Hey Everyone. Sorry for this long query. Our puppy is now 8.5 months old and is generally a good dog except for minor episodes of over excitement. He is active and happy and of course eats anything that doesn’t eat him first. lol Last weekend we rented a cabin in the woods and Mylo had a rough drive getting there due to excessive braking caused by traffic. Once there he was restless probably overstimulated or just jumpy due to country sounds and smells. He never really settled in and was stressed if one of us was not around. Whatever spooked him caused him to not eat his food unless we sat and hand fed him. Last couple of days home this trend is continuing. He is energetic and playful and his digestive system looks good but the pup just won’t eat his kibble unless hand fed by me. He is taking his treats begging and trying to steal our food but just won’t touch kibble himself. Vet says it could just be food aversion and associating the food with a stressful experience. Suggested diet change. And bring him in if nothing changes. They thought food aversion is rare for labs. Just wanted to post to see if anyone else has experienced something like this and if yes then what helped? Is it the bowl or should we change food? Please guide me accordingly.
Hi sorry I haven't experienced this with any of my Labs They usually wolf down their food even when unwell May be worth checking with your vet if it's a sudden change in behaviour.
Hi - We are experiencing this too except that we haven't been away anywhere. Our girl - an active, happy, chocolate Lab, is now 8 months old and has gone off her food twice - the first was Lily's Kitchen puppy food (I've always fed our Labs on LK but usually only when they were adult dogs and they've loved it, but LK has been sold now to Nestle and I'm wondering if other owners have found that their pups don't like it). Two weeks ago, I started her on Fish4Dogs as she does like fish and she liked it to start with but now she has started going off that as well and I'm at a loss. She seems not herself as well, a bit confused and quiet (most unusual). Wondering if she is about to start her first season and perhaps the hormones are bothering her? We've had five Labs and never had this issue before as they've all hoovered up any food. Has anyone else had this problem? Could this behaviour be an early symptom of her first season about to start?
Sorry to revive this thread, but did either of you figure anything out? What worked? Did the problem go away? I have a 9mo who has had a heck of a time with digestive issues, which we think may be a chicken/beef allergy. We finally settled on hydrolyzed protein dry food, and he absolutely loved it. He'd do just about anything for even a single piece. That all changed after being on amoxicillin for 2 weeks for an unrelated infection. Our boy stopped eating almost altogether unless fed/tricked to eat by hand. This also coincided with some work on our house, and the banging really seemed to get him on edge. Now that he's off the medicine, he still hates his old kibble. He'll eat it when mixed with the wet version of his food (at $5.15/can!!!) and occasionally on its own in small amounts, but we would really like to find a way to get him back to eating regular kibble. He's even becoming less excited about the canned version, which he initially took to after coming off the antibiotic.
I was going to suggest trying your boy on steamed chicken and rice and gradually adding the kibble back in, but if he has a chicken/beef allergy.......? You could try giving him a can of sardines in oil on his kibble to get the taste buds going. Also my girl loves plain greek yoghurt (not flavoured or sweetened). She gets a tablespoon on her evening kibble every day. As your boy is only 9 months, maybe half a tablespoon to start. This will also assist in raising the ''good'' bacteria in his gut after the anti biotics. Very low in lactose, so shouldn't upset his tummy.
Thanks! He likes and can stomach Greek yogurt, so maybe we will try that! I'm really hoping I can get him back to dry kibble in the end.
My Bella was a picky eater as a pup, and had many digestive and urinary crystal issues that we had to work through. She was very lean too - and looked so skinny for the longest time. We tried so many things before we finally figured out....she was allergic to pumpkin and sweet potato. And it was in EVERYTHING. Once we figured that out, we read every label and every last ingredient for everything she ate. Also, white rice went right through her. So she became my chicken and oatmeal dog...and sometimes scrambled eggs. She also didn't like (would turn her nose up and refuse to eat) lamb, bison, fish, wild boar, and that kind of thing...in retrospect I think it was healing her gut...and we did use some supplements for that Thorne gut soother or something like that. But we were careful with her every step of the way - bought lots of small bags of food to try - and gave them to my Anatolians if she wouldn't eat it. Again, once she grew up and healed her gut....she would eat almost anything. And if she ever turned her nose up to something I never questioned it...she knew better than me what would upset her! But there were many days of sitting on the floor tossing kibble to her as a game to get her to eat anything as a pup. But up until we lost her a couple of weeks ago - if she was ever off food - she got oatmeal for a few days and that got her back on track very quickly. I hope that helps!
This is really helpful. Did you talk to your vet about the gut soother before using? I'm wondering if my boy just needs to heal a bit before he gets his full appetite back. Also, was Bella's demeanor any different when she was being picky? The strangest thing to me is that other than not wanting kibble, I don't notice any signs that he's having any discomfort.
My vet wasn't great help with any of it, sadly. She wanted to put her on a medicated food for the urinary crystals, and was all about brand pushing what they sold in house. She also gave me pumpkin soothe packets for her to "heal her gut". So I pretty well just ventured out on my own with research. Our dog before Bella had a horrible puppyhood too with coccidia and such that did a ton of damage - so we had used the healing supplements with her too. Thorne Gastriplex is what we used. With Izzy I think we did a good 9 months on it, and Bella once we figured out her pumpkin/sweet potato sensitivity, probably 6 months. As for her demeanor - you could tell she didn't feel good...once we got her started on the Gastriplex and a food she tolerated and didn't give her urinary crystals (as evidence with urinalysis at the vet), she improved pretty quickly. It still took a while to get her to a weight were she didn't look gaunt... She was on 3 meals a day (I packed her a lunch everyday...lol) until she was probably 5...at which point she quit wanting her lunch. I hope that helps!
Sorry for the second revival, but I wanted to post an update with good news. Our lab continued to resist meals as he rounded the 1 year mark. We suspected that he was trying to trade up for better food, since he would always get excited for the (extremely expensive) wet kibble we gave him when he had tummy issues on antibiotics. We actually started switching him from his old kibble (Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Proteins) to a new lamb-based limited ingredient diet (we think he has a chicken/beef allergy), and things got a little better for a while. But soon enough, he was doing the same thing - refusing to eat his meals even when sprinkled in wet kibble and nice warm water. His demeanor wasn't changed - just his appetite. Our vet even remarked "it's like he has forgotten he's a lab!" Well we just got him neutered, and for a variety of reasons (including that we needed him to eat small amounts at random points throughout the day with medicine) we started giving him only two bigger meals 12 hours apart instead of three smaller ones during the same timeframe. We are still sprinkling in some of the wet kibble, but have not been adding in water since that gets messy with his cone. It's hard to tell whether it was the drop in testosterone, the changed meal schedule, no water with kibble, or all three, but in a matter of days he changed from regularly refusing meals to getting excited for each and every one. He's a food-motivated lab again! Anyway, for those encountering the same problem, don't stop trying new things because you never know what will work for your pup. For us, I really think it was going from three to two meals a day (and potentially new kibble that he didn't have an aversion to from the antibiotics), but we may never know.
