All of a sudden won't eat dog food

[RoxMonster]

We've had Rox on Taste of the Wild Pacific Salmon since probably Feb/March. She has to do grain-free and Blue caused her some digestive issues. Ever since we got her, she has been kind of a grazer. Some days, she'll gobble up her bowl when I put it down, others, she grazes on it throughout the day, and some days (more rare) she will only eat breakfast or dinner but not both.

Lately we noticed her not eating her breakfast or dinner very much. Our schedules have been weird and we were gone on vacation, etc. so we thought part of it might be separation anxiety/stress. We have tried mixing a tiny bit of beef (VERY high value for her) in with her food to entice her to eat. Sometimes, it works awesomely and she will eat the whole bowl. But more and more, she picks out the beef and skips her food.

Now, I do use her kibble to stuff her Kong and Wobbler whenever we leave, and she will usually eat it out of those. She will also eat any and all treats that we give her (we don't give her a ton, by any means, but for instance, she'll eat cheese to take her pills, she'll eat the Greenie we give her every other day, she'll eat special treats from the dog bakery we give as "dessert" and she will eat the beef in her food). The TOTW has had no ill effects on her at all that we have seen.

Is this just her getting sick of the food and wanting to hold out for treats? She is totally normal in every other way; high energy, drinking water, going to the bathroom fine, etc. Any advice to get her to eat her kibble?

[kris356]

Have you tried switching proteins? My American Bulldog started to do the same thing when we were feeding the Salmon, we switch back to the Sierra Mountain (lamb) and he went back to eating. He just isn't a fish fan but my lab loved it. His favorite is the Southwest Canyon (wild boar) but it is a smaller bag than the others, 28 vs 30  ^o) which was a bigger deal when I was feeding two 100+ lb dogs. 

[G22]

The nice thing about TOTW is they have like 5-6 different flavors. I worked in a kennel for awhile and sometimes people would rotate flavors every so often because their dogs would get bored on the same one. And they are all grain free. That might be an option to try?

Or maybe mix in like 1/3 or 1/2 can of wet with the dry food. TOTW makes the same flavors as the dry in wet also. At least 3-4 of the same flavors, also grain free.

[RoxMonster]

Thanks. I think we will try switching up the flavors. Unfortunately we just bought a huge new bag of the salmon But maybe we will go ahead and buy a new flavor and then just switch back and forth.

[G22]

Aug 15, 2013 17:18:26 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

Thanks. I think we will try switching up the flavors. Unfortunately we just bought a huge new bag of the salmon But maybe we will go ahead and buy a new flavor and then just switch back and forth.

You could buy a small bag of the new flavor and mix the old and new together. Maybe just adding a bit of new might peak her interest. 

Sometimes dogs are as picky as people! Hopefully you figure it out soon!

[patches31709]

Yeah I would just mix some new flavor in with the bag you just bought. Or, what I would do sometimes before we switched to raw, is buy a few trial sizes of Honest Kitchen dehydrated food and then mix up a little and pour it over the top of the kibble.
www.thehonestkitchen.com/dog-food/love

[lavender444]

We have a super picky eater. Normally, if the dogs weight was okay and there were no health issues I'd leave them be. They all eat eventually. But our GSD is not food motivated. At all. He is a thin rescue has weight to gain so I generally have to mix in some canned chicken to get him to eat. We do TOFW, too. I got the Wild Fowl last time, and he actually ate it without having to add in chicken. It only lasted a couple days, before the novelty wore off, but it must be pretty palatable.

[miniroller]

Agree w/ mixing dry w/ wet food to get your pup back on the food train. We only had to use one can of wet (mixed w/ dry throughout 3 feedings) to get our's back to his normal appetite. If/when you try a new flavor of dry, I'd definitely do 1/2-1/3 mixes w/ the salmon flavor to use the 'old' food up. Gl!!