Dog question - not eating

[adventure_woman]

Someone help please. Sorry for it being a little long... Our 2 year old pug is being a pain when it comes to eating. For the past couple months, she will just stare at her food. Sometimes she will totally not eat a meal. (She is fed morning/night). Last week, she went a couple days w/o eating so DH took her to the vet. They did x-ray, blood work. They expressed her anal glands, which they thought it might be. They gave her an antibiotic just in case, cause it has been going on a while.

We talked to our breeder. She recommended switching from Acana to Taste of the Wild, because of the higher protein in Acana she thought might be a problem.

The vet gave us some canned food to give her - she had NO TROUBLE eating that. Then we mixed the canned food with the TOTW, again, no trouble. Now, when we just give her the dry food, she won't eat it. What pug won't eat?? She doesn't get fed people food, and last week she actually threw of yellow nasty stuff cause she didn't eat.

We don't want to be giving her canned food all the time. Think it's just because she doesn't like the TOTW? But before when it was the Acana, that was the only food she had ever had, so why get picky now?

Errr...she is driving us nuts just staring at her food. (we have made sure the bowl is clean/new food/etc).

 

[chris31997]

Our cat went through this. It was her teeth. We need to clean her teeth. We Kept her teeth cleaned and for a while would mix dry with wet. We slowly weaned her off the canned stuff after a month by reducing the amount added to the dry each week.


It was so fun brushing a cat teeth The things we do for our fur babies

 

[wilkeliza]

Someone help please. Sorry for it being a little long... Our 2 year old pug is being a pain when it comes to eating. For the past couple months, she will just stare at her food. Sometimes she will totally not eat a meal. (She is fed morning/night). Last week, she went a couple days w/o eating so DH took her to the vet. They did x-ray, blood work. They expressed her anal glands, which they thought it might be. They gave her an antibiotic just in case, cause it has been going on a while.

We talked to our breeder. She recommended switching from Acana to Taste of the Wild, because of the higher protein in Acana she thought might be a problem.

The vet gave us some canned food to give her - she had NO TROUBLE eating that. Then we mixed the canned food with the TOTW, again, no trouble. Now, when we just give her the dry food, she won't eat it. What pug won't eat?? She doesn't get fed people food, and last week she actually threw of yellow nasty stuff cause she didn't eat.

We don't want to be giving her canned food all the time. Think it's just because she doesn't like the TOTW? But before when it was the Acana, that was the only food she had ever had, so why get picky now?

Errr...she is driving us nuts just staring at her food. (we have made sure the bowl is clean/new food/etc).

Sounds like a picky dog. When we adopted our little Luna she didn't want to eat solid food. Seems she had been lovong off of scraps and the canned food st the shelter. What we did was buy a high quality low ingredient food (we use natural balance) and then took the wet version and mixed it. First month we did 50/50. Well mixed so she couldn't just pick out the hard bits. Then we did 60 dry/40 for a couple weeks then 75/25 and then down to no wet. She now eats anything as long as the food is fresh.

We also like natural balance because we can switch flavors and it has never caused tummy issues. So one month she might have chicken and rice and the mext month duck and potato.

 

[adventure_woman]

Sounds like a picky dog. When we adopted our little Luna she didn't want to eat solid food. Seems she had been lovong off of scraps and the canned food st the shelter. What we did was buy a high quality low ingredient food (we use natural balance) and then took the wet version and mixed it. First month we did 50/50. Well mixed so she couldn't just pick out the hard bits. Then we did 60 dry/40 for a couple weeks then 75/25 and then down to no wet. She now eats anything as long as the food is fresh.

We also like natural balance because we can switch flavors and it has never caused tummy issues. So one month she might have chicken and rice and the mext month duck and potato.

Would she just develop the pickiness though? We've had her since she was 12 weeks (over 2 years now), and she has only had Acana. Very little treats too, and I don't even give her bones/bully sticks because she gets very territorial with them.

 

[livndisney]

A pug not eating is a rare thing LOL.

I know you said you took her to the vet-did they check her teeth? I would start there. (We have had pugs who were recommended to "go under" for deep teeth cleaning).

Is she eating grass?(Or trying too?) That might indicate stomach troubles.

She will eat the canned food, but not the dry right? Have you tried making a "gravy" to soften the hard dry food. She may not want to eat the dry because her teeth hurt.

 

[kmccain]

I had a Springer that was finicky. I used to give him a little canned on his dry to get him going and he was fine. I still give my dogs about a tablespoon of canned every morning then i put some water on their food. Sometimes they get funny about their dry but i get them through the bag with the canned on top.

Good Luck!

 

[LJSquishy]

It's just pickiness, unless there might be some dental issues causing pain. I'm betting on pickiness.

Why not feed 1/2 canned and 1/2 dry? Canned food is better for them but it is more expensive. One of my two Maltese is a little picky but used to eat dry food without caring. Now, we feed dry food at breakfast (which I have to coax one of them to eat...he'd rather sleep), and at night they get a 50/50 mix of canned and dry. We used to feed 50/50 at both meals but my husband said it took too long to mix the dry in with the canned portion in the morning. LOL

I divide one can into 4 containers (works out to 3.2oz per container) and mix 1/4 cup of dry food into one container of canned, then give half to each dog...this is the portion size mine get because they are 7lbs each so yours would need more. I keep the remaining containers in the refrigerator so they're ready to go.

 

[wilkeliza]

Would she just develop the pickiness though? We've had her since she was 12 weeks (over 2 years now), and she has only had Acana. Very little treats too, and I don't even give her bones/bully sticks because she gets very territorial with them.

They can. Especially if they get the same exact thing no flavor variation or anything.

One thing to research is if Acana changed their formula at all.

 

[adventure_woman]

Thank you. =) Silly dog. We will try keeping her on the wet/dry food for a while and see how she does. I'm thinking it is pickiness too, as she has no trouble eating the dry food when it is mixed in with the good stuff. What type of canned food do you prefer? (I like giving her the good/better food).

 

[wilkeliza]

Thank you. =) Silly dog. We will try keeping her on the wet/dry food for a while and see how she does. I'm thinking it is pickiness too, as she has no trouble eating the dry food when it is mixed in with the good stuff. What type of canned food do you prefer? (I like giving her the good/better food).

We like Natural Balance. We used Wellness for a little bit as a treat but some of their formulas have chicken bones and I don't care how safe they say their cooking methods make them I won't feed my dog anything with chicken bones.

Natural Balance has different types of wet food. They have the pattee type and a roll type. We have used both.

 

[jsmith]

You can try raw-either prey model or biologically appropriate raw food model ( google them). Few dogs refuse them-and although I agree with a PP who said she would not feed her dog cooked chicken bones raw bones are quiet safe. If you want to stick with the 1/2 wet 1/2 dry model you can get some Honest Kitchen-its a dehydrated raw product-you just add water to as much of it as you want to use-mix it with kibble or feed alone. It has several varieties of protein or one that is a base you add a protein too. I have used it to get an intact dog who was off his feed do to my neighbors having a girl in season to eat-worked pretty well.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Two things...

1) Did the vet check her teeth? She could have an abscess or something causing her pain while eating.

2) Did you bring a stool sample to the vet to check for parasites? When our dog was a puppy she was VERY underweight and we had a terrible time getting her to eat... the vet checked her stool and discovered that she had worms. It sounds nasty, but a few rounds of meds and her appetite and weight were at a normal.

I would make sure both of those things are checked before messing with changing foods around. If she is still cleared health wise (usually not eating, and sudden loss of appetite are HUGE red flags for health issues) than I would work on finding the food that she does want to eat. Good luck.

 

[puffkin]

When my cat stopped eating it ended up being her teeth. She ended up needing 11 removed due to rotting teeth and abscess. She was only 5, so we didn't think it would be that issue, but I guess she was just born with horrible teeth.

I feed my beagle the better quality foods and since the ingredients are so similar from brand to brand I have had no problems switching him. I just buy whatever is on sale and when he finishes one bag we move to the next. He has zero issues with it. He has done well on Nature's Balance, Natures Variety, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, etc.

Another thing to consider is the size of the kibble. My parents dog liked really small kibble even though he was a bigger dog. He wouldn't eat touch the bigger stuff. My cat would only eat pate wet food and nothing with chunks. For dry, she would only eat super small kibble. Many brands she wouldn't touch due to the size/shape of the kibble. Some animals are just really picky.

 

[Jeff_G]

You could try putting a little bit of warm water on the dry food to soften it up. I would also say try a different brand of dog food as dogs do get bored of the same thing over and over.

And yes make sure they checked her teeth. Think about having a painful tooth, the wet food is going to be easier then the dry.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Two things...

1) Did the vet check her teeth? She could have an abscess or something causing her pain while eating.

2) Did you bring a stool sample to the vet to check for parasites? When our dog was a puppy she was VERY underweight and we had a terrible time getting her to eat... the vet checked her stool and discovered that she had worms. It sounds nasty, but a few rounds of meds and her appetite and weight were at a normal.

I would make sure both of those things are checked before messing with changing foods around. If she is still cleared health wise (usually not eating, and sudden loss of appetite are HUGE red flags for health issues) than I would work on finding the food that she does want to eat. Good luck.

Good post. Especially since the vomiting stomach acids was mentioned. No question tummies can feel off when that happens. (Wouldn't it be nice if they could talk and tell us what's going on...)

Some of the no grain foods will not soften with water. Maybe it's "too" hard. A dental problem would definitely explain that... Or a throat/swallowing problem.

My first thought was that maybe he was getting used to too much people food, but since that's not the case, then I think you have to look at either a medical/mechanical problem or he simply doesn't like the food.

 

[a742246]

Thank you. =) Silly dog. We will try keeping her on the wet/dry food for a while and see how she does. I'm thinking it is pickiness too, as she has no trouble eating the dry food when it is mixed in with the good stuff. What type of canned food do you prefer? (I like giving her the good/better food).

My dogs trained me as well, is been years and I still give them the mixture. If its makes them happy then we are happy. For dry we feed them Whole Earth Farms from Petco, for canned its ALPO chop house.

 

[tiggerluver12]

We have 2 minature dachschunds that are extremely picky eaters. My teenage daughter found that sprinkling regianno parmesano cheese on top of their dry food gets them to eat it. Go figure!

 

[elgerber]

I have two rat terriers. My stocky one will eat anything put in front of her. My thinly built one is super picky. She has food allergies and the last food we tried she hated! She would run to the bowl, then see what was in it, and either just sit and stare, or go leave and sit on the couch. The newest food we are trying she loves. She was even picky as a puppy sometimes. Some days if it's too cold, she will also be too crabby to eat. And she is very tiny and streamlined, so not eating isn't a great thing, but she is fussy!

 

[yoopermom]

IF (and this is a big if) all possible physical problems have been ruled out (and I would definitely include teeth check), then I would:

1)exercise the dog more (long on leash walks are best), it will build hunger
2)make sure clean, fresh water is constantly available and is being consumed
3)make sure food is being given at a quiet time in a quiet environment (we have one dog who will only eat in his crate, where he feels "safe")
4)put food down with minimum of fuss at regularly scheduled times, give verbal cue (I sing the "Suppertime" song from the Charlie Brown musical, but you might now want to go that far ), leave dog alone with food for X amount of minutes, pick up food at end of time, and do not offer again until the next regularly scheduled feeding time (I do 20 minutes, but it's up to you)
5)give absolutely no other food/treats/people scraps/etc

If you had a Whippet, I would worry, but I've never seen a skinny Pug .

Good luck!

Terri

 

[ParrotBill]

...(I sing the "Suppertime" song from the Charlie Brown musical, but you might now want to go that far ),...

I don't know that one, can you please post yourself doing this on YouTube?



Our first dog was a bit of a picky eater too. She is about 35 lbs. We give a dry/wet mix, 2/3 cup dry and 2-3 tablespoons wet, for dinner, and only dry 3/4 cup in the morning. She used to turn up her nose at some food until... we got a second dog. Now she wolfs it all down before that other beast comes to steal her precious.