Both Dogs Both All Of A Sudden Finicky Eaters

[Guest greyhound101]

We have 2 greyhounds - a male who turned 8 in July, and a female who turned 5 in February. We've had the male for almost 3 years and the female for almost 2. Both have always eaten Pro Plan Shredded Lamb and Rice with no problem. All we had to do was add a little bit of water, and they would gulp it down. About 2 months ago, they both decided (pretty much at the exact same time that they no longer wantedt his food. We tried 2 different kinds - Beneful and Pro Plan Shredded Beef and Rice, since both love beef and steak. This didn't seem to appeal to them any better than the lamb. We finally added wet/canned food (Pro Plan Beef and Rice)to the dry (lamb) food and that seemed to get them to eat, but that was only a temporary fix. Now they will only eat the food if a LOT of canned food is added to it, and sometimes not always then. They will eat other things - hard biscuits and treats, etc. They will also eat a few pieces of the lamb food at non-meal times if we call it a 'treat.' They will both also eat the wet food by itself, but we really don't want to feed all canned food. We don't think it's an issue with their teeth, since they will eat Milkbones and other hard treats.

 

Does anyone have any ideas as to why the sudden change in eating habits, especially 2 dogs at the same time, or any ideas as to what we can do to get them back to eating dry food - even it we still have to add a little canned with it?

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[cleptogrey]

how tall are they and how much do they weigh?? the reason i ask is maybe they are at their top weight and have cut back on their own, i have owned dogs who cut back when they get to a certain weight. if it was just recently w/ one bag of food the food could have been rancid, that can happen during the summer.have you had their teeth checked??? maybe there is a dental problem.

 

if it's neither then this is the way i would deal w/ finicky eaters(i just had a dog boarding here, the worst eater in the world...she became a chow hound in 2 weeks). i come from the school of hard knocks after dealing w/ a really finicky saluki in the past who was a royal pain in the *** to feed. choose your food, wet it, put it down for 5 minutes and pick it up if they do not eat. it's difficult to do, but a dog will not starve themself, especially these ex-racers who ate no matter what at the kennel,and they will get the idea that food is for eating and mommie is not a fast order chef. if their tummies are upset(you can tell by their stool) then try rice for a while, plain old white rice and 20% boiled chop meat and probiotics(they never hurt). start adding kibble to that and gradually reduce to straight kibble. a spoon full of rice is not such a terrible thing to add to kibble, i would rather add that than canned food.

[racindog]

You are lucky they won't eat Beneful because It is garbage. As such cheap dog foods regularly change formulations to take advantage of market flucuations/price reductions in commodities used to make it. So more than likely they changed the formulation again-which like I said is a continuous thing with the cheap foods.

[GeorgeofNE]

My bet is that you probably opened a new bag of food, they didn't care for it, then you started all kinds of add-ins, and now they're playing with you.

 

If they're healthy, and not underweight, I'd pick the food you want them to eat (one they did well on), serve it to them, and if they don't eat it within 15 minutes, take it away and don't feed them another thing until the next meal.

 

I'm guessing by the third meal, they'll like it just fine!

 

Please don't do this if they're NOT healthy and a good weight.

[Guest sja5032]

My bet is that you probably opened a new bag of food, they didn't care for it, then you started all kinds of add-ins, and now they're playing with you.

 

If they're healthy, and not underweight, I'd pick the food you want them to eat (one they did well on), serve it to them, and if they don't eat it within 15 minutes, take it away and don't feed them another thing until the next meal.

 

I'm guessing by the third meal, they'll like it just fine!

 

Please don't do this if they're NOT healthy and a good weight.

 

I agree with this, my parents did the same thing to their dog, he won't eat w/o canned food AND table scraps of some sort its really annoying when you dog sit! My older dog rarely eats his breakfast, I give him about 15-20min and then take it away he will usually eat that night.

[Guest snakes]

We used to feed Purina One until Purina switched it to the shredded formula they used now, the new formula my pups wouldn't eat (they will eat almost anything), so it makes me wonder if they are tinkering with their recipie again.

I also agree with an earlier post that they may be playing you!

 

Maybe try a small bag of a different food first? we had good luck with Purina ProPlan Selects and Iams Naturals which are similar to the old Purina One.

[Guest greyhound101]

Thanks everyone. I guess we'll just have to 'tough it out' and if they don't eat their food in the first 5 minutes, they're done until the next mealtime - which is 12 hours away. They are both at healthy weights (the male is about 75 pounds and the female about 69). We did try to find out online if Pro Plan changed their formula, but we weren't successful. This has been going on and off for the past 2 months, so we've had a few different bags of the same brand/variety of food. We'll stick with the Pro Plan Shredded Lamb and Rice and see how it goes. Thanks again!

[4My2Greys]

If they both went off the food at the same time their trying to tell you something is wrong with the food. I wouldn't be adding add-ins to tempt them to eat, but would try to find a quality food that is within your budget. A lot of people feed TOTW and their hounds do quite well with it. I believe it is comparable in price to Pro-Plan for the amount you would need took feed.

[Guest iconsmum]

If they both went off the food at the same time their trying to tell you something is wrong with the food. I wouldn't be adding add-ins to tempt them to eat, but would try to find a quality food that is within your budget. A lot of people feed TOTW and their hounds do quite well with it. I believe it is comparable in price to Pro-Plan for the amount you would need took feed.

 

 

 

 

Agreed. Why force them to eat something they are telling you is off? The two dogs (probably) didn't get together to hatch a plan to change your menu....the dog food industry has had its problems numerous times before so I'd be listening to my dogs the very first time they turned up their noses....