Please Help my 2 Baby Girls. Jazzy & Kassie
 

My baby girls are really worrying me and I would so appreciate any advise that anybody could give me. Jazzy is 4 years old and Kassie is 3. In their little lives no matter what I have given them to eat has been rejected. The nearest I can get to a regular feeding habit is chicken & dog chews. Now this is even beginning it fail. When feeding them I can almost hear them say. "Oh no not chicken again" they will go for 4/5 days without food and will only exist on a couple of chews a day! Over the time I have had them I have tried everything and anything. Dried food, wet food, cat food, raw food. I have not stopped trying over the years, constantly. Sending for samples of anything that they might just eat. I am tearing my hair out. I am not sleeping now for worrying about it. I know yorkies can be very fussy and I have bad fussy yorkies in the past but nothing like this. I have now come to the conclusion that it must be me and my fault and that I am not trying hard enough. I love them both so much that it is breaking my heart that they just won't eat.

Please help me, I really need advise. Where do I turn, what do I do. I feel like I should find them a new home because I don't deserve their love when I can't even feed them properly. Please help if you can.

Many thanks

Katie x 🙋😘👏🐾🐾🐾🐾

As you are talking about grown dogs, not puppies, i would buy a quality kibble, and feed them it in the morning, leave it down for half an hour and if they don 't eat it, pick it up and put it back down at dinner, and repeat that process for days, with not feeding any treats.

Personally, i think we create picky eaters. When animals are starving they eat. Dogs are smart. It sounds like theyve figure out if they dont eat what theyre first given, theyll get something tastier later.

It seems like we see alot more picky eaters today than 30 years ago. Back then is was dog chow and scraps and dogs ate what they were given. Much like people did after WWII when food was rationed.

Have you tried RC mini adult kibble? RC is very palatable and most dogs really like it. I would put down 30 nuggets, and leave it down where they can get to it....free feed...tomorrow, count the kibble and see if any has been eaten. They are eating more than you are seeing.....after you see they are actually eating, then I would go from free feed to 5 meals a day....start at whatever time they get up in the am, and what time they go to bed for the night, and evenly space your feedings out over those hours. I would leave it down at least an hour...then pull it up. The next week, you can cut back to 4 meals a day, then a week later 3 meals a day, leaving these meals down at least an hour each time. Every dog/situation is different, but I have given this plan to 5 different people and it worked well for them.

My lilah is a very finicky eater too, she kept a steady weight but it seemed like I was constantly tossing old food and trying new things that my girl would reject. We tried raw, were very grain free focused, trying the new legume based diets etc. We finally tried royal canin Yorkshire terrier 28 and had great success until shortly thereafter the ingredients changed and once again my girl was reheating her food- I was so upset! At the time there was a big discussion on Yorkie talk about that change and within that discussion Judy reccomended the food above- royal canin mini adult. It has worked so well for us! Lilah is eating and happy :)

Are your pups maintaining their weight? Have they had their bloodwork done anytime recently? Although yorkies can be known for finicky eating habits it can actually be a symptom of an underlying problem as well.

I see that your in England, so try Applaws wet food ,it's just shredded chicken when you open it , but it comes with different mixtures i.e salmon , ,mackerel etc you can get it at pets at home, for dry food we also use either Lily's kitchen or Burns mini bites for toy breeds which is good, I would stop the chews so they are more inclined to eat the food, good luck.

Is it Royal Canin you are speaking of here? I think they have a special offering for the Yorkshire Terrier Breed:confused: if I'm correct.

Yes, Royal Canin (RC) has many different formulas for breeds, life stages, and then there are the prescription diets. My dogs gulped the Yorkshire Terrier breed specific diet...it is shaped like little square puffed up kibble....they were not chewing their meals, they were swallowing a lot of it whole, so a long time ago, I switched them over to the Royal Canin Mini Adult......it is shaped like little 4 pointed stars....they slowed down and they chew on that kibble much better. The current "theory-de-jour" seems to be that kibble does nothing to help knock tarter off teeth....not sure I agree with that, but I DO know, if they are swallowing it whole and not chewing it at all, it certainly is not doing any good on teeth. They did not make changes to the formula in the mini adult, so all my group has continued to enjoy it immensely. It has kept them healthy and beautiful and satisfied and energetic for many years!

Thank you all so much.
 

Thank you all so much for your input. It is sooo encouraging to read your super stories. I am going to try your suggestions and see if they help. Will let you know how I am getting on with it.

Once again many many thanks 😘👏

Aw, Katie -- don't get down on yourself for this bc not one bit of it is your fault! You absolutely deserve their love, you're clearly a great Mum :).

Kazzy gave some good advice, and that is probably worth a try.

Have you tried sprinkling Parmesan cheese on their food, which can really entice dogs? What about rotating the food (ie, kibble, wet, homecook, raw) so they don't get the same thing except for maybe a couple days in a row? Have you tried Natures Logic kibble yet...they have a certain thing they do for palatability...might be worth a try.

Are they related to each other, btw? If not, how odd that you ended up w/ 2 picky fluff butts!!!

Have you thought about home cooking for them? Mine love the home cooking. I use chicken, deer meat, sweet potato, rice, couscous, etc. it gives them a variety plus I know exactly what they are getting.