Problem Eating

[CosmoKC]

I'm a little puzzled. Cosmo suddenly doesn't want to eat from his bowl. I put food in, he looks at it and walks away. If I pick up a bit with a fork or spoon, he'll gladly eat that though. I don't think that I should be getting in the habit of spoon feeding him. Anyone else ever go through this or have any thoughts on how I can correct this?

Thanks!!

[Karlin]

Do NOT start feeding in any other way than his bowl! No spoons, no handfeeding, not plates... Puppies and dogs often go thru this sort of thing -- typically from boredom or to get more attention from you. If you want, you could try putting his entire meal inside a Kong and let him work to get it out. That should be the only alternative way you ever try to feed.

If you are not interested in doing that, feed as normal; totally ignore him for the next 15 minutes, if he doesn;t eat within 15 minutes, take up his bowl with no comment and put it away til his next scheduled feeding. Don;t look at him, talk to him, or make any kind of fuss. Then, NO treats, nothing, til, the next meal. If you let him start controlling meals like this you will have a nightmare on your hands very quickly. Do NOT try feeding hi different things either. Stick to his existing food he has been perfetcly happy with til now. Bet he eats normally within three days. Don;t worry, dogs are fine missing a few meals and this would be the norm for wild canids.

[CosmoKC]

Thank you for the advise!!

[Cathy T]

Just wanted to reiterate what Karlin said. I didn't say anything earlier because this is verbatim (almost ) to what I would have replied. I went through this with Jake and the biggest piece of advice I can give you is ... don't give in!!! And the strongest piece of advice I was given was that he will not starve himself. When he's good and hungry he will eat! And it worked. Took about 2 1/2 days but never had a problem since.

[Karlin]

Jaspar went thru a phase of taunting the cats with his food -- more interesting to guard his bowl and chase off the cats when they went to investigate, than eat his food. Up came the bowl then. He held out for a few meals then that was that.

[laurenlyn1]

I had a problem getting Brady to eat all of his food. (and I was giving less than that package said because I know that's too much) and this problem came at a good time because i was about to get him nuetered so I couldn't feed him for a day. I haven't had a problem since. Sometimes I have to let him eat in his crate in the morning if I have to get ready fast and he doesn't like that much, but he usually eats most of it. Then I let him out and he'll finish it. Sometimes he'll stop part way for a poo break too.

[Kingofthehouse86]

King would do the same thing... He would look at his dish walk away to see what everyone else was doing... then when he was done being nosey he would go eat his food... he like Karlin says gets bored, but when he's bored being bored he goes and eats

[GusWilson]

I read in an article that it would help instill trust with your puppy if you let him eat out of your hand... what a mistake!!! I finally got Gus to eat off a plate (with his dog food on it) but that got messy... so I finally got him to use his bowl but it took a couple days. Even now if I am in the kitchen he will stand back and look at me like "I am ready to be spoon fed now"... if I ignore him though he will eat on his own.