Dog doesn't like to eat out of food bowls
 

My Mr Bailey, has finally started to eat after bringing him home last week. He doesn't eat as much as i think he should be nonetheless, Im happy with his progress. I have several concerns however, since he barely ate in the beginning we leave his food and water out all day. (Which only complicates potty training because it's harder to determine when he has to go potty) I aslo noticed he likes to find his food on the floor, instead of eating out of the bowl.

I was wondering, will he ever get used to eating out of the bowl or should I find another way to encourage eating. I also, would like some suggestions on whether I should start putting his food and water out only at feeding times, so that I can regulate his bowl movements

I have always free fed Milo as he dose not tend to over eat. I feed him out of this
JW Pet Amaze-A-Ball Treat Ball for Dogs at PETCO

Milo loves it I put his meal in there and he plays away. This also helps with excess energy, I was first introduced to it from a dog trainer. The only downside is Milo will no longer eat from a bowl or plate. If we go somewhere that he cant have the ball I either have to put his kibble on the floor or to get him to eat off of the plate I must mix some cottage cheese in with it.

I know i thought the same thing when we got Bella.. she wouldnt eat out of the cool bowls we got her.. so we ended up putting it on a small plate.. and she will pretty much fling the hard food all over and "find" it herself.. we have finally switched her water dish to something other than our bowls... but i guess as long as they eat i dont care what they eat out of... hehe it all takes time...

Personally, I don't believe in withholding water from a puppy. These little ones can get dehydrated quickly. But with the food, I guess it depends if Bailey gets enough to eat at one sitting. Most yorkies do not have problems with over-eating, but if he does, then you decide to only feed at certain times. I free-feed my boy, so kibble is out all day for him to munch on. That way, if I am gone, I don't have to worry about him getting hungry.

As for the eating on the floor thing.. My boy Jimi does it, and even my cat does it! If I put the food in a bowl they will take their paw and scoop it out onto the floor.. :eek: I have just come to the point of accepting it, lol.

It's odd how they have individual likes and dislikes about what they eat out of. But you can try different materials, metal, ceramic, plastic, etc and different colors too. But I'd try some plates maybe too. It could be he doesn't like to reach over the edge of a bowl to get his food. I had a dog that would only eat/drink out of plastic bowls. And had a horse that would only drink out of blue buckets. :confused: Sometimes there's just no telling...:p

Since your puppy is only 8 weeks old I feel he should have food and water available at all times. Some puppies are just nibblers and they like to eat throughout the day. Mine prefer eating out of plates once they are weaned. I add a tiny bit of canned food to the dry food, just enough to make the dry food a little moist. What are you feeding him?

Some people find that plates work better than bowls. In the beginning, Roxy would only eat a few bites of kibble at a time allll through the day. It seems to be quite normal for a lot of them. It was hard to figure out the potty routine though. I did find she would usually go poop morning & evening... sometimes in afternoon. She ate like this for several months. I figured I'd rather have her have access to food at all times while so young & make sure her sugar stayed balanced. After several months we switched to 2 feedings a day. She's doing very well.

I have 4 dishes of kibble and one BIG dish of water out for the dogs at all times. Some of them will stand over the bowl and eat. But Bella will grab a piece or two, run to the living room, drop it on the floor, then eat it and run back for more. It must be the way she keeps her girlish figure: she runs off whatever she eats!

I have theorized that pups that eat off the floor were smaller than their siblings. The bigger pups crowded around the dish at mealtime and ate like little demons, pushing food here and there. The smaller pups got to eat the "overflow", what got pushed out of the dish. So they're more comfortable eating off the floor than from a dish ... something they didn't get much experience with :rolleyes:.

Me? I've always been kinda permissive: as long as they ate, I didn't much care how they did it.

When Zeke was a puppy, he liked me to throw one piece of food on the floor at a time for him to chase down and eat. Maybe because my scent was on it, he liked it better. I would personally do whatever it takes to get them to eat. If he is very small, he will probably just graze as their little stomachs are pretty small.

I noticed Tango doing the same thing! We noticed that if we put the kibble in a clear storage container lid, he started eating better. Of course at first, we had to coax him by putting some kibble on our fingers and as he started eating, we praised him gently and slowly removed our hands. Once he did well w/ the lid...I put the food back in a bowl and placed it on the lid. He does well now. I find that he likes to eat when someone's there w/ him. Also, sometimes he takes a kibble piece over to his crate or bed or sometimes alternates between the crate and the bed! Funny! Now, if I could only get him to be potty trained!!!

I noticed Laci did the same thing , she would NOT eat out of her bowls, not ever having a puppy I couldnt figure this out, however since her breeder had dogs of her own plus the puppies she fed them all on paper plates, probally easier to dish out to so many dogs, as soon as I put her food on a paper plate she ate it right up...I also use a treat ball for her dry food, similar to that one, she likes it alot too:D

Lucy won't eat out of her pretty pink bowl either since I brought her home. (She's five months). In the morning, I take a handful and throw it on the floor; she likes that and will eat the scattered pieces . . . but there has to be a better way!

If we are going out and she has to be crated, I scoop up a handful and lay it at the front of her crate. She eats that. If I put her bowl in there, she will NOT eat it.

Now, if she finds food in my Westie's bigger bowl, she'll eat out of that immediatey. Maybe I should buy her a bowl just like his??

When my second one came along, she wouldn't eat out of anything but the "big" bowl that is up off the floor. Both of mine share.

one of my cats will only eat off a plate

HazelNut will fill her mouth up with food from the bowl, and carry it to s soft spot to eat, sometimes my lap, maybe her bed, or the carpet in the living room. I had a previous Yorkie who did this also.:D

My KC is the same way. He will not eat his kibble out of a bowl. He will not eat it off a plate either, I have to put it on the floor and then put it into neat little rows for him. If I just toss a small pile on the floor he will just sit and bark at it. :animal36

He is three now and I've only been his Mom for a year.
I feed him twice a day 1/4 cup. Or basically 4 rows six deep once in the morning and then twice in the evening when I get home from work. He eats more at night but that's probably because I'm able to give him more attention.;)

snow

My babies eat off my Fiesta dishes. haha They dont like bowls, so I feed them on the small salad plates. They get so excited when they see me go to the cabinet, they know mommy is getting their dishes to eat! :D

I didn't notice anyone mention this but could it just be that the bowls are too deep? A lot of animals like to be able to "keep watch" while they eat, a bit of an instinct from the wild days when if you didn't keep a lookout while you were eating something could sneak up and eat your food or eat you! If the bowl is too deep it'll obstruct their line of site. For this reason they'll grab a piece or a mouthful of food and take it somewhere that they can keep track of what's going on around them while they eat. Finding a shallower bowl or plate that'll let them keep track of what's going on around them while they're eating might help.

Ditto to Sophia's reply
 

One of our girls would eat off of anything.

The other one would only eat off a plate, but we found some shallow doggie bowls & she'll eat from that now (they each have their own)

They're both about a year old now.

:thumbup::thumbup:

my cat eats off the floor and her bowl. she sometimes pulls food out with her front paws and then eats it off the floor. she is crazy but we love her lol

dogs eating habits
 

Belle was tiny when we got her and I worried about her eating enough. I warm up some wet food in the mornings and in the evening and she eats that off the plate.....if I feed her with a fork!:rolleyes: Her dry kibble we had a problem with as we have an 85 pound grazing lab. Belle now will only eat her kibble off the floor, usually one piece at a time as she walks around. She also likes her brothers bigger kibble but she has to take one piece at a time and put it on the floor and "kill it" first then spend 5 minutes chewing on it. My husband seems to think she may be spoiled :eek: I have read alot of posts on here that the little ones do the one piece at a time thing. She's healthy and full of energy so I guess she's eating enough.

This is just not a Yorkie problem. I have known large dogs who knock their food bowl over and then eat their food off the floor. Most dogs carry their food to a rug to eat. I am not sure why. My sister-in-law has a Yorkiepoo that will get a piece of food out of his dish, back up until he is on a rug, will whirl around, eat the food, and go back for another piece. Who knows why these dogs do these nutty things, but it makes living with them fun and interesting.

Bella Mia digs her food out of the bowl or off the plate and puts it onto the floor. She then eats it off the floor. Sherman Tank takes his food piece by piece to the doggie bed and eats it there.

I have a 13 yr. old rescue, Rosie, who has struggled with eating out of any bowl or plate. I've tried everything. Then just lately, suddenly it occurred to me that the clinking of her tags against the bowl/plate might be scaring her. Since I've taken her collar off I've had not problems. Go figure. Can't believe it took me years to figure that one out.:(

Major eating issues
 

Our yorkie mix (who acts ALL yorkie) has some major eating problems. He is 1.5 years old. We've been to several vets trying to work this out as a medical issue (he's currently on a low-protein diet), but now we are starting to wonder if it behavorial.

He will play/kill food and eat it that way, but only a few kibbles a day really. He goes through phases, eating a particular dry or soft food for a few days to a week, and then snubbing it completely. He likes eating food off the floor, but will periodically eat out of a bowl too.

He recently ate a soft food really well for a couple of weeks (about his longest run with one food) and has now snubbed that too.

I am at my wits end here and looking for suggestions or similar expeniences.

Thanks so much. I've been lurking on this forum for some time, but this is my first post.

Harley will get a mouth full of food and then sling his head back and forth until he scatters it everywhere! Once it is scattered to his liking he will then eat one piece at a time laying down on his favorite blanket. This is at home where we have wood floors throughout. When we are at "Grandma's House" where there is carpet we will put his food in the kitchen but he will get a mouth full and bring it into what ever room everyone else is in to eat. While we have dinner, he gets his daily dental chew and he will run off and hide under our bed to eat that!

Jeri and Harley

I had horrible problems with Harley's interest in food until I switched over to Acana. Ever since that switch, I have actually had to start measuring his food and giving two meals a day because he will eat everything that I put down at once. We have been using Acana for probably a year and so far he hasn't had any loss of interest.
Jeri and Harley

You gotta love yorkies! I went through several bowls/plates/lids etc trying to find the right thing my Bailey would eat out of. As a puppy I had to play with his food to get him to eat. I would hide it in his kong or put in under a toy so he had to find it. One day in the $store I found a very small saucer (I think it is the catch plate for a plant pot) and problem solved. His food and water are on a small mat as my house has all hardwood floors which I think are cold on his feet. He is now 2.5 years old and I free feed him as he is not a big eater. Good luck!

Lol, The only time Roxy will eat out of her bowl is if she is Really Hungry. Which is not very often.. Maybe once in the past three years.
Roxy prefers a plate. I have also noticed that when we are out of town, if she is reluctant to eat off her plate, I just move it and then she will eat off of it.
At home, she eats in the same place three times a day. No exceptions.
As of late, Roxy has just stared at her plate of food, looks at me and proceeds to walk away. I call her back and say look as I take a small peice off her plate and set it on the floor in front of her plate. She will come and eat the tid bit and then proceed to her plate.
Sometimes, putting the tid bit on the floor doesn't work, so then what I do is I will go back to the source of her food.. I will get something I know that she really likes and sprinkle some atop what is on her plate. Mix it in a bit and top with a bit more. I will put a bit on the floor in front of the plate. I tell her to come and see. She does and usually always eats up what is on her plate.

Sometimes she wont eat off her plate at all. Like this morning. I just dumped the contents on the floor and let her eat from there and then washed her face, again.

I am not sure why she is doing this. I reckon it has something to do with her hair getting longer, on her face. Not sure.

I feel it is important to not cater to her the way I did this morning. I feel that she must eat off of her plate.
If she is hungry enough, she will so I instill in her to do so. Hopefully she will not do this tonight at dinner time.

Lil' Miss Izzie also will not eat out of a bowl.....I feed her dry kibble only and I will either fill up her "talk to me treat ball" or use her "food tube" which she prefers...it is very simple, just a piece of fleece material about 7 to 8" long and 1 to 2" wide...I just take scrap fleece material inside out, sew it length wise, turn it right side out and waaaalaaaa a food tube :) I think she just likes working for her food....she also at times likes her food placed inside an empty water bottle....:animal36