Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:04 pm Post subject: Dog's bored of dried food
Our 10 month old chocolate Lab is always hungry, but not hungry enough to much down her dinner. She's currently on Pets at Home's Advanced Nutrition (dry food). It's meant to be good stuff (>26% chicken, clear ingredient list, etc), but I fear she's bored of it.
I am a firm believer that animals won't stare themselves because they don't like something - instinct kicks in eventually. Labradors are always hungry. My dogs eat only dog food as 2 meals a day. Leave it down and if it's not eaten take it away until the next meal with no snacks inbetween.
Are you giving her too much at a time? Have you tried putting a splash of warm water on it to bring the smell up a bit?
We're giving her the suggested amount for her age/weight.
We used to give mixer her food with water when she was a puppy, but she's been on dry since.
_Sam_ wrote:
do you feed her anything else like human food if she doesn't eat her dried? How long do you leave her food down for?
No never. Well, not as a replacement anyway.
Sometimes I give her tiny pieces of cheese or tiny pieces of meet, but only once she's finished her dinner and only as a treat.
She is fed once in the morning and once in the evening. If it's not eaten, it's left until it is.
Celine wrote:
I am a firm believer that animals won't stare themselves because they don't like something - instinct kicks in eventually. Labradors are always hungry. My dogs eat only dog food as 2 meals a day. Leave it down and if it's not eaten take it away until the next meal with no snacks inbetween.
I'm not worried about her starving herself, she always eats it in the end.
I don't want her just eating to survive though, I want her to enjoy her food and look forward to dinner time, as we do.
i would most def soak it in a wee touch of water this works with my 3 year old bailey if she doesnt eat a meal i soak it with a touch of water make the smell stronger and she gets tucked right in !
I don't want her just eating to survive though, I want her to enjoy her food and look forward to dinner time, as we do.
I think that is the difference though, however harsh it may sound, a dogs a dog, it does eat to survive, it doesn't have the same concept of food as we do. Yes dogs will prefer something like cheese, sausage or meat but they don't miss what they don't know, a dogs mind just doesn't work like that of a human.
same here. our dog is just fed her food and nothing else. she always had a very good appetite and would finish everything in secs and stares at us with those, " i want more, pleeeeaaassee" eyes. she is on a diet at the moment as she is getting heavier ( 28.7kgs ) for a 7 month old. I don't want her to have too much weight on while she is still building her bones. Also, recommended food amounts on the packaging, for me, is too much. the complete dry food, especially the premium ones, are so rich that you only have to give, hmmm, maybe half that amount they are recommending 2x a day and they will be ok. and she is looking much more leaner now. and i would agree too that a dogs mind will not work like that of a human being.
try putting her food down for five minutes and if not eaten, take it up. Don't leave it down for her to pick at.
She'll quickly learn to eat it.
Dogs don't get bored with their food, Thats a human concept lol
____________ Sam, Coal & Finn
It�s never too late to be what you might have been
All photographs remain copyrighted to me with al
Victoria Stilwell the dog trainer always makes a point, particularly in homes where dogs have behavioural issues like stealing other ppls food, and basically the point is...
"Imagine eating dry toast every day for the rest of your life. Would you like it?"
I believe that feeding the same dry food day in day out DOES have an impact. Of course they'll still eat it; especially labs, because they eat anything. But it also means they're more focused on getting at other things which do smell nice and interesting - and for labs? Just a few examples we all know well - picking up horrible rotting discarded things or dead animals on walks, raiding bins, surfing your worktops and sitting watching you eat with drool pooling onto the floor.
Its not an exact science, some dogs regardless of breed; will eat their dinner, regardless of how interesting or boring it is and STILL do all these other things. And other dogs will eat their dried food, the same brand, the same flavour, every day of their life and NOT.
I supplement my dogs diet; they have a Burns Pork and Potato dried food, one night they'll have it with a bit of marmite gravy, another night 1/2 a butchers tin, and another time they'll have leftovers. In fact, my dogs get ALL our leftovers; everything from curry to sunday roast. The only thing I avoid giving them is anything particularly fatty; chips for example, they never get. They also get Kongs with everything from scrambled egg to fresh fruit in.
Don't be afraid of adding a little bit of something to your dogs foodbowl. As to whether they enjoy their food; when I cook Sunday roast, my lot are sitting eagerly by their bowls in the kitchen waiting for their dinner of leftovers, they spend twice as long licking their bowls out afterwads and then make lots of contented grumbly noises afterwards when they join me on the sofa.
____________ Jane - Rosie, Frank, Suki, Lily, Lewis
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
