9 yr chihua., has only eaten diet of human food. Dr says must get on dog food. has been 4 days no food! 3 lbs?

Question

Hannah weighs only 3lbs. Wonder if a diet of lean beef & chicken will be okay if still not eating in 1 or 2 days. We are giving her nutrical supplement. thanks

Answer 1

real cooked chicken made my great danes sick. try nutro's lamb and rice its fantastic food. shiny hair good poo nice skin and its tasty. my danes love it.

Answer 2

I hear this way to often. She has to be taught to eat dog food, but it's not going to happen overnight! Don't feed her a diet of meat...it is not balanced and will lead to calcium and other deficiencies. Mix a little babyfood chicken in with some canned dog food to start. Hand feed her at first to get her used to the taste. A healthy dog will not starve itself, and will eat when it gets really hungry. A 9 year old dog has learned that if it waits long enough, someone will give in and give it people food. You have to use tough love! She may already have some severe malnutrition problems by now, as well as really bad teeth. Has your vet run some bloodwork on her yet? Get her in good shape and you increase the chance she will live a lot longer. Nutrical is a good supplement and you can give her bites of it throughout the day.

Answer 3

Is she a resue? Just wondering why you want to change her diet suddenly. She needs to be fed a balanced diet. If she has been on a human diet for 9 years, it is unlikely she will change now. I would try giving her chicken breast with rice and some vegetables, also lean beef with some rice and vegetables. They will usually eat green beans, carrots. Can have a little apple, some peach. Eggs is okay. Scrambled is best. Peanut butter can be given. I normally do not feed my chis human food except as an occasional treat, but with a 9 yr old, like I said, it will be almost impossible to get her to eat dog food. Good luck.

I would continue with the nutrical too. Watch her that she does not get too fat.

Answer 4

Dogs don't like a drastic change in diet...she has been spoiled on people food and now has a craving for it. Give her something that you know she will eat (unhealthy food is better than nothing at all), even if that something has to be people food. To get her onto dog food start mixing people food and canned dog food together. Once she gets use to that, start removing the people food till she will eat the canned dog food alone. Once she is on canned only try to start mixing in some dry dog food. Dog food is balanced for the nutritional needs of dogs and a lot of supplements aren't absorbed as effectively as the food source. So, your doctor is right about it being good to switch, it may help her live a lot longer.

Answer 5

I wonder why the vet is so insistent if the dog has been doing well for 9 years. He may be concerned that she is missing some important nutrients that are in dog food. There is nothing wrong with giving her lean chicken and beef but she needs more than just that. Adding dog food will be nutritionally complete.

Why don't you mix a little dog food with the human food, then gradually add a higher proportion of dog food.

Answer 6

Go to a pet shop that sells the raw diet for dogs, they usually also sale all the vitamins that have to be added to it and they will be able to help you out. You can just make your own food for her and add the necessary vitamins and minerals to it to make sure it's more complete. But, if she's been doing good for 9 yrs eating the food she's been eating I don't see what the problem is unless you've been just giving her the table scraps that's full of all the spices and stuff that humans like to add to their food that's probably not good for dogs to have.

Most vets aren't very knowledgable when it comes to nutrition unless you go to a pet nutritionist - that's why they are always trying to push Science diet on their customers (which is full of by products and stuff)

Answer 7

When dogs will not eat their dog food, there is a gravy (made for dogs) that you can pour over dog food to make it more appealing to them.. When your dog gets hungry enough, he will eat it. It may require a little help from you though. If you pour a little bit of water in his food bowl, let the dog food obsorb the water and heat it up in the microwave, you rdog will be tricked into thinking the food is something you are going to eat.if that doiesnt work, try the gravy made for dogs. You can purchase it at Petsmart and other pet savy stores. Just ask an them about it and they will know what you are talking about! They even have a gravy made by A1, you know the steak sauce!

Answer 8

Changing a dog's diet is too strenuous on a dog's digestive system, so slowly incorporate some of his dog food in with his human food. Continue doing so until his diet consists entirely of dog food.

Answer 9

Poor baby (the dog), she needs to eat. Maybe if you start mixing dog food with human food and slowly reduce the amount of human food over time she will eat it. You have to be careful about an abrupt change in diet, I have a couple of Chi-Chi's and if I switch their food the get the runs or constipated. Do speak again to your Dr., he should have a solution for you.

Answer 10

I'm no vet so I don't claim to argue with yours but we had a dachshund who lived to be 18 and was healthy up until the very end. He always ate our food - not junk and fatty scraps but a balanced diet of meat and veggies. When he got really old I had to keep him out of the room when we had spaghetti because it didn't agree with him anymore but he loved it. It seems to me that decent "people food" is better than starvation, especially if she's getting vitamins.

Answer 11

why does she HAVE to be on dog food. if u just do some good research about the nutritional needs of your dog, taking into consideration any vitamin deficiencies or problems she may have, she should be fine. before they were domesticated, dogs survived just fine w/o alpo or purina, they are carnivores! if you don't want to feed your dog livestock leftovers deemed unfit for human consumption, you shouldn't, and it sounds like she's doing fine on human food anyway, not all dogs live to be 9! good job w/ your dog, and i hope she is doing good!