Fussy eater - at my wits end!

Montyforever

Montyforever

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Barney has always been fussy with food, he's been on dry food since I got him as he would pick at it then leave the rest he stopped eating that so tried all different foods, he ate a little bit then started leaving it when he was bored of them. Managed to convince him to eat dry food with a bit of meat mixed in but slowly he stopped eating the dry food again :o
He will literally starve himself if it's not what he wants.
He was bugging me tonight for some of my crisps (chicken and thyme so strong smell and flavour) so I crushed a few and mixed it in with his dry food and he ate it all :rolleyes:
I've tried gravy but he gets bored of that as well ..

Any ideas?!
 
Our Lancashire Heeler 1yr old girl is exactly the same. We started her off on Fish4dogs and she soon went off that so put her on Orijen which again she went off. We then decided to give raw a go and this was fine for a couple of months and then she started going off this as well. We took her to the vet and they gave her a full mot and took bloods which all came back fine. Our vets said she will not starve herself and if she dosnt eat just pick her food up. This is all advice Ive given other people but the fact she will go 2 days without eating on a regular basis was an obvious worry. Now we have checked her out that has lifted the worry and we now know we have a fussy little princess.:D
 
My parents old JRT used to stop eating. This was in the days before rows and rows of dog foods, so it was a case of like it or lump it :D She was just evidently a light eater and would happily go a day or two without eating. In the end parents stopped putting food out (it would go off and attract flies), but dog would bring her bowl to them when she was hungry. She was in fantastic condition, vet always used to comment she was how a JRT should look.

However, if you decided to give her a piece of chicken, or something really tasty she would happily eat it - a bit like us eating a yummy bit of chocolate even if you aren't hungry :D

Therefore, I am of the 'they will eat when they are hungry' brigade and don't/won't pander to our dogs' whims unless they need a different diet for medical reasons.
 
Ah glad it's not just him! Trouble is he starts raiding bins, bugging people when they are eating and barking because he is hungry but still won't go and eat his own dinner :rolleyes:
 
He does not need the amount of food your think he may eat and this is why he literally regulates his own intake, if his weight is fine and he is fine stop worrying. Dogs are designed to live on little and if he is alone dog with no competition then he can please himself what he eats.
As suggests the best you can do is a strict feeding routine, stick to one good quality food, down for ten mins starting with a hand full in the bowl and not FULL to the top/ chocked to the brim, If he does not want it, lift it and don't offer anything inbetween until his next meal and again 1 handful of food down for 10 mins, if he clears it then a add a little more to the bowl.

Stop stressing:p
 
montyforever said:
Ah glad it's not just him! Trouble is he starts raiding bins, bugging people when they are eating and barking because he is hungry but still won't go and eat his own dinner :rolleyes:
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He aint hungry though he is just being greedy and begging, otherwise he would eat his dinner:p, place him out and offer his own food up in a kong with some tuna mixed in when you are eating, and the bin raiding that's a grey and whip thing.:p if you don't want bad habits just stick to his own food.
Have you tried him on RAW?
 
He only ever gets a mug full of dry food he isn't getting bowls full ;)
Bin is now behind a chair in the cupboard and he's still trying to limbo under the chair to get to it :rolleyes:
It's just frustrating, tried leaving it down which didn't work, only leaving it down for 10 mins, again didn't work ..
He's a little bit skinnier than he should be but not dramatically bad so not too worried at the mo i :)
Unfortunately my nan looks after him for a couple of hours a day and she spoils him rotten!
 
My terrier is so fussy I can't begin to describe it........she now has chappie nuggets (after going thru ALL the expensive foods :eek:), and when she gets a bit stale, she has the odd spoonful of chappie mixed into it. She has the most sensitive stomach I have encountered, but she does really well on Chappie. How she's made it to 12, with her dietary habits, I'll never know.

Put it this way - without hubs touching her bowl several times, she is too scared or spoilt to even consider eating from it. We've changed her bowl to low and plastic, as her metal one made her jump sky high if her tag touched it.
 
In answer to OP, keep giving what you are giving and like Cayla said, if the dog doesn't eat it within 10mins take it away.
Unless the dog is skinny it's possibly not hungry. It's only our human ways that tell us everything needs to eat like we do every day :)
 
Just a thought but have you tried mixing in tinned sardines in oil to her food? V smelly - I don't know many dogs that can resist them! Even a spoonful mixed with the dry food should coat it all quite nicely.
 
How old is your dog? mine wouldn't eat until she was fully grown- we tried all brands of food. She has always been a very active dog and her ribs used to stick out quite badly, often got stares when out on walks. She pretty much lived off horse feed for the first year of her life, we literally tried everything we could think of, she also went through phases of one thing working, and then not- first of all she wouldn't eat out a bowl, then she had to have gravy with it, then tomato ketchup, then fish, then chicken, then she'd only eat wet food in gravy, then she's only eat the green bits of food- and this was only on days she did decide to eat.
After she was spayed (after 1st season) she just found her appetite, and now she'll eat most things we throw in her bowl, haven't had sticky out ribs for years, if anything she gets a little tubby in the winter, but the vets always comment on how fit she is and how good she looks.
Give it time, have patience, and don't worry too much :)
 
He's 3, been with me a year and a half and plenty of food issues in that time :rolleyes: I thought maybe the latest hunger strike was because he was hot and bothered but I offered him a biscuit and he gobbled that straight down no hesitating while stood next to his uneaten dinner .. Out smarted by my dog for sure :p
 
I think you will just have to accept like me we have very special dogs.::rolleyes::D

My 2 Dobes on the other hand are just a joy, eating everything I give them and eating it with great relish:D.
 
At round about 6 months of age, all the samoyed bitches that i've ever had, go off their food.
When this happened with my first one, we worried endlessly and tried so many types of food, and ways of mixing it with tastier stuff; she'd eat for a few days and then get bored with it (we never leave bowls down - too many dogs lol).
In the end, after speaking to lots of knowledgeable people, we got it through our heads, just to leave her to get on with it!
We stuck to JW, the original food I was feeding, and if she didn't eat, she didn't eat IYKWIM
Eventually, after losing quite a bit of weight, she started eating normally.
We followed this routine with all our off-food bitches and the fussiness stopped much sooner, and normal service was resumed.
We now feed raw, and I'll be interested to see if we have the same problem with our next sammy (next sammy??? - did I just say that? :D )
 
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