No real hunger - your opinions always welcome!
Once again I call on the vast collective experience of the global OES community! Oliver is 11 months now and pretty large at about 90lbs and quite tall. But he has been a difficult eater since day one and now he won't eat breakfast at all. Vet says he is in great shape etc etc and he has loads of energy and enthusiasm for life. He is presently on Royal Canin dry food of which he should have 600g per day according to the pack instructions. I try to split that up of course to avoid bloat but he won't touch food in the morning and will only eat in the evenings if we tempt him with a bit of boiled chicken on top of it. Is it OK that he only gets about 400g of food a day then? I don't want to give him any more in one go at night as I worry about bloat but I doubt he would eat that much anyway. He just never really seems hungry. Yet he is a big active boy. I would really appreciate any thoughts. Some people say that he will eat what he needs to eat but I wonder if that is true. I think he has probably achieved all his growth now and will begin to fill out but not sure how he will fill out if he eats like a supermodel! Thanks always, Lee Netherlands |
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| neither of my guys would eat in the morning regularlly and I do only feed once a day - they get a cookie or peanut butter in the morning now. |
| Have you tried free feeding? Just giving him his full amount in the morning and letting him graze throughout the day at his own pace? There's no hard and fast rule that says you have to feed him at a designated time every day and maybe Oliver would prefer munching throughout the day. |
| I wonder if you stirred in a little water packed sardines or salmon in with his kibble if it would make his food more appealing to him. Or maybe took a bit of a canned food and mixed it with some water and poured it over his kibble like gravy. |
6Girls wrote: I wonder if you stirred in a little water packed sardines or salmon in with his kibble if it would make his food more appealing to him. Or maybe took a bit of a canned food and mixed it with some water and poured it over his kibble like gravy.
Building on that, a little parmesan cheese sprinkled on (the dry kind) has worked wonders for us. Good thinking, Jaci! |
| Hi Lee, the instructions on the pack are mostly misleading, a health dog only needs between 7 - 10g of food per kilo body weight. A dog who is older or a little lazy would get 7g x kilo body weight, a young healthy dog 10g x kilo body weight. I your sheepie is eating between 300 & 400g per day then you have nothing to worry about.  |
| In the less is good thread, Miss Ellie was a fussy eater most mornings. So rather than watch over her bowl while she decided whether to eat everything, I started cutting back on portion for both meals, since it appeared she wasn't hungry.
That did the trick! she eats a smaller dinner and is more than ready for her small breakfast. |
| I do free feeding. Tonks and Luna often are dis-interested in their morning meal. They eat about 1/4 of it and then wander off to go back to sleep for several hours. They'll nibble on it throughout the day. Sometimes they do the same with their dinners. I figure if they aren't wolfing down their meals, they are at a lesser risk for bloat; my vet agreed.
Right now its dinner time, and they really only ate 1/2 of their breakfast. Some days they eat more than others. My vet said not to worry; that if they were gobbling up everything in sight, and in danger of being overweight, it'd be an issue. But a lack of food motivation is only problematic when trying to do treat-training!  |
| many thanks all of you. very kind and helpful advice! |
| I agree with Dairymaid, the feeding guides on the Dry Food is not correct for age and amount. Depending on the dog and how active they are as to the amount to be fed. Some dogs need more, others less.
Feeding two meals a day is better to avoid bloat, in the morning try something on the Royal Canin like Yoghurt, a tablespoon in the dry or things like Cottage Cheese or even sardines, mackeral or tuna in a can to tempt him. Amounts I would not worry about as he is not thin nor tubby so he will eat what he wants too. The major growth spurt is over so he obviously is not interested in so much food and just filling out in the body now. Mine have a variety with there dry, from fresh raw meats, to cooked chicken to veggies, rice, pasta, cheese, yoghurt etc etc just for variety and to keep them interested in the food, the main part of their diet is the dry with extras |
| Nigel is the same way, and I can't leave his food out or Bella would explode from eating his food too. She would eat 24 hrs a day. The only way I can even get Nigel to eat 2 cups a day is to make sure he gets a couple of runs around the yard every day. He won't eat if he doesn't get any exercise and he is 69.2 lbs and 16 months old. Just don't exercise for a couple of hours after eating. |
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