings ect.
I have a very fussy dog but he doesn't turn much RAW food down.
 
I normally am a hard nosed cow, I don't do 'picky' and say 'tighten her, she won't starve, take the food away after five minutes' but she's an oldie and her weight is dropping so here goes :)

Have you tried feeding her raw? Even mince or something like that? Tuna? Just because she is a dog, you don't automatically have to feed her dog food.

I know it will be really, really hard if you're worried but try not to put on any undue pressure - if she feels any sort of stress from you, even if you don't mean to, that will have an impact on her. Dogs are so much more open to vibes and body language than we know - she won't know you're stressing about her, she will just think 'mealtimes = I feel stress'

Are her teeth OK?
 
That sounds like he's really mean and he isn't honestly, just a bit of a issue! Obviously we do have meat in the house with her dog food. I don't anyway think it's what the food is it's more the feeling pressured to eat, I suppose it's like some people if they're given too much food on a plate and it puts them off.

I try and make feed times non stressful for her as much as I can, she's very noise sensitive so any outside noise will distract her. I've just started her on zylkene as meant to be good for noise phobic dogs but also feed issues.
 
My whippet is 10 kg and well enough covered, have you tried putitng oil on er food, tuna, vegie, salmon oil, feeding her a very small amount in a meal and then add as she eats or lift the food if she does not, is she an only dog? it's very common for only dogs to eat very little, they have no competittion and dogs can survive on very little even though we humans stuff them full:D
If you dont like emat can you feed her quorn...lol:D
 
Yes she's an only dog so no competition. Havn't tried oil so will give that ago. I've tried the tuna/pilchards trick before and as will other food she'll sometimes eat it and other times she doesn't want to know. I think I just have to accept with her that it's just how she is but you worry more as they age I think. I can't leave her food down now she has wet food so she has it put down and if it's not gone in five mins it goes in the bin.

Her teeth are fine xx

Thankyou xx
 
Tuna in sunflower oil - this is what I tempt mine with when we go shooting, as she gets too excited to eat her normal food :rolleyes: It also was a big favourite for my old girl who was a picky eater.

Scrambled or soft boiled eggs. Or, a dog biscuit omelette ;)

Cooked liver (Popple's personal favourite!!) She also loves kidneys or heart, but your OH may not like any of those (I can't say that I'm a fan either, as they stink whilst being cooked!!) maybe you could cook them at a friends house/when the OH is out, and then keep it in a tupperwear box in the fridge, adding to biscuits with some warm water each meal time. This is how we tend to prepare it for Pops.

Salmon - Pop's little nose goes nuts for it! :D

Is your OH ok with fish? If you can get some at clearance/final BBF date, price in the supermarket and freeze it, then defrost and cook the day you need it, then you can get some good quality fish/meat at an affordable price. :)
 
Porrige has always worked pretty well for Oscar but basically he likes variety so I give him our leftovers mixed in with his dry food. When he was an only dog ad lib dry feeding worked really well for him as he is a stressy feeder. It took all the stress away and made mealtimes non existant so no stress involved for anyone. Good luck :)
 
Thanks for your reply's much appreciated. She's now having 3-4 small meals a day of jw pouches/jw puppy food as higher in calories and tuna in spring water and so far so good! She's going to have a blood test at work tomorrow just to double check that all is well.
 
God, I feel your pain with your dog - ours is 13 and has always been fussy. He is perfectly happy however to kill and eat rabbits but that's not very practical! He looks at his dinner then looks at you as if he's saying "what, I am supposed to eat this?!) He is so un enthusiastic and he is not the only dog either - the other stuffs her food down.

The thing that's funny is, he loves the cats food (we have a cat at the stables) and is quiet obsessive about having to have his pedigree dental chew every night (he is there on the dot waiting for it). I think he is just very picky and has expensive taste (he won'r eat supermarkets own dental chews for example!)

We are giving him some sardines, he likes them enough. What I think he'd really like is those little tins of posh cat food - think it's cheese and chicken or something. We had some at one point throgh some work promotion thing, he absolutely loved them!!!! There's no way we are going to feed him those regularly though - he'd have to have about 4 tins and that'd be extortionate!!!

Dogs eh!
 
I have an old boy who has always been a picky eater and recently he has dropped off a little weight and not been wanting to eat, so I found with him that variety is the key, I try to give him something different every night, he loves tuna and pasta, cooked chicken, rice, and on very special occasions a bit of left over veg, meat and gravy from a roast dinner, after all he is 15 and deserves a bit of luxury at his age. Sometimes its like you have to tempt him so I buy packs of cooked chicken pieces and will give him a couple of pieces to get him feeling like he wants to eat. In the mornings scrambled egg or a little cereal works well also.
 
Thanks for your replies, it's such a worry although I've been as worried as I have recently as she's never lost weight before. Not had the blood tests done yet as I need the right combination of people at work as she gets very stressed going in and don't want to get her more wound up than necc.

Anyway she's actually been eating really well, touch wood so hopefully when she's weighed again she'll be nearer 12kg!!
 
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