My Gizmo is afraid of his food dish
 

Gizmo is 12 weeks and when we brought him home he ate from his dish until he almost knocked it over and now he's afraid of it. He will only eat from my hand or when I put the food on a towel. We have tried changing the dish to his water dish which he has to problem with until it has food in it. He also sneaks up on his food like he is afraid of it. Has anyone experienced this behavior?

I think poor little Gizmo is afraid of "that nasty thing that jumped up and tried to grab him when he was just trying to enjoy a meal"! He knows it is a safe place in mommas hand, and the towel has never attacked him.......but maybe he is now certain his food and what it is served in, has a mind of its own and will jump at him again if given a chance! I had one pup experience this frightening experience...I switched from stainless steel to glass....only when I went to a flat party paper plate that was saucer sized, did the fear of the dish leave him....he eventually got over it....but it was kinda cute watching him try to stalk and sneak up on his dinner before I thought of the flat plate.....I did sit on the floor with his food and his bowl....I would hand feed him a bite at a time....then I dropped it on the floor, and he took that, then I dropped it into his bowl.....I did not have the time to work this out with him, so I finally just used the plate....but you could try it.....feed from your hand first, then as you are sitting on the floor, drop it on the floor, then drop it into his bowl....with a lot of patience you may be able to help him work it through.

Your baby is so young he's dealing with his first fears in life and how you handle him now will help him learn how to deal with fear. Any time he acts fearful, don't say "it's okay", pick him up and soothe him with petting, stroking, etc., since it is said that reinforces their fear and they sense that your soothing them, saying that it's okay, etc., is agreeing with their fear and rewarding it, reinforcing it. Just act matter of factly when your little one gets a scare and take him outside or to another room, immediately him from the scene of the fright and instantly distract him with fun playtime and running away from him, getting him to chase you, things like that until he's older and his brain more developed and he's not so fearful of things.

Try desensitizing him to the food bowl by slowly working up to his re-learning to trust it.

My little Jilly was afraid of her bowl for the longest time but we finally worked it out & she would eat out of it. I started by putting her food on paper towels far away from the empty bowl, then closer & closer until she would eat her food off the paper towel right next to it her bowl. Finally, I put one end of the paper towel with a piece of food on it in the bowl & she ignored it, meal after meal - day after day - week after week. Finally, after taking that piece out of the bowl so often uneaten, one day it was gone when I started to get it out. She'd grown accustomed to a piece of food in there & gone in for it. Before long, no more single piece in there, there were 2, then 3, then lots more & she ate them all. She worked up to being desensitized to the food being in that bowl & it not hurting or scaring her & finally, it wasn't an issue most of the time & she ate her meals from it.

Then she would relapse & we would have food on paper towels for a night or two - but then she would go back to eating out of the bowl as if she'd forgotten she was scared of it. Might try something like that - it's a lot of trouble but it could help yours.

Thank you for your responses. Right now I sit on the floor and either feed him one piece at a time or a few in my hand. He will take it from my fingers if my fingers are holding a piece in the bowl but not directly from the bowl. If the bowl is too close to his food on the towel he won't touch it. He'll sit there looking at me and his food and whimper. He did eat out of the bowl a few times but then he must of remember it scared him and back to hand feeding.

Just be patient with him as you are and in time he'll no doubt come out of that fear of his bowl.

Hi Everyone -I'm so happy to report that Gizmo ate out of his dish last night and this morning. It has to be next to me on the floor, but that's okay. :)

Ah, success! Great news!