BC Not Eating..WWYD?

Wildforestpony18

Wildforestpony18

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Blaze, my 15 month Border Collie is very skinny, not overly, the vet said he is perfect; But the problem is that he is SO active and he isn't eating. He sometimes eats half his breakfast, but mostly leaves it. He was eating his dinner but now he has started not touching that either, so some days he won't eat anything. He will happily eat treats he likes. We have tried putting sardines and tuna in his dinner, giving him slightly less, more meat than biscuits but still, at most he'll eat a quarter or so of it.

He goes for a walk everyday and runs around herding our other boy, so if I walk them say 3 miles, he'll probably do about 15 miles! Just circling around and running after the ball; he needs a walk every day because he has so much energy! He is a complete pain in the butt without his daily walk.

As you have probably figured out, he is going to get skinnier. He also does agility training which he adores. I really don't want him any skinnier, he is solid with muscle, but he also does Showing and too skinny may be a problem.

He is on CSJ with dog meat, (pedigree, winalot etc) and sometimes sardines. He has been on CSJ all his life, apart from a pup, when he was on Royal Canin. He is on Super Dooper champ from CSJ.

WWYD?
Thanks for reading so far :D
 
I'd maybe drop the dry and the meat (which wouldn't be the best quality) and try something like Prize Choice, Nature Diet or Natural Instinct which have a very high meat content if he prefers wet food, it's much better quality.
Natural Instinct does pre-made meat and bone mixes.

Despite what food companies say, most dry food is not a 'balanced' diet, dogs don't do 'balance' in the same way as humans and there is often far too much grain in most dry dog foods.
We've been conditioned by advertising to think that dogs need sacks of dry food with tins of wet food for 'balance' when that is actually not the case!
 
1. Id stop pandering to him by giving him extras, stop all treats.

2. Give him a really decent food, not CSJ or pedigree Im afraid. If you want to stick with dry, try Orijen , Fish4dogs or Applaws. If he was mine Id stick him on a raw diet though.

3. If he doesnt eat within 10 mins, lift the bowl and take it away. Dont give him anything else, no treats inbetween, nothing. He will eventually eat when he is hungry and a day or 2 with no food wont harm him.
 
both the above and showing dogs is like showing horses, the judges like them fat! so i would stick to long runs and agility and a happy dog-therefore forget the showing
 
I just wouldn't worry about it .....alot of young active collies are skinny and as long and he's healthy it's much better than being overweight. I have had collies for years and most of them were slow eaters...and not particularly interested in what they ate. Never fed treats and never would.
 
NeverSayNever said:
1. Id stop pandering to him by giving him extras, stop all treats.

2. Give him a really decent food, not CSJ or pedigree Im afraid. If you want to stick with dry, try Orijen , Fish4dogs or Applaws. If he was mine Id stick him on a raw diet though.

3. If he doesnt eat within 10 mins, lift the bowl and take it away. Dont give him anything else, no treats inbetween, nothing. He will eventually eat when he is hungry and a day or 2 with no food wont harm him.
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I dont treat him all the time, he has to have treats for TRAINING
 
My dog is fed raw (carcasses and tripe mostly) and gets Fishmongers from Pets at Home as a training aid, just bog standard dry food, one piece of kibble at a time for 'training/treats) and this counts towards his daily meal ration as mentioned.
 
I agree but just pointing out that collies do not need treats for training.....ever met a working dog that had treats ?
 
Er, yes. Fridays through Mondays. Most of the working dogs I know, their puppy/young dog foundation, involves getting fed/getting their meals, through execution of the desired behaviour, moving on to balls, bites, tugs etc once the foundation is in place.

Maybe we are talking about different forms of work :)
 
Wildforestpony18 said:
Raw diet would be hard as we have 5 dogs :/ I have to use treats for training for agility contacts and show training, no other option.
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You really don't esp if your dog is not that interested in food anyway.....the collie I have just now did agility without ever having a treat.....
 
bonny said:
You really don't esp if your dog is not that interested in food anyway.....the collie I have just now did agility without ever having a treat.....
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All dogs are different, and as i said, treats are needed for his SHOW training. Contacts I also use treats for and occasionally for a good wait. He is food orientated, but for treats, not his dinner.
 
bonny said:
I think collies should be trained without treats, definitely they don't need them !
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Yes i agree but the treats are only used for contact training , teaching ' touch' with a pringle's lid, favourite toy is his reward for all other equipment :)
 
Our (now old) dog has always been a somewhat fussy eater - looks at his dinner like it's poisoned a lot of the time! :) However, even now aged 16, if he gets a sniff of a rotten rabbit carcass in a field he's off and the whole thing's eaten! He's pretty gross and moves remarkably fast when he wants! He too will happily have treats out on walks, the smellier the treat the better.

I would echo what others have said and change his feed. I give mine Wainwrights now - she was on Natural Instinct but Wainwrights is slightly cheaper so I changed. At least they have more meat in them as opposed to pedigree which has a fair few 'fillers' in.

to be honest though my dog is 2 yo now, she has a morning snack of a handful of biscuits in the morning, dinner of meat and a few bisuits, a dental chew later on and then after her night wee in the garden she has another small token amount of biscuits. in addition she sometimes thieves bread put out for the birds, bits of horsefeed and any dead animal she finds if I don't get to her first! She is still very slender, has a bony rump and you can see her ribs BUT she is healthy and is just so full of energy she must burn everything off!

I wouldn't worry too much although I would not leave the food down - if it's not eaten, remove it.
 
bonny said:
I agree but just pointing out that collies do not need treats for training.....ever met a working dog that had treats ?
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If we did not give our border collie a treat when he comes to us, we would never catch him again.

We do only use treats for this one thing, but it does motivate the dog, who is proving really difficult to train to recall in the open, so would not like to say collies do not need treats.

Our border is sometimes not bothered about his food, so we have cut it back to about half the amount recommended by manufactures, and he is eating better.
 
Is your dog entire? Sometimes they become fussy eaters when they mature. I would stop all treats and add a small amount of hot water to his feed, let it soak slightly and create a gravy to encourage his appetite.
 
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