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Not Interested In Morning Meal?


greymomnc

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Jonelle turned 10 in July and has always been anxious to eat her meals. A few months ago she seemed bored with her usual food...not eating unless something yummy was in the bowl. I finally found a food she liked and could tolerate. She is eating Taste of the Wild buffalo and venison. This food is much higher in protein than her old food which was Purina EN only available through the vet. The EN is easy on the digestive system and she always did well on it. I had tried her on some high quality foods a few years back and she had runny stools, gas etc. She just could not tolerate the richness of those foods.

 

So now, in the morning, she often (but not always) sniffs her bowl and walks away. The afternoon meal to date has never been an issue, nor is her 1/2 cup around 10:30 p.m.

 

I know many on this board have picky eaters. Luckily in almost 20 years I have never had a grey that didn't run for the bowl at mealtime and gobble up their food. If they didn't something was wrong and we were at the vet the same day.

 

Jonelle is a small greyhound....about 50 pounds. I am wondering if the new food is just more filling due to the high protein and she is just not as hungry? She ate a total of 3 cups of the old food per day which is the same amount of the new food I am giving her. She does not act like she feels bad and I can usually sense when anything is amiss. I will say that her stools are normal but much more in volume on this new food.

 

Any thoughts or experiences are appreciated!

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Could be her age, Molly eats less, especially in the morning, now that she has turned 11. Could also be that she is full, I haven't fed TOTW for awhile, but 3 C seems like a lot for a 50lb dog. If you are sure she is OK, and doesn't start losing weight, she's probably just not hungry.

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Is there a reason she gets a snack at bedtime? Eliminating this might help her be hungrier for breakfast, but it can also cause the "empty stomach" barfing up yellow bile, if she's prone to that.

 

All my seniors have gradually regulated their own eating. A couple started refusing breakfast - they simply were not interested - and as long as they were holding their weight and not having any medical issues, I let them slide out of breakfast. One did want to eat later in the morning, a couple hours after everyone else.

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Is there a reason she gets a snack at bedtime? Eliminating this might help her be hungrier for breakfast, but it can also cause the "empty stomach" barfing up yellow bile, if she's prone to that.

 

All my seniors have gradually regulated their own eating. A couple started refusing breakfast - they simply were not interested - and as long as they were holding their weight and not having any medical issues, I let them slide out of breakfast. One did want to eat later in the morning, a couple hours after everyone else.

 

The bedtime thing is due to our other greyhound Streak having the empty stomach vomiting. Since it is difficult to feed one without the other knowing it we just reduced their afternoon meal by 1/3 and started giving it to them at night. Streak has not had an incident since. I would love to be able to just leave the food down during the day but Streak would be in there in no time chowing down that food too. :lol I am going to try to cut back on the amount of food and see if that makes a difference and keep an eye on her weight. Later feeding time may help as well...I will try that.

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My old girl Wink is not too interested in her breakfast. She was leaving half behind. I now give her less at breakfast and more at dinner time. She never leaves a drop of her evening meal.

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The TOTW food sounds pretty rich for an older dog. If you want to keep feeding 3 cups, perhaps you'd consider switching to a Natural Balance formula like venison and sweet potato. It's yummy but nice and simple.

Mary with Jumper Jack (2/17/11) and angels Shane (PA's Busta Rime, 12/10/02 - 10/14/16) and Spencer (Dutch Laser, 11/25/00 - 3/29/13).

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My seniors sometimes aren't interested in breakfast but eat well the rest of the day. She ate a total of 3 cups of the old food per day which is the same amount of the new food I am giving her. Do the guidelines of the new food suggest that three cups is what Jonelle should be eating? Soo frustrating when you just want them to EAT!

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Three cups of TOW for a 50 pound older hound is too much.

 

George eats TOW pacific stream. He is 11, 64 pounds, and he gets one cup in the AM, one in the PM.

 

She's probably just not hungry!


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Bebe at 13 was only eating about half her breakfast so I cut the amount down. Some days she eats it all and some days she leaves about half. She does the same at dinner so around 8:00 she's hungry and she gets the rest of her dinner. She was just at the vet and physically is fine. I think the older hounds just can't eat as much at one time as they used to. She does better on about 4 small meals a day. I wouldn't worry but she's lost weight. Her blood work looks like a young dogs the vet said so really I don't think it's physical. When you think about it, human's do the same thing. Older folks just can't eat as much as they did when they were younger.

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My old guy Fast hasn't been finishing his breakfast in the morning too. But after her goes for his morning walk around 10 am with the daddy man. He finishes his food about a hour later.

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