Is your furbaby extremely picky?
 

Lulu hates eating, wants nothing to do with her food. She's going to be 6 months at the end of June and I'm at wits end in trying to get her to eat. She will only eat table scraps, and I hate doing that but I'm afraid she won't eat. Ive tried everything from mixing her food with chicken or beef, but she picks it out. She came home from the breeder with Eukanuba, but I heard that wasn't the best food. She's on Back to Basics now, but I would like to find something she voluntarily eats...Any tips or suggestions?

I wish I could tell ya. When we got Mufasa from my husband's uncle he had him on Beneful. I bought Beneful....he wouldn't eat it. We took Mufasa to my mom's house and she gives her dog Kibbles N Bits. Mufasa ate it. I got him Kibbles N Bits.....he won't eat it.

I feel your pain!

you have to put the foot down.

pebbles was soooooo picky and I obliged her because she is little and I didnt want her to get hypoglycemia... but she is a big girl now.. 6 months and it is time she started eating some hard food. i got some advice here that you just have to give that to them and nothing else... just put the foot down. no more soft food. they will not starve themselves to death. I started thsi on the weekend and now she is free feeding ground up innova evo at the bowl :thumbup: (i have to grind it up as she has a hard time chewing with her little teeth and now taht she is losing them it is even harder!)

mind you this is amazing as I had to HAND FEED her/force her 5 star soft food that was basically human grade chicken or beef with pasta and veggies :rolleyes:

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!

another picky eater
 

Yeah!! there are so many good ideas here that perhaps I can get my VERY picky almost 6 month old, eater to actually eat. Alastor is also not at all interested in eating, unless it's pizza, but I won't let him have that. That is the only food he has shown any interest in. I have tried several dog foods, all with the same results. He won't eat it if I mix egg in it, yogurt in it, meat in it. He won't even lap the good stuff off but just looks at me like I'm trying to poison him. The only way I have gotten him to eat at all is to hand him food one piece at a time, and even then, he acts like he is doing me a favor. I know that is teaching him bad habits, but what can I do? I have tried just leaving the food out so he will eventually eat, but he started to get hypoglycemic from refusing to eat. It worries me because he is just SO skinny! I hope you have better luck than I have, but I'm not giving up either.:)

I can't figure Hot Rod out. Sometimes he eats, no problem. He likes one food for a couple of days and then nothing. I have tried a LOT of differnet foods. He will eat something and I think he likes it and boom, 2 days later he's not interested. I am going to take a real serious look at homecooking. I am just so afraid that he is going to starve. But at the same time he has gain weight over the last couple of months so he can't be starving himself.

I'm so glad my Katie likes most things. I hope our new puppy is the same.

Just wanted to wish you good luck. Hope she improves soon.

Hugs Shirl x x

romeo only eats when hes alone with it in a room! hes so weird.
have you tried mixing dry with wet?

Yup, She doesn't eat that either, she is driving me to drink, I tell ya.

My Timmy is a picky eater. He'll eat his dinner but when it comes to feeding him anything else he has to smell it. Even treats..My girls go crazy over treats and he sits there and smells it before he decides to put it in his mouth. Its funny because he'll take the treat after he smells it but he only takes it to tease the girls. He'll lay it on the floor and starts to circle the treat to see who gets near it. The girls always find a way to steal it from him and then he gets mad and they start to fight for 2 seconds and then everything is back to normal. This is the everyday thing at my house.

Willis is fussy and has always been a picky eater, He was actually worse as a pup, until he was neutered, and his appetite did improve.
He is still fussy though, If he eats something one day, you can guarentee he won't the next, even if it's fresh chicken, He never eats readily, and is always picking at his food when he does eat it. I find this a real pain as Darcy the pup will do anything to get to his food, she is a real foodie, she pinched something out of my freezer yesterday while my back was turned, she licks the plates in the dishwasher, she has tried to get in the bin, thankfully she is not big enough to reach in it.
Willis is often sick with bile, because he has an empty stomach,

Mufasa's food and water bowl are in the kitchen. When he eats he will get one piece of food and bring it into the living room to eat........then he'll go back and get another piece and bring it into the living room and eat. He's weird! HA

My baby decided that he doesn't want 2 eat his food. He prefer, the table food's! He will sniff his food, but then just walk's away from it!

Hey that sounds familar, this is what willis does with his food

I have a really picky girl but she's getting better. I give her Artemis after trying a few brands with no interest. She seems to like it and I grate with a cheese grater Natural Balance Roll on top. It's a semi moist and I think she thinks it's very tasty. It helps her to eat the Artemis. You might want to try that. Good luck, I know it's difficult.:animal-pa