[amnimphius13]

Merry Christmas!! My stubborn Yorkie mix named Mex has not hardly eaten anything the last few days!! He seems fine...I get so frustrated...he is on Fromm gold food and have had so many issues with feeding...wont just eat his kibbles so have mixed it with some canned...worked for a little while and then stopped eating so now been mixing his food with ground beef..and that was working for awhile and now not eating again...what do I do??? He is prone to diarrhea...but i need him to eat...i think he is allergic to chicken....Do i take him to the vet?? I really don't like my vet so feel they will want to do tests on him and want to give me food that they have...which never works...ugh...i just want him to eat!!!!

 

[storyist]

A friend of mine once did what you're doing - kept adding better and better stuff to her dog's food to get him to eat. After ending up mixing in filet mignon and lobster with the same results (he ate it for a couple of meals then went off it), she had to abandon the effort. That meant going back to feeding dog food without the "better stuff" until he gave in and ate. Of course her dog was a Rottweiler; with a small dog you can afford lobster then move on to truffles.

You might want to try a different kibble. The only dog I had who would not eat well, sometimes leaving some, sometimes not eating at all, stopped the fussing and ate like a Rottie should when I changed kibble. She's kind of a nervous dog and it never occurred to me it could be she just didn't like that particular kibble until she started cleaning up her food every meal the day I changed. For what it's worth, as I remember, it was one of the Fromm brands she wasn't eating well.

I always mixed a little canned in with kibble and added water, but that was mostly because plain kibble looks unappetizing to me. Ask your vet, but it's my understanding a healthy dog won't starve himself, so if your dog is healthy and not a puppy, you could try the standard method of dealing with this kind of behavior: put the food down, give it 15-20 minutes, pick it up and don't offer more food until the next regular mealtime.

If you don't like your vet, find another, but sometimes tests are called for. If they try to push food they sell at you, just say, "I tried that, and he wouldn't eat that either."

 

[LeoRose]

True food allergies are pretty rare in dogs, but they can certainly have sensitivities. The gold standard to diagnose food allergies and sensitivities is with a strict feeding trial of either a homemade diet of a single protein and single carbohydrate source or else a commercial hydrolyzed protein commercial diet, and feeding only that until all symptoms are gone, and then reintroducing one protein or carbohydrate source at a time. It can take months to fins out all of them, though.

There are allergy tests you can do, but they may or may not be accurate. I know of one dog who was tested, and eliminating the foods the test showed she was sensitive to helped immensely. I've known of other dogs that were tested, and eliminating those things from their diet changed nothing.

An easier option is to switch foods and see if the new one works better. Make sure that the new food has a different protein source(s) from the other one.

If all else checks out, and it's simply a case of you've trained him to be a picky eater (and adding goodies to encourage eating does just that), then you will need to untrain the picky eating. This is a method that works for lots of dogs. Teaching Your Dog to Eat | Mind to Mind

 

[DaySleepers]

If he's an adult dog with no health issues, and this isn't a major behavioral change (ie he used to enthusiastically inhale everything remotely edible, then suddenly started being super picky), I'd just pick a quality food (or food combo, if you're fine with always mixing in a little canned or something), measure out his daily meals, offer them for 20 minutes, then pick up whatever's not eaten and try again next meal. Just keep it consistent.

I'd also double check that he's not just getting full. Small dogs eat a lot less than we think sometimes, and the feeding guides on dog food bags tend to err on the side of too large portions. Especially if he's older, neutered, and/or not very active, he might just not need much food.

 

[3GSD4IPO]

If your dog is having diarrhea issues there may be something else going on (or you may simply be feeding too much). Years ago I had some extremely high end dog food that my dog refused. I thought from all of it she had exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. The symptoms were almost aligned.

My vet said.. before we spend $$ on testing for that just feed her a lower quality all life stages food.. and less of it. This fixed that dog's problem. Do note that I did get my vet involved. If you do not like your vet, find another vet!!

A dog that is very small might only eat 4-5 pieces of kibble.

Here I feed mostly a commercial raw mix.. and have had zero diarrhea issues since switching my dogs to this. The ground bone in the raw can tighten a dog up. I do add some green tripe to help a bit with that though it is not necessary if it is in the commercial mix.

One (older) dog decided she was not going to eat raw in the morning and I give her a kibble that is not grain free. She eats raw at night and is very happy.