Help, she is not eating enough :(
 

I have been free feeding Wellness small bites for a while now. Suzi does not look like she is thin, you cannot tell at all. However, I can feel her spine, ribs. AND I honestly did not realise this until yesterday just how thin she has gotten. She acts fine , has energy, barks , behaves like she should be. But will not eat enough. Do they get tired of eating the same food?
Now i am in a panic and feel horrible sad. I thought dogs would not starve themselves? She feels so boney though. Of course this is a wakeup call and i will be supplemental feed her canned food now. I just am so upset that she is this way without me even catching it . It may not be as bad As I am thinking, but bad enough.
Suzi is inside , very much loved , and cherished. How could this have happened?

I have talked to the owner of a pet food store here in my town and she says she switches food for her dogs every couple of months, you just have to do it slowly to make sure they don't have any stomach upsets.
I am now feeding both of my dogs Fromm and they both love it. I would try to introduce another dog food. How much does she weigh and how much she eat everyday. My yorkie is 6 pounds and she eats about a 1/2 cup a day.
I hope you can get this resolved. Maybe try giving her some plain, boiled chicken and rice.

Thank you. I honestly am not sure how much she weighs. I just know that I can feel her bones more then i should. I did not reaslise the extent until last night, and now panic.
I did give her plain chicken and she ate like she was starving, my heart sank.

When I adopted my Himalayan and got him home... he was so thin I couldn't figure out why he was still alive. I could feel 3 sides to each vertebra....scary. You wouldn't know he was thin for looking at him though. Well, since then, I make a conscious effort to do a hands on all over check of all my dogs and cats at least twice a week. I can't say I did that before adopting that kitty though.

You may want to take her in for bloodwork, just to make sure that it is because she's not eating enough, and not a medical problem, and to talk to your vet about the best way to get her back into good body condition.

There's a chart somewhere... not crazy about Purina but this info is good...similar to the chart my vet uses to classify weight on dogs:

Purina.Com | Dog | Caring | Understanding your Dog's Body Condition

I used to mix 2-3 different brands of kibble together and fed mine like that, that way if a company goes under or changes their formula, I had two backups that they were used to... also found they did eat better... less finicky.

Mine tend to gain because I treat a lot for tricks, etc., so I bought a postal scale and weigh them about monthly just to make sure they're not going up or down too fast. I love it.

Get that baby into the vet. You need to ask how much you should be feeding her, and if she isn't eating as much as she needs you need to gradually switch foods to find one she will eat. My yorkie never ate more than 10 pieces of kibble a day -- any food we tried him on. So what felt like a last ditch effort I finally found a canned food he will eat well on. Taste of the Wild: Pacific Stream recipe. For 3 years of having him he mostly ate scraps and chicken and hamburger from me cooking it for him but he quit eating that, got too picky? So I tried him on TOTW and he will eat it twice a day. I give him about 1/3 cup twice a day - he is 8 pounds but could stand to lose a pound or two.

I hope you find a food your baby will eat well on. Yes take her into the vet! Get her weighed so you now have a starting point to konw how much she weighs.

Get a vet check with bloodwork, ua, stool, to be sure all okay. If okay, the smart ladies here can advise you how to add calories to her daily food. Just be sure there is no parasitic or other process robbing her of nutrition causing the low weight. Best of luck to you both - she is a doll.

How much does she eat daily?

You are supposed to be able to feel ribs and part of the spine. A good portion of dogs are overweight, so that is what people are used to seeing. I'd let the vet assess her and tell you how much she should gain while ruling out issues that could cause weight loss.

All your advice is a great value to me. Thank you. I will take Suzi to our vet. She may not be as thin as I might think. Suzi is not an outside dog so a parasite would be very surprising, I understand that they can get it even indoors though.
She acts fine, barks, is very loving. When I have fed her she eats likes crazy. Just not her usual kibble. I will get her to the vet for bloodwork. This can be anything. A thyroid issue , just anything.
I can't began to say how awful it was to realise that she felt boney. My shih tzu is about the same size as Suzi , and their is a difference . I can feel her spine and ribs too , but Miely's seem to have more meat on them. Suzi has been 7pounds. So she is a regular size yorkie.
I will make her an appointment asap.

we do this too but mainly because I bought a bag of food that the breeder was feeding, and then after joining here, found out it wasn't horrible but wasnt as great as it could be, so I bought a bag of good food and mix the 2. Right now im adding in a few pieces of some free samples i got just for variety. When I get closer to the end of the not so great bag, I'll start fading it out.

And yes, parasites and viruses can be brought in. Noah got parvo and had never been outside my house except to go to the vet.

Feeling ribs and spine is ok but if you can see them when the dog is wet then it is too thin. I concur w/ the others regarding a vet visit for exam and blood work if warranted afterward. BTW, this is why I don't free feed so I can control their daily caloric intake. I also don't like food sitting around in general, and it is not possible with home cooked food that I feed to ours.

I was having this same problem with my Harley a few months ago....He is 10 mos old now...At 16 weeks on his last set of shots he weghed 4.2 lbs...when I took him back to be neutered/baby teeth removed/chipped at 28 weeks (7mos) he still only weighed 4.2 lbs...he didn't lose but he didn't gain at all those 3 mos...I was worried...his blood panel came back normal, healthy pup...he seemed fine very playful and full of energy...when I took him back 3 weeks later to make sure he was healing good....he still had not gained still 4.2...Vet got a little worried than...and told me...we should feel ribs and spine but not see them but on a Yorkie cause of there coats its hard to see...so we took Harley to the back and wet him down so we could see if we could see ribs and spine...well we could see them, especially his hip bones...we ruled out any medical reason...Harley is a picky eater but full of energy...so what was happening was Harley would eat a little but than burned more energy than what he was eating so that was keeping him at 4.2 lbs...if that make sense lol. I free feed and I also cook their dinner...Harley would take a few bits and walk away I just thought OK he is full from eating on his kibble all day...so once I knew he was under weight, I started putting Harley in my lap and I hand fed him every bit and he ate it all this way...he is now 10 mos old at 4.7 lbs...he has gained 5 oz I can really see & feel the difference that 5 oz has made...I can nolonger see his ribs,spine and hip bones...I can feel them but I can't see them when I bath him.

So if the your Vet rules out any medical reason...It might just take a little TLC...making sure he is eating what he needs to gain and than maintain...I let Harley pick at his kibble (wellness super5mix puppy) as alway through out the day but at dinner time when I cook for them I make sure he eats ALL his dinner...I feed boiled chicken breast with a veggie for my girls...for Harley I feed the same but I will add sweet potato or cottage cheese and every other day instead of boiled chicken I give him boiled chicken liver very high in protein...its working for us...its not upsitting his tummy, his BM's are very firm...also when I'm training, the girls get 1 treat...when Harley does his tricks I sneak him 2 treats...LOL I can't let the girls see that he is getting more LOL...I know 5 oz doesn't sound like a lot of weight gained in 8 weeks but for Harley it is...hes just a little man compared to my girls...Bella is 9.9 lbs, 3 yrs old and Ivy Lou is the same age as Harley 10 mos and she is a 5.9 lbs, the girl pick at the kibble all day but at treat and dinner time those girls wolf down their food :eek:...lol..but anyhow I will pray there is nothing medically wrong with your baby...good luck.

If he is just bored with his kibble, try Nature's Variety. They make several different formulations, each with a different protein source. They are formulated so that you can switch from one to the other without transitioning. Every time we open a new bag, it's a new flavor for them.

We feed the kibble in the evening, but in the morning they get Nature's Variety raw (commercially prepared frozen), and they NEVER turn up their nose at that. It's gone as soon as I put it down. Even my late Maltese, who was aggravatingly picky all her life, would eat it immediately. It's a shame that I didn't discover the NV raw until she was 14 years old.

I'm having a problem with Ozzy not eating also. We have tried several brands of dried kibble, and now even started adding a teaspon of wet food mixed in, and again this morning he ate nothing. I'm blaming my boyfriend, who put fillet mignon scraps in his food dish a couple days ago.

I'm thinking we may have to feed canned food instead of kibble. He does lick the dish of all the canned stuff. Just doesn't seem interested in any of the kibble at all.

I honestly think that this is very simalar what is going on with Suzi . i like the boiled liver idea.
I do feed feed them the wellness super 5 kibble too, Suzi is doing the same thing, just picking at her food. But, if I give her something else she eats like she is starving.
I will need to wet her down so I can tell more if she is too thin.