In the last few weeks Harvey has started being fussy with his food. He still dances around while we prepare his food and looks hugely excited, then once we've put the bowl down he looks at it and completely ignores it! If we sit and 'play' with his food, throwing it around the room for instance, he'll eat it. If we hand feed him he'll eat it (for a while). If we put some in an empty plastic milk bottle and leave him to play with it he'll eat what comes out. When we're training and we reward him with treats he eats those without hesitation. Have spoken with the vet and he was unconcerned - Harv is solidly built, neither under nor overweight, and appears generally healthy. If we just leave his food down for 20 minutes and take up what is left then eventually he will start eating from his bowl again. Anybody else had a similar experience? Did it resolve itself in the end? PS: Just for clarity, I'm talking about his basic kibble food. Anything else, such as raw bones, sardines, chicken, cheese, sausage etc etc he eats with gusto
Re: Fussy eating Harvey has you well trained ;D You will dance attendance on him, what fun he thinks, you provide something delicious so he doesn't need to eat the kibble! As you have had the vet check him out and nothing appears to be wrong (I wondered about his teeth but he is eating other things) then harden your heart. Reduce his food so that he feels hungry, put it down, walk away, ignore him, if he hasn't eaten it in ten minutes, pick it up and don't feed him until his next meal. This should solve the problem
Re: Fussy eating Molly's been like that for a couple of months. Being a bit soft, to start with I put something like a bit of chicken or ham on the kibble, which worked for a while but recently she's ignored even bowls of chicken with no kibble if not hungry. I'm now feeding her when she's hungry (she hits the cupboard door!) so no fixed meal time. Very strange as all my previous dogs have been voracious eaters.
Re: Fussy eating My Gavin (Cavalier) was always fussy with food - and they have a 'foody' reputation just like Labs! I simply had to put it down, ignore him, then take it up if he didn't eat. He never starved himself! The hard bit was that his brother, Callum, was a normal Cavalier (hoover of food!) so I had to crate him while Gavin made up his mind if he was eating or not :
Re: Fussy eating Riley's like that over his Skinners kibble. I started putting salmon oil on it - great to start with gets bored after a while. Tried sardines and other stuff all good but what worked most consistently in the end was just a bit of warm water to make it smell nice. I'm in the process of using up his Skinners as we're going onto Orijen and I don't know if it's the Orijen or the competition from a small(ish) white eating machine but he's eating more rapidly now for sure. We'll see if it lasts. Riley was always ok weight wise but it did used to concern me that he didn't approach his meals with gusto.... I'm not sure I've helped at ALL but I do sympathise
Re: Fussy eating It could be he's just not hungry and you are teaching him to eat when he isn't hungry with possible weight issues in the future. I would be hard-hearted over this one: if his weight is normal and he isn't unwell in any way, then I would cut out any sardines, sausage, etc and put the bowl with kibble in down. Give him 10 minutes then lift it. Offer again at the next mealtime, avoiding any opportunity to snack in between. He may be one of these dogs that just likes to eat one meal a day when he feels hungry and not several smaller meals. (Lochan would be looking at him incredulously for this behaviour!) Oh and just a thought - have you checked the bag of kibble is OK? My last dog went on hunger strike once when the bag of kibble must have got damp at the bottom and went a bit mouldy. She knew, and wouldn't touch the apparently normal looking stuff at the top we were serving!
Re: Fussy eating Yes I'd definitely check the kibble. Lady flatly refused to eat kibble from a new bag (shock horror!). It smelt ok to me but I got a small new bag and tried that and she wolfed it down so I did a test with two piles of kibbles, one from each bag and she ate the good and left the bad. My sense of smell is not too good and I couldn't really tell there was anything wrong with the off-bag.
Re: Fussy eating I bet the competition has improved Riley's appetite Barbara. ;D I fell into the add nice tasty stuff to kibble trap with my old lab which I think could possibly have caused his colitis and certainly aggravated it. He ate kibble like a 'normal' dog whilst a puppy once he'd gone onto adult food he went very fussy until I put him on kibble with fish protein he loved that. With hindsight I think I was probably over feeding him. I agree with the others. Stop the extras now before it's too late and if he doesn't eat it take it away. You could also try reducing it slightly you can always put it up again if he starts gobbling up. My sisters dog was doing a similar thing. I gave her the same advice and he now gobbles up. I also suggested she used some of his daily ration as treats and to put in his kongs rather than giving him extra treats which will lessen his appetite and be tastier than kibble. Good luck.
Re: Fussy eating [quote author=Jen link=topic=8521.msg120498#msg120498 date=1414594701] I also suggested she used some of his daily ration as treats and to put in his kongs rather than giving him extra treats which will lessen his appetite and be tastier than kibble. [/quote] I would agree with this if you can get away with it. There's no way Riley would work for kibble though :
Re: Fussy eating My dogs work for kibble probably because they've never worked for anything else. I did learn from some of my previous mistakes. :. I do have extra special treats for extra special work though. ;D
Re: Fussy eating Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated. We'll toughen up and see how things go. [quote author=Stacia link=topic=8521.msg120456#msg120456 date=1414575869] Harvey has you well trained ;D[/quote] Strictly-speaking Harvey has OH well trained ... and she has me well trained! It has the same net effect.
Re: Fussy eating Harley is a fussy eater......I know, labs usually aren't : She refuses point blank to eat kibble by itself. We spent 2.5 days putting just dry down (no treats), then picking up 10 mins later. After the 2.5 days, I put a sachet of wet food in with the dry and she wolfed it down. To me, it's not a problem her having a mix of wet/dry so we have stuck to that.
