Not interested in His kibble... *sigh*

[Seravieve]

Im windy tonight.. bare with me. =)

Ok. So we've been dealing with this for about a month/month and a half... Eli isnt really interested in his food. We feed him Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy (lamb and rice). When we got him, he was eating Purina Puppy Chow and would eat that fine. Every now and then he was picky.. and spit some out on the floor and wouldnt go back for it. 3 dogs equal a lot of poop and we were trying to eliminate that by getting a better food.. one w/o fillers and one that would improve their appearances as well. B and Z were eating Dog Chow before. We then tried Nutro Max, everyone was ok with it.. Eli was a little picky.. but not too bad. Bunny then dropped all her fat/muscle along her back ribs/spine area. Was really weird to see... she was getting bony and only 3 years old. So we took that food back and told them what happened, the lady thought it was strange and so we switched to this Natural Choice. Bunny has since put her fat/muscle back on and all is well there.

Anyways... So now Eli is to the point where we have to coax him to eat. And he's such a skinny puppy as it is, I hate to see him not eat. I feed him 2 cups in the morning and then again in the evening.. which is less than recommended by the way.. He should have 1/2 cup more each meal according to the bag. So he wouldnt eat it dry.. so Ive been adding water.. just enough to wet it.. and it ends up making a 'gravy'. Well that worked for a day or two. Now he'll walk over to the bowl, smell it and then walk away. Meanwhile, the other two are chowing down across the room. I can tell him to eat till Im blue in the face and he just looks at me like Ive lost it. We do have his bowl on a shelf thingy.. so its not so low.. I can put an egg on it, and he'll eat it easier than w/o one but I dont want to get him in that habit. Its just my last resort. Ive tried cheese, salami (when we were camping... was all we had), bacon, hot water vs cold water.. nothing seems to work. And even then, the egg has its days where it doesnt either.

To get his attention I shake the bowl and do a "Little Man, Little Man" dance/chant.. lol. Thats his nickname.. btw.

I know theoretically a hungry dog will eventually eat.. and we've tried that. He just loses all the weight we've put on him since we got him and then its back to square one.

So basically.. after all of that.. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him to eat? Or do you think its just the food? And we should take it back and get something else? I dont want to be spending a whole lot on pricey dog food for him.. He liked the Puppy Chow as far as I know.. but I wanted something better for him. Any advice/suggestions are appreciated! =)

[luvofallhorses]

boil him some chicken and rice so he will eat or put like cheese in his kibble something to make it more "tastier" my hound Buster hasn't been eating good lately, either but it's because he is always sleeping or barking. :rolleyes:

[mruffruff]

Try a light sprinkle of garlic powder. Very little. Sometimes dogs need a little taste boost.

I have a dog that weighs 22 pounds. He eats 1/2 c of his food (Natural Choice) dry in the morning, but I have to BEG him to eat the 1 cup at night. I've been putting watered down canned food in his dry, but he still only eats part of it. He's thin but healthy and active so I don't worry too much.

[Canis-Lupess]

Gah, you are teaching him to turn his nose up by giving him all this attention when he does. The attention is rewarding and so the act of turning his nose up at his food has rewarding results which is why he's doing it. Dogs are even willing to go without food in order to manipulate their owners into fussing round them.
He ate the food fine for the first couple of days which proves that he doesn't dislike the taste and there is no reason why he should anyway. He just realised that when he ate it, you didn't pay him any attention and so he stopped again and now he has you fussing round him trying to get him to eat and he's loving it.

I suggest strongly to stop with the coaxing. He won't starve himself to death and he'll eat when he is hungry. I know it's hard but if you carry on with the coaxing, you'll get to the point where you can't get him to eat anything at all because he has learned to turn his nose up for attention or he'll become even faddier and refuse to eat a full balanced diet and then his health will suffer etc...
Faddy dogs tend to be over or underweight and they are made faddy by the reward from their owners of either all the extra attention or being offered tastier things that aren't generally as good for them as their proper food.

Put his food down without a word and leave it there for 5 minutes and then take it up and make him wait until his next meal time. Don't leave food down.
Even if he doesn't start eating it until after 4 and a half minutes, still take it up after 5. He'll learn to get in there and eat it more quickly if he's hungry before it's picked up.
Don't offer him anything else...just make sure there is always water available for him.

Once he realises that turning his nose up is not rewarding, he'll probably decide to start eating again on his own. No healthy dog will just starve itself to death. He's probably eating just enough to get by ok as dogs like him tend to and he'd probably eat more if you didn't spend so much time trying to get him to eat. It has the opposite effect.

If you are worried something else might be causing it, a check up at the vets is advised at least to put your mind at rest but, other than that, stick with one decent food and quit the coaxing, it is the worst thing you can do.

[Hellow]

If you can afford it, try switching to canned dog food. Or you could try Bentiful, a Purinia dry kibble product.

[Seravieve]

I know that coaxing him to eat is a bad thing to do... I just don't have time to wait around for him to eat. Every time he FINISHES his bowl, I always give him a good rub down and praise him. But not until its empty. And I do ignore him while he eats. He comes in, I set his bowl down, say EAT and then turn around and get my breakfast ready. He'll start to wander, sometimes he'll go back upstairs, and then the other two finish and go for his food.

I guess the leaving it for 5 minutes idea would work... I just dont want for him to lose all the 10-15 lbs we've put on him so far. I know he'll go a couple says without eating much.. and drop a lot of weight.. Thats what he did a couple weeks ago when we had him fixed. Didnt eat the night before (by request), the morning of (by request), or that evening.. He lost some noticeable weight in those 36 or so hours.He was very skinny when we got him 3 months ago... 35 lbs at 5 months.. Hes around 47-48 lbs now.. and even now the vet said he could stand to gain some more. Well we're feeding him as much as he'll eat.

I guess I should mention that this is mainly a problem in the morning. Usually, at dinnertime he'll eat fine. He does tend to be a picky eater with treats too. Doesnt like the ones our vet has, or those 'bacon' strips..

And Id prefer him to get used to eating his kibble and water as opposed to him requiring a 'special sauce', cheese, chicken, etc. Thats not a good habit. My past dog came like that from the Humane Society.. She thought she was royalty. lol. And we're not stepping back down to a Purina food.. I like the progress (appearance-wise) he's made with the Nutro Natural Choice..

Thanks for the input!! =)