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Originally Posted by Moses Mama  My picky pup is driving me crazy...I now have 4 bags of dog food sitting on the counter! (Innova, Nutro, Fromm and TOTW.) He ate the TOTW for 4 days and is now doing the picky thing again. I think with him I need to have a couple of flavors because he gets bored with a food after 4-5 days. I guess he will eat when he gets hungry enough! Any suggestions? |
He will eat when he is hungry. Choose one food and stick to it. When you present his meals, be happy and confident and put the bowl down. If he senses you are anxious about him eating, he is going to pick up on that and probably not eat.
Then choose one of 2 methods: have appointed feeding times and put the bowl down for 15 minutes. Whether he eats or not, pick the bowl up and don't bring it back until the next meal time. (I recommend tossing the kibble if it is not eaten because it will grow stale or less enticing in a very brief time, even a few hours).
Second method: leave the bowl down longer. My younger boy Teddy doesn't always eat right away. Sometimes he waits until after our walk or after he gets excited.
Do not give any treats. Do not offer any alternatives or embellishments to entice him to eat. Don't show anxiety or eagerness for him to eat. When it is mealtime, act cheerful, serve up the food in a clean bowl, say "yummy!" and walk away.
Speaking of bowls/dishes, what kind do you use? Someone else mentioned this above that sometimes dogs prefer eating and drinking out of one material over another. Max wouldn't drink water for hours when I first brought him home. I figured out that he as strong aversion to plastic. The instant I offered him water in a stainless steel dish, he started drinking heartily. We recently switched to glass and the boys love their water more than ever.