Why my puppy won't eat food in her bowl?
 

im feeding my puppy wellness puppy dry food, she won't eat the food in the bowl. if i put food on the floor she will eat it! This makes me feel curious..... what is wrong with her? She doesn't eat breakfast, lunch, dinner if i gave her the dry food in the bowl. So every meal i need to put the dry food on the floor to let her eat it. :confused: also she eats when i feed her by hand. She just won't eat in the bowl!! i thought is the bowl problem so i change new bowl but still the same problem. I don't understand why? Maybe is the floor taste better for her?haha

My Jilly had this habit when I got her at 4 1/2 mos. and as long as I put her food out on a large tray sort of spread out across the tray, she would eat it, approaching each piece of food as though she were scared of it. She would dart quickly toward it and snap it up and back away fast. Slowly I began to move her bowl onto the tray at mealtime but left the food only on the tray and the bowl empty. Soon after she got used to the bowl being part of the tray, she would eat a few pieces of food from the bowl after she'd done with her tray food. After a while, only a bit of food was on the tray and most in the bowl and so on until she was eating her food entirely out of the bowl on the tray and then I started moving the tray away from under the bowl, etc., until one day, no tray and she was eating out of her bowl with no tray. You would not have to use the tray but just put the kibble on the floor if yours won't accept the tray, and put the bowl to the side and gradually incorporate it into holding food. I never knew why we went through this with Jilly but figured maybe being the runt of the litter, she had to steal her food from her much bigger littermates and got used to getting only what was left over on the floor or something. I have no idea where some of these dogs get their weird little ways but it is fun to see them deal with their issues and finally get to normal behavior. Wonder if this would work for you.

Try a plate or a bigger bowl. Uni did this before too. Or she would pick out a few pieces and put them on the floor then eat them off the floor. I think maybe the small bowl is claustrophobic for them. She grew out of this behaviour though.

Jilly was just scared of the bowls themselves at first, whatever size. Don't know if this pup is like that but my little stinker had to learn that the bowl itself was acceptable. I don't know if she'd been hurt by a bowl somehow in the press of eating with her much larger littermates or what the heck happened but boy, she had to work up on the bowl being around at all, let alone getting food from it. I can still remember seeing Jilly dart toward the bowl to try to grab a piece of food out of it and jump back like it was going to grab her or something. She was so messed up! Hope the OP's little dog isn't that far gone on its bowl situation. :)

Wally wouldn't either. For the longest time, he would only eat off the floor, then eventually I would only have to put a few on the floor then he would go to his bowl. Our trainer thought that maybe he didn't like the sound of his collar clinking on the bowl. Good Luck! It is frustrating, I know!

wow！ great advice!!! i gave her food on the tray and she ate it!! i think she is afraid of her bowl too, she grad a piece and run away like your puppy. Ok so now i have to put food in the bowl too for her to get used? put food in tray and bowl right?

THanks guys~~~~~all your advice works!

Put it on a paper plate

Jack does this, takes it out of bowl and puts on floor to eat. Usually he brings it to where I am and puts it on floor to eat. I think it is because he wants me to praise him for eating his food.

Sometimes when I think they haven't eaten I will go to the room the food is in and hang out just to get them in there to eat it. Usually they will eat it straight from the bowl then.

And I thought the small bowls had something to do with too. I bought bigger bowls and they still do it. Jack more than Josie.

Make sure you throw plate away once food is gone or you'll find pieces of the plate all over the place. LOL

Great advice! My Yorkies don't actually eat at the bowl either. They grab mouth-fuls & eat a few feet away or in their beds or my bed, or under the table or chair, run back...grab another mouthful...rinse & repeat. Sometimes they run into the living-room toss the mouthful, & pounce and attack the moving pieces before they eat em.

I always thought the bowl was just boring for them & this was their way of enjoying themselves, but after reading your post yorkietalkjilly, I'm thinking you pegged it. I know for a fact both were runts....Button's I got cuz I was female oriented & she just happened to be the smallest & only female out of the litter....then later Yogi, who was the runt but the most friendly when I went to pick him out. He has since out-grown both his brothers....lol.

Ziva is almost two and still eats her meals one piece at a time from a small tray or side dish, never a bowl.I have a small collection of "acceptable" dishes. She had/ has almost all of the habits mentioned in the above posts...

Alice is 6 months old and she does this too! It varies depending on the time of day though. Sometimes (usually morning) she'll only take one piece at a time and walk around the house with it until she eventually finds a place where she will eat it. And i have to put it on the ground in front of her or toss it to her for her to take it. other times of the day she'll sit next to me on the couch and just sit there and eat as long as I kepp putting 2 or 3 pieces at a time right in front of her. When I first got her a month ago, as long as I hand fed her the first couple of pieces, she would eat the rest out of the bowl, but now that's really rare. Her and other in the litter were the smallest so I guess that could be why she takes it somewhere else and I thought maybe she doesn't want the bowl since I've been putting it under her nose many times a day because I've been worried that she wasn't eating well and she finally got irritated with it lol. Idk, whatever the reason I hope she grows out of it because we have 2 other dogs that I have to keep away from her when I'm trying to get her to eat and it's time consuming lol. I'll give the flat plate idea a try, that's a good idea :) It seems like Yorkies need the perfect conditions to want to eat lol and the perfect food (i finally discovered that she will eat Orijen)

Yes, that is what my current Yorkie does. He occasionally eats standing at his bowl in the kitchen but usually brings one piece of food at a time into the den where I am to eat it with me. He definitely seems to be trying to share his experience. So sweet!

I don't know if it's the bowl or the flooring but Teddi has always grabbed a piece of food and brought it into the living room to eat. She is 4 1/2 years old and has done this since she was little. The only time she will eat in the kitchen is if she is locked in there.

LOL! I made this mistake, haha :D

Mine does that too! He doesn't seem afraid of the bowl, and I know he was one of the bigger puppies in his litter, so I don't think he's timid about getting the food due to that. He just isn't interested in food in a bowl. I have to dump it on the floor. If he gets really hungry, he will eat out of the bowl, but it's a last resort for him!

Ours takes ONE piece of kibble at a time-after carefully picking out the pieces of sweet potato...no problem eating that in the 'bowl'...and takes them to his bed to eat...takes him about half an hour to eat 1/4 cup...
One thing we found worked better than a bowl was a flat tray bowl...they have them in the Cat section at Petco-