Eating Habits

[carrie]

That's a good point and a really good idea.

Make sure the food is soaked for at least twenty minutes and using warm water can make it even more appetising.

[sabies]

Thanks Carrie, I'll try the idea of grapes next to her bowl so she feels it is her turn to eat. She has always been a high anxiety submissive type dog and I'll do anything to help relieve that. I think she's part whippet and she seems to have whippet skittishness.

I cannot do 3 times a day due to work, but can do 2 times. This weekend her bowl sat empty most of the day til what is now her feeding time. After my boyfriend and I ate I filled her bowl, didn't look at her - in 10 minutes the bowl was clean!! I think she'll do fine, she's happy with her food (Innova) and she isn't super nervous anymore. I'm hoping the regular food schedule makes her feel even more secure.

Thanks again, you give great advice

[purrley]

Mary - Tess will not eat it if it's soggy - she's doing OK on the dry stuff - she still like to take it out of the bowl and move it to a different area, but I'm not making a big deal out of it. She'll eat in the morning and in the evening - I've taken food away during the time I'm at work to cut down on the grazing activity so she's usually hungry when I get home. She also gets the doggie biscuits when she does her potty thing as a reward.

[carrie]

I hope you both let me know how it goes - glad to be of help!

[ramanth]

Originally posted by carrie
Put the food down, making the dog sit, and then , at first give the dog ten minutes to eat. You have to leave the room too.

Thanks for the suggestions carrie. Any suggestions if the dog follows you out of the kitchen? She does that from time to time.

She's been doing better.

I give her oatmeal for breakfast. One reason I gave it to the cats when she acted finicky. Dad didn't want the food going to waste and was complaining that she wasn't eating it. The 5 cats made short work of it.

She's licks her bowl clean in 3 minutes flat now since that day I gave her oatmeal to the kitties.

She didn't touch her dinner at all on Saturday. So I put foil over it, refridgerated it, heated it up and gave it to her for din din on Sunday. She gobbled it down.

Friday she ate with no problems.

I guess we're making progress.

[carrie]

If you can feed her somewhere you can shut the door and leave her for ten minutes that would be ideal.
If not, can you go upstairs or into another room and shut the door if she follows you>
If that is not practical then just pretend she IS eating the food for ten minutes - then go and lift it up and ignore her until she has settled down and stopped following you.

[mary_jsn]

Purrley, what kind of brand are u giving Tess? I think I know what the 'snack food' problem might be. If you are giving Tess a normal puppy food, i mean the size of the food, it might take longer time for Tess to eat it, and more difficulties. If you use a regular puppy brand, I think you should switch to those brands that have for smaller breeds. For instance, Leika , eats Eukanuba for puppies of small breeds. I soak her food everytime she eats, the other day I went to the pet shop where i bought her for a 2kg bag of food (I think it was 2kg, well it wall the smallest) and they only had 3kg which I thought was too much for a puppy like her. Well they did have the regular puppy which is mostly for medium breeds and I felt the food (crumbs, whatever) and there was a really big difference on the size from the one that Leika ate. I bought the 3kg one.

[purrley]

Mary - Tess eats a brand of puppy chow called Authority put out by Petsmart. These are real little pellets and she really like it. It's a good puppy food, keeps her poopies nice and firm and easy to pick up when she has an accident. No problems with gas either. A few weeks ago I gave her a scoop of IAMS wet puppy food that I had bought when I first got her. She didn't like it then but she ate it right up a couple weeks ago. Then she had an upset stomach all day long - threw up several times. I haven't given her that again and I doubt I'll change to another dog food until she's a year old. But like I said before, she will not eat this food if its soggy and she's doing really well eating it dried anyway.

[sabies]

Sadie is still doing great. I may have even been giving her too much before, now I measure out portions according to her weight for morning and night and not a kibble is left 10 minutes after serving.

Sadie follows me right out of the kitchen after I put her bowl down. I just ignore her, stare at the tv or look busy in another room. Within moments I hear crunching. It's like she wants to make sure I'm doing something else and will not enter the kitchen. I never realized just how aware she is of my presence and how interruptive I am to her.

[ramanth]

Definately making progress. Kia ate both breakfast and dinner yesterday and breakfast this morning in one sitting.

[sabies]

yeah Kia! isn't it great when your dog eats right!

[ramanth]

Originally posted by sabies
yeah Kia! isn't it great when your dog eats right!

SURE IS!

[carrie]

WOW!!!
You guys are great!!!
Well done!

Like I've said before, unless you have a dog that has a food problem you just don't appreciate how stressful and upsetting it can be. To then be told to ignore the dog, give it a time limit to eat ..etc. etc. goes against your instinct to nurture and comfort the dog into eating.

But....as you see, it works to think like a dog!!!

I'm so impressed!

Good job, you should be feeling well pleased with yourselves.

[ramanth]

Thank you carrie. It does feel good to know she's eating better.