new here..some ideas for a 9 month old who is a major finicky eater

But, the problem is that he doesn't seem to like much of anything.  Chicken BROTH would add a boost of flavor without additional fats.

I'm gonna vote for the tough love.  I know it's frustrating, but he won't starve himself.  He gets what you serve and if he doesn't eat it, he goes without.

 thanks callie....your luna beagle resembles my geno...........  hate to say it, but he was like this when we bought him home...he seems to be a bit better since he sees he doesnt have to fight another dog for food.   as i said in other posts, i dont make a big deal in front of him or anything like that...i put the bowl down and call his name and pet him and show him his food is here. tell him he is a good boy and thats it...go about my business...i see when he walks away and say to myself after 20 minutes oh well, your done then....or when he does eat it all my son and i pet him and say good boy and all that....i can see when he keeps eating he likes it or he is just eating cause he is hungry....nobody stands over him or makes faces at him. its not this control issue....i just feel bad, he is 9 months he looks like he wants to eat but he doesnt like what he has....so lately its been oh well.. here is good food and you will have to eat it eventually....when i say people food, i mean  i dont want him to just want that and not HIS food. and yes i have a few times smashed up veggies or chicken or steak meat into his food... he does pick out the food, smashed up as it is, believe it...now if i do mix our food itll be in the processor so there are no pieces to pick out....i dont bribe him or tempt him, im not playing those games. my own kids never had these food issues. hahaha we have a quiet house. i have moved his bowls around to different areas to see i even got different bowls wondering if it was that... i just think he is finicky and is hoping he gets something else.....

apparently the rescue group got him and another dog from a SPCA in kentucky, they had him shipped to them here in PA. and i found him on petfinder... he was 7 months when i got him. he will be a yr in july..... she had him for about 5wks....so im not sure how long he was at the SPCA down there. but he was well cared for down at that place, all up to date on shots and microchipped and all else....cked for heartworm and all else they can.....so the rescue people didnt have to do anything for him, they dont pay a lot to have them shipped up and she certainly didnt pay a lot to feed him at 1st.. alpo?? thats garbage food... then wellness puppy kibble. she said she trew in a piece of chicken here and there.. but if he wasnt assertive enough at feeding time, and didnt eat, other dogs would eat his share.... he isnt fat and wont ever be...right now he may be about 25 lbs or more, he was 21 in Feb and he has grown...

nancy361

...i get that if he isnt hungry he wont eat.. but i know he is...he is part beagle and shepard and other mix...but built more like a beagle with shepard shape body and long legs, but beagle height and probably no heavier then 45 lbs, who knows for sure... he is always siffing ground and smelling for something. digging up to put stuff in his mouth....eat what he can outside....

This type of behavior isn't necessarily from hunger.  He may have been used to foraging in his previous home or it could be that he's doing what many dogs do and simply foraging. :) It's quite normal dog behavior.  My dog Gabby was quite a little starvling when we found her at 8 weeks of age.  At almost two years of age,she will go outside right after finishing a meal and forage for sticks and tasty bugs or grass or whatever she can find. :)  She's not hungry, it's just her nature. She was a poop eater as a young pup but with constant vigilance on our part, she's stopped that behavior.

Four cups of food a day is a lot for that size dog.  My 70lb dogs don't eat that much but it's hard to compare without comparing kcals per cup.  Personally, I don't switch foods or add human food to entice a dog to eat, unless it's sick and needs to eat.  I believe that encourages a dog to wait for something more to it's liking rather than just eating what's put down.  Just my opinion based on my experiences and I'm not saying this is true of all dogs. If this were my dog, I would put food down in the morning and leave for 10 minutes.  Pick up after that and offer again at dinner time.  It may take days for the dog to start eating it's food but as others have said, a healthy dog will not starve itself.  I've seen dogs go as long as seven days before they started enthusiastically eating their food.  These were dogs in kennel settings which caused the dogs some amount of stress.  

 Have you tried just sitting quietly during his meal time??

Is he crate trained? Maybe he'd feel more comfortable eating in a crate. Or another room with no one around perhaps.

You've gotten a lot of good advice here. Any thoughts yet on what you're going to try, starting with dinner today? 

I know it helps me to have a plan of action for the next few days, especially when it comes to finicky eaters.

 TOTW says about 1 3/4 cups to 2 1/2 cups per day for his weight between 20-30lbs and his age 8-12 months.....so i figure ill try just about 1 cup 2x a day. and yes im doing that tough love. i have been mostly since last week....trying to anyways....show him its meal time in the morning, if nothing, then ill try again around 1ish, if nothing then ill try at dinner... but if he hasnt eaten anything at all, you would think by dinner he will eat or want just about 2 cups. but ill see....1 cup...now the cans are different.....usually if i recall its 1 can or so a day....it would be nice if eventually when he does start eating, he eats dry and a little wet mixed in.....

no i dont crate him... and as i said, it is quiet around here...he has a quiet place to eat, nobody bothers him.....i plan on doing what ive been trying to do and hope he eventually gets it and eats when its put down at meal times....and if i do plan to mix in people food, good things that is, itll be added in so he still gets proper amount....

 and yes thats basically what he is doing i guess, foraging...he was at an SPCA in kentucky then shipped up here to PA. just outside philly...to the foster ladies home....he stayed with her about 5wks then i got him....so who knows when he was brought to the spca and what his months were like befroe he got there.....plus beagles like being outdoors and sniffing around and digging...But again. as for the poop, reasons as to why they do that too.....boredom, hungry(they smell food in it)  which cracks me up, he wont eat his food but he smells it in his poop then eats it....i pick it up right away so he doesnt eat it....and if i see him with a small piece i missed running in the yard with it i make him drop it....

well, we shall see how it goes.....so many people and readings and Vets all say such different things.... dry kibble only or wet only or mixed and reasons why...and in the wild they eat meats and veges and fruits and also stones and wood and fish, so i guess each dog is different and ill have to hope he gets it, the way it is here and starts to eat regularly when its time to......mixing in "people foods" in his own foods is better then just giving him a piece out of your hand....im not against that, i just dont want him to lose the taste of HIS food if he is given OUR foods here and there.....Thanks to all of you for your feedback, greatly appreciated......anyone know how to put a pic here in this forum???

nancy361

anyone know how to put a pic here in this forum???

Like others have said a) 4 cups of TOTW is way too much (my 105lb fairly active guy gets 4.5-5 cups of that) so even though your guy is a pup he doesn't need that much

Foraging is more about his nose than his belly - my dog spends his life looking for stuff and chomping on sticks, eating clumps of grass, searching for rabbit poop and plain just sniffing

I would stick with a simple food and not change for a while - may be his gut isn't processing the food very well which is why it still smells like and tastes like (to him) food when it is already processed into poop LOL With the unstable background he's had I would think routine and a constant food would be best

Good luck and try to relax about it - as others have said he'll eat if he's hungry - 

I always put water on my dogs kibble and I usually toss about half of his dry kibble onto the kitchen floor or I put it in a dispensing toy so he gets to forage for it.

 Thanks for the reply ....I think I got it wrong...The vet said to bump it up to 2 cups , but it was for a day , NOT 2 cups 2x a day. you would never know by these posts that we had dogs all our lives.... i told the Vet what rescue woman was giving him, and what she said was he was getting 1 1/4 cups 2x a day.... Vet said make it 2 cups.. i guess i figured 2x a day... maybe with the junkie food they need more, but with the better quality foods they need less...  SOO tonite just about 15 min agao i put his food down, and i can see he was hungry since he didnt eat.. 1 cup of dry and he ate it all.... so im sticking to it....hopefully when i see how he eats and when he eats the best i will slowly add a spoon of good meat to the kibble.....but this 1st for a bit to see how he does

Thanks again all of you. ill put a picture up shortly

 Thought id let You know how this morning went, same as any other....730 time for cat and dog to eat....put a cup in dogs bowl and he sat and watched me and fed the cat too...Like he was saying ohhh whats for breakfast... i put his bowl down and called him over and petted him and said here you go geno , are you hungry and then went about what i do... even put some kibble on the floor next to his bowl.. He goes over to it sniffs it and walks away...5 min later comes back to it and does same thing....after 20 min., nothing. i picked it up and thats it....he lays on his bed and chews a toy or wants to go outside....so see, this is what he does every morning... only a cpl of times did he actually eat something. one of those small containers from NUTRA, you peel off the lid... i gave him a cpl of those 1 time and he ate it all...this is why its like, i know he is hungry.. he wants to eat what he wants not what i give him....so we shall see around 1ish ill put it down again and see if he wants to eat....if not then wait til dinner.....Trouble is though, there is only 1 cup in his bowl.. and if he isnt eating it in morning or afternoon, but eats it at nite, 1 cup isnt enough...he should be getting about 2 cups a day...well, i guess ill just have to see how it goes after several days....if he consistently doesnt eat in the morning and afternoon, maybe i should just give him almost 2cups at dinner.....

hopefully his stubborness doesnt continue on beyond a full week...

 Rare would be the case of animal that would actually starve itself through refusal to eat, though it is possible it could happen.

Also, and other people might disagree with this one, if I am feeding a dog twice a day, I don't give it a chance at  "lunchtime". If I intend to feed it twice a day, it gets the food at those two times, no chances otherwise. I don't attempt to entice it with better, or different food, to eat. You get what is in that bowl, and I'll keep giving the same thing back, as long as it is safe to do so, until the dog eats it. If I were going to give a better food item, like any sort of human food,  I would reserve that to the end of the meal (you get the better thing for eating the less desirable, not making it possible to pick out the better stuff and leave the boring food) If the dog actually refuses to eat to the point that it becomes a medical problem, then I'd probably start investigating issues with the vet.

BTW, just out of curiosity, where did you get the dog from? Just wondering since I also live in PA, and am wondering whether you might be anywhere near me. 

griffinej5

Also, and other people might disagree with this one, if I am feeding a dog twice a day, I don't give it a chance at  "lunchtime". If I intend to feed it twice a day, it gets the food at those two times, no chances otherwise. I don't attempt to entice it with better, or different food, to eat. You get what is in that bowl, and I'll keep giving the same thing back, as long as it is safe to do so, until the dog eats it. If I were going to give a better food item, like any sort of human food,  I would reserve that to the end of the meal (you get the better thing for eating the less desirable, not making it possible to pick out the better stuff and leave the boring food) If the dog actually refuses to eat to the point that it becomes a medical problem, then I'd probably start investigating issues with the vet.

I agree, Jen.  A cup of quality kibble a day is plenty for this dog.  He won't suffer or be harmed by this amount, as he learns the feeding rules. He may not gain weight but a dog his age should be lean.  Even if he's seriously underweight, as long as he's getting the nutrients and calories he needs (which he's getting with 1 cup of TOTW) to be healthy, he'll be fine.

He will continue to be picky as long as you continue to try enticing him to eat with goodies.  It's more a matter of the humans understanding that the dog will learn to eat what's offered, if all other food options are discontinued.

 I guess im trying again at midday, because i want to see if maybe thats when he is hungry  instead of in the morning....but you are right, morn and nite is when most dogs get fed.. so he will just have to wait til then....I dont try to entice him with anything. i was just trying to figure out what he liked and he did like them. 

I live in ALDAN, PA  its in delaware county, outside philly....A rescue i found on petfinder, located in springfield PA... They had 2 dogs and they goth them shipped up to them from kentucky the SPCA down there is where they came from...funny how now this rescue has no more dogs and hasnt gotten anymore shipped to them.....where are you located ??

 we actually keep him busy a lot.. walks and parks and plays with other dogs in neighborhood when they come by. he has toys we play with out in the yard with him.   and in the house...im home in the day so he is with me and im not mean to him or showing signs of any annoyance due to him not eating.. he has been here almost 3 months and he seems adjusted and is getting to see how things are around here... im taking him to puppy classes when they start up again in May.....he gets bones and chewy toys  and he gets attention from us...

he seems to not be food motivated too....he would rather be outside running around chasing birds and bugs in the dirt then worry about food.....he is active, he spends lots of times outside running around...he isnt crated and left alone for long times....i like taking him places with me if he can go...at 11pm he is asleep in his bed  for the nite......when i tried the dry kibble, i did leave it out at 1 point.. and he picked at it mostly in the evening though....but he never seemed to eat it all.. i think ill just stick to this way 1st.. so he knows this is how we do things here...lots of dogs are graisers, my sisters dog is.... i dont know how things were for him when he was at that SPCA or when he was with this lady that fostered him....she said he ate with all the other dogs a metal bowl and if didnt eat it when all were fed then that was it....so if he isnt assertive enough or food motivated then he is the way he is......But as ive said....when im getting the food ready for him and our cat they both sit here in the kitchen waiting..looking hungry..cat devours his food, dog goes over to it and walks away.. nobody yells at him or looks at him to make him feel bad....after 20 min if its not done i pick it up and thats that...