My dog is hungry

[Deadnettle]

So she is pushing her food bowl around the kitchen floor.

Her bowl is full.

The food in her bowl was fresh this morning and she has had it before and eaten it. She just doesn't want it.

Please tell me I'm not the only person with a dog who would rather make themselves sick with hunger than eat something they like but don't fancy right then?

[WatcherOfTheNight]

Storage was a problem for me also but by using it as a mixer on there Millies 2 small tubs last about 8 days but then we have a local supplier so I don't have bulk buy from the website.

[insan1tyscartching]

I take Eric's away after half an hour although I know within minutes if he's going to eat it. Thankfully he doesn't eat non foodstuffs though and doesn't get sick so tend to feel annoyed rather than worried mostly. He'll go two or three days without a meal too but vet says he's the right weight so it obviously isn't hurting him.

[Deadnettle]

Sorry tabulahrasa, I didn't think you were been critical, although my reply makes it sound like I did.

She's not spayed yet, she will be after her next season (I had surgery so she couldn't be done after her first season).

Her eating habits were already like this when we got her at 10 weeks old, she was tiny and so sick if she didn't eat that we never tested how long it would be until she ate. She has refused food she didn't want for a week before, but she had tiny bits of other food to stop her being ill. Actually she didn't (doesn't) get bits of food to stop her being ill, she gets them to stop her eating stuff. It is scary what she will eat when she is too hungry and the risk of her damaging herself is high.

[Deadnettle]

Actually storage might not be an issue with the nutriment, because one tray will last her about 4 days!

[pigsDOfly]

My dog isn't a poodle but is small, 5 kilo, and I have this sort of behaviour all the time and used to worry over it constantly.

She was on wet food for most of her 5 years and a few months ago I changed her to a good quality dry food after she rejected yet another wet food.

She seemed to love the dry food at first but now that's going the way of all the other foods.

We've been through phases of hand feeling when she was on wet food, mainly late at night as that was the only time she'd often want to eat and now I'm just trying to be tough and let her get on with it.

Most days she eats less than half the minimum recommended amount of this particular food for a dog of her weight. I've also cut right back on treats so she's not being filled up with treats. No idea what the answer is. She seems to have lots of energy, her coat and weight are good and she seems perfectly happy.

If dogs were wild animals and had to hunt for their food, would they eat regularly every day? I doubt it. Perhaps we're worrying about something that's perfectly normal (obviously exceptional if the dog is making itself ill) but look around you, there are an awful lot of fat dogs around, perhaps for some dogs it's better to miss a few meals and they're just regulating their own food intake.

[MissBeaHaving]

It's so much easier with the 500g containers,another thing I like is that they are also very sturdy.

If you go on allaboutdogfood.co.uk they have a function which you put your postcode in and they find the closest retailer.
Ours is great,we've got a card which gets stamped then when full we get 2 free tubs!

[Deadnettle]

If dogs were wild animals and had to hunt for their food, would they eat regularly every day?

If my poodle had to hunt for her food she would die. She is the laziest dog I have ever known, especially when it comes to food. We have a few treat dispensing toys that she won't use because its too much effort to get the treats! I do take your point though, our first dog (the raw fed one) only had one meal a day and often missed a day if he didn't want it. The vet made the point that at least she's not fat but none of our dogs have ever been fat and all the others ate their food!

Current dog eats maybe a third of whats recommended. She clearly eats enough but she's so inconsistant in what she will eat. The last 3 meals have been binned. She ate at most 2 mouthfuls of one of them and none at all of the others. Its all food she has eaten before. It just so wasteful.

Regarding treats, she has one in the morning as that's when there is a higher risk of her been ill and she has some (3) fish skin cubes after she is brushed and had her teeth cleaned in the afternoon. The timing of the fish skins is so that she doesn't get ill between breakfast and dinner.

Bea our local-ish petshop sells it. We'll try it, it just depends on whether she can stand having the same food for 4 days in a row.

[MissBeaHaving]

Good luck nettle,hopefully it will tempt her,it doesn't smell to bad tbh,the salmon one I thought would stink but it's ok.
Fingers crossed!

[Deadnettle]

Thanks Bea. I won't by the salmon one as she doesn't like fish (unless its a fish skin treat). I'll get some at the weekend. Can it be seperated into smaller amounts easily?

Based on her weight she needs 128g per day.

[MissBeaHaving]

I normally take it out the night before & put it in the fridge,that way it can separated easily.
Mine lasts 4 days in the fridge no problem.

[MissBeaHaving]

Also she may not need the recommended amount,they are only guidelines & dogs vary so much.

If I fed my big fella the recommended amount he would be skin & bones,he has about 15g over & is lean & muscular.
The problem little fella is the opposite,he has slightly under the recommended amount otherwise I'd be hosing the garden down!

Is she very active? & what's the "out put" like?
I go by what the poo looks like & up it is hard & crumbly or reduce it if it's soft or runny.

[Deadnettle]

I think she may need less than 128g a day. She is super lazy and not very active. Her poo is normally good but she had antibiotics recently and she hasn't recovered from them yet.

She didn't touch her breakfast at all but ate a james welbeloved pouch for dinner.

[MissBeaHaving]

If she's super lazy then she probably doesn't need recommend amount.

If she's been on antibiotics Pro-Kolin or Canikur might be worth a try,it restores the balance of good bacteria in the gut.

[Deadnettle]

Seriously she is really really lazy, even as a tiny pup she was unbelievably lazy.

She is taking something to sort her gut out. It's getting better. It will be even better when we run out of james welbeloved pouches.

I think she is still hungry, she is licking her empty bowl.

[MissBeaHaving]

Bless her,it sounds like she not been her self for a bit?
Hopefully things will improve & she will get her appetite with some new tasty food.

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can defrost Nutriment just slightly,split & then put back in the freezer which would solve boredom issue with flavours.
I'll see if I can find where I read it.
I know you can freed it slightly frozen as I stuff kongs with it.

[winwhizzer]

I had a fussy eater. What worked for us was to give him a much smaller amount of food. Leave it down for 15 mins and then take it away. It was a bit stressful for a few days when he ate nothing! He now eats happily and we have gradually been able to increase the amount he eats in each meal.

[Deadnettle]

She had kennel cough a few weeks ago, and the vets gave her antibiotics. She is most likely to eat the james welbeloved pouches but they give her smelly wind and upset her tummy very slightly, so I'll be glad when they are gone.

She has never had much of an appetite so I'm not hopeful! Its a good job she's brilliant in other ways as this thread makes her sound so annoying to live with!

[Deadnettle]

We tried that Win, I honestly thought it would fix it but it didn't and we tried it for months. I'm glad it worked for your dog though.

[winwhizzer]

She didn't eat for months?

[MissBeaHaving]

Which JWBL are you feeding?
Have you tried a completely grain free diet?

My lovely young boy who we lost a few years ago was very intolerant to grain & chicken.
Just a thought as to whether it's the food making her feel poorly & she's only eating when she has no choice?

[Deadnettle]

She didn't eat the food we wanted her to eat. We had to give her something at times because she gets very ill if she doesn't eat. We would put down her food and then remove it after 20 minutes. After months of doing that she didn't eat any better than before.

[Deadnettle]

Bea its the horrid little pouches, turkey and veg with gravy. She's had maybe 20 pouches of that in her entire life.

She's had lots grain free food, both dry and wet. There has been no difference in her willingness to eat. I think she is just fussy. She does whine after eating but she whines when she is happy, sad, frustrated, anxious, excited, because she wants something etc so its hard to tell.

[winwhizzer]

She didn't eat the food we wanted her to eat. We had to give her something

thats why she is not eating

[winwhizzer]

assuming she has been checked out for no medical reasons

[Deadnettle]

We gave her small amounts of food, not enough to fill her up, when there was a risk of her been ill. Allowing her access to food for only 40 minutes a day meant that she didn't eat and she got sick. We tried this method for maybe 3 months and stopped ages ago (more than 6 months ago).

Other than the treats already mentioned (and training treats at odedience and trick training) she doesn't have access to anything other than the food she is supposed to have. Which she doesn't eat.