Not Finishing Food

[Guest EmreBFG]

Hi all,

 

Our greyhound, Lulu, has recently not been finishing her food. She has recently had a couple changes in her routine and I wonder if these played a part and what I can do to help her finish. I should note that she'll finish if I hand feed her but I only did that once or twice as to not develop a habit.

 

- She used to finish all of her food. We would keep her in her crate with the food just outside the door so she could get out but not easily.

- We removed the crate and asked her to eat in the same area. She was not a fan of this but she had to.

- She then had a dental cleaning which I'm betting caused her some discomfort.

- Now she is on a crate pad with her bowl on the crate pad. I believe she's been a bit scared of the noise the bowl makes in its stand so I'm trying the bowl on ground level.

 

The primary issueis that she could use to gain a few pounds, not lose any. The secondary issue is that our first greyhound, Oliver, will quickly snarf down any food she has left if he is alone in the room. He certainly has no problem cleaning up!

 

Thanks!

Emre

[Guest DragonflyDM]

Boomer did that for a bit. Give her some other choices and see if that makes a difference. I know that when he wouldn't eat any more kibble, he would certainly have no problem finishing off as much peanut butter I could offer. (PB is great for a quick weight gain-- just put it in a Kong and freeze it). But PB is just for fun or to check for appetite. Your dog may just decide she doesn't like your kibble anymore.

[Sambuca]

Just be careful with add ins because she may stop eating kibble if she knows you'll give her something better. Then you'll have a picky eater for life that has you well trained.

[Guest EmreBFG]

I'll try to teach her to finish her meal with an incentive of some kind, perhaps PB after finishing. I don't think she has an aversion to eating since she will eat from my hand until finished, or pick up random pieces off the mat/floor.

[KF_in_Georgia]

If you put a towel over the food stand and then put the bowl on that, it might eliminate any scary noises. Also make sure her tags aren't banging against the stand, or even getting caught on the stand. (The towel should help with that, too.)

[BatterseaBrindl]

How old is she and how long have you hadher?

Perhaps she felt secure in her crate and would prefer to eat in there.

 

I'd feed the dogs in different rooms so that Oliver does not eat hers.

Perhaps he is intimidating her into not finishing.

[Guest sirsmom]

when I had the 3 dogs, I had to feed one of mine in a separate room, also

[TheFullHouse]

I would separate the dogs so that one can't finish the others meal. Put it down for 15 minutes, if she doesn't eat it, take it up, put it in the fridge and offer it to her for dinner. Healthy dogs will not starve themselves and if you start adding stuff to her kibble to get her to eat you will create a picky eater and will forever be changing her meals to get her to eat. If she's healthy and you have no concerns in that area, just go with the flow. She'll eat when she's hungry.