Hello!

I'm unsure if this is in the correct subforum but my husky eats either VERY little or nothing at all. She's well-exercised with daily walks and a little more (playtime, heh).
The problem is that she doesn't seem to want to eat her dog food... AT ALL. I've tried spiking it with tuna (which worked twice before she then decided she wasn't hungry).

She's lost some weight. Its been about 2 weeks since she's eaten properly. I took her to the vet and the vet says it may just be stress... But considering she's always begging for food only to reject it after receiving it, could there be some underlying problem? She's always been slim but now she's downright VS model skinny...

Anyone out there have any feeding suggestions or solutions to this?

So sorry to hear about this. Did the vet check for thyroid issues, allergies, extensive blood work ... etcetera? Sometimes their general tests might not cover all grounds, and it is best to look at all angles when nothing comes up. If your vet seems to not find anything, you can seek a specialist.

Also check her teeth. Maybe she has some sort of tooth issue and it might hurt to chew.

Generally, a dog will not starve itself. If situations like yours arise, there is more than likely some sort of issue underlying somewhere, unfortunately.

The vet could be right and it may be stress... but that means you need to figure the cause of stress, which maybe internal, external or lifestyle.

What is your pups age? How long have you had her? Is she a rescue or did you get her as a puppy? Is there anything from a normal routine that has been changed i.e new job, new roommate, new animal, loss of roomate or animal, new house, new child... etcetera. These things can be stressful without realizing, which require special attention.

I hope any of this is helpful, giving you ideas on the next course of action. Please let us know how everything is going.

Excellent advice Lucy, I will add 3 other ideas, 1- did she eat something recently that she shouldn't have? example paper, toy
2- have you checked for worms? Tapeworm specifically is difficult to diagnose, however, excited about eating and then doesn't is a sign. 3- long shot here, but what type of dog food are you feeding? If it's grain based, she may not tolerate it well, and may do better on a protein based dog food (grain free).

Please, like Lucy says, let us know. She's very pretty.

lillith87 wrote:

So sorry to hear about this. Did the vet check for thyroid issues, allergies, extensive blood work ... etcetera? Sometimes their general tests might not cover all grounds, and it is best to look at all angles when nothing comes up. If your vet seems to not find anything, you can seek a specialist.

Also check her teeth. Maybe she has some sort of tooth issue and it might hurt to chew.

Generally, a dog will not starve itself. If situations like yours arise, there is more than likely some sort of issue underlying somewhere, unfortunately.

The vet could be right and it may be stress... but that means you need to figure the cause of stress, which maybe internal, external or lifestyle.

What is your pups age? How long have you had her? Is she a rescue or did you get her as a puppy? Is there anything from a normal routine that has been changed i.e new job, new roommate, new animal, loss of roomate or animal, new house, new child... etcetera. These things can be stressful without realizing, which require special attention.

I hope any of this is helpful, giving you ideas on the next course of action. Please let us know how everything is going.

I've had her since she was about 2 months old... she was a gift. She's 10 months now... The most recent change may be my hospital time a few weeks ago. I was hospitalized for about 3 days.

Just now she was totally trying to escape again. She's the same dog from before except she doesn't seem to want to be eating... As far as stress go, I'll have to keep a closer observation :/. I'm thinking of more playtime but I don't know how that'll help...

MiyasMomma wrote:

Excellent advice Lucy, I will add 3 other ideas, 1- did she eat something recently that she shouldn't have? example paper, toy
2- have you checked for worms? Tapeworm specifically is difficult to diagnose, however, excited about eating and then doesn't is a sign. 3- long shot here, but what type of dog food are you feeding? If it's grain based, she may not tolerate it well, and may do better on a protein based dog food (grain free).

Please, like Lucy says, let us know. She's very pretty.

I doubt she's eaten anything not allowed (I monitor her at all times and she can only sneak past me to the kitchen when I'm in the bathroom). She was just dewormed last month

Yes, the dog food. I'm not too sure on what its based on but I have a feeling she doesn't like it very much. I'm thinking about changing it since its just the 'standard' dog food that's recommended by people with a budget. As to what I'm going to change it to, I'm not sure yet.

Check the dewormer and make sure it had praziquantel in it, most effective tapeworm killer currently. Dog food that is grain free is what you are looking for, does not have to cost much more than what you are currently feeding, especially since most grain free you feed less and fills them up more. May I ask what brand of dog food? Playing will increase appetite, if it's hot out, she may not require as much food.Of course the stress of you being in the hospital can play a role in appetite, however 2 weeks does seem long for that type of stress. Lastly what is her current weight if you know?

Renee

One of my (many) "lines" is that a healthy dog isn't going to lay beside a bowl of reasonably good dog food and starve themselves to death.  Simply doesn't happen.  When they get hungry, they'll eat.
Now, that said, I agree that two weeks is an awfully long time to not be eating ... You've gotten all the suggestions about seeing a good vet and making sure there are no underlying medical problems.
Along with the others, I have a couple of questions;

• Is Light eating anything?  and if she is, how much? That she's losing weight when she should be either stable or gaining some bothers me as well.
  
• What's your feeding regimen? Do you free feed? If not, how much, how often?
  
• How much is she drinking during the day.?
  
• And following up, what are you feeding her now? (okay, inquisitive minds want to know)
  

MiyasMomma wrote:

Check the dewormer and make sure it had praziquantel in it, most effective tapeworm killer currently. Dog food that is grain free is what you are looking for, does not have to cost much more than what you are currently feeding, especially since most grain free you feed less and fills them up more. May I ask what brand of dog food? Playing will increase appetite, if it's hot out, she may not require as much food.Of course the stress of you being in the hospital can play a role in appetite, however 2 weeks does seem long for that type of stress. Lastly what is her current weight if you know?

Renee

Well noted on the dog food content... Its local 'beef pro puppy'. I really am planning to extend her walks and playtime. It usually does stimulate her to eat more... Her current weight (I check it constantly) is about 15.2kg. A bit on the light side really... She was about 16.3 before all this. I'm just happy it hasn't dropped so much. She eats little to none most feeding times... . Some of my friends have joked that she's just trying to keep looking pretty

aljones wrote:

One of my (many) "lines" is that a healthy dog isn't going to lay beside a bowl of reasonably good dog food and starve themselves to death.  Simply doesn't happen.  When they get hungry, they'll eat.
Now, that said, I agree that two weeks is an awfully long time to not be eating ... You've gotten all the suggestions about seeing a good vet and making sure there are no underlying medical problems.
Along with the others, I have a couple of questions;

• Is Light eating anything?  and if she is, how much? That she's losing weight when she should be either stable or gaining some bothers me as well.
  
• What's your feeding regimen? Do you free feed? If not, how much, how often?
  
• How much is she drinking during the day.?
  
• And following up, what are you feeding her now? (okay, inquisitive minds want to know)
  

I do agree with the part where when hungry, they will eat. Every other day, after her pseudo-fasting periods, there's always a mealtime where she eats 50-75% of what I give her. But soon after, she goes back to her fasting...
Answering the questions...
If I give her say 500grams, she'll only consume around 50-150 per sitting. As a pup she used to eat that and much more...
As far as a feeding regimen goes, twice a day with light snacking in training sessions in between.
She drinks more. She usually asks for water every 4 hours. (I live where it can be very hot some days)
Beef Pro Puppy. I'm currently looking into better dog food...

Vince, need a clarification here.  There is a local "Beef Pro Puppy" (local to the Philippines, that is) and I can't find anything about it.  However, if that's Merricks Beef Pro for puppies, that's a good food. What I was looking for was a list of ingredients ....

Since most of us work in cups of dog food, not grams you pose a bit of a quandary.  Typically there are about 150g of dog food in a cup - at 500g you're feeding her a little over three cups (a day) which is way more than most Huskies are going to need or want.   For clarification, please, a standard tea cup is about 1/2 a cup, a coffee mug is generally about a cup. Can you help us out here?
The 50 to 150g per meal, twice a day, would be about right (normal?).

What you may be seeing is that she's reached her natural growth and her body simply doesn't need all the extra protein that a pup puts into growing.  Typically, there isn't a lot of change because adult activity takes up the difference so more exercise for her might be the solution.

aljones wrote:

Vince, need a clarification here.  There is a local "Beef Pro Puppy" (local to the Philippines, that is) and I can't find anything about it.  However, if that's Merricks Beef Pro for puppies, that's a good food.  What I was looking for was a list of ingredients ....

Since most of us work in cups of dog food, not grams you pose a bit of a quandary.  Typically there are about 150g of dog food in a cup - at 500g you're feeding her a little over three cups (a day) which is way more than most Huskies are going to need or want.   For clarification, please, a standard tea cup is about 1/2 a cup, a coffee mug is generally about a cup. Can you help us out here?
The 50 to 150g per meal, twice a day, would be about right (normal?).  

What you may be seeing is that she's reached her natural growth and her body simply doesn't need all the extra protein that a pup puts into growing.  Typically, there isn't a lot of change because adult activity takes up the difference so more exercise for her might be the solution.

Oh, the whole 500g thing was just an example... I usually give her about a cup (I use an old mug as a scooper). She only eats just a little from that... If she has reached her growth max at that point, is it a sign I have to change dog food (I mean to adult dog food)? Do huskies really eat that little? I've known they had different appetites from most other dogs but I didn't think it'd be enough to outright eat that much less...

On the whole beef pro thing... I found this image which is basically what I use:


I've been advised by multiple people we meet on our walks to change to Acana or at least Vitality. And if I was feeling spendy to Orijen.

Husky's are very odd animals when it comes to food.  I have two here, one's an Alaskan who might eat a cup of food in a day or two (free feed) and one who would eat anything and everything I put down for her.  She get's two cups a day and is still gaining weight.

There seem to be two typical problems with Husky's, like my Sasha if there's food there, she's gonna eat it - till it kills her if I let her. You're seeing the opposite side of the coin (like my Avalanche), some of them just don't eat when they're not hungry.

That dog food isn't the worst I've seen by a long shot, at lest the first item on the ingredients list is "beef" not rice or corn like most of the off brand products.

Looking at a couple of stores in the PI, you could pay a little more for a better quality food but what you're feeding her seems to be a pretty good grade of food.  CaminaPet.com, for example has it at 1890 and Eukanuba Lamb And Rice Puppy at 2130.

Now that all to the side, it doesn't solve your problem of her not eating ... if she's in good health (vet checked) and is active then personally, I wouldn't be too concerned.  As I said some of these dogs will eat you out of house and home and some just don't seem to care about eating ...

Now I wish someone else would put their two cents worth in here .....  

If she is drinking more than usual,not eating, and loseing wieght.,have her blood sugar/glucosomine/keytone level(in urine). This sounds a lot like what we went thru with robin last summer. She ended up severly diabetic.

I'll chime back in guys, lol. My girl is terrible about food. I do agree with John(trbomax) to make sure she's not diabetic. You can start her on adult food, she probably is done growing except for the filling out, my girl have been about the same size since 6-8 months old. My Miya fasts once a week, I've grown used to it, and honestly because your girl is similar in structure to mine, or Al's Avalanche, they just naturally know how much to eat based on the amount of exercise they do in a day. I feed Taste of the Wild, it is cheaper and pretty close to excellent food such as the Orijen and Acana(like i said here in US cheaper than those two). Miya eats a cup to a cup and a half a day, excluding her day of fasting. Since I'm an over protective husky momma I also feed her 4 to 6 ounces of cooked hamburger, turkey burger or venison burger mixed into her kibble, I also rotate her kibble, since TOTW has 4 or 5 flavors. She gets one treat a day pig ear, cow ear, jerky, or grain free biscuit. Most days I rotate vanilla greek yogurt, pumpkin, egg, or raw meaty bone. If i make chicken, or steak I take some meat and fat and give to her. This all ensures me she gets enough food. I'm more than happy to give you a better break down. Does she eat all this, yes some days she does, especially cooler times of the year when she is very active. Other days she may eat only a couple of tablespoons of yogurt and a raw meaty bone.

I am going to ask again about the dewormer you said you gave her a month ago. why did you give it to her, as in what type of worm did she have, she's been past the puppy deworming phase for awhile so did she have worms? I've been meaning to do a thread on tapeworm, and one of the signs is lack of appetite, yet wants to eat, which is what you described at the beginning of this thread. Do you know what the name of the dewormer was?

Lastly if my math is right she is currently 33.5 pounds, standard is 35-50 pounds(16-23 kg). Do you know how tall she is? This will help in determining if she truly is underweight. You can take a stick and have her stand on a hard, flat surface mark off where her shoulders are on the stick then measure it out, it will give you an idea on her height. Standard would be 20-22 inches(51-56 cm). Of course these are just a standard not necessarily what your girl will be, to give you an example my girl is around 23 inches tall and about 65 pounds. She is neither under weight nor over weight.

Renee

@Al,
Hopefully its nothing severe, and as you said, just the opposite side of the coin. She is VERY lively and as I type, she's currently attempting to stalk my younger brother's fat rabbit. Its a good thing she hasn't found a way into the enclosure yet...

@Robin,
I recently did have her CBC the same time I had her checked for not eating. The only thing that was odd was that she had above average of what the vet said contributed to stress. The vet told me everything seemed to be normal (As I was just discharged from the hospital) and that it should balance out in a few days... those few days turned into about 2 weeks :/

@Renee,

Thanks for the constant feedback... It was a scheduled deworming. She was dewormed rather late since the breeder didn't have time at all to start... The poor girl received her first deworming at about 8 weeks . That was her last one for a while though...

I just measured her. She's about 21 and a half inches now. You spoil your babies a lot! I've been told time and again not to do that but I do sneak her different varieties of fish as its her favorite (Looks like a dog acts like a cat...) Seems like the only way I can feed her properly is through spiking the food with fish...

Update!

Today, we really went all out and had a 2 hour walk, another hour and a half of play and lots of light training sessions (drop and stay/follow) in between. I was hoping she would end up eating more because this is practically double (if not a little more) and it ended up working! She ate everything in her bowl (2 whole cups! She asked for more even!). Just hoping her appetite stays this way...

From what my old eyes can see, it looks like the 2nd ingredient is corn gluten meal and the third is ground yellow corn? What is your dog's poop like (sorry)?

When we got Ami from the shelter, they were feeding Iams and were very strong in their recommendation to continue. His poop was always, at best, "pudding poop". While his appetite was usually voracious, there were some mornings when he would refuse food, eat grass, retch up a little white foamy stuff, maybe some frank diarrhea. In his usual poop, you could actually see the undigested, ground corn. Switching to a grain free food changed all that...plus I feed a beef bone daily (I get bags of scrap bone from a local butcher - maybe kneecaps, mostly pieces of neck, spine with some rib. Always with lots of sinew, meat and fat. Each piece is about the size of a man's fist.)

Ami is now about 24" at the shoulder, weighs 63 pounds and gets, depending on outside temp, 2.25 - 2.75 cups (8 oz fluid measurement) Taste of the Wild High Prairie plus the bone. His daily ration is divided - 3/4 - 1 cup for breakfast, 1/2 to 3/4 cup for dinner and then a "midnight snack" kong, partially hand fed of about 1/2 cup. He is also liberally treated - some from his daily kibble allotment, some from husband's breakfast, frequently about 1/2 oz of cheese...if we have rice for dinner, he loves rice (ok, he loves the butter I put on the rice - when he gets rice, I cut back on the kibble for his evening meal or the following morning breakfast). He also loves frozen peas...frozen. So, usually, if I have rice, he gets 1/2 cup of frozen peas added (it cools the rice - my boy does NOT like to wait ) I also occasional give him scrambled eggs (I like them, cook 2 for myself and 1 additional for Mr. Dog).

I'm wondering if you are trying to feed her too much combined with a predominately corn based food if that is contributing to her problems. Also - have you tried hand-feeding bits and pieces throughout the day? Maybe some high protein people food - maybe cheese or a few meat/fish scraps, eggs. I monitor Ami's weight by feeling his ribs (his coat is too thick for visual to suffice). If he's bony - extra food for a day or two, well padded - cut the snacks and reduce the kibble. I also take into account his exercise - if he's playing with his best buddy Archer all day - up the food, if it's just me and walking, chasing his toys, then I decrease slightly.

I feed my baby Earthborn and I share with him my yogurt when I eat it as a treat along with a few lamb bones to gnaw on. His poo was rather runny on the stuff his breeder was giving him and he didn't eat much of it. When I changed his diet that all changed. Everyone else has such good advice that I really don't have much to add except that you shouldn't feel guilty giving your dog fish, its really quite good for them!

...and I am pretty sure my pup thinks he is a kitty too.

TwistedTale wrote:

I feed my baby Earthborn and I share with him my yogurt when I eat it as a treat along with a few lamb bones to gnaw on. His poo was rather runny on the stuff his breeder was giving him and he didn't eat much of it. When I changed his diet that all changed. Everyone else has such good advice that I really don't have much to add except that you shouldn't feel guilty giving your dog fish, its really quite good for them!

...and I am pretty sure my pup thinks he is a kitty too.

just don't give him raw pacific salmon...google it Ami scratching the door gotta go

@Amy,

Her poop is... solid. Not SUPER solid but regular poop solid. Man, that sounded really weird.
Regarding feeding her throughout the day, I actually try to. She refuses it most of the time (unless its fish. This dog loves fish.) I only give her tuna though (since we have a lot of tuna stock all the time). As far as people protein go, we have a pork roasting business that serves beef stew on the side so on some occasions and during training sessions, I give her small bits of that and the cow-bones (just like yours... mostly kneecaps though). She nibbles on those for a few minutes then decides they're boring. Hand-feeding her her dogfood isn't effective... She used to love rice mixed in but she doesn't seem to now though...

Vince,

Water packed sardines are a good protein option as well, didn't notice until Amy pointed out the corn, with your food. Although my girl is cat like too, she's not much into fish, unless I'm eating it, lol. Her avoidance to rice, is saying that she just may not tolerate grains at all. I would try and find a grain free, like I said earlier, and certainly you can switch her to an adult formula. He weight doesn't seem to be that off, although I understand she probably can gain some. I'm glad the exercise helped.

Renee

@Renee,

Is there something up with grains in general? Yeah, I'm planning to change her diet as soon as I can towards the adult formula. Hopefully it'll be enough to motivate her to eating more without me having to exercise her double to triple than usual...

Vince, many huskies do not tolerate grains, I don't understand it, except that northern breeds are the oldest type of dog, genetically closer in dna than say a beagle, to a wolf(all dogs have a small percentage of wolf dna, however northern breeds have a higher percentage) wolves are meat eaters, northern breeds ate what their people ate, mainly meat. That's my assumption anyways.

I agree Renee. Grains are very intolerable to most northern breeds. Okami had a bit of an issue at around 8 months... found out we firstly needed to switch from puppy to adult, and that she had an intolerance to grains. So did those 2 switches, have yet to see anymore eating issues.

Vince - I don't know about grains in general but I do know that when Ami was on the Iams, which was high corn, periodically, he would look at his food, particularly in the morning, push it with his nose, take a piece then let it drop out of his mouth. He would then, almost frantically eat grass, then vomit a small amount of foamy white liquid.

I do know that before I was diagnosed gluten intolerant, that I had chronic vague nausea, burning and pressure about an hour after eating. From the way Ami acted on the Iams, I am betting he had a similar stomach response.

I see... Sorry for having replied so late!

Anyway, She's starting to eat a little more these days with a little extra exercise. Surprisingly, today, she ate a good amount without doing much of anything at all! Hopefully this isn't one of those 'weeks' where she feels like eating much more. I'll keep note of the issue on grains... For some reason though, she seems to tolerate it well. I haven't seen her vomit any of that with just the food alone (She onced swallowed a small toad to my horror but decided to vomit it and she once vomited a bunch of grapes she secretly ate to my relief).

Everyone's been so helpful! I will be sure to update!

Vince, I don't think an intolerance is always an issue, per say, some have poo and tummy problems, some don't. Perhaps I should have said an avoidance to grain based. I don't think they find it appetizing, such as smell, doesn't appear meaty, and in Miya's case, her poo was soft and she'd throw up, but I also think it was the food dyes and the fake meat smell. She would sniff it and walk away. Meat on the other hand she is very eager to eat. They are a highly intelligent dog, and no matter how hard you try to convince them, some just aren't going to eat corn or other grains, it's just not natural to them. You can say they're picky, but I just think it's the nature of their breed.