My Chocolate Lab, Henry is 8 months old. He's suddenly stopped eating his meals. He will eat it eventually with coaxing but not if its soaked as Normal and it really does take some tempting him. He has Simpsons sensitive puppy food Salmon and Potato as he is intolerant of grain. He still loves his treats (which I haven't been giving him unless he eats his meals) and he is fine in himself although maybe a bit more vocal than usual with his groaning. Do you think it could be a growth spurt or could there be anything else?
Either a dog has had too much to eat and cannot fancy any more for a day, or is fussy, or is ill. If mine go off their food my first thought is that they are ill! You say he still likes his treats and is happy in himself, so he is probably not ill, but don't take that for granted, if worried always phone vet for advice. He may have reached the age where he isn't growing so rapidly so needs less food and is regulating himself.
Our dogs occasionally miss a meal, just because they aren't hungry. More than a day or so, I would certainly check with my vet. Are you sure about the grain intolerance. Our vets suggested that most allergies were from a problem with a protein, not grain. They felt that the popularity of grain free foods was mostly marketing. Tilly seems to have a mild food allergy, which we think we reduced when we went from a Salmon based to a Chicken based food. We aren't sure, and it is difficult to diagnose since it takes about 8 weeks to eliminate something, and our dogs have too many dog friends where they get ODF (other dogs food) or treats.
Mine rarely misses a meal unless he isnt feeling well. Maybe he just doesn't like the food that much and waits until he is really hungry to eat it. Hopefully he is feeling fine and starts eating normal again. If it carries on for a few days I would call your vet.
Grains contain proteins -- most commonly known is gluten. Interestingly, my vet mentioned that they think the reason why chicken is the most common protein that dogs are allergic to is because most dog pellets contain chicken. They think the allergy to chicken is caused when vaccinations are given to puppies who are eating a chicken-based diet and whose immune system then recognises chicken as an allergen. If this theory is to be believed, then it well might be the same with proteins in grains, because most pellets contain some type of grain.
Not to scare you, when Coco was about 7 or 8 years old, she stopped eating. Wouldn't eat a thing. After a day or so, we rushed her to all night emergency vet, put coco on IV, tests, etc. We were close to losing her then. Her body functions were starting to shut down.Next morning to regular vet, vet diagnosed her as having Addison's disease because of some of her blood test results., her adrenolin glands were not secreting enough hormones. As soon as she got on the medication, she snapped back but would not eat dog food of any sort. I cooked all her food from then on, chicken, liver, ground beef, etc. She ate really well from then on. The medication I ordered from Canada because it was half as cheap as in US. She was on eight pills daily, four in A.M. and four in P.M. After that, I took her to vet if she was off in the way she was feeling no matter how trivial. We used to joke about her Addison's disease and said she was royalty, one of the US presidents John F. Kennedy also had Addison's disease too.
