question about 4 month old cav and a strange habit!

hello - recently daisy has started to go off her food, it seems that she loves her breakfast, but lunch she isn't too worried about, once i have shown her the lunch she will eat it , but she has started to carry her food from the utility (where she has always eaten it) to her bed, which is through into the kitchen, i find this a bit odd , why won't she eat it in the utility anymore? nothing has changed that could be upsetting her. then it comes to teatime and she does the same thing, carrying it to her bed to eat it. she does eat her tea, but it seems she isnt eating as much as she was. could this be because she is nearly 4 months old, and at 4 months they go to 2 meals a day (so i have read) - maybe she only wants 2 meals a day, and i am giving her 3 .... just wondered what you all thought.

If she's only eating two meals, just give her two. As for carrying food, this seems to be a Cav characteristic. My B/T always carrys her food from the (hard) floor onto a carpet to eat- unless I feed her on a carpet/rug in the first place, in which case she stays put. Chloe actually takes her kibble into bed with her. Looks so funny- little puppy ducking and diving for her dinner!

The little maltese mix I used to have did the same thing! Tasha would carry her food, from her bowl in the kitchen to the carpeting in the dining room to eat. When she got older I fed her in the dining room, since she was more comfortable on the carpeting. :flwr:

Cupcake moves her food from her bowl to the rug in the kitchen. It doesn't matter what I feed her (kibble, treats, etc.) if it's originally in the bowl it will be moved. She use to eat at the bowl, but gradually started "transporting" her meals. It's kind of like watching an ant drag a grain of sugar back to its ant-lair.

I wouldn't be overly worried about it; try to think of it as extra exercise.

My mother's cavalier (Cate) is wierd in that same way. She refuses to eat from the bowl, we have to sprinkle the kibble on the floor in small doses. She will stand there and bark at the bowl like a fool until someone puts some on the tile. :? Thankfully none of my boys picked up that trait. Now that I look at the trend of the posts here, maybe its a female thing??

Izzy takes her food onto our bed to eat as Abby harrasses her.

When Duncan was little he wouldn't eat his food, and I am not kidding, unless I sat next to the bowl with my finger in it. Same with water. We spent a month sitting on the kitchen floor with our hands in dog food/water. Quite a site.

We went from 3 meals down to 2 and this helped a lot - after that we bought a medium height bowl on a stand and he hasn't slowed down or taken his food to the rug since.

Arthur, on the other hand, is a total chow hound. If you don't get him to sit and stay we will knock the food scoop from your hand before you can get any food in the bowl causing food to go everywhere.

I think he will grow out of it, but if he seems less interested in the food then I would go down to 2 meal times per day so he really wants it.

I'm so glad our Willow isn't the only one with weird food habits! She won't eat out of her dish - we've tried 4 different dishes, and none work - the last is a plate, which she will sometimes eat off of, but generally, the food needs to be on the floor before she'll eat it. And sometimes even then she'll pick it up and carry it elsewhere (her bed, the carpet, our laps) before she'll eat it!

The food bowl went out the window a while ago. We put the food directly onto the towel that used to be below the food bowl because that's where is ended up anyways. If I sit with her (which she loves) she will bring individual pieces to my lap - eat it - then get another. She can bring more than one at a time she just knows it’s a good way to sucker me into getting a handful and hand feeding her. She eats like a horse when I do this so I do it quite often in an attempt to get her to gain a little weight. If I don't sit there with her occasionally she will take the food back to her bed or any random place she thinks is funny to leave dog food crumbs at – I think some roaches and ants are paying her salary. :roll:

We had the same bowl problem not too long ago, but it has now been solved with brief spoon feeds and a ceramic bowl (as advised).
Here's the thread:http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=28929&highlight=strange+behavior+behaviour#28929

Hope this helps you too :flwr:

my little daschund used to do the same thing..(we used to give her wet food that was cut into cubes)..she would pick up one cube...go to her bed..put the cube between her paws and eat it delicately..and then go back for the next cube..it was very cute but usually meant it took her forever to finish her dinner!..however my two cavs...theyll eat the food there and then wherever it is placed!

Lifting the bowl

Wow, this site is so helpful. I spent a few days with my hands in the food bowl but now Barkleigh still is a social guy and wants you near him. Uusally one of us sits and reads the paper nearby or he keeps checking on us and what is going on, which is fine.

At 4 plus months I think he should go to 2 meals, as one is always less interesting. We usually do 1 meal plain kibble, 1 meal dressed up with Butermilk blend (dry powder), a small tsp of cottage cheese, mixed with a little water for a milky broth. (His coat is stunning.) One meal a day (or more if he is picky) we add a small amount of warm broth. Anyone see a problem with this. He is slender at 11 pounds, but we don't want him to get too big. He is mostly LONG.

Just this week we started putting his dish on top of an upside-down bowl to raise it higher, and he seems to like this. I guess we'll get a stand or make one.

We also often feed him in his crate if we don't want to monitor because he gets the "urge" in the middle of feeding or just after. If we see half eaten, a quick walk will get the job done, and he comes in and finishes. He is also a slow starter in the morning like me.

If anyone thinks I am spoiling him too much, please advise. He will eat the dry stuff if he is hungry enough.

Lifting the bowl

Wow, this site is so helpful. I spent a few days with my hands in the food bowl but now Barkleigh still is a social guy and wants you near him. Uusally one of us sits and reads the paper nearby or he keeps checking on us and what is going on, which is fine.

At 4 plus months I think he should go to 2 meals, as one is always less interesting. We usually do 1 meal plain kibble, 1 meal dressed up with Butermilk blend (dry powder), a small tsp of cottage cheese, mixed with a little water for a milky broth. (His coat is stunning.) One meal a day (or more if he is picky) we add a small amount of warm broth. Anyone see a problem with this. He is slender at 11 pounds, but we don't want him to get too big. He is mostly LONG.

Just this week we started putting his dish on top of an upside-down bowl to raise it higher, and he seems to like this. I guess we'll get a stand or make one.

We also often feed him in his crate if we don't want to monitor because he gets the "urge" in the middle of feeding or just after. If we see half eaten, a quick walk will get the job done, and he comes in and finishes. He is also a slow starter in the morning like me.

If anyone thinks I am spoiling him too much, please advise. He will eat the dry stuff if he is hungry enough. In total, he gets about 1.25 cups a day. Is that about the right amount or too much?

how old is Barkleigh?