Choosy eater - food advice please

[Ilyena]

I'm getting tired of my dog being this choosy about his food. Putting his food down twice a day for 15 mins doesn't work, he'll go for several days without eating anything and with a mom in the house who nags at me like I'm the worst animal abuser in the world when I say he'll eat when he gets hungry, well he just has to eat at least once a day or I will go officially insane... But without me, or someone else doing what I do, being around he won't even look at his food bowl much less take a bite. So far if I want him to eat I have to either:

a) toss one kibble at a time on the floor and let him chase and eat it
b) load up a treat ball and spend the next hour or two enticing him to roll and eat whatever comes out of it
c) use a laser beam and point it in the food bowl. This is the fastest way to make him eat all his food. I don't move the beam out of his food bowl before he has emptied the bowl, after which I let him chase the beam for a minute or a quick game of tug as a reward.

I'm feeding him Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken. This problem has been going on ever since his deworming at 11 weeks, he is now nearly 10 months.

I know changing foods often if the dog won't eat will make him more choosy, so I tried to avoid that. He started on Royal Canin at the breeders, switched to Orijen at 16 weeks which he wouldn't eat much at all, went back to Royal Canin again and about two months ago started on Eagle Pack. I moisten up his food by either just hot water or add some broth of different kinds. I tried adding different types of canned food but that resulted in him completely refusing to eat.

He has a quite ideal weight for a cavalier his size. He goes on 30 min walks twice a day, he gets to run on a long-line an additional 15 minutes a day, as well as all the potty breaks and training sessions throughout the day. Does this sound like enough exercise or should I increase it further? He is pretty tired in between all this so he takes a lot of naps during the day. Should I start changing foods to see if there are other brands he would enjoy eating more? Or can I possibly clicker-train him to eat? That probably sounds like a weird question but I've heard some people say you can clicker-train a dog to do almost anything... and I would love it if he would just eat his food like every other dog I know does. Any advice for me?

 

[Herschel]

a) toss one kibble at a time on the floor and let him chase and eat it
b) load up a treat ball and spend the next hour or two enticing him to roll and eat whatever comes out of it
c) use a laser beam and point it in the food bowl. This is the fastest way to make him eat all his food. I don't move the beam out of his food bowl before he has emptied the bowl, after which I let him chase the beam for a minute or a quick game of tug as a reward.

Any advice for me?

Why in the world would your puppy want to eat out of a boring old food dish when he could just wait for you to come home to play a game?

As long as you keep giving in to his desires, he is going to control the feeding times. If you want him to eat when food is presented, then you need to be the one that controls feedings. Simple as that.

 

[Lizmo]

I'm assuming he's on a schedule? I had the same problem with my parents' Standard Poodle. I finally just have to leave the food down 24/7 for him other wise he will starve himself for days.

I would try a different food first. It could simply be that he he doesn't enjoy eating the food he's on now.

My dog, Lizzie, was like that with Canidae and Natural Balanca. She did NOT like to eat them plain - I would be putting eggs or fish on her food everytime she ate.

Now I just bought a bag of Innova EVO and she ate it fine - plain.

You may just need to try a tastier food. I've heard Taste of The Wild is really good along with Innova EVO, or NV Instinct.

 

[showpug]

I would recommend you try Innova's EVO. It is highly palatable and I have yet to find a dog that doesn't love it. The key to this food however is being sure not to overfeed. Overfeeding can lead to loose stool.

 

[Hillside]

I would recommend you try Innova's EVO. It is highly palatable and I have yet to find a dog that doesn't love it. The key to this food however is being sure not to overfeed. Overfeeding can lead to loose stool.

Then you could come to my house Show, Django won't touch it anymore. He ate it for a month and then refused it. Even when he was eating it, I still had to almost force feed him the first few bites, he'd sniff at it and look at me like I was giving him poison. I switched him to Nature's Variety frozen raw. He LOVES it. He actually gets excited when it's mealtime now. Even when he hadn't eaten his kibble in a couple days, he still wasn't excited, nor did he act hungry when it was put down. I'm almost thinking that he doesn't like the texture of kibble. With this stuff, he acts like he hasn't eaten in days when it is presented. He also really enjoys the NV Instinct canned. I imagine with a Cavalier that it wouldn't be too expensive to feed either. I personally spend about 35 dollars a month on it and I have an Aussie. If you can find a feed store that sells the 2 pound chubs, it is even cheaper than buying the patties or medallions. I know another member on here has had really good luck wiht the frozen raw as well.

 

[showpug]

Then you could come to my house Show, Django won't touch it anymore. He ate it for a month and then refused it. Even when he was eating it, I still had to almost force feed him the first few bites, he'd sniff at it and look at me like I was giving him poison. I switched him to Nature's Variety frozen raw. He LOVES it. He actually gets excited when it's mealtime now. Even when he hadn't eaten his kibble in a couple days, he still wasn't excited, nor did he act hungry when it was put down. I'm almost thinking that he doesn't like the texture of kibble. With this stuff, he acts like he hasn't eaten in days when it is presented. He also really enjoys the NV Instinct canned. I imagine with a Cavalier that it wouldn't be too expensive to feed either. I personally spend about 35 dollars a month on it and I have an Aussie. If you can find a feed store that sells the 2 pound chubs, it is even cheaper than buying the patties or medallions. I know another member on here has had really good luck wiht the frozen raw as well.

I guess I am spoiled, lol! My breed acts like any food is the best thing they have ever tasted! No picky eaters here at all!

You gave some great suggestions. I think canned or pre-made raw would both be great options to try as well...

 

[Ilyena]

Herschel, I assume you would have no problems leaving your dog to go without food for 5+ days then? That's how long I know mine will refuse to eat without getting any type of extra food, no treats, no people food. Just water. I have tried it more than once and it's always the same. If there's no other solution but to wait it out then I guess it's something that will never be fixed and I'll just have to live with it cause I can't leave my dog without eating for a week.

Thanks to all for the suggestions though. I'll start looking into another type of food. However, Innova, Innova EVO and Taste of the wild as well as Canidae and probably quite a few of other brands you think are good are not available in my country. Pre-raw is also gonna be difficult. I have looked all over the country for anybody who could mail any of these better brands you mentioned to me but without luck.

I'm not that sure about Nature's Variety, I'll have to check it up but I do feel quite hesitant to feed anything but kibble. Canned would do if there is something he eats but there aren't a lot of canned food here besides Pedigree and Iams, not even in the pet stores. I really don't want to feed raw. Price is not a concern, I may not be rich but I'd pay just about anything and go hungry myself if I find a food he likes. The big problem here is that I have a hard time finding a good quality food. Eagle Pack and Orijen were the best two I had come across so far and it does seem like that is not good enough.

Any more good tasting food brands you can think of, please let me know.

 

[Hillside]

Yeah, and I used to scoff at people at work (at nameless big pet store)who told me their dog wouldn't eat a certain food, look where that got me. Django liked to tease me too, we would go a month on a certain food and I would start getting comfortable "Oh yeah he's going to eat this one" and the second I bought another bag he was back to "What the HECK is this POISON?!?!"

Ileya, I didn't notice your location when I posted.

Have you thought about cooking for him?

 

[Ilyena]

Cooking? No, that's something I hadn't thought of. Do you know of any good sites that I can read up more on it? I'm not sure how good of an option it would be as my cooking skills are awful but I won't dismiss it without looking further into it. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[Saje]

i bet a high quality canned food might do the trick. have you tried canned food?

 

[Ilyena]

The highest quality canned food that I have seen here is Eagle Pack and yes I have tried that. He wouldn't touch it at all.

Other canned food I've seen is Science Diet, Pedigree, Iams, and other similar junk brands and I have actually tried a couple of those but not by my own choice, my aunt bought some for me and I couldn't really turn it down without knowing he wouldn't eat it. But it was just the same with that, at best he took one bite and walked away.

 

[Saje]

Hm, you do have a challenge! He might feel the same about homemade (raw/cooked) food then.

Does he eat at all if you just leave food down?

 

[Ilyena]

He might take a few bites after a few days of leaving food down and no one sneaking anything else to him but nothing more.

He does eat people food if we give him our leftovers but it depends a lot on what it is. He has eaten pretty much all kinds of meat as well as pancakes, carrots, cucumbers, peas, cheese, and macaronies. Sometimes he'll eat mashed potatoes and rice. So I don't know, cooking for him might work. Or it might not. Either way it's worth a try if I can't find anything better.

 

[SizzleDog]

How old is he? Is he intact? I ask because I went through this with my male, around the 2-3 year old mark. He simply would not eat for anything - he'd go without food for days, turning up his nose to even cheeseburgers from McDonalds...

Everyone told me that I was spoiling him and that shouldn't give in to his desires and try feeding him new stuff. Easy for people to say when they've never had to watch their dog refuse food for nearly a week and show NO signs of eating anytime soon!

We tried *everything* - kibble, canned, raw, homecooked, people food, satin balls... not to mention the add-ons and sauces, appetite increasing supplements... NONE of it worked. IMO my dog was anorexic!

Here's a photo of him. He looks horrible, I guess his emaciated state helped the judge see his bone structure? Yeah.... he looked horrible. (He's not stacked well because he was on a podium and kept trying to smell the flowers in front of his nose!)

This was supposed to be a happy photo - his first points, I wanted to be able to proudly display it. Too bad my dog looked like a skeleton.

What did I do to fix it? I stopped caring. I gave him a break from showing, and told myself that he was really starving, he'd eat. I stopped worrying about it - if he ate, great, if he didn't, whatever. Maybe tomorrow. It's a HARD thing to do, believe me - to force yourself not to care.

And guess what? He started eating again! As it turns out, I was so worried about his eating habits that *he* was picking up on my stress and not eating as a result! Once I stopped caring and worrying about him, he fixed his eating habits all by himself... I know, very Buddhist, eh?

Here he is, about two months after I stopped worrying - BIG difference!

And here he is now - still thin, but I've accepted that he'll never be a fat dog... and that's fine with me! He eats well, never leaves food in his bowl... and that's good enough for me.

 

[Lizmo]

Eh, I didn't see where you were located when I posted. Thats a tough spot to be in with barely any food choices.

I like Saje's idea, you may just have to cook for him and raw is easy as pie once you start.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

Cider didn't want to eat for months till I got a second dog. We bounced between foods, and I would spice up her meals, I made her pickier than she already was. I fed 2x a day on a schedule, if she didn't eat it went away. She eventually started eating once a day. She ended up liking orijen better than anythign else she's been given, and the competition of a puppy who doubles for a hoover has given her the push to eat 2 meals a day in a timely fashion. I too just tried to stop caring and it slowly was getting better too.

 

[Steponme]

Eagle Pack Holistic Select, I think that is what you said you were feeding, is an excellent food. That is what I feed. I have a male Shepherd that is not a good eater. I feed 2 x a day and at least 2 x a week he skips a meal, sometimes more. I have been switching between the flavors of that brand. He is allergic to chicken and wheat so I buy the Duck and Oatmeal, Lamb and the fish. The Duck and Lamb have chicken fat in them but fats can't be allergins and it does not bother him. My main flavor is the duck because it has the most protein, I switch every other bag with either the lamb or the fish. And I cook hamburg or turkey and mix that with their food.
Good luck, I hope you find something that keeps his interest and that he will eat.

 

[Ilyena]

Sizzle, he's a 10 month old unneutered male. This isn't something new either, has been going on for over 6 months. But thanks for sharing the story. I do suppose it's best to just stop caring and let him eat when he wants to, and I could probably do that even though it'll be hard but my mom likely won't. So far she's staying away from his feedings other than nagging at me about it but she might take it a step further and start sneaking food to him if she thinks I don't try hard enough. Will just have to take another chat with her about it I guess.

Thanks for the input everyone. Sounds like a food switch is next to try, if I can find anything decent that I'd be comfortable feeding him.