1 year old pitbull is a very very fussy eater and it's driving me nuts

971 Views 15 Replies 5 Participants Last post by RonE, Feb 23, 2021

Orion18

Discussion Starter · Feb 22, 2021

She gets in these moods where she just doesn't want to eat. A couple days ago she didn't eat all day. Yesterday she didn't eat in the morning and then in late afternoon, I mixed in wet food, dry food and cottage cheese and she finally ate it all. Today in morning, I gave her dry food with some cottage cheese and she didn't touch it. She's very very muscular and looks extremely healthy so I'm not super worried because of that, but this is making potty training difficult as I'm not always sure when she will poop.

I've tried multiple dry foods and she is super fussy. Some days, she wants it and other days she does not. She does seem to like wet food by itself but rarely eats dry food by itself. I made chicken and rice for her once or twice and she did eat that also. A few times, I've gotten her to eat by putting treats into the combo of dry food and wet food

Do I just let her starve? she is one stubborn girl. If she doesn't want to eat it, she'll go 2 days without eating. Should I feed her rice and chicken all the time? She did seem to totally love that but I'm sure she'll get sick of it also after a day or two

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LeoRose

· #2 · Feb 22, 2021

Picky eaters are more often made than born. Adding goodies and begging your dog to eat are usually counter-productive. Fix the food, put it down, and walk away. Give her a time limit (say ten to fifteen minutes) to eat. If she doesn't eat in that time, pick the bowl up and don't give her anything until her next meal. Also, make sure you aren't overfeeding. At a year old, she should be on two meals a day, with about half her daily intake in the morning, half in the evening, and training treats taken into consideration when figuring amounts.

This article has good info about teaching a dog to eat. Teaching Your Dog to Eat | Mind to Mind

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Orion18

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 22, 2021

LeoRose said:
Picky eaters are more often made than born. Adding goodies and begging your dog to eat are usually counter-productive. Fix the food, put it down, and walk away. Give her a time limit (say ten to fifteen minutes) to eat. If she doesn't eat in that time, pick the bowl up and don't give her anything until her next meal. Also, make sure you aren't overfeeding. At a year old, she should be on two meals a day, with about half her daily intake in the morning, half in the evening, and training treats taken into consideration when figuring amounts.

This article has good info about teaching a dog to eat. Teaching Your Dog to Eat | Mind to Mind

Do I only give her dry food? or is it ok to mix wet and dry?

do I give her human food like chicken and rice?

my problem with your approach is she might go 3 days without eating...she's unreal

LeoRose

· #4 · Feb 22, 2021

I feed plain kibble in the morning and kibble and canned in the evening. Sometimes I will swap out the canned food for a tin of sardines, raw scraps from whatever meat the humans had for dinner, or sometimes raw stuff that I buy just for them. My GSD can be somewhat picky (Waitress! My chicken foot is frozen!), but she still eats whatever is put in her bowl.

When working on getting them eating, don't feed human food. It's (almost) always better than dog food. And as mean as it sounds, it's very unlikely that a healthy dog will starve themselves to the point of being ill.

Orion18

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 22, 2021

LeoRose said:
I feed plain kibble in the morning and kibble and canned in the evening. Sometimes I will swap out the canned food for a tin of sardines, raw scraps from whatever meat the humans had for dinner, or sometimes raw stuff that I buy just for them. My GSD can be somewhat picky (Waitress! My chicken foot is frozen!), but she still eats whatever is put in her bowl.

When working on getting them eating, don't feed human food. It's (almost) always better than dog food. And as mean as it sounds, it's very unlikely that a healthy dog will starve themselves to the point of being ill.

so just let her starve until she eats?

grrrrr, she has such a beautiful, muscular build. I hate to sacrifice that

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DaySleepers

· #6 · Feb 22, 2021

I'd love to see pictures!

Either way, she's not going to lose a ton of muscle by fasting for a day or two as she learns that she's not going to get extra goodies and treats by holding out. In fact, those treats and goodies might have the opposite of the effect you want, putting on a fatty layer over those nice muscles.

Have you tried keeping a record of precisely how much you're feeding her every day and how much actually gets eaten? Using something like measuring cups or even a kitchen scale so you really know how many calories she's getting on average.

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Orion18

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 22, 2021

DaySleepers said:
I'd love to see pictures!

Either way, she's not going to lose a ton of muscle by fasting for a day or two as she learns that she's not going to get extra goodies and treats by holding out. In fact, those treats and goodies might have the opposite of the effect you want, putting on a fatty layer over those nice muscles.

Have you tried keeping a record of precisely how much you're feeding her every day and how much actually gets eaten? Using something like measuring cups or even a kitchen scale so you really know how many calories she's getting on average.

she either eats everything in sight or doesn't really touch it

I give her a full bowl. I don't really know how to measure it. I've been giving her dry food and wet food. Today I gave her dry food and cottage cheese...she didn't touch it. Yesterday I gave her dry food and wet food and she didn't touch it. I mixed cottage cheese in there and she ate the whole bowl (it was a big amount) but today she doesn't want the cottage cheese. I don't know if I mix the wet food in there if she will eat it

she's a very beautiful dog - about 60 lbs all muscle already at 1 years of age. I'm guessing she will look like one of those 70-80 lb american staffy monsters you see

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DaySleepers

· #8 · Feb 22, 2021

Oh well in that case I bet she's gotten used to binging on a huge meal and then fasting for a while. Probably not a great habit, since eating that much at once might increase risk of bloat. My suggestion is to get some measuring cups for cooking and check how much the food bag says to feed her. These will often be measured in 'cups', which means those specific cooking measuring cups, not any random cup from your cabinet. Feed her either exactly what the bag says she should get for her age/weight, or even a tiny bit less (often the feeding guidelines are generous). See if that helps her eat more consistently, since she'll be getting regular small meals instead of gorging on a huge portion.

She's very pretty! I can see the lab you mentioned in another thread.

RonE

· #9 · Feb 22, 2021

You know, it's perfectly okay to vent here. People do it all the time.

But the polite thing, to avoid wasting time for people that will try to help, is to include the Big Dave Disclaimer: "My questions are rhetorical. I'm not really interested in solutions, since I've already made up my mind about my priorities."

Feel free to paraphrase.

Reactions: 1

LeoRose

· #10 · Feb 22, 2021

Orion18 said:
she either eats everything in sight or doesn't really touch it

I give her a full bowl. I don't really know how to measure it. I've been giving her dry food and wet food. Today I gave her dry food and cottage cheese...she didn't touch it. Yesterday I gave her dry food and wet food and she didn't touch it. I mixed cottage cheese in there and she ate the whole bowl (it was a big amount) but today she doesn't want the cottage cheese. I don't know if I mix the wet food in there if she will eat it

she's a very beautiful dog - about 60 lbs all muscle already at 1 years of age. I'm guessing she will look like one of those 70-80 lb american staffy monsters you see

Well, that might be a goodly part of your problem right there. Something like this is how you measure it. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-1-Cup-Measuring-Cup/14938597 Standard 8 ounce measuring cup. Look at the recommended amount of food on the bag. Divide that into two. Measure out that much food into her bowl, using the measuring cup. Set her bowl down and walk away. If she eats it all, fine. If she doesn't, pick up the rest and don't feed her again until her next meal.

If I gave my dogs a "full bowl" that would be 2 quarts worth of food, meaning 8 cups per meal. They only need about 2 cups per day in total.

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LeoRose

· #11 · Feb 22, 2021

RonE said:
You know, it's perfectly okay to vent here. People do it all the time.

But the polite thing, to avoid wasting time for people that will try to help, is to include the Big Dave Disclaimer: "My questions are rhetorical. I'm not really interested in solutions, since I've already made up my mind about my priorities."

Feel free to paraphrase.

Hmm.... Wouldn't his pup be about a year old, now?

Reactions: 1

RonE

· #12 · Feb 22, 2021

LeoRose said:
Hmm.... Wouldn't his pup be about a year old, now?

And very muscular.

Probably just a coincidence.

Reactions: 1

Orion18

Discussion Starter · #13 · Feb 23, 2021

DaySleepers said:
Oh well in that case I bet she's gotten used to binging on a huge meal and then fasting for a while. Probably not a great habit, since eating that much at once might increase risk of bloat. My suggestion is to get some measuring cups for cooking and check how much the food bag says to feed her. These will often be measured in 'cups', which means those specific cooking measuring cups, not any random cup from your cabinet. Feed her either exactly what the bag says she should get for her age/weight, or even a tiny bit less (often the feeding guidelines are generous). See if that helps her eat more consistently, since she'll be getting regular small meals instead of gorging on a huge portion.

She's very pretty! I can see the lab you mentioned in another thread.

but i've tried experimenting with big, medium and small amounts of food and she is still very very fussy. I don't know when she's in mood for something or when she's not

and then what's weird is, she won't eat all day but then like tonight - she got in a eating mood and demolished a whole bowl of wet/dry food and wanted more and more

Another weird thing is that she will love cottage cheese one day, then I try to give it to her next day and she doesn't want it. I take 3 4 days off cottage cheese, now she loves it. I feel like I'm dealing with a fussy toddler

do I just give her strictly dry food? Should I mix dry and wet?

LeoRose

· #14 · Feb 23, 2021

This is starting to sound very familiar.....

Look at the package for the amount she should be getting(all commercial foods have this listed). Using a standard 8 ounce measuring cup (available just about anywhere, Target, Walmart, the dollar store... everywhere) give her half of what it says for breakfast and half for dinner. Put the food in her bowl, put it down, and walk away. Pick up anything left over after fifteen minutes. Repeat at her next scheduled mealtime. Repeat at every mealtime until she starts eating as soon as the bowl is put down, and doesn't stop eating until the food is gone. Otherwise be prepared to spend the next decade plus fretting about her eating, and creating more and more elaborate rituals until trying to get her to eat is literally the only thing you do with her all day long.

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3GSD4IPO

· #15 · Feb 23, 2021

LeoRose said:
Well, that might be a goodly part of your problem right there. Something like this is how you measure it. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-1-Cup-Measuring-Cup/14938597 Standard 8 ounce measuring cup. Look at the recommended amount of food on the bag. Divide that into two. Measure out that much food into her bowl, using the measuring cup. Set her bowl down and walk away. If she eats it all, fine. If she doesn't, pick up the rest and don't feed her again until her next meal.

If I gave my dogs a "full bowl" that would be 2 quarts worth of food, meaning 8 cups per meal. They only need about 2 cups per day in total.

THIS. I feed RAW to one dog and kibble 1/2 of the food to the other dog. The dog on kibble gets 1 c. in the morning and 1.5 pounds of raw at night. She is 77 pounds and has great muscle tone.

The male gets a little more raw at night (2 pounds) and one pound in the morning. He is around 80 pounds and has great muscle tone.

A female PB is not designed to be one of those massive over muscled off type dogs you are discussing. You should not want that.. it is not healthy. She is supposed to look a bit feminine and at 60 pounds at one year she will likely mature no more than 65 pounds ASSUMING 60 pounds is an ideal weight right now. Three Cups of kibble a day is all she should get. If she doesn't eat for even a few days (because she refuses her food) she will be FINE. She won't lose as noted above. I had a dog not eat for 4 days (this was a training thing... and she was not a fussy eater). She was fine. I wasn't.. but the dog acted like there was no problem at all.

RonE

· #16 · Feb 23, 2021

The OP is gone - again - so I'm closing this thread. Y'all are tripping over each other trying to help someone who doesn't really want advice.

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