Currently I have Amber on BB puppy chicken with brown rice. She has done well on it from what I can tell and she has never had a problem eating her food. The problem is that lately she will not touch the stuff. She loves her wet food, thats not a problem. I have tried everything, wet on the side, wet mixed with dry and I even tried not giving her wet until she finished her dry and she went almost 3 days without touching food.

Any advice please because I'm stumped on this. If its suggested I switch food now is a good time because she is about to come off the puppy food.

If she's been given an all clear/clean bill of health then I'd hazard a guess that she's testing her boundaries on deciding what she wants to eat. Picky eaters are not born, they are created. Sounds to me like you are on right track sticking out her stubborn streak. A healthy dog will not starve itself. The absolute worst time I can think of to change foods is when they are holding out for something new. Don't want her to think she'll get what she wants every time she holds out.

And for what it's worth, mine have held out on eating for 3 days before finally giving in. And when mine hold out, they don't get any treats or anything in between regular feedings...that's a privilege only awarded when they do as expected (don't want them to hold out longer because they've got treats keeping them going).

That makes sense.

I have put her on wet only since posting this and she's doing great on it. I think at some point I will introduce dry and see how she does. She has a clean bill of health but I could see her holding out a while, I don't even think she sees kibble as food because she wouldn't touch it. Hard to explain.

Never had a picky eater like Kira, maybe it comes with the breed. But also never had a dog that ate fruits and veggies like this husky either. Is it common/healthy for a sibe to refuse to eat for 3-4 days? For the last month or so, the only way she will eat her dry food is to crumble 1 Ritz cracker into her dry food. Now she has quit eating that but she will pounce all over human food.

Don't give in. She'll eat when she realizes that she won't get anything special until she eats her food. No treats or snacks until she eats her dry food. It's very normal for a Husky to hold out that long. She's testing you.

She's gotta be one hungry dog because i have continued her regular routine and exercise. You would think after several days she would return to eating. We'll see who caves Thanks for the response.

Kira wrote:

We'll see who caves .

It better not be you!

hypers987 wrote:

Don't give in. It's very normal for a Husky to hold out that long. She's testing you.

Brooke nailed it, you'll think she'll starve but then finally decide to eat what she should be eating. Unless they lose all energy and have no desire to play THEN you can become concerned.

I would be careful. I was reading this thread a little over a week ago Bc Durbin all the sudden stopped eating out of the blue. He didn't eat anything but a handful every other day. I came home one day after a week and a half of him barley eating to find that he didn't greet me at all and started throwing up yellow bile. I took him to the vet and they found that his GI track was inflamed and his pancreas was involve as well. He eat something really high in fat still have no idea what he got. 550 dollars later and a lot of meds and IVs I got to take him home the same day. I'm lucky the meds worked Bc of he didn't keep his food down the next morning he needed to be rushed back to the ER so they could flush his system of whatever he ate. I would just watch for signs when I took him in his nose was really dry and so were his gums he was also running a fever. This might not be the case for Amber but I just kept thinking it was him being picky I wish I took him to the vet earlier then I did.

I have been feeding Amber blue buffalo wet food and she's doing great! No meal time drama. She eats everything when I put it out. Her bowels have even improved noticeably. For now even though it's more expensive I'm going to keep her on it.

Huskyluv wrote:

Kira wrote:

We'll see who caves .

It better not be you!

It wasn't me but my wife. A friend of hers gave her a sample of kibbles and bits to see if Kira would eat that and she did. Now mixing in with old food to try that for a while. After reading info on dog food ingredients, looks like the way to go is to steer clear of the popular/cheap brands and go with more expensive, meat-based food.

HuskyLuvver wrote:

I have been feeding Amber blue buffalo wet food and she's doing great! No meal time drama. She eats everything when I put it out. Her bowels have even improved noticeably. For now even though it's more expensive I'm going to keep her on it.

Be careful feeding wet only. Dante was always fed wet before we got him, and he couldn't chew anything because his gums were so sore from gingivitis. The vet told us that eating kibble, or chewing raw off the bone helps clean their teeth and keeps the gums healthy, where wet only food doesn't help.

Domingo wrote:

The vet told us that eating kibble, or chewing raw off the bone helps clean their teeth and keeps the gums healthy, where wet only food doesn't help.

Your vet was right about chewing on raw bones, but wrong on the kibble. First off, most dogs don't bother chewing their kibble, many just swallow it as is. Second, chewing kibble does not clean their teeth any more than chewing hard cookies would clean ours.

I have read the myths on dry food cleaning teeth as well. The article I read made alot of sense. It stated, "what if someone told you all you had to do to keep your teeth clean is chew on some corn chips." Basically that sounds absurd and the idea that it works on your dog is as well.

I did do research before deciding to fully move her to wet. I was not up for the big hunger strike war. The bottom line is I want my pup healthy and eating regularly. This option works for me and her so I view it as a win win. I also brush her teeth pretty regularly. I brushed her teeth this morning as a matter of fact.

Thanks for everyone's input.

When Dante didn't want to eat kibble, we put a little chicken broth on the food to entice him. It was a cheaper option than feeding all wet.

Also, he does chew on some other things, but his teeth look much cleaner after just eating the kibble (which he does chew). Because of the sore gums, they asked us not to brush his teeth right away, so he didn't associate the brushing with pain.

One of the biggest issues for human teeth is the simple sugars we eat, not the lack of chewing. I'm not saying that kibble is the best option for keeping teeth clean by itself, but just like with all scientific studies, they are funded by someone, and 99.9% of the time have bias.

Just as a personal note, I don't think feeding wet or dry is really going to significantly effect the cleanliness of the teeth. Unless you are routinely feeding raw then you are going to have to take some extra measures to keep your dogs' teeth clean...there really isn't a way around it unless you are really lucky and have a dog whose teeth stay perfectly clean and white magically all on their own. Somehow my mom actually IS that lucky with her dog.

Domingo wrote:

One of the biggest issues for human teeth is the simple sugars we eat, not the lack of chewing. I'm not saying that kibble is the best option for keeping teeth clean by itself, but just like with all scientific studies, they are funded by someone, and 99.9% of the time have bias.

I don't disagree with you one bit. However I think we can all agree that whether it is a dog or a person and the food does or doesn't contain added/excess sugar, simply chewing dry food is not going to clean an individual's teeth.