Need help

Hi everybody,

I was just looking for some advice. I got a 2 year old dog from a rescue about 3 weeks go. he was very badly neglected and had to have all his fur shaved off. he has a slight heart murmer and is very under weight. when i collected him i asked the foster lady what she was feeding him so that i knew what to get and she gave me loads of food for him. at first he was eating it but now he has stopped. im finding it very hard to get him to eat at all. i have brought him to the vet twice since i got him because first he had a cough and then he got really bad vomitting and diorrhea. the vet told me to give him chicken which he does eat but i was just wondering does anyone know of anything else he might eat. i just dont want him to lose anymore weight.

You might like to try Satin Balls which are great for putting condition on a dog! If you do a search on here there are several threads, but here's a link to one which lists the recipe to be going on with! HTH??

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=21482&highlight=Satin+Balls

Hi, I feel your pain! When Minnie came to us first, I was told that she would only ever eat chicken so for the first few days I gave her some chicken but then I introduced her to dry nuts and she completely refused them . I realised that she didn't want to put her head into a bowl because then she wouldn't be able to see what was happening around her so I put her food on a plate. I only did this for a few days until she got used to the new food . If she didn't eat it first time round, I took it away and tried again later. When she was hungry enough, she ate.

Fortunately for us, Cara came to us a couple of weeks later and Minnie decided it was "stretch or starve" so she happily ate her food out of HER bowl.

I may be corrected for saying this but I have learned through bitter experience that if you try to cajole a dog by offering different titbits then you'll run into real problems and end up with a VERY picky canine.

As Karlin has often said "Dogs will never starve themselves" so if I were you I would offer your dog his meal and if he refuses it then take it away after ten minutes and try again at the next feeding time. It may take a few days but eventuallt he WILL eat.

I know all this is easier said than done but believe me it will be worth it. You have to be strong on this one.

:hug:

thanks for the advice. i have not been taking his food away at all. i have been leaving it beside him and praying he would just eat it at some stage. but then when i go back to give him his next meal, his last one is still there. ill try the method of actually taking the food away after a few minutes and see how that works.