Picky spaniel, how long is too long?

[PotOfYoghurt]

The family cocker has always been very picky over food- one week she'll inhale chicken mince and the next won't touch it, and so on and so forth with different types of wet food.

She nearly always hates dry food, and the only thing she will religiously eat is chicken necks.

My parents (who I'm staying with for a while) have started a bad habit of feeding her table scraps, and treats, and so now not only will she refuse to eat anything except chicken necks or human food, she's begging every time I take out food for myself which I just hate in dogs.
They even hand feed her from a spoon sometimes to get her to eat

My question is- how do I stop this? It's ridiculous. I've told them to stop giving her table scraps completely and only treats for training, and I read that you should put their food down, leave it for 20minutes then take it away and offer it again later and carry on until they eat.


They say a healthy dog won't starve but how long is too long to go without food? She hasn't eaten anything for about 36 hours at this point. She's drinking fine, and is one year old.

[Poppypooch]

I had a dog that would starve himself if we gave him chicken, cheeky sod just turned his face away when we gave him his dog food. He was stubborn for 2-3 days before he realised we weren't giving in and feeding him chicken anymore. Dogs won't starve themselves. My dogs now only get little table scraps, but its mixed through their dinner. She will eat soon, and she is drinking so she won't get dehydrated. The lifting of food does get the message through to them too.

[PotOfYoghurt]

Phew, okay on the right track then! My parents are away on holiday for a week so I thought now would be a good time to get it sorted while they're not around to muck it all up...

[PotOfYoghurt]

Success! Just came home for lunch and put the same bowl down again, she's now begrudgingly eating it. It will be interesting to see how she goes the next few meals though.

And what do I do about the chicken necks?

Her normal routine is chicken mince/wet dog food for breakfast, and chicken necks for dinner. Dry food is put with both, sometimes she eats it mostly leaves it. She's eating it now though! She licked the bowl clean!

I don't know whether to offer chicken necks tonight or do mince instead, as then she might think she'll just get necks from now on?

[Poppypooch]

Good news on the eating, dogs will not starve they are chancers not daft
I would keep to her normal diet/routine, just no more table scraps, unless well mixed with her dinner.

[PotOfYoghurt]

Ughh it's two steps forward, one back.

She cleaned both of her bowls yesterday, then this morning just stared at me when I put it down. I took it away again after 15 minutes. We've just been for a run at the dog park so hopefully she'll be hungry enough now..

[Ylvamoon]

Hi,
just came across your post... maybe it helps you to know, that I had a similar problem with my old rescue dog. (She started live as a stray in a big city...)
She "hated" dog food and was very clever in feeding herself when out on walks. Bins, crisps packets, sandwich wrappers all provided a quick snack to keep her going! She ended up only eating a "square meal" every 2-3 days. She was fit and healthy and lived a long (14!), happy live and always had an ideal weight for her size.
Just keep offering the food, but as others said, dogs don't starve themselves and can survive on very little!