Fussy Spaniel

[Ceifer]

My sprocker spaniel has always been a bit of a fussy feeder.
He started on Forthglade puppy food which he loved. Then when old enough he swapped onto the 1-7 year old complete wet food. Through trial and error we discovered he would only have the chicken or turkey.
He was having quite runny poo so swapped onto the grain free and added Harringtons 6 grain free biscuit. He still has some wet food as he won’t eat the biscuit alone.
The trouble is he seems to go for 6 months and then refuse to eat dinner. We kept the biscuit the same but went onto pooch and Mutt. Again, 6 months and then he goes off it.
I got him some Forthglade again at the grain free doesn’t upset his tummy. which he wolfed down for a week. Ordered some more and now he won’t touch it again.
His stomach can be quite sensitive and I’m aware constantly chopping and changing really won’t help. I’ve spoken to the vets about raw and they don’t recommend it.
I’m at my wits end and really annoyed I’ve just forked out £60 an a load of Forthglade he turned his nose up at.
Any recommendations?

 

[Clodagh]

Offer the forthglade. Plain. No fussy bits. Pick it up after 10 minutes. Repeat that evening (or next morning).
He’s training you beautifully.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Offer the forthglade. Plain. No fussy bits. Pick it up after 10 minutes. Repeat that evening (or next morning).
He’s training you beautifully.

I do agree with this BUT our yellow Lab bitch was very fussy about what she could/would eat. She appeared to be hungry but just didn't want to eat what she was given. I bought several small bags and let her choose which she preferred, we ended up with Harringtons. But since she was spayed, aged 3, she has been completely different, eating enthusiastically at every meal.

 

[Ceifer]

Offer the forthglade. Plain. No fussy bits. Pick it up after 10 minutes. Repeat that evening (or next morning).
He’s training you beautifully.

I would have agreed with this but he kept this up for 3 days of not eating and then just resorted to mousing
Oh and being really fussy and whining

 

[Clodagh]

Three days when he didn’t get a single treat or any extras at all? If so I’m stumped!

 

[FionaMc]

My dachshund goes through phases of lower appetite or fussiness. Rather than switching food each time, which isn’t practical, some things that work for her…

- Animating the food (harder with wet) but flicking her cold pressed across the floor to instigate a mini chase sequence would often get her started and then she eats the bowl
- using it for some fun active indoor training or scatter feeding - for wet they may find a stuffed toy or licki mat type thing more appealing
- adding warm water, bone broth, chicken sprinkles, or mixing a bit of liver paste in have all also been great
- feeding her in the kitchen (away from my other dog) and where she’s not normally allowed also became part of the routine
- mornings were worse, so I would also take away unfinished food after her not showing interest for a while and give it back for dinner as suggested above, but it is definitely stressful if they are determined to not eat

Your miles may vary with any of these suggestions, but pleased to report mine now eats her bowl of cold pressed, even with meds in, with no additions or particular attention or effort from me. I’m sure as she approaches her next season we may regress but we’ll just use some of the tricks above again.

 

[TPO]

I agree with @Clodagh re offering and removing food.

As to something else to try, rún cold pressed dog food gets good reviews ans worked for a fussy sprocker of an acquaintance. You can choose the consistency. She smushes it on lick mats and in kongs too

 

[druid]

No healthy dog will starve itself, as Clodagh asks...in that 3 days did she eat anything at all?

 

[Ceifer]

He picked at biscuit but wasn’t overly interested. That’s when I took him to the vet as I was seriously worried. And asked about raw. But he was bright as a button at the vet.
I then changed his food and he started eating again.
As for fresh food, he went mousing. A skill he’s very good at but I’d rather he didn’t do.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I'm also in the 'no healthy dog will deliberately starve itself' camp.

 

[druid]

If he picked at the biscuit he did eat.... you've got to tough this one out, I'm afraid. Put down food for 10mins twice a day and remove it otherwise, no grazing. No treats, no extras. He will eat.

 

[Nicnac]

My Springer does this. I put out his food and he turns his head and looks at me saying "Really - this again?" and walks away. He eats when he's hungry as doesn't get anything else.

 

[Ceifer]

Ok maybe I’m being too soft

 

[CorvusCorax]

I've been through it with a lot of dogs at training where the owners say they're fussy/not interested in food and in almost all cases they're getting too much food (and sometimes not enough exercise) and/or they could do with losing a few pounds anyway. I'm yet to be able to tackle this diplomatically lol. We're humans and we find the idea of a dog not eating for a day or two very hard to deal with. But it works. Obviously some dogs have less food drive than others and will never really be that bothered about it and others would eat the skin off their own sh*t.

If he likes chasing his dinner, throw it for him.

 

[ArklePig]

Ok maybe I’m being too soft

Don't be worrying, I went through the same phase. I am notorious for being soft and I convinced myself she had some sort of doggy eating disorder. I kept asking her what are your demands (i suspect her demands were cheese) when I decided to tough it out she lasted one full day with nothing at all, and then the next morning she wolfed down her breakfast with absolute gusto. She eats the same thing every day now, kibble, warm water and supplement.

She eats well now (a little too well actually she's currently on a mild diet).

If I have anything nice I want to give her like a little bit of fish skin or similar I keep it separate and give it to her as a treat at a different time as I don't want to reintroduce the concept that nice things will appear in my bowl if I'm a bit of a d!ck.

 

[Ceifer]

Don't be worrying, I went through the same phase. I am notorious for being soft and I convinced myself she had some sort of doggy eating disorder. I kept asking her what are your demands (i suspect her demands were cheese) when I decided to tough it out she lasted one full day with nothing at all, and then the next morning she wolfed down her breakfast with absolute gusto. She eats the same thing every day now, kibble, warm water and supplement.

She eats well now (a little too well actually she's currently on a mild diet).

If I have anything nice I want to give her like a little bit of fish skin or similar I keep it separate and give it to her as a treat at a different time as I don't want to reintroduce the concept that nice things will appear in my bowl if I'm a bit of a d!ck.

Thank you. This makes me feel better.

Mine is always on the go and a constant worry to me about him consuming enough but I think I over worry.

That being said, we took him on holiday to Cornwall a year ago and to beat the dog ban on the beach times and the heat we went running at 6am every morning. I got carried away the one day and he was seriously flagging. I got him back to the beach house and was running about trying to find emergency vets number. My husband was cooking sausages and magically revived him with a Cumberland .

 

[CorvusCorax]

On that note, and the spaniel people can school me on this but you might just want to watch that he isn't overstimulated. Some working bred/type dogs can get themselves in to such a tizz/stress themselves out (even though it can look like they are enjoying themselves) that they can't eat/think about eating. Same as ourselves lol.
I'm sure we all know dogs that can go on for hours without stopping, but sometimes we can step in and give them a break.

 

[lozzles]

We also got trained by our springer spaniel to keep changing food till we realised it seemed to make her even more fussy. We then just stuck the one food!

Our current dog whose a different breed just likes to pick her own time of day to eat. For that reason we gave up raw as she likes to pick random times in the day to wolf her bowl but rarely when you put it down. She's a perfect weight so I indulge her with it as she obviously knows what works for her. She gets fed as much as she wants and never puts excess weight on.