# bored picky eater



## doodlepoodle

My Poodle/Chihuahua mix that is supposedly 8-11 months old has a problem. He can't be bothered to eat.

My vet is a proponent of feeding your pet dry food and nothing else, as she says it's better for their teeth. My old dog never had any issues eating food, it gave her joy and she'd literally eat anything in sight.
The new dog though has had issues wanting to eat since day one. I've tried the 20 minute intervals trick, I've tried coaxing, I've tried mixing. Nothing seems to work.

There have been a few rare moments that he does seem genuinely hungry and he's cleaned his bowl, the rest of the time he'll cock his head at the question "eat?" and “are you hungry?" but when faced with the bowl will stare at it seemingly unimpressed before walking away. Sometimes he'll make a tiny effort. Picking up one pellet at a time and then walking away. Other times he'll playfully bark at the bowl, grab a few pieces, fling them in the air, pounce on them. She recommended that I feed , 1/2c of dry 2x a day, so I do at 7am and again at 3pm. Mixing it with canned food does coax more of a response to chow down, but it usually means he'll eat only half, before spitting the pellets up in the air. I've tried warming the food, even adding some water to mix a gravy, but nothing seems to work. Incidentally I've also tried giving him snacks of things my old dog would have been clamoring to eat. Like healthy veggies, all is met with the same response. Sometimes even treats are met with a struggle to eat them.

I understand that some Poodles and Chihuahuas can be picky eaters, so what can I do to coax him to eat, when there seems to be little desire or even boredom at the task? Yesterday he managed albeit very slowly to consume both meals reluctantly. By the time 11pm came around he'd vomited randomly, and I was surprised to see food still in the contents. Shouldn't that of been digested by then? Is the problem simply that he's too bored/picky to eat, am I feeding him too much, or does he have very slow digestion?

I've set a 1/2c of dry out for him this morning, and he's only managed to eat roughly half of what is in the bowl by only randomly picking at it. Another reason that is of concern is that he is 5lbs underweight. At his last visit he was 10.2lbs, and while he seems happy and normal otherwise meal time is becoming an increasing struggle.

Food: Purina Pro Plan (other types of dry and wet have been met with the same lack of enthusiastic response)

Things that do get a response is real chicken and of course he gets very attentive when his humans have a meal. ;-) Oh and he has a habit of listening to the ground and digging up grubs to eat...that doesn't seem to be a problem.. -_-


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## Fluffyspoos

You're not feeding a very high quality food, try switching to a grain free kibble (Orijin, Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, Solid Gold.) Any food you can buy at a grocery store or walmart is crap, go to a pet specialty store to get your food. You can feed less and get MORE nutrients than the crappy food brands.

Also, your dog isn't going to starve himself, keep up with the scheduled feeding, it he doesn't eat after ten minutes, put the food away. Don't feed until the next scheduled time. This helped my dog get enthusiastic about eating to where I fear he almost eats it too FAST now.


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## Olie

Small breeds tend to be picky eaters, both mine are.

After 2 years of playing the game with getting them to eat I switched to Raw - they love it BUT they still turn their noses once in a while. I am not pushing Raw, just giving my experience on small breeds.

A schedule is key though, if they do not eat it after a while, pull it up. Try next time. They will eat eventually. *Also do not allow water and moderate play time for an hour after they eat* - this will cause them to throw up the kibble because it has swelled and caused them to hold it until they puke hours later. 

I would try a higher quality kibble, AND they eat much less of it because they do not have a ton of nasty fillers (although all kibble has some) 

Good luck.


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## fjm

I would shift to home cooked/raw. I am not at all convinced by the kibble-is-good-for-the-teeth argument - a raw chicken wing or similar seems to work much better. Sophy got very bored with kibble, and really did not like it as soon as it became the least bit stale - she loves home prepared meals, and it is much less expensive, too! Poppy eats anything ...


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## Spencer

Tate was a very picky eater, and would often elicit the same response as your dog. It can be really frustrating as a loving pet owner to want your dog to eat what you give them because you think that it is in their best interest, but they have other plans.

I would suggest, like Fluffyspoos, switching to a higher quality food. We were a Blue Buffalo family for awhile (although Tate will NOT eat the small, dark kibble, only the larger, light colored kibble.) And have eventually switched TQ and TheGrey to Fromm foods, which are a hit.

Tate was switched to home made/raw. I fed him exclusively home made and recently made the switch to raw. He is much more enthusiastic about eating after switching to something other than kibble, and is happy to gobble down his food, regardless of the kind. (When my friend's baby was being born, I wasn't home for two days and A took care of the dogs but didn't want to feed Tate the raw for fear of messing up. I gave the ok for A to just feed Tate some kibble those days, and Tate LOVED it because it wasn't his norm, and it was more like a treat. He happily works for bits of kibble now, too, lol.)

While it may seem more involved and a bit scary at first, I am glad I made the step to home made/raw with Tate... but that isn't for everyone. Try a good brand of kibble first, and hopefully that will get the ball rolling on him eating!


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## JE-UK

I'd ignore your vet :smile:. 

I've never understood advice to feed a dog on kibble alone. I'd be bored with that, so can't blame the dogs if they get tired of plain cardboard every meal.

I'd switch your kibble first. I feed Orijen, which is tasty enough to use for training treats for stuff my dog already knows (I save super tasty stuff for learning new work or reinforcing difficult stuff). 

Mine gets all sorts of things in his food. His base is Orijen kibble with Forthglade wet food, to which I might add eggs, cottage cheese, grated cheese, olive oil, leftover meats & vegetables, yogurt, tuna, sardines, bananas, apples, etc. Anything I might want to eat, I'll add some to his dinner. He adores pizza, but both of us get that only in limited quantities.

Another thing to try is to mix his kibble with something yummy, then stuff it in a Kong. There is something about it being less attainable that makes it more attractive.


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## doodlepoodle

Thanks to all for the advice,

I switched him to a higher quality food, but he doesn't even seem too interested in that, and he did not want to eat any canned food at all. There are days where he does seem to almost finish it in one go, but he's very slow. I started boiling some organic chicken with juices and mixing that in and he likes it a lot better, but still leaves some kibble which he eventually finishes during his next mealtime. I tried mixing in some carrots yesterday and he had more fun spitting them all over the house and rolling on them than eating them. He's still very thin.


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## PaddleAddict

My mini was a poor eater as a pup (although he grew out of it and is a very good eater now). I could always entice him with scrambled eggs mixed with his kibble, he never turned those down and would eat much of the kibble, too. Cooked chicken is always a winner, as is cottage cheese and plain yogurt, and if I mixed those in with the kibble he would invariably eat a good portion of the kibble, too.

Also, I am curious at the estimate of 5 pounds underweight, how did you come to that conclusion? How skinny is he? Poodles are quite thin natuarally and I would imagine that a poodle/chihuahua cross would be quite small.


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## doodlepoodle

Well I posted a photo of him here: http://www.poodleforum.com/2-member-introductions/10956-hi-all.html

His second checkup they claimed he'd gained nothing, but I think he may have filled in a bit. He weighs roughly 10lbs, and they say for his size he should weigh more. It's clear his middle/ribs/hips are very sunken in. He hasn't much muscle in the hips, and they concluded he was undernurished. He's fairly tall, and loves exercise so starting to think whatever he gains gets burned right off.


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## vtomblin

This is a good sight for adding weight and ideas for picky eaters 
Putting Weight on your Dog - Chinaroad Lowchens of Australia -

Also search satin balls on the forum too. 
Good luck!


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## JE-UK

Sounds like progress, if slow.

When mine was a lanky puppy and seemed to run off everything I fed him, I added a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil to his dinner for extra calories. Dogs seem to love it.


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