Omg SAME. he used to be obsessed with his food and then one day he decided he didn’t like it anymore. We literally hand feed and try to entice him with chicken, chicken broth, cheese, yogurt, ground chicken 😭. We wash his bowl every single day. He’s in great shape, is well exercised, and still loves treats and carrots. We’ve decided he is a massive troll 😂.
https://preview.redd.it/og1qa2n1o56c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6aa4afe352d4a3110ee5506190df0ba00a136566
Ditto for our 11 month old. No longer a fan of her food so have to spike it with broth, but will pick out just the carrots. Ends up eating about 2.5-3 cups a day while the chart on the bag has her at 4.33 cups. Full of energy, poop & coat good, and healthy. Loves bananas slices, carrots, etc we try to enhance her with and not fed any other treats.
😂😭 glad to know it’s not just mine. And yes sometimes we wonder if she’s just playing us because otherwise she acts totally normal, not like anything is bothering her.
His weight looks perfect. Not more and defo not less.
They are notorious for having knee issues and needing surgeries so i would only worry if he lost some.
Add raw eggs as well and sardines. It helps
We have a 3 1/2 year old male chocolate and a 2+ year old female yellow. More times than not eating is not a top priority. They are active, healthy and proper weight. They actually eat different than any dog I've ever had. They both will grab a small mouthful of kibble, then drop it on floor. They then walk around eating it off the floor. Weirdos....
https://preview.redd.it/asd94kmai66c1.jpeg?width=963&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=feba926a4eca7e8d4ce51a3046527bbada3a6ae5
Our old dog would do something similar to this sometimes. She’d bring a mouthful of food to the living room, drop it on the floor, then go back and eat the rest of her food. We called it “her sacrifice to the living rooms gods” 😂
Our lab did this. He’s around the same age. Would go bonkers every time we went to his food container. Then for about a month he just wasn’t interested. Would take a couple bites and leave the rest there until dinner. He would eat out of our hands tho. He did got back to being crazy about food. Seemed like maybe it was just a phase or something.
We’ve been hoping it’s just a phase 🤞🏼totally okay with her not absolutely scarfing it down but would like for her routine to feel more “normal” again.
This happened to my golden retriever. He is a very active dog and often was a very picky eater. I would have to put grated cheese in his food and all kinds of things to try to get him to eat. Over time it just kinda stopped and now he will eat but he loves to be praised for it 🤣
I would try some like dog gravy/ food topper if you haven't. My dogs love unsalted French style green beans so I do that with a half a cup of dry food 3 times a day
I had a lab mix who, as a puppy, would eat his whole bowl right away. Then one day, at about two years old, he got into the dog food, over-ate, and threw up a huge pile in the middle of the floor.
From then on he would just graze his bowl all day and be done by evening. I could just fill it and he would eat what he wanted. Stayed lean his whole life.
My lab went through 3 phases:
- as a puppy, she would devour the bowl and bark at me to fill it, lol
- as she grew up, she became very picky and didn’t care about food: she used to pick up a few pieces of kibble and walk around the yard crunching them in her mouth, sometimes she didn’t even bother eating until after 10 minutes after we filled the bowl
- now that she’s older, she’s back to demanding food and licking the bowl clean
Not sure what happened but as long as your dog looks and acts healthy, it’s ok if she is sometimes picky. You can always try to change her kibble but it might be that she’s picky because she knows if she doesn’t eat kibble she will receive turkey or smth better. They are sneaky like that!
We have a "high drive" lab, also 14 months and looks identical almost to yours. She was okay about eating for many months until she found her "thing" - frisbee. Now her priority in life is Frisbee and training and eating has become a chore to her. Even in training she often won't take the rewards treat she just seems to be rewarded by my praise and the work. We've gotten to the point now where she will eat what seems to be "just enough". What we have learned...
- we have to capture meal time at a time that she's calm. If she's expecting fun or work, or just came from fun or work, the odds that she's going to wind down to eat is very low
- contra freeloading works for us only sometimes, but is something you should look into. Many high drive dogs want to work for their food. Puzzle feeders or feeding a meal through tricks and training it's sometimes what a dog needs to consume a meal. The way I think about it is just having your food delivered to you is awfully boring
- Poppy needs to be warmed up to the idea of eating. So we'll put her food bowl down, but she needs some treats or chunks of ground meat or fish handed to her to get her into the mood to eat. So often we feed her some chunks of stuff from her hand and then gesture that food into her bowl
- this might be a poppy specific thing, but she likes to lick. We have ended up with a large wide bowl and making her food wet with ground meat so she will start out licking around the bowl, then get into actually eating
- she wants to graze. She doesn't seem to enjoy having to eat all at once on a timeline. If it weren't for our other dog that would eat until she puked, we would do free feeding. If you're able to I might suggest it if it seems like your dog self-moderates. For us now we just give poppy lots of time. She seems to eat a little bit wander away, then come back eat a bit more wander away come back. I used to think when she wanted a way she was done, but it really just takes her half an hour to eat a bowl.
- a bit too bad this is the last bullet point because this was really the biggest thing for us. We were overdoing her physical needs through the day and she would basically only sleep at night. 8 hours is not enough for a dog that runs most of the day.
So we ended up with some behavioral issues and a dog that would not eat. The better we figured out a rest schedule for her, the better she would eat. The better she would left regulate rest as well. They need sleep to recognize their needs. Otherwise it is just go go go to
Hope this helps!
Edit: article on contra freeloading
https://outwardhound.com/furtropolis/product/puzzles/contrafreeloading
Thank you, this is super helpful! Definitely some good things we’ll play around with. We used to do puzzle feeders a lot but I’ve gotten out of the habit of it, I’ll have to try incorporating those again. Do you have any favorites? All of the ones we have are too easy for her now (we’ll try them again for the meantime to see if it peaks her interest at all).
This is the hardest one we have and it requires a fair amount of supervision as poppy will chew on the white plastic removable bone bits:
Nina Ottosson by Outward Hound Dog Brick Interactive Treat Puzzle Dog Toy, Intermediate https://a.co/d/dONNwhf
We don't usually use the bone bits on this one and just have her nose the segments apart
Nina Ottosson by Outward Hound Dog Tornado Interactive Treat Puzzle Dog Toy https://a.co/d/4vWwE4o
This is our absolute favorite, it has been number one on the roster since the first day it arrived:
Nina Ottosson by Outward Hound Dog Hide N' Slide Purple Interactive Treat Puzzle Dog Toy https://a.co/d/cP0d2mP
I struggled a bit with the ones that the dog needs to roll around to get the kibble, has poppy in previous dogs have fun rolling it around and don't end up eating the kibble at all.
Also smearing wet food on a licking mat is good fun for them:
Lick Mat for Dogs,Lick Mat with 48 Powerful Suction Cups,Slow Down Cats and Dogs Eating,Reduce Boredom and Anxiety,Suitable for Pet Bathing and Grooming,Comes with Clean Brush and Squeegee.2 Pack https://a.co/d/bi3vES8
I would love to know how you make out with this and anything else you learned through the process of trying to get yours to eat! Be sure to update.
When my boy started point this I changed his food. I finally found one he really likes. Purina ProPlan - for skin and digestive health. I totally recommend it.
We currently do Purina One. The vet said we could start introducing adult food and we went with the Chicken and Rice formula because sometimes her tummy is sensitive. Still working on the transition between puppy/adult food but maybe she’ll like it more when it’s all adult food, or maybe we could try ProPlan eventually if she’s still not super into it!
Yeah, the change from puppy to adult food was tough because my boy just refused to eat his puppy food one day. So after being upset, we got a different puppy food but he didn’t like that one either. My husband wanted to stay with puppy food but I suggested adult food. After we changed to Purina ProPlan he was super excited and jumping in anticipation of his food. He can’t get enough of it. He’s extremely healthy and happy. He was telling us he’s ready and we had to adapt. We also feed him twice a day so it’s not too much at one time. He gets 4 cups a day, so we feed him 2 cups in the morning and another 2 cups in the evening. Also check the amount to feed him on the bag. As he gets into adulthood the amount decreases. At one time our boy was up to 5 3/4 cups per day.
Thankyou for posting this, our female lab has just turned a year old and suddenly not massively fuss ed on her food. She's a really good weight and is really healthy, but used to eat her food as soon as it hit the floor. Currently her dinner is untouched (she only has a 30min window or it comes up).
I'm assuming it's the hormones.
My dog won’t eat anything even bacon and ground meat if he’s decided that he hasn’t gotten enough play. He requires at least an hour throughout the day of fetch or he goes on a hunger strike. He’s completely not food motivated. His willingness to eat is proportional to outside exercise. He’s 11 and has been this way since he learned to fetch at @6 months old.
My lab did this for almost a year. Then she was on steroids for an infection which made her hungry all the time. Now she's back to food monster. She stayed a healthy weight while being picky, just seemed to be a phase
Omg SAME. he used to be obsessed with his food and then one day he decided he didn’t like it anymore. We literally hand feed and try to entice him with chicken, chicken broth, cheese, yogurt, ground chicken 😭. We wash his bowl every single day. He’s in great shape, is well exercised, and still loves treats and carrots. We’ve decided he is a massive troll 😂. https://preview.redd.it/og1qa2n1o56c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6aa4afe352d4a3110ee5506190df0ba00a136566
Ditto for our 11 month old. No longer a fan of her food so have to spike it with broth, but will pick out just the carrots. Ends up eating about 2.5-3 cups a day while the chart on the bag has her at 4.33 cups. Full of energy, poop & coat good, and healthy. Loves bananas slices, carrots, etc we try to enhance her with and not fed any other treats.
😂😭 glad to know it’s not just mine. And yes sometimes we wonder if she’s just playing us because otherwise she acts totally normal, not like anything is bothering her.
Awwwwww
His weight looks perfect. Not more and defo not less. They are notorious for having knee issues and needing surgeries so i would only worry if he lost some. Add raw eggs as well and sardines. It helps
Thank you!
We have a 3 1/2 year old male chocolate and a 2+ year old female yellow. More times than not eating is not a top priority. They are active, healthy and proper weight. They actually eat different than any dog I've ever had. They both will grab a small mouthful of kibble, then drop it on floor. They then walk around eating it off the floor. Weirdos.... https://preview.redd.it/asd94kmai66c1.jpeg?width=963&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=feba926a4eca7e8d4ce51a3046527bbada3a6ae5
Our old dog would do something similar to this sometimes. She’d bring a mouthful of food to the living room, drop it on the floor, then go back and eat the rest of her food. We called it “her sacrifice to the living rooms gods” 😂
Mine likes floor food better than in his bowl
Our lab did this. He’s around the same age. Would go bonkers every time we went to his food container. Then for about a month he just wasn’t interested. Would take a couple bites and leave the rest there until dinner. He would eat out of our hands tho. He did got back to being crazy about food. Seemed like maybe it was just a phase or something.
We’ve been hoping it’s just a phase 🤞🏼totally okay with her not absolutely scarfing it down but would like for her routine to feel more “normal” again.
This happened to my golden retriever. He is a very active dog and often was a very picky eater. I would have to put grated cheese in his food and all kinds of things to try to get him to eat. Over time it just kinda stopped and now he will eat but he loves to be praised for it 🤣
I hope it happens for us because we’re going on 5 months now 😭
I would try some like dog gravy/ food topper if you haven't. My dogs love unsalted French style green beans so I do that with a half a cup of dry food 3 times a day
I had a lab mix who, as a puppy, would eat his whole bowl right away. Then one day, at about two years old, he got into the dog food, over-ate, and threw up a huge pile in the middle of the floor. From then on he would just graze his bowl all day and be done by evening. I could just fill it and he would eat what he wanted. Stayed lean his whole life.
My not a lab was totally disinterested in food until he was about seven and then he turned into a hoover. That was two years ago. He’s just a weirdo.
Looks in great condition, beautiful dog.
Thank you!
My lab went through 3 phases: - as a puppy, she would devour the bowl and bark at me to fill it, lol - as she grew up, she became very picky and didn’t care about food: she used to pick up a few pieces of kibble and walk around the yard crunching them in her mouth, sometimes she didn’t even bother eating until after 10 minutes after we filled the bowl - now that she’s older, she’s back to demanding food and licking the bowl clean Not sure what happened but as long as your dog looks and acts healthy, it’s ok if she is sometimes picky. You can always try to change her kibble but it might be that she’s picky because she knows if she doesn’t eat kibble she will receive turkey or smth better. They are sneaky like that!
So glad to hear this seems like a normal phase for others too and she may just grow out of it!
We have a "high drive" lab, also 14 months and looks identical almost to yours. She was okay about eating for many months until she found her "thing" - frisbee. Now her priority in life is Frisbee and training and eating has become a chore to her. Even in training she often won't take the rewards treat she just seems to be rewarded by my praise and the work. We've gotten to the point now where she will eat what seems to be "just enough". What we have learned... - we have to capture meal time at a time that she's calm. If she's expecting fun or work, or just came from fun or work, the odds that she's going to wind down to eat is very low - contra freeloading works for us only sometimes, but is something you should look into. Many high drive dogs want to work for their food. Puzzle feeders or feeding a meal through tricks and training it's sometimes what a dog needs to consume a meal. The way I think about it is just having your food delivered to you is awfully boring - Poppy needs to be warmed up to the idea of eating. So we'll put her food bowl down, but she needs some treats or chunks of ground meat or fish handed to her to get her into the mood to eat. So often we feed her some chunks of stuff from her hand and then gesture that food into her bowl - this might be a poppy specific thing, but she likes to lick. We have ended up with a large wide bowl and making her food wet with ground meat so she will start out licking around the bowl, then get into actually eating - she wants to graze. She doesn't seem to enjoy having to eat all at once on a timeline. If it weren't for our other dog that would eat until she puked, we would do free feeding. If you're able to I might suggest it if it seems like your dog self-moderates. For us now we just give poppy lots of time. She seems to eat a little bit wander away, then come back eat a bit more wander away come back. I used to think when she wanted a way she was done, but it really just takes her half an hour to eat a bowl. - a bit too bad this is the last bullet point because this was really the biggest thing for us. We were overdoing her physical needs through the day and she would basically only sleep at night. 8 hours is not enough for a dog that runs most of the day. So we ended up with some behavioral issues and a dog that would not eat. The better we figured out a rest schedule for her, the better she would eat. The better she would left regulate rest as well. They need sleep to recognize their needs. Otherwise it is just go go go to Hope this helps! Edit: article on contra freeloading https://outwardhound.com/furtropolis/product/puzzles/contrafreeloading
Thank you, this is super helpful! Definitely some good things we’ll play around with. We used to do puzzle feeders a lot but I’ve gotten out of the habit of it, I’ll have to try incorporating those again. Do you have any favorites? All of the ones we have are too easy for her now (we’ll try them again for the meantime to see if it peaks her interest at all).
This is the hardest one we have and it requires a fair amount of supervision as poppy will chew on the white plastic removable bone bits: Nina Ottosson by Outward Hound Dog Brick Interactive Treat Puzzle Dog Toy, Intermediate https://a.co/d/dONNwhf We don't usually use the bone bits on this one and just have her nose the segments apart Nina Ottosson by Outward Hound Dog Tornado Interactive Treat Puzzle Dog Toy https://a.co/d/4vWwE4o This is our absolute favorite, it has been number one on the roster since the first day it arrived: Nina Ottosson by Outward Hound Dog Hide N' Slide Purple Interactive Treat Puzzle Dog Toy https://a.co/d/cP0d2mP I struggled a bit with the ones that the dog needs to roll around to get the kibble, has poppy in previous dogs have fun rolling it around and don't end up eating the kibble at all. Also smearing wet food on a licking mat is good fun for them: Lick Mat for Dogs,Lick Mat with 48 Powerful Suction Cups,Slow Down Cats and Dogs Eating,Reduce Boredom and Anxiety,Suitable for Pet Bathing and Grooming,Comes with Clean Brush and Squeegee.2 Pack https://a.co/d/bi3vES8 I would love to know how you make out with this and anything else you learned through the process of trying to get yours to eat! Be sure to update.
When my boy started point this I changed his food. I finally found one he really likes. Purina ProPlan - for skin and digestive health. I totally recommend it.
We currently do Purina One. The vet said we could start introducing adult food and we went with the Chicken and Rice formula because sometimes her tummy is sensitive. Still working on the transition between puppy/adult food but maybe she’ll like it more when it’s all adult food, or maybe we could try ProPlan eventually if she’s still not super into it!
Yeah, the change from puppy to adult food was tough because my boy just refused to eat his puppy food one day. So after being upset, we got a different puppy food but he didn’t like that one either. My husband wanted to stay with puppy food but I suggested adult food. After we changed to Purina ProPlan he was super excited and jumping in anticipation of his food. He can’t get enough of it. He’s extremely healthy and happy. He was telling us he’s ready and we had to adapt. We also feed him twice a day so it’s not too much at one time. He gets 4 cups a day, so we feed him 2 cups in the morning and another 2 cups in the evening. Also check the amount to feed him on the bag. As he gets into adulthood the amount decreases. At one time our boy was up to 5 3/4 cups per day.
Awwwwww
Thankyou for posting this, our female lab has just turned a year old and suddenly not massively fuss ed on her food. She's a really good weight and is really healthy, but used to eat her food as soon as it hit the floor. Currently her dinner is untouched (she only has a 30min window or it comes up). I'm assuming it's the hormones.
Seems to be a common phase! Made me feel a lot better that lots of others go through this too!
My dog won’t eat anything even bacon and ground meat if he’s decided that he hasn’t gotten enough play. He requires at least an hour throughout the day of fetch or he goes on a hunger strike. He’s completely not food motivated. His willingness to eat is proportional to outside exercise. He’s 11 and has been this way since he learned to fetch at @6 months old.
My lab did this for almost a year. Then she was on steroids for an infection which made her hungry all the time. Now she's back to food monster. She stayed a healthy weight while being picky, just seemed to be a phase