My 11 month old Cavelier will not eat her food from her bowl?

Question

I've tried different brands and end up with the same result. She sniffs then walks away. I "hand feed" her and she eats out of my hand. How can I get her to eat out of the bowl? I've even tried changing the bowls and have placed her food on dinner plates, cereal bowls, etc., and nothing works. I won't give her treats thinking she'll eat her food but she will go without. So she'll eat, I'll hand feed her. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I had the same trouble with my Yorkie. I inquired with my vet as to what I could do, and she suggested a soft food. So I mixed a bit of soft with her dry, and she ate it! Problem is, this only seems to work for a few days and she goes back to not eating again. The main trouble with my dog is that we made the mistake of feeding her food from the table, and she no longer likes just plain dog food. What I found works the best now is using the IAMS gravy's that you can buy at any department store. They just come in a squirt bottle, kind of like ketchup, and you just pour a little over the dry dog food and mix it around. This seems to be the only thing that she will continually eat. Another trick that works is if you "play" with her...if you just throw a few pieces of food across the floor and get her to chase them, she'll eat them...and once she gets started, she'll normally go over and finish whatever is in the bowl. Like my dog, your cavalier is probably just a fussy eater. You may never be able to just get her to eat out of the bowl, but try the soft food and the gravy and it should help! Hope this is helpful!!

Answer 2

She won't eat out of her bowl because you've trained her not to! When she doesn't eat, you hand feed her - she has you really well trained. Believe me, your dog will not starve herself. If you stop hand feeding her, she will eat. I have always used the self feed method for my dogs (they don't over-eat), so try just leaving her food in the bowl, she'll eat when she's hungry.

By the way, changing brands frequently isn't a good idea - dogs get the runs from food changes. When you find a food she does well on, you should stay with it.

Answer 3

If she is hungry enough she'll eat . By hand feeding her you're letting her think she is the boss of you. I know it's , but this was recommended by my vet... Put the food in the bowl, leave it their for 10 mins. if dog doesn't eat take it away, and do not give anything else until next feeding time. For me it worked within like 2 days. Good Luck

Answer 4

You could try putting something tastey on top of the food. Maybe you could try gravy. Something like that. Maybe then she will want to eat the food. Maybe she doesn't like the taste of dog food.

You can also buy dog cookbooks. There are recipies in there for meals you can cook for your dogs.

If your dog is a picky eater, but still eats, I wouldn't worry too much. If she starts getting thin and just doesn't eat, then take her to the vet. Try these links below for cookbooks on Amazon.

Answer 5

#1 dont switch foods switching foods will make dogs get sick.

#2 leave the food in the bowl when shes hungry she will eat.

we have seven dogs and we breed pomerians.

you may see our dogs here
http://www.dogster.com/pet_page.php?i=212935&j=t

some of ours did that too but soon learned we wasnt going to hand feed them. So now they Eat out of their bowl.

Answer 6

u teached her to eat from ur hand...did u hear about Pavlov??he was the first man who showed the reflexes on dogs...so u customed ur dog..don't fed her from ur hannd.after some time se will get used to eat from the bowl..

Answer 7

yeah I know its your pet...but there comes a time to stop spoiling. and it will eat when it is hungry enough. Little dogs do not have to eat as much