Please help

[gj_piercy]

Please can anyone offer some advice i have a yorkshire terrier i got him from his second family when he was 15 months old, i've had him about a month now but he has issues with food, his previous owner said he ate dog food and sent some with him they also said he ate scraps off there plates,

when it came to feeding him he seemed scared of the plate so we tried various bowls and he still only ate a mouth full before running off, so we tried him with human food (meat) (because our previous dog used to only eat human food ever since we got him so we thought he must be a meat eater like him.) that seemed to work but then he got fussy and wouldn't eat certain meat like it offended him.

we still cant get him to eat enough he walks away and leaves it! however he will eat if we give him food off our plates but feed him by hand i know we shouldn't do it but its the only way he'll eat more, also he did live with another dog in his previous home and we were thinking that the dog could of eaten his food and the only way he got food was off his ex owners plates??! we have another dog to but watch them both so they don't eat each others!

also i don't know if it may be relevant but his previous owner thought that he may of been hit in his first home as when they picked him up he would cry and he would cower at men. He doesn't do any of that here but is it possible they didn't feed him or he has a bad memory around food????

please if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated as he can't go on eating as little as he does! i've read on the internet that your to put the plate down and if they don't eat it take it away and repeat it until they do eat for up to 4 days but i can't do that its cruel and hes strong willed anyway so he'd never give in! and we know hes hungry because he'll eat his dog biscuits

[Nettle]

Okay, sit down with a glass of wine and relax

Do you know how much food a yorkshire terrier needs per day? A heaped tablespoonful is plenty. That's all we ever give our terriers unless they have been working hard and lost some weight.

Now you know how little he needs, ask yourself if he is underweight. I bet he isn't.

Next, has he had a full vet check to make sure his teeth aren't hurting him, and bloods tested for organ function to make sure all is well inside and out, prostate check, sight and hearing check? If not, he needs this.

Then decide how you want to feed him: in a bowl, off a plate, dog food, human food, whatever. And feed him to suit whatever you want, and no extras except at food times. Make sure he has plenty of exercise. He hasn't been with you for very long so he is still learning how to live with you.

Dogs hate being picked up. I imagine that is why he made a fuss about it at his previous owner's - unless he has a pain somewhere.

Stay with us and report back after his vet check - and tell the vet you need everything checked

[Sarah83]

i've read on the internet that your to put the plate down and if they don't eat it take it away and repeat it until they do eat for up to 4 days but i can't do that its cruel

Why is this cruel? If they're hungry they'll eat it when it's put down, if they don't eat it (and vet checks have given them a clean bill of health) then they're obviously not hungry. I've found that if you keep fussing about the fact they're not eating theyn they become fussier and fussier, keep adding things or changing their food and they'll pick and choose and you're constantly guessing as to what it is they want today. Been there, done that, never again.

What I've found tends to work with Rupert is making him work for his food. Or part of it anyway. He was around 10kgs underweight for years and is still on the lean side now so I try not to let him skip too many meals. I do 5-10 minutes of clicker training with him at home several times a day using pieces of his food as a reward (rewards away from home are higher value things). For some reason he eats much more enthusiastically this way. If he didn't lose weight at the drop of a hat or if he had the weight to lose I wouldn't bother about him missing meals as he's been checked and found healthy.

[emmabeth]

I have a new dog here, Ellie.

Her previous owner told me that she eats a bit of her meal, and then she goes away and then she will come back and eat some more later and often does this throughout the day. Apparently they couldn't persuade her to do anything different, oh and shes incredibly fussy and won't eat many things.

Wellll... shes been here a week.

She eats what is put down in front of her, when it is put down, unless it really IS something she doesnt like. My dogs get a variety of foods so if they dont like something, thats ok,t hey wont get served it again BUT.... they dont get anything ELSE either that night.

She eats ALL her food immediately - the reason she didnt eat all her meals before is that she was over fed and as a result not hungry (and fat). We feed her less, and the minute she stops eating it is taken away (not snatched out from under her nose, we wait until shes clearly happy shes had enough) because with five dogs in a small house I cannot leave food lying around, it certainly wouldnt be there when she went back to it!

I predict that in a months time I will have a much slimmer happier dog who eats everything put in front of her without fuss.

It may seem cruel to be tough on them, but long term you are doing a dog no favours by allowing or creating a picky, over fed dog who leaves food and wastes it. I am happy being this tough with my dogs because I offer a variety of high quality raw food ingredients - if they really dont like something thats fine (some of them dont like fish), I wouldnt be so happy forcing a dog to eat a food it really didnt like/made it feel ill... so you must be sure that the food you are offering is actually ok.

The first t hing to try is to drastically cut down the portions offered. Most people over feed dogs, especially little dogs. My own small dogs are both bigger than a yorkshire terrier adn they eat roughly a tablespoon of raw meat or a couple of chicken wings per day (or equivalent amount of something else). The other thing worth considering is, some complete foods contain so much filler and so little actual valuable nutrition, the amounts you need to feed a small dog are just too much, phyiscally, for them to be able to manage!

Decide what you are going to feed him, if it is something he has eaten a few times before and is fairly well balanced thats probably something he actually does like and doesnt disagree with him.

At each meal offer him HALF what you have normally been offering. Give him 15 minutes to eat it. If he hasnt, or has had a mouthful and run off, take it up and put it in the fridge or discard it and start again at the next meal.

Keep this up for a week at least - keep a good check on whether he is gaining or losing weight using your hands and eyes as well as scales if possible. Avoid giving him treats for anything except tiny weeny little treats for training - certainly no human left overs or treats 'just because'. He is so small he can easily survive on tidbits and left overs!

You should find that in a week he is eating what he is given. If you think it IS too little then you can increase it slightly, if he goes back to leaving any then drop back down again.

[Mattie]

I measure my dogs food out as they are on a complete food, far too many dogs on this are fat, owners think that they are underfeeding them but the food is dry, when it is wet it swells up, normally this is done in the dog's stomach but I soak my dogs food for an hour or 2 before feeding them. This way I know they are getting plenty of water, I used to have a dog that rarely drank and would get dehydrated if I didn't soak the food.

[jacksdad]

when we got jack the previous family said they would give him his food and he wouldn't eat for 3 days or so. seemed a bit odd to me. from day one since we go him he has shown no issues eating. Today he eats twice a day no fuss no muss. I watch his weight, adjusted the amount of food I give him based on how many training treats he has had, how much exercise etc.

After 8 months of getting to know him, I am thinking his old home was a bit stressful. way too much time by him self. which is why his previous family was looking to re home him.

Mattie, Jack often doesn't drink as much as I wish he did. I have taken to soaking his breakfast kibble in water after reading your tip in another thread. between that and his love of water melon, despite the heat I am not worry about him dehydrating any more.

[Fundog]

My Dottie has a strange little ritual we have to perform: When I put her food down for her, I have to 1) Call her, 2) Say something like, "Here you go, eat your dinner;" and 3) Pet her on the back of the neck before walking away. If I don't do all three of these things, she will back away from her dish and lay down quietly until I go back and do all three steps. Then she will eat.

[Sarah83]

Lol Fundog, I have to wave Rupe towards his dinner and tell him to get his dinner then sit down on the sofa before he'll start eating if I just put it down. Otherwise he just stands there staring at me. They can be such odd creatures can't they?

[Wicket]

Fundog and Sarah:
They've probably associated this verbal and non-verbal cues with the food eating. For me, I say "Time for food" and sometimes shake the food container, then I have each dog sit/stay until I say "Go get it!"

[gj_piercy]

Thank you all for your help i think we have cured him though we have found that he would much rather be fed at tea time instead of breakfast and tea unlike our others, we havn't had him checked yet by our vet as he is due is injection this month and were going to ask them to do an M.O.T then, he eats alot more than a tablespoon though and so does our other and our dog that we had for 14 years there as skinny as rakes though! and go for long walks in the woods so it suits them and the vet said its fine to feed them that much and twice a day. lets just hope he stays in this routine now!