We tried not feeding him for 2 days and he still would not eat his dog food, but would eat table scraps. Not only that, but he seems to insist on being "hand fed" when he does eat.
2007-12-11 10:09:18 · 17 answers · asked by wileycoyotesix 1 in Pets ➔ Dogs
Try offering a different brand of dog food. If your giving him a dry dog food that has corn as the first ingredient, and not much meat in it, that could be the why hes not interested in it. Leave the new brand of dry dog food out for him, along with fresh water. Don't allow anyone to give him any human food, and he'll eat when hes hungry. Hes trying to train you guys into feeding him human food and hand feeding him, don't give into it, or he'll be succeeding.
2007-12-11 10:33:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
He wouldn't eat for 2 days - but he would eat table scraps? Where was he getting the table scraps from exactly?
The dog will not starve himself to death over this. Keep a regular supply of fresh dog food and water on hand, and eventually he WILL eat it. You have to make sure there are no tablet scraps/human food - none, whatsoever, ever again. You MUST make sure that everyone in the household complies with this - so long as the dog has hope he will receive food from the table, he will never eat dogfood. You have to extinguish all his hope of ever getting table scraps and eventually, the habit will be lost. And yes, this may be longer than two days - if there is dogfood down, the dog will not starve.
The only other thing you can try is get one of the less unhealthy 'table scraps' that he will eat and put a small amount of dog food with it so that he gets a bit of dogfood when he eats the scraps. Then you can slowly increase the dogfood until he's eating only that - 'wean' him on to dog food. The same goes for the handfeeding - wean him off this habit slowly. Handfeed him, but bring your hand closer and closer to the bowl until he's eating from your hand, but with his nose in the bowl. Then you can gradually start to take your hand away.
It will be a slow process - 2 days is nothing really - but total compliance, consistency and PERSEVERANCE is the key.
Chalice
2007-12-11 10:30:59 · answer #2 · answered by Chalice 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He will almost certainly eat when he gets hungry, but if he doesn't you may need to help him along. If his previous owner hand fed him from their plate then you'll need to recondition him to eat his food from his bowls only. Make sure he understands where his food is, and that you always place his bowl in the same place so that he knows where he can expect to find his meal. If he's still reluctant, you may want to start by sitting by his full bowl and feeding him by hand, and allowing your hand (and the food) to get closer and closer to the bottom of the bowl until he's eating from it - I'd doubt you'll actually need to take such action, though.
If you're feeding him a dry petfood, and he was used to eating moister food from the table, try moistening the dry food with water or a little gravy - the dryness of the food combined with the unfamiliarity of the new eating arrangements may be too much for him to tackle at once.
2007-12-11 10:17:17 · answer #3 · answered by La Comtesse DeSpair 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You don't say what dog food dry or wet. Add wet dog food bit by bit every day eventually you will have a bowl full of dog food, it will take a while to do it 2-3 weeks, best not to switch straight away anyway as it could upset his stomach. I don't feed my dogs dog food, i feed the raw diet (human food) due to allergies. Maybe the way to go but do your homework you have to get the balance right.
2007-12-11 10:36:17 · answer #4 · answered by G 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually there are human dog and cat food testers. They do this for a living, tasting the food at the factories and ensuring they taste good and are fit for our pets to eat. You won't be poisoned, but they are not what your taste buds will enjoy. Dog biscuits are not like cookies and biscuits. LOL I have tried them . Even as a child I would sneak with my brother and eat the cat food. Till we got caught by my older brother, who said, Cat food is made from horse meat. I don't know it it is true. That put me off for life. I learned my lesson,one warning only.
2016-04-08 21:24:55 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My Boston is also a picky eater. When we first adopted him we had to hand feed him for a few days. He is just nervous being in a new place with new people.
Just feed him a good quality food at the same time everyday. He will not starve to death.
I feed my Boston Canidae All Life Stages in the morning and evening mixed with Merrick Canned food. Try mixing wet and dry (1/4 wet to 3/4 dry) to get him to eat
Good luck! You can email me anytime for advice on your new Boston. They are GREAT dogs!! staceyjane02@yahoo.com
2007-12-11 10:13:55 · answer #6 · answered by LuvMyBT's 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is a learned behavior and quite a nasty one! This type of behavior has to be stopped cold turkey, with no mistakes or mess-ups on your part if you want it to be fixed. The dog is going to hold out as long as it takes until you cave in to give him food, because he knows that you will eventually give in and his behavior is reinforced when you do.
The first step is to find a good quality dog food, I suggest going to the website below and finding a food that is at least 4 stars, but 6 stars would be ideal. Higher premium food is much more palatable to dogs because of the higher quality ingredients.
When you get ready to sit down for dinner, put him into a crate. He may bark, whine, and make a huge fuss, but don't pay any attention to him. He is used to getting food when everyone else eats, and if you stick him in his kennel and make him wait he is going to act like he is starving when he gets out. This will make it much easier to get him to eat "his" food.
He is going to turn up his nose to it at first, but give it some time and he will eat. Start off by figuring out a feeding schedule for him. I suggest feeding him 2x a day, morning and night. Every morning, instead of just pouring his food in the bowl, measure it out to the manufacturer's suggestion, and start out feeding him from your hand. Next, pour a few bits of food into his food bowl and get really excited when he eats it. Make it a game, the more exciting you make it, the faster he will learn that it's a good thing to eat out of the bowl.
He can be reconditioned to eat dog food out of his own bowl, it will take time, but if you fail even one time your dog will go back to this bad behavior. As a groomer I have seen the effect of feeding a dog "people" food. People food diets will shorten your dogs life, cause major skin problems, ruin the dogs coat, and can cause behavior problems.
2007-12-11 10:36:37 · answer #7 · answered by bluealiens4erin 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Try putting human food in the bottom of his bowl and cover with dog food. My dog eats his way down to the human food. I then used less human food until he just started eating dog food by itself.
j
2007-12-11 10:18:58 · answer #8 · answered by The man 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like his previous owner spoiled him. You may have to go longer to teach him not to beg people food.
Now- My grandmother used to sometimes make a gravy with no salt to put on her dogs' food. You might try that. And you might try just getting a handful of kibble and feeding that to your dog so he'll feel he's getting special attention: That's what my father had to do with his beagle when the dog had to be put on a special diet.
Good luck!
2007-12-11 10:21:12 · answer #9 · answered by Tigger 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Do not feed him any human food at all. When he gets hungry and eventually He will, it will force him to eat dog food.
2007-12-11 10:14:22 · answer #10 · answered by Why does everyone hate me? 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋