My little dog wont eat unless i hand feed it!

[achoocashew]

I rehomed two older dogs last year. They are Chihuaua/Pom crosses. They are delighful and healthy. I have changed their food a couple of times to try and find one that is not too expensive and suitable for older dogs. This little dog is 6, and the last few days she sits by her food and wont eat it. I tell her and encourage her but she sometimes eats and sometimes not. She will eat it though if me or dc feed her one pellet at a time! Or on a spoon! Could there be anything wrong with her? Will she eat by herself if she is hungry enough? She is only 3..2kg so quite small so i worry about her not eating for a whole day.

Firstly, as always, if you are worried about her speak to your vet.

However, it might just be the heat. My cocker has left her food on and off in the past 10 days and I think its the same as humans, she just doesn't feel as hungry when its so hot.

I would leave her to it, as you say she will eat when she is hungry. She isn't going to waste away in a day if she's an average weight for her breed and is fine in all other ways

I would avoid starting the handfeeding thing unless you are prepared to do it permanently, because then that might become the norm and what she expects.

If she has dry food, you could try mixing a bit of wet with it.

I had a similar thing with my small dog and realised that when she eats the tag on her collar knocks on her bowl and makes a noise that puts her off, although that doesn't sound likely with your dog as this is recent behaviour.

I have had to hand feed my dog in the past because she was very ill and it was the only way I could get her to eat.

In order to cure this behaviour I started putting a small amount of food into her bowl at a time - she's fed on wet food. If I put it all in at once she either eats it too quickly and vomits or she just can't seem to cope with all the food at once. Now she's happy to eat out of the bowl if I feed her gradually.

What sort of bowl are you using. Some dogs don't like metal bowls I've heard, as they can see 'another' dog's face in them while they're eating. Some small dogs are happier with a flatter, plate type, bowl.

She might just find dry food a bit boring, as Glitter, say try mixing it with some wet maybe.

Have you had her teeth checked out. If she's six she might have some tooth issues.

Oh and one last idea. Are you giving her lots of teats and things in between meal? If you are it could be she's just not hungry when it comes to meal times.

My dog did this. He is fine, no health issues, he just doesn't much like dried dog food. I stopped fussing about it when I had 2 dcs under two and just didn't have the time. If he didn't eat I took the bowl away, and nothing until next meal time. He soon grew out of the habit.

My small dog doesn't like putting her face in the dish. She eats more easily from a flat saucer. She much prefers to be hand fed, though she will eat from a saucer if she's hungry. I think it's just a small dog thing!

Actually, just thinking about this. For a small dog to put it's face into a bowl means it probably can't see what's going on around it, which is probably quite unnerving for a dog when it's eating.

Whereas a big dog with it's mouth in a bowls still has it's eyes above the bowl and can see what's going on around it.

Just a thought.

thanks for these tips, she actually doesnt have a bowl, she has a flat saucer, and then wont eat until i tip the food off the saucer onto the mat!

So it might be the heat. I don't want to get into a habit of handfeeding, i dont have time for that!

My little fusspot wouldn’t eat from his bowl although he would eat straight off the floor. I put it on the floor for a while next to the bowl and gradually put more in the bowl and less on the floor. He now eats from his bowl :)

Same here, happy with the floor but didn't like the bowl - wet food so not ideal.

Great success weening her onto the bowl, but it has to be one particular bowl - it's actually sold as a cat bowl and has a cartoon cat face on the bottom oddly enough - any other bowl is out of the question and I have quite a few that I bought when I was trying to find one to suit her. But we are making progress, we no longer use the floor at all.

God, just read that back and I sound like a complete loon.

She has recently stopped eating. Please take her to the vet and rule out a physical cause for this.

@blearyeyedbear I know this is a zombie thread but I couldn’t not comment after reading how you treat your dog.
Why even have a dog if you can’t be bothered to feed him something he can eat - imagine a life of being fed dried pellets day in and day out. He’s a dog, not a rabbit.