 ugh...
Jaya is SO picky.................................... what I have found to work is the following...
.............. be firm and keep a schedule. Only have the food out for twenty minutes and be with your pup during those twenty mins. If she gets distracted, redirect her to the food. If she is not finished and she is not interested, then remove the food entirely. I have found that if it just sits there, it becomes part of the scenery and not worthy of attention. Thats why I remove it.... and only give it to her for a limited amount of time... Because then she's like "woa, this must be something important.. either that or it must be like a treat, and anything thats like a treat, is great!"
I have removed all treats from her diet (at one time, she would refuse to anything - what she'd do is wait for those treats! and then keep doing the good behavior to keep receivign the treat...see what a smarty i'm dealing with! she'd even fake going pee lol). When she does something super, then I give her a piece of kibble and it acts like the "candy".
Measure out the daily required food, and break that up into portions. I have two-three portions per day.
Later in the day, try her second portion. Do the same. If she is not eating the food - then she does not like it. Move on to something else. I have learned that if she is not interested, then she just doesnt like the food. Because when it is food she likes - its night and day difference.
As long as the food is high in quality (No fillers), and fits into your pups diet well, use it. I'm not that happy about using kibble, but the vet recommended it because its nonfat (my girls have issues with digesting fat..anyway)... I'd rather be on the BARF diet.. but we'll see.
Anyways! So I have found kibble that Jaya likes (the nonfat one...but its weird because she refused to eat the regular one in that same brand... funny dog but what can u do). So I keep dry and wet on hand.
For Jaya's body type and age, it is required that she intake half cup to one cup of food per day. So I take one third cup of wet food (which she loves) before I leave for work. I sit with her and she eats. And then I immediately remove the plate. I hate to give her wet food because it does nothing for her teeth..but she loves it. Then when I get home, I give her one third cup of dry. We have gotten into the bad habit of playing with our food...she refuses to eat unless I throw the piece of kibble and she can chase it - or unless its from my fingers... the little diva... Sometimes she loses focus - and I stop entirely, and take her for her walk.
She eats readily after a walk. Then around 7, I give her the third portion.
Its been about a month, and this has been the longest stretch that she's eaten consistently. And she's almost a year old.
I hope this helps! |