Dogs Losing Weight

[Eveylyn]

Ok, I have a two year old shih-tzu. She is a bright dog. But she seems to be losing weight. I feed her Beneful Original. She has always been a picky eater. I used to give her Kibbles N Bits and she always finds what she likes out of the food and eats only that. Then she leaves the rest and refuses to eat it. My partner says leave it if she's hungry enough she'll eat the rest. But i feel like i'm starving her! Shes done this with almost every brand of dog food. Picks out what she likes and leaves the rest. HELP!!!!

[lila...]

Aww that's really cute (her picking the pieces she likes) hahaha. One of my dogs is like that, she's a very picky eater and by the time she decides to eat my other chubby dog has already come and eaten all her food. She doesn't like dog food much unless we sprinkle some treats in there, and even then she's really picky, so I try to compensate by giving her chicken and meat every other day so she doesn't go too hungry. But why don't you try that...there are some treats that can be sprinkled on food to make dogs like their food better, maybe she'll eat more of it.

[lostandhurt]

Dogs will eat if they get hungry enough, and I mean anything! If your dog has digestion problems I could see it not eating or if it was sick. Just being picky is not the same as not eating. Most pet owners over feed their animals anyways. A thin animal is way healthier than a chubby one. If you leave food in the bowl all the time try stopping that and feed once in the morning and once in the evening. If your dog only eats what it wants and leaves food behind then on the next feeding add enough food to equal what one feeding would be. In the wild dogs had to eat as fast as they could before something else got to it. That is why you will see some dogs "Wolf Down" their food. My dog does just that. Time to break your dogs picky habits. If for some reason your dog becomes really thin you need to see your vet as some breeds can have internal problems from years of breeding by bad people.

 

best of luck

 

lost

[StretchGee]

As long as your dog is healthy, the food thing will solve itself. Is she a healthy weight? If you fawn over her and give her treats because she won't eat, then she has you trained well to give in and give her treats for not eating.

 

Set feeding times. Put her food down and give her time to eat, then take the remaining food away. Do this everyday without fail. Eventually, hunger will reinforce the correct behavior.

 

Dogs are not people and treating them as such can really hurt your dog. As Caesar says: exercise, discipline, affection.

[BeStrongBeHappy]

If she has unexplained weight loss she should go to the vet. She could have parasites or a bad tooth that makes it painful to eat so she eats less.

 

One way to avoid the picky eating is to get a little wet food, even a spoon or too, and mix it around in the dry food. they mostly eat by smell, so it will all smell like the wet food which they prefer. you can get plastic lids to keep the wet food in the fridge so you can make one can last several days.

[Stella Sleepwalks]

My ex's mum owns a shih-tzu, and she is a very fussy eater. It is very common with the breed. Sometimes she will not touch her food for days. In fact, they resorted to hand feeding her.... Its those big sad brown eyes that does it. Gets you fretful and worried every time.

 

Sounds to me that you are catering to your dog's pickiness, when I looked after my ex's dog one weekend with him, we basically left her to turn her nose up at the bowl... She was soon making do. Unfortunately she has her "mummy" wrapped around her little paw, and now she is getting hand-fed fillet steak again!

[Mythical_Suicide]

As the others have said..

 

Dogs are like kids, they will be picky if you allow them. Leave her the food and don't rush to put other food down and I can guarantee she will eat it.

[JadedStar]

To be honest the grocery store dog food is not very good food. I'd get something a bit higher quality from a petstore. Then if she leaves it at least you'll have solace knowing it was not a poor quality food and she just doesn't want it.