fussy eater

[mell]

fussy eater - help

louie is a chihuahua/yorkie cross who's a very fussy eater. After reading some of the messages today i was wondering how other people have dealt with this. Louie only eats human food and some of this he's going off. i,ve tried the 30 min and take away but by day 3 i felt really cruel and gave in

 

[juliefurry]

The putting it down and taking it away after about half an hour is the only thing I can suggest to do. It's not cruel because a healthy dog will not starve themselves. He just knows that you will give in and that is what he is waiting for. i would try doing that agian, but I'm sure others have other suggestions as well. I find the take away method has always worked well with my dogs though, although they are a lot bigger than yours is.

 

[CLee]

i totally understand how you feel it's "cruel" cause I can never do it long enough to actually starve my dog until he eats on his own... I always succumb to the 'guilt' too...

I guess what you could do is maybe try a different brand/type of food? (What are you feeding him right now?)

If it isn't the type of food that's the problem, and just your dog being fussy and working an evil plan against you, I think you'll just have to do the 30 min. method until HE succumbs...just know its for his own good.

 

[mell]

louie i think has had every dog food wet and dry available in the uk. my neighbours dog is getting fat with all the food being sent round. i sat here this morning feeding him my toast and cheese. i know everyones right though. it doesn't help when i try to stick to it and my husband sneaks him the odd titbit i looked at the nutrition website someone had put a link too and that was really interesting.

 

[Debi]

my shepherd was starting to be overly fussy (still is...it's just that I've changed) in that first I was adding canned to kibble. then, I was changing meats around....changing everything actually trying to get him to eat more. he'd eat the chicken and leave the rest. he became sooooo picky. then I read a post by Mordy that said basically we reinforce that behavior, so I just stopped giving all the different items. he still gets his chicken wings...but then it's Innova kibble. when he gets used to eating that, then I will slowly add different foods for treats. BUT for right now.....it's eat that or go hungry buster!! just this week I can tell you he is finding his kibble (I do moisten it a bit) MUCH better. LOL boy, he was training me so well!!!!!! truly...don't worry cause he won't starve himself.

 

[mell]

thanks, you just can,t help iit though. because he,s only small about 5lb i worry he,ll make himself weak. He has plenty of energy though so he can,t be doing to bad. I,ve never given him raw meat and i keep seeing on the site mentions of chicken wings do the bones not splinter when they eat them?

 

[Fran27]

Raw bones won't splinter. It's cooked/smoked bones that can.

Otherwise, I agree with Debi. I have the same problem with Boris. He used to eat plain kibbles, then started being picky, so we added yoghurt... then he started being picky again and we added canned food too... And now he's getting picky again even with the canned meat. We've decided that enough is enough and we remove the food after 20 minutes now. He's been a bit sick too anyway (diarrhea mostly) so it won't hurt him to eat less...