She won't eat normally
 

My Sadie refuses to eat proper dog food and will only eat treats. Today I didn't give her a single treat and put her food down 40 mins ago and she didn't touch it. I have tried tinned and dry and all brands I can find. I have tried mixing things in with it like cheese, if its grated she picks out the cheese. She won't touch it with cream cheese or yogurt. Her stomach doesn't tolerate chicken and if we feed her human food within a week or two she has diarrea. She is underweight at only 5 pounds. We can feel her ribs, hard to show you a pic as her fur hids them.

I have read about Satin Balls for weight gain, but what do you do when she has gained the weight and then doesn't eat??

Sometimes picky eaters go for the wet Merricks Grammy's Pot Pie. www.merrickpetcare.com Look up a retailer in your area, and see if they have any samples.
Maybe you could cook up some ground turkey, oats, and veggies. Blend it or mix it all together and see if she likes that. Or maybe cook up some scrambled eggs(don't use butter to cook them in) and sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on top. And then add some cooked veggies...
Good luck!
Hopefully you'll get some more advice :)

Great advice Yorkieluv!

I agree with the scarmbled egg and veggies.

Also, mine really enjoy ground meat. I buy 90% lean ground meat, boil it and drain and rinsh really well, then I mix together with some steamed veggies, brown rice and some shredded cheese - YUMMY!

TLC, that sounds good!

My baby had that problem to when we first got him... we took him to the vet to find out what was wrong with him.. and the vet said our baby had a food allergy and a very sensitive stomach... so it might not be that she s to picky!!!

Thanks for the quick replies.

I live in France and they don't sell Merrick food here. It looks great but I don't know if they ship here. Also I would have to spend atleast $25 to order online. I wouldn't want to buy loads of tins if she then doesn't like it.

I have spoken to the vet and Sadie is healthy. She has a sensitive stomach but only for human grade food. I used to cook her minced beef, turkey etc and she would get sick. So our vet told us not to feed her human grade food to stick with dog food. He suggested no treats, put the food down if its not eaten within 30 minutes remove it. Try again later. Thing is one day she will eat something, then for 3 or 4 days she won't eat. Last night after I started this thread she ate some Iams with some chicken stock added. She seemed to like it but from past experience that doesn't mean she will eat it today.

She's nearly 10 and a rescue so we have no idea what she used to eat.

I'm just so worried about my little girl, she looks so skinny.

We have the same issues with our little furbaby. She has been picky since the day we got her at 12 weeks. We have been through all the canned food we can find. She'll eat the new food like she loves it, but next day or the day after, she'll turn her nose up at it. We've cooked her food for her too. We've gone through bisson, chicken livers, plain ground chicken, turkey, veal, venison and lamb. She's allergic to beef, and itches like crazy, but that's the one she likes the taste of best. You could try doing the same. We give her little pieces of carrot for treats which she just loves, and green beans, apple and banana. This at least gives her some variety. You could try cooking those meats or some vets now recommend raw meat diet. They say that dogs don't get sick from the bacteria that makes humans sick, altho I've heard the opposite from that too.

Anyway, we are still trying to get her to eat nutritious foods. We struggle everyday, and usually by the end of the day if she's only eaten a little food, she will eat twice her usual amount of the food she didn't like earlier in the day. So I think maybe waiting for them to actually get hungry is the answer, but it is so hard because our furbaby gets sick on an empty stomach and throws up white foamy stuff. And then she reeeeally doesn't want to eat. It's frustrating. Welcome to the club.

Some people at our Yorkie Meetup say they have to make their dog do tricks and commands, like sit and stay before they give them their food and then they will eat it. Apparently they are "working dogs" who won't eat without working for it.

I can't cook food for her. Chicken, beef, turkey, lamb, veal etc all make her sick. Any human grade food. The only thing she is ok with is scrambled or boiled eggs. I can't really feed her this daily. This is why we need her to eat dog food. But we can't explain this to her. This morning she threw up bile. She has this little toy mouse and sometimes playing with her with that she will eat. But she doesn't play often. She has never been much of a toy fan. Maybe once or twice a week she will play with it and only for a few minutes.

Maybe you can get a very High Quality Kibble (not sure what you have over there). Smash it up. I used to put about 10 pieces of kibble in a baggie and hammer into dust. Then make her a scrambled egg. I like to beat up the egg in a cup, then you can add the kibble dust and whatever else you think she can tolerate (cut up very small pieces of steamed green beans or spinach or some shredded carrots, you can even add a little bit of shredded cheese).

But this way she gets tricked into eatting a little bit of kibble if that all that her tummy can tolerate :)

Have you ever gone a long time without food to the point that you're no longer hungry??
I have...
Maybe that's what she's going through?

I know that there's alot of talk about healthy foods, high quality kibble, high quality canned, but if their not eating at all, unfortunately that won't be an issue any longer. And that's just too sad to ponder!!

If Sadie can't eat human grade food and she has an allergy, isn't there a way the vet can determine what she's allergic too?
I have heard of a lot of people switching to Kangaroo kibble for their high-allergy dogs.
Have you considered that?

Maybe when you get her eating she'll start playing?
Sheba has a pile of toys that's bigger than my teenagers was when she was little!! :eek:
And she knows each of them by name!! We can say "go get hound dog" and she'll run over to the pile and get it.

Another thing that really helps is when I cheer for her! Like this morning when she ate the Canidae, my husband and I stood up and gave her a standing ovation! She was so happy with herself!!!
She reacts very well to clapping and shouting out "YAY!" :D

Mine won't eat carrots, beans, apples either...nothing like that!!
She'll play with it but that's it! She's strange. She even takes her treats like it's a communion wafer!! I have one dog who'll accidentally bite you if you don't hand her the treat just right and other that you have to place it on her tongue! LOL

She can't eat it because she has a sensitive stomach and our food is just too rich for her.

I do think that part of the problem is that this has been going on so long that she is used to feeling hungry and its just a normal thing for her.

The brands we have here are Pedigree, Royal Canin, Pro Plan, Science Diet, Fido, Cesars and a few other non descript french brands. I did see an add for Eukanuba when driving past a pet store but didn't stop to look inside and haven't been back there. Canidae sounds excellent but I have never see it here. I have tried Pedigree, Royal Canin, Fido, Cesars she ate for a while now doesn't touch it. Pro Plan and Science Diet are the only 2 I haven't tried.

So she doesn't do well with any human food except she is ok with eggs?

I still would do what I suggested. Find a High Quality Kibble and hammer it up into dust. Mix some of the dust in with an egg and scramble it up. See if she will eat that. Also have you try fish? Tuna or Salmon in the can, you can mix some of the kibble dust into some fish and she might be ok too?

Some people also take their bowl of dry whole pieces of kibble and add a little bit of low sodium chicken broth or you can even you some of the water that the tuna or salmon in the can come from. Just drizzle it onto the kibble to make it more appealing :D

Thats right. Eggs are fine but anything else and the poor little things tummy just can't cope. I will have a go at the kibble in scrambled eggs.

I gave her tinned tuna couple of times. She ate it twice then stopped.

I tried the chicken broth on Monday night, she ate it like it was going out of fashion then last night she wasn't interested. Everytime we think we've cracked it she doesn't agree.

Can you freeze scrambled egg?

I would say sure. You can pretty much buy anything frozen, so why not?

Anyway, if she does good with eggs and kibble than just feed her that. She's gotta eat, poor little girl.

I have a brat myself. TJ for a year and a half, I would have to continually come up with "New" ways to doctor up food that he will eat.
If I were to get him to eat wet food, I'd have to make little balls and space them around on a plate, sometimes, I'd have to sprinkle cheese ontop, or cut up treats really small and sprinkle that on top. Then I went to dry food, but I had to hammer up the pieces to be crumbs and dump that into a bowl and again mix in cheese or treats. Then I started to home cook and everything was good for alittle while, but then I had to start to sprinkle again. Finally I had enough!

Now they eat Raw Frozen Food. Currently they are eating Nature's Variety Raw Frozen. And they just gobble it up in less than 1 min.
www.naturesvariety.com

I am also in the process of switching then to a different brand:
www.morigins.com

Anyway, keep us posted :)

Thanks. I'll give it a go and see what happens. I have just found a shop not far from here that I'll go and check out. They claim to be experts in dog food with loads of different brands. There just isn't a great deal of choice here in France. This shop is run by english people so I can talk to them.

I recently tried a refrigerated dog food that my store just started carrying. It's called Homestyle Selects, it's made from all natural ingredients, and Jake absolutely LOVES it! Here is the link if you would like to check it out.

http://www.homestyleselect.com/

One thing we found out is that when our little girl liked Cesars and then decided after a couple of weeks that she didn't (longest she ever liked anything), if we waited for a couple of weeks and fed her other things, she did go back to liking Cesars. Of course, it's not a great food, but we figure if she will eat at all we've won a battle. Right now, she's off Cesars again, so we are trying other things. She went for venison, but she will only eat it when she is very hungry. We have her in doggie daycare at the moment because my husband who is semi-retired is working this week, and she won't eat anything there at all. So we have to force feed her in the morning before we take her there. It is a real pain right at the moment.

Hi There:
I found a website that says for France, they have Canidae (very good) and Nature's Variety (Very good too).

Here is the link:
http://www.cats-country.de/

Ok, I just went to the webiste and it is German :confused:
http://www.naturesvariety.com/where_intl.lasso#

You've given some good ideas TLC.
I'm not sure what to do since she can't tollerate human food.
My grandbaby was sick and under weight when we got her, so I had to nurse her back to health and she has gotten quite spoiled in the process!
Here is something that really helped us and maybe she can handle it since its baby food
1/2 cup baby rice cereal (dry flakes)
1/2 cup half and half milk
1 small jar of baby food meat (not turkey)
1 tsp kayro syurp


she would eat about 2-3 spoon plops in the morning and then at night, we would feed Innova dry in the day.

Now I said she is spoiled and she really prefers to be HAND fed, yes each piece. lol With the cereal mixture, I'll scoop some on my finger and shell lick it. I know gross huh but whatever it takes for those little ones to eat!!

My dog George wouldnt eat anything, but after over 8 bags of dog food (including science diet) I find he likes Pro Plan Shredded Blend. It has kibble and meat, and basically what he wanted was the meat we were eating. so now hes getting the best of both worlds!