At a recent class, one of our clients mentioned that his puppy wouldn’t eat the dry dog kibble they were feeding and asked what he should do about it.
Not eating their food is quite a common problem in dogs.
Why does it happen?
There are a number of illnesses and physical problems that’ll cause your dog to lose his appetite. If he has other symptoms too, (such as runny poos, or being sick, or sleeping more than usual, or a lack of energy, or weight loss, or drinking more than usual) you must take him straight to your vet.
Tooth and mouth problems, especially in older dogs, can also cause loss of appetite. Check your dog for anything stuck in his mouth and take him to your vet for a check up.
But if your dog seems otherwise well, has his normal amount of energy, is drinking water, with a shiny coat and bright eyes, but just won’t eat his dinner, then you can afford to wait it out to see what happens.
There are a range of possible reasons why your dog won’t eat:
– changes in the family, such as a new dog, new person, lots of visitors, visiting another home
– changes in routine, such as moving house, moving furniture around or new furniture, moving where the water and food bowls are placed, or holidays away from home
With these, giving your dog time and space to learn about and cope with the change usually solves the problem.
It may be due to behaviour of another pet, such as if your other dog eats much faster than him, or growls at him while he’s trying to eat, or steals his food. The solution here is to feed each dog in a separate room so they can have peace and quiet to eat.
But the most common reason is that your dog has just become a fussy eater. Try giving him a favourite treat. If he wolfs down the treat, then it’s likely he’s just being picky.
The usual reason for your pet becoming picky is that your dog has had tasty treats, or table scraps, or gravy, added to his food. He’ll love that and so then he’ll often decide to hang out for better food than his boring dry kibble.
Your response may be to try another type of food. You might change the brand, or type, or change to a fresh food or raw diet.
Sometimes this might help, but often it makes no difference.
Our client admitted this had been the case with the fussy puppy. Because they were worried the puppy wasn’t eating, they tried several foods, then gave him some chicken. The problem then escalated until by the time they spoke to us, the puppy was eating only cooked M&S organic chicken…
This isn’t good for any dog. Dog food is made to provide a balanced diet. Giving too much of any other food or treats risks unbalancing the diet which can affect your dog’s health, development, growth and energy levels.
So what can you do about a fussy eater?
There are two main strategies:
– be more fun, or
– get strict
Or a combination of the two.
Make food more fun, by feeding his food as rewards in training, scatter feeding, playing hide and seek with small piles of food, or feeding on a snuffle mat or via food toys such as Kong Wobblers.
To get strict, you must stop all additional treats (and I mean all – no table scraps or bits of biscuit). Put a small amount of food in his bowl and place it down for five minutes – set a timer.
After five minutes, lift the food. Take it right away until the next meal time. Then put it down again for five minutes. Repeat until he eats it. Then give slightly more each time until he’s eating his normal amount.
Don’t panic if he doesn’t eat anything for a few days. if he’s otherwise healthy and drinking normally, it doesn’t matter.
And please, don’t give him any other food. At all.
Our client rang me after four days, worried that his puppy wasn’t eating anything. It was a little worrying but the puppy was otherwise full of beans and charging around. Anyway, I advised him to wait another day – and the puppy started eating the kibble. Success!
(It turned out that the client’s wife was so worried about the puppy not eating that she was surreptitiously feeding the puppy peanut butter in an evening – no wonder she wasn’t eating her kibble.)
See you soon,
Carol