D/C has lost allot of weight due to s stomach bug she came with, she is being treated but we just cane get her to eat. I was thinking exercise would boost apatite but the vet thinks that exercising her the way i want to will only make her worse. (rollerblading)

my city only has a few vets and only one of them is worth my time but AZ is weird about seeing a dog from a different county (something about spread of disease and blah blah blah)

So I have tried tuna water, canned cat food (that she seems to like more) and TOTW salmon canned or just raw fish mixed in with her dry food (I feed Purina One Beyond) and nothing seems to stimulate any real feeding response out of her. she used to flip out at food time but now she just licks at it and lays down. may take hours for her to finish her food

I am starting to pull my hair out with this and im starting to really worry but the vet is being of no real help...

Any ideas? I'm at a loss here.

sorry about how dirty she is... I'm at the moment living at my mothers house and my mother insists on leaving her outside all morning while im asleep (I CAT WAIT TO MOVE!!) thiere is no point in argueing with her about it... she is not the most stable mentally. I feel like i dont have controll of what happens to my dog right now but that is another topic at another time *GRRRRRR*








she should have more muscle mass as well. im just so worried about her not wanting to eat.

Maybe try a different kibble? Dogs can get bored with the same one every meal. Other types of kibble I would recommend are Earthborn Grain Free, Acana, Orijen, Fromm Grain Free, or any other 5-star rated food from here: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.comdog-food-reviews/dry/5-star/ Also you can try other canned foods and heat them up a bit in the microwave before giving it to her to bring out the smell more. One final option I can think of is raw meat, pick up some chicken leg quarters at the store and give her raw for a few meals to get her eating, then try adding kibble back in later if she gains an appetite. If you don't want to do raw from the grocery store you could try a dehydrated raw like The Honest Kitchen or Grandma Lucy's, which you can buy online if there is no store nearby that sells it.

Instead of switching kibble a lot, which may well lead to D/C becoming a picky eater, first try running a little bit of warm water over the kibble before you give it to her. It makes it smell a little bit stronger and can entice her to eat. That's what we did last year when Ghost started turning up her nose at almost every meal. It worked pretty well for us.

blueeyedghost wrote:

Instead of switching kibble a lot, which may well lead to D/C becoming a picky eater, first try running a little bit of warm water over the kibble before you give it to her. It makes it smell a little bit stronger and can entice her to eat. That's what we did last year when Ghost started turning up her nose at almost every meal. It worked pretty well for us.

Excellent advice! If she still seems uninterested, I haven't met a dog that did not like The Honest Kitchen. You can get a small 4oz trial box and mix up a small amount and put a couple of tablespoons in her kibble to encourage her to eat.

She does look a little thin, but not too bad as far as what the picture shows. If you want to put on more muscle mass on her, you'll need to try a better quality food with higher protein content. But until you get her eating again (as Meredith said, switching too often could create a picky eater).

Thanks so much. I did try the water method and all she did was lick up the water and shun the food so combat that we let her food soak and she just "buried" it and never touched it.

when it comes to the The Honest Kitchen should i try the taster kit first?

She only started doing this after my boyfriend and I moved into my mom's house. I know there is stress here for her because she never gets to spend time with the family because of my mothers dogs who will not tolerate her in any way. (I have a lot of damage to repair with her when we move)

also...she is going to be spayed next month... would that help in any way?

I was told to wait until after her first heat cycle to have her spayed and since that is over and done with she has her appointment set up. (frankly I would have had her spayed right away but that too was out of my hands)

I hate the circumstances we are in right now... things again will change for us in a few weeks when D/C and the rest of the animal family will be moving into our own place. I have a feeling that this will end up going much better for D/C when we get there. I feel like a bad dog mom. and I know that it is my fult that she is the way she is... I could have stood up to my mother but I don't want to cause any more mental trauma to my mother, so I'm just bidding my time until we are out of here. That how ever dosen't stop the guilty feeling I have for the way D/C acts.

If you just moved in with your mom and DC just started doing this, it could be just a temporary thing she's doing. If you want to keep her eating though, I would start with the smaller size THK and just use a small amount to entice her to eat. However, if she seems to really like THK and is eating with gusto, you may want to think of transitioning her to THK - It's a better quality food, and it'll help with getting more muscle mass on her. Just remember that if you do decide to transition her to THK, you won't need to feed as much with a higher quality food as you would a lesser quality kibble.

My husky used to be a really picky eater. I feed him Taste of the Wild and he absolutely loves this stuff!

She is a fish lover... god forbid i open up a can of salmon delight cat food near her... she will go to great lengths to steal that stuff. or if she hears the cookie jar... she will do back flips for snappy treats but getting her to eat a solid meal is like pulling hen's teeth.

So with her being a fish lover i figured TOTW salmon would be great for her.... she dose eat it but not with the vigor I would expect with something that smells SO GOOD!

I fed her at 9:00 am my time and there is a tiny bit left in her dish and it is now 12:10 ....grrrrr.

Don't leave the food down all the time. Put it down at a scheduled time for to eat. Wait 10 or 15 minutes, then pick up the dish. Give her the remainder at the next scheduled feeding time. She'll catch on that if she doesn't eat, she won't have another chance for a long time.

That might help with the issues you've been having, but everyone else has also given you some great tips.

We also feed TOTW and ours love it. I always add some warm water to their food, it cuts down on the need to gulp water afterwards as well.

I hope you manage to get her eating a normal amount soon. Hopefully it's just a phase she's going through. Be patient and consistent.

I agree with Kim about not free feeding. I pick up packages of salmon and sadines to give to my dogs as a treat if we go out and eat. I do not give leftover from a resturant meal it upsets Blaze's stomach not sure about Kerian but I guess it would also Huskies can have touchie stomachs.

I'd do scheduled feedings and take her out on the rollerblades like you want. She doesn't look so terrible that you don't want her exercise her. I would think a good schedule and her getting used to being in a new place will help. How long have you been at your parents? A lot of rescue dogs refuse to eat the first few days they do to a new home.

My Siku gets picky sometimes. Like she doesn't like to eat in the mornings every now and then and I notice it more if I haven't taken them to the dog park in a while. lol. "Mom, I'll starve myself until you take me back to the dog park!" I just leave her food down for 5 mins or so (can't leave it down for long or Elara will get to it and that little tubby doesn't need anymore food! lol) and then put it up and try again at dinner.

We have been here at my moms for one year and 1 month now.

Wait.... I think I know what the issue is!

when my bf and i first moved here D/C was just a 6 month old or less... due to my mothers dogs D/C was given the back yard to play in and enjoy outside time...after a few months she started getting VERY fat for a puppy of 8 or 9 months.. and with her tummy issues i was wondering if she was eating something that was bloating her up... vet said I was over feeding her.. and cut down on the food...wtf?!

I still thought something was wrong so I started watching her in secret from a window... and low and behold out comes the neighbor with a HUGE piece of raw meat...come to find out they have been buying her meat at the store and feeding it to her through the fence... she was getting roughly 3 lbs of raw pork or beef a day from them for almost 3 months!!!

my bf and i ended up having to call the cops because we would catch them trying to feed her after we told them not to. They finally stopped but they called the cops on us for putting her outside with out food. "as long as there is fresh water, a dog house and no signs of abuse, if anything the dog is over weight, we cant do anything." was all the cops said to them when they got here.

Would that be the problem? could this have started it all? would using the methods you suggest still work with this?
I never thought if that untill now... wow, now Im kinda mad... they might have ruined my dog!

You could try feeding raw. A few people in this forum do. That probably made her a picky eater.

But I still think limited bowl time and some good exercise would still do the trick. She's been to the vet and cleared of any worms correct?

yes she is worm and parasite free that seems to be the only thing normal with her hahahaha!

Who feeds other people's dogs without asking unless they are clearly starving.... Wow.

furry_bandicoot wrote:

I still thought something was wrong so I started watching her in secret from a window... and low and behold out comes the neighbor with a HUGE piece of raw meat...come to find out they have been buying her meat at the store and feeding it to her through the fence... she was getting roughly 3 lbs of raw pork or beef a day from them for almost 3 months!!!

I will never understand some people..
How do people end up that weird??

to quote them "the dog was so thin" (shows cop photo, cop looks at photo) cop: "Thats a husky right? my kid has one, that is a normal looking dog to me"

They are a pain in the a#% if you ask me. they hare older and very nosy and think that just because they used to own this place they can do what they want with my mothers house. she bought it outright and paid cash. she holds the title. they don't. but they still put there trash in our yard.. dump oil in our drive way (if you want to call a patch of gravel with a fence on 3 sides a drive) and come into the yard and cut limbs off the shade tree to burn in there fire pit.

there have been problems with these people for roughly 8 years... they have been arrested for trespassing 4 times and once for felony trespassing. (coming onto a property with a closed and locked gate.

well here is an update from last night ad this morning...

I did the 20 min bowl thing and she has not eaten but a few small mouth fulls. I'm hoping that she will gain an apatite here soon.

She will eat. She won't starve herself.

Raw is definitely an option, but your neighbors are the most likely culprits for her issues. I would continue to pick the bowl up after 10-15 mins and she will learn. Keep at it.

I would choose a different kibble than Purina though. Give her something that is a bit more nutritious and with a higher meat content. That will help.

My dogs are 11 and have been picky eaters their entire lives - and the littlest bit of stress makes them turn their noses up to food - I usually can get them excited about food again by making ground beef or boiled chicken and rice, a pepcid ac tabled and some salmon oil (can get the salmon oil at petsmart/petco) also put them on the back to basics blue buffalo dog food because they each have sensitve stomach issues as well.

My female just got out of the hospital and wasn't eating from the stress - I boiled a sweet potato (cut up a couple slices) and made a scrambled egg mixed with her dry food and she scarfed it all down.

Good luck - I feel like I spend more time cooking for my dogs than I do for myself trying to find the right concoctions! But it's worth it in the end when you find the right fit