Switching Food...Fussy Eater or Mental?

4343 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Vlicked, Sep 4, 2008

Vlicked

Discussion Starter · Sep 1, 2008

We have an 11 month pup who has always been a ferocious eater. In the last 2 to 3 weeks, he eats slowly and sometimes will completely not eat a meal. We transitioned his feeding from 3x a day (1 cup each time) to 2x a day (1.5 cups each time) a couple of months ago.

My first concern is that he is not putting on enough weight because he is quite skinny. But he is nothing but muscle otherwise...he's quite buff! Is 3 cups of food a day too little (this was recommended to us by vet and breeder)? He gets treat and pnt butter supplement during day! I've put a little extra food in bowl at feeding, but sometimes he doesn't eat it all. Should we go back to 3x a day feeding?

Also, I mixed in some new food to his regular food just yesterday to experiment, and he seemed to think that was the best thing in the world and ate everything in his bowl. I had considered that his not eating might be a mental issue, but now seems like he just grew bored of his regular food!? So my other question: do I maintain a mix of a food for higher activity (ie. more protein and fat) with his regular food? I hear this helps transition finicky eaters. Maybe will also help him put on weight? I also understand he's still a pup and may fill out soon?

This is my first Vizsla after having labs that will eat anything. I read on a different post that V's are finicky eaters? I also don't want to get into the habit of switching his food every 6 months. Curious if anyone else has this experience...I will be calling vet in a week or so if this continues.

Sorry for long post...

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tbone13

· #2 · Sep 2, 2008

I would try switching things up and trying some new types of food. Not necessarily the brand, but if they make chicken/beef/lamb/etc try feeding a different type each week. People make the mistake of assuming that dogs will eat anything all the time. Although it's usually true, some dogs want variety or straight up don't like certain types of food.

You may also want to try feeding him out of something different than his usual bowl OR putting his food in a different place in the house.

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Vlicked

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 4, 2008

Thanks tbone.

I decided to call our breeder (why didn't I think of that in first place!). She said she's not surprised Loki is having a hard time keeping on weight as field bred dogs (as opposed to show bred) are more likely to be like that (?). So, just for anyone's future reference, she feeds her dogs a performance food. She likes NutriSource, but I'm in Colorado and shipping would be ridiculous (as it's not offered in a store near here) or Eagle Power Pack.

So, I went and bought him some new performance food last night. Holy Cow. Tbone was right; new food made all the difference! He was excited to eat again! Yeah. Hopefully, with the higher calorie food, he'll start to put on some weight!

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