{"id":1661,"date":"2012-10-25T06:17:05","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T19:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=1661"},"modified":"2021-08-02T17:39:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T07:09:12","slug":"tempting-fussy-eaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dog-biology\/dog-health\/tempting-fussy-eaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempting Fussy Eaters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First, I must say, I do not believe in catering to fussy eaters. To me, fussy eaters are <em>made<\/em>, not born, and it&#8217;s simply a bad habit that many people encourage. \u00a0For dogs that are just naughty in not eating, then I strongly recommend Sue Ailsby&#8217;s guide to <a href=\"http:\/\/sue-eh.ca\/page24\/page39\/\">teaching a dog to eat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, sometimes, there are medical reasons that may mean that a dog is disinclined to eat. \u00a0For Clover, <a href=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dog-breeding\/a-puppy-announcement\/\">her pregnancy<\/a> has made her nauseous and cease to eat. \u00a0Sometimes, in times of extreme stress (such as in boarding kennels), dogs choose not to eat. \u00a0In these cases, it&#8217;s often cyclic &#8211; I know that when I don&#8217;t eat, I feel sick, and so I don&#8217;t want to eat. \u00a0I am sure the same principle applies to dogs. \u00a0There is also a rumour that dogs reduce stress by eating, so another positive in encouraging a dog to eat.<\/p>\n<p>For times of medical need, or stress, I&#8217;ve compiled a list of tactics to encourage a dog to eat. These should only be used when medical illness has been ruled out and only on a short term basis.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1662\" style=\"width: 356px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/149296_10150916304484346_680955036_n.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1662\" class=\" wp-image-1662  \" title=\"A chinese crested gets fed a treat while a black crossbreed puppy looks on.\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/149296_10150916304484346_680955036_n.jpeg\" width=\"346\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/149296_10150916304484346_680955036_n.jpeg 541w, http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/149296_10150916304484346_680955036_n-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Competition and hand feeding &#8211; two possible options for a fussy eater.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Changing the Food<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Please note: All these food changes have the potential to give your dog diarrhea! Proceed with caution.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you feed dry food, try <strong>soaking the dry food<\/strong>. \u00a0This makes it smell more appealing, changes its texture, and can often encourage a dog to eat. \u00a0Soaking dry is also a recommended strategy for reducing the risk of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gastric_dilatation_volvulus\">bloat<\/a> &#8211; so win\/win situation!<\/li>\n<li>For an extra kick, try <strong>soaking the dry food in stock<\/strong>. \u00a0Using chicken stock or anything else you may have can also entice a dog that&#8217;s off their food.<\/li>\n<li>Many dogs find <strong>warmed up food<\/strong>\u00a0to be more enticing. \u00a0Regardless of what you&#8217;re feeding, warming it can help. Keep in mind that dogs are more sensitive to hot-temperatures in food than we are (so don&#8217;t heat it up too much). \u00a0Warming food increases the\u00a0aroma, and so also increases the appeal.<\/li>\n<li>If this hasn&#8217;t worked, you may have to move to making purchases:<strong>\u00a0can food<\/strong>, or <strong>cat food<\/strong>\u00a0are good starts. You could also try <strong>canned sardines<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>If none of this has worked, then the top order is the <strong>roast chicken<\/strong>. \u00a0Almost all dogs will take roast chicken. Make sure you remove all bones.<\/li>\n<li>Another option is to make <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.holisticdog.org\/Nutrition\/Satinballs\/satinballs.html\">satin balls<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Many dogs like satin balls, and they are often used to put weight on dogs. \u00a0If your dog has been off their food for a while, feeding satin balls may improve the weight situation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Changing the Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dogs often respond well to <strong>competition<\/strong>. \u00a0If you run a multi-dog household, feeding dogs side-by-side may encourage the fussy one to eat. \u00a0Keep in mind that many dogs harbour a degree of food aggression, and you must monitor situations like this very closely. \u00a0If you have a dog that you know is very food aggressive, this may not be the best strategy for you.<\/li>\n<li>For some reason, dogs think food is more desirable if you <strong>hand feed<\/strong>\u00a0them.<\/li>\n<li>Dogs like to <strong>feel like they&#8217;ve earned it<\/strong>! \u00a0Many dogs are used to the structure of being cued (&#8220;sit&#8221;) and then being given a treat for performing this cue. They seem to take treats instinctively in these kind of scenarios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For Clover, we found that changing the environment was the best way of getting her to eat. \u00a0However, we did sample a range of food available in the supermarket and found she likes &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vippetfoods.com.au\/Lamb-Chunkers-1kg\/0,2770,17032,00.html\">Chunkers<\/a>&#8216;, a kind of cooked meat that is rolled into little meat balls. \u00a0Out of all the things she could be tempted by, Chunkers is probably not that bad (though not my preference!) for her and her puppies. Her nausea has reduced and she has a returned appetite, but is still not the kind of appetite we&#8217;re used to.<\/p>\n<p>I hope these things help for encouraging your dog to eat. \u00a0I would like to hear if you have any further tips on encouraging fussy eaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For times of medical need, or stress, I&#8217;ve compiled a list of tactics to encourage a dog to eat. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[12,471,11,499,500,396,497,501,498],"class_list":["post-1661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-health","tag-dog","tag-dog-food","tag-dogs","tag-eat","tag-eating","tag-food","tag-fussy","tag-fussy-dogs","tag-fussy-eating"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4962,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions\/4962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}