Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:05 am Post subject: When does it go from fussy eater to poss prob? Update 24/10
Ozzie has been a very fussy eater for about the last 3 weeks.
Up until then, he'd always been a typical lab and scoffed every morsel in his bowl the instant we put his bowl down.
When he started being fussy we were towards the end of a bag of Duck & Rice JWB, so when we went back to buy our next bag we bought Lamb & Rice, which he'd had for 6 months previously and loved.
But no, he was still being fussy with it.
I approached it in my typical hard-nosed style, and if he didn't eat it within 15 mins of me putting the bowl down I'd take it up again and serve it to him for his next meal instead. I told hubby we couldn't add things to it, we couldn't create a fuss over it, otherwise he'd have us wrapped around his paw and would be a fussy eater for life.
Only that hasn't worked... I know a dog won't usually starve itself, but Ozzie would turn his nose up at 3 or 4 meals in a row... which to me, is a problem.
He usually gets 1.5 cups of JWB twice per day. I think it's around 350g per day roughly but we don't weigh it. We only use treats at obedience training once a week, so he doesn't get his diet supplemented by constant treats. He has maybe one carrot per day and one JWB crackerjack biscuit at night when he goes in his crate. One carrot and one biscuit is not enough to live on!!
Take the last few days for example:
Thursday dinner - nothing eaten
Friday breakfast - nothing eaten
Friday dinner - maybe 1/2 cup eaten
Saturday breakfast - nothing eaten
Saturday dinner - maybe 1 cup eaten (he'd been playing with his doggy best mate all day so was probably exhausted so needed some sustenance)
Sunday breakfast - nothing eaten
Sunday dinner - nothing eaten
At this stage I was starting to worry, he'd only eaten the equivalent of one meal out of 7, so I put a raw egg and some milk in the bowl with his dry food and encouraged him to eat.
Eventually, he did, but it still took him a good 5 mins to eat the bowl, which would have only taken him 1 min to eat a month or so ago.
Monday breakfast - maybe 1/2 cup eaten
Monday dinner - nothing eaten until I hand-fed him about 1/2 cup of food pretending they were training treats and we did some sit/drop/stay/paw/etc kind of stuff, just so I could get him to eat!!!
At what stage does "he's just being a fussy eater" turn into "this is something we need to look into"???
I don't think he's eaten any socks or toys lately. The fussy eating started well before he ate the money for the dog walker on Friday morning, and I'm only waiting on 1 x £1 coin to be returned now, so I don't think it's related to that.
He seems well in himself apart from the not eating. He's still drinking fine, and he'll eat a carrot and an ice cube so I don't think he has a sore tooth or throat.
I *really* don't want to encourage the behaviour if it is just fussy eating, but at what stage would you draw the line and get him into the vet?
Ness
Last edited by Scubabe on Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
hmm how old is he? Ruby became fussy from about 8 months old. She never got human food at that stage either so it wasnt that. I started with the whole pick up after 15 mins routine but then she wasnt eating for days on end. So I just left her food down - she nibbles through the day and her breakfast is usually gone by tea time but she doesnt eat it till I reckon about lunchtime.
Just my experiences as I didnt stick with the removing the food so cant help with the way you are doing it
Could there be anything wrong with that particular pack of food? Maybe the shop isn't storing it correctly? I'm sure someone else had a similar problem a year or so ago and it turned out that the food was 'off'. Maybe try a small pack of JWB from a different supplier?
I would take him to the vet and weigh him, and then monitor his weight over the next week. Infact, thinking about it, I would probably ask the vet to give him the once-over just for peace of mind.
If he's always been a good eater previously, and now he's changed, I think it would be a good idea to consider all the other reasons before you label him as 'fussy'
Gracie was awful, but the trouble was that anything left 9and was mainly all of it!) she started to guard - not from me but the other dogs. So I had to find something she would eat, and the little madam will now only eat Chappie with Nutro mini bites mixed in. Still, she eats the lot, looks good and the others arent fussed that they arent getting the same. But, i must admit, I never did take her to the vets for it. It was something I had to work through myself to see what she would eat. Turns out she wanted wet food and not dry
Like the others have already said, if he is losing weight then I'd get him checked out.
It is a really frustrating problem if you have got a naturally fussy dog and there is only so much you can do to get them to eat.
I know two of my sisters dogs (not Labs) are really fussy and she has tried everything to encourage them to eat over the years....from removing their food after 15 mins, to letting one of the other dogs eat it while they are still watching....but they just don't care. They regularly go really thin if they have gone off whatever they liked last week and my sister ends up cooking for them. But what can you do in instances like that...watch the dogs starve??? They have been known not to eat for a whole week and they drop weight at an alarming rate and as they are not fat dogs to start off with, this can be a real worry..... or feed them something they will eat. They are not ill either, they are full of energy and have been checked by the vet....They are just fussy Princesses.
Vicky, he's just turned 1. This all started a few weeks ago so when he was 11 months, but it's just become really pronounced in the last week or so I guess. I haven't tried leaving it down all day because I figured that would help him be fussy if he knows he can go to it when he wants... but right now getting him eating again is far more important than winning some imaginary battle I have in my head!!
RE his weight, I couldn't say for sure... he feels thinner to me but maybe I am imagining it? Charlie was actually supposed to take him to the vets for me yesterday to weigh him, but the car died on him so he didn't get there. He's promised me he will jump on the train with him tomorrow and go down there and get him weighed. He's only *just* started filling out, I don't want him losing all that lovely condition now
Nicky, as above couldn't tell you for sure about his weight (I don't own scales so can't check at home now). His stools are harder and there are FAR less of them - maybe only 1 or 2 per day. Saturday I don't think he went all day, Sunday once, yesterday twice, today once so far. Thanks for the reply!
Becs, oooooh I hadn't thought of that!!! I'll see if I can get Charlie to pick up a new bag tomorrow from a different shop just to see. I hadn't thought of that because it was the bottom end of the last bag plus all of this bag (so far half the bag) - it didn't occur to me that the food might be the problem. Great suggestion, thank you!!
Sonia, I was actually starting to think of changing over to a good quality wet food and see if he'd eat that. I don't really have the freezer space to be going to BARF but I might do some research on good wet foods. Thanks for that idea!!
When hubby gets back from weighing him tomorrow I'll let you all know if he's lost much/any weight. He'd probably be due for vaccs again soon since he's just had his birthday so I might check when they're due and pop him in for a once over with the Vet.
Jules, I adopted a BC once who was fussy, but since she was hugely overweight when we got her then the weight loss was a happy side effect Your sisters dogs, could you tell me, were they fussy from the time she got them, or did it kick in at some time in the future??
Your sisters dogs, could you tell me, were they fussy from the time she got them, or did it kick in at some time in the future??
They were good eaters as pups, although not in the same "eat absolutely anything" way that some Labs are, but as soon as they reached their full height, their appetite just waned. All their condition went and they looked really ribby and boney, not good at all. As I said before there is nothing physically wrong with them, they are just fussy and quite happy to starve rather than eat something they don't like. At the moment they are on Greyhound kibble (don't know why, they just like it) with a tin of pilchards thrown in......and they also have a quarter of raw chicken for lunch, but that has to be fed at room temp or even warmed up a bit or else they won't even look at it.....Princesses.. the pair of them .
I had one pup from my last litter that became a fussy eater at about 6 months old. I must admit I was quite concerned as I had seen how well the rest of the litter were doing.
Anyway to cut a long story short she came to stay for a weekend while her owners went to the Rugby and I found that she was just so busy she did not have time to eat and the only way to get her to eat properly was to actually sit down and eat your breakfast with her rather than just putting her food down and getting on with other things. It worked a treat when she returned home and with regularly fortnightly weighings at the vets she is now the same weight as her litter sisters.
Just thought it might be worth mentioning. I have to say all my labs and all the rest of the litter are normal clear everything in 15 seconds type labs.
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Your sisters dogs, could you tell me, were they fussy from the time she got them, or did it kick in at some time in the future??
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