Eating Problems.. AGAIN!

[Zumie05]

I don't know what is going on with my little sweetie, Coco. She is such an amazing girl and I love her to death....BUT SHE STARTED NOT TO EAT AGAIN!

It was going well for a while after I starting taking her food away if she didn't eat in 10 minutes. I'd wait until lunch, and she would eat that and again at dinner. I also started feeding her in her pen and she was doing so well in there the past two weeks. Now she is refusing to eat again.

I have cut out treats from her diet, unless it is a tiny little piece as a reward for going potty or something. I pour her breakfast in there, and she just sits and look at it. I tell her "ok" and give her permission, she will sniff it and just walk away. So I try again for lunch, same thing. Come dinner time, yeah she will eat, but not with a lot of gutso. Her stool is normal, and she will ALWAYS go crazy and get very excited when I get out her treat bag for going potty outside. Again though, she is only eating a very small piece so there is no way she is sustaining herself on treats alone.

I am truly wondering if she genuinely does not like her food. Should I continue to be stubborn, or is it time to try a new brand? I worry about switching too often to turn her even more picky. She is eating a grainless food called "NOW!" for small breed adults. Breeder wanted her on adult food rather than puppy.

Also I wanted to add, I don't think her teeth are sore because she has hard plastic toys and a bone she chews on with no problems.

[Soushiruiuma]

Sounds like she's just holding out for the good stuff! I would stop with treats entirely, just use a piece of kibble and praise.

The NOW food doesn't contain much meat, maybe it doesn't smell much? Dogs tend to like stinky things (like the litterbox).

[Tania]

Would it be worth getting her checked out by your vet. Just to make sure there is not anything else going on. I would get her check just to be on the safe side.

[Mindysmom]

I use kibble for treats a lot - if your vet says there is nothing wrong you might try rewarding her with kibble and that might tell you if she likes it or not. My guys have never refused to take kibble from me for a treat.

[Chamberlain]

I wouldn't hurt contacting your vet, he may have some suggestions for you.

When we first got Sasha she would pick at her food, it took going through several different dog food brands before we found the right one.

Why did your breeder want her on adult dog food? Chamberlain eats small beed puppy dog food....

[Zumie05]

Thank you for the advice so far. She has a vet appointment coming up soon, I will talk about this issue with him.

The other day I went to the pet store to talk to sales associates about a nice and smelly good quality dog food, and was recommended ZiwiPeak. Has anyone tried this food? I might start a separate thread about it just to see

Coco does take her kibble as treats, so yup she's holding out for the good stuff. I thought Cavaliers were supposed to be prone to over eating and loving food! Sigh, I almost wish I had that problem instead.

Oh and Chamberlain, the breeder prefers puppies on adult food to help ensure they do not have major growth spurts. It supposedly will not stunt the growth, but rather encourage slower growing, therefore helping the bones have more time to calcify and get stronger. I thought that sounded logical, so I have been sticking with adult food. I am pretty sure the difference in puppy food really is just that it has more calories...I think.

[Piper]

I have my pup on Now as well. He was on something else when I got him and wasn't eating that so I switched to Now and he ate it for a while but then stoppped again. I started putting one small spoonful of wet food in with the dry and I haven't had a problem since.

[SamT]

Our Sam goes off his food if he is feeling unwell. He had an eye infection a few weeks ago and wouldn't eat. He also wont eat out of a bowl!! I put his food on kitchen towel and he eats it. He will however eat chicken out of a bowl because he doesn't get it that often.

[Charlifarley]

We had awful problems getting Trapper to eat his food, he used to bark at it and leave it there! I think that was because the first bowl we used had a picture underneath where the food was Not knowing any better at the time, we used to spend our time trying to coax him to eat, but we finally solved the problem when we got Bosco and he had a bit of competition from a hungry pup!! Maybe a bit radical

[Kate H]

Could Coco be teething - losing her baby teeth and therefore having a sore mouth? Might be worth giving her small biscuits soaked to soften them and see if that helps. Puppy foods have more in them than extra calories, they are high protein to support the body in all the growing it has to do, and also provide some of the calcium etc needed to grow good bones. Adults need less protein because their body isn't working so hard.

Kate, Oliver and Aled