Cujo wont eat when Lyka's in heat. He eats maybe a cup every 2-3 days on a good day. This goes on for 3 weeks. He looks really skinny by the time he starts to eat again and she's done with her cycle, but he doesnt act any different, not sickly or weak.

I don't even play the 15 minute game. "If you dont start eating when I put it down, I take it away immediately". Simple. In many cases, if the dog doesn't eat when the food is put down, then the dog isn't gonna eat in 15 minutes either.

I broke the rules and let Lyka steal Cujo's food (no aggression issues though), he figured out pretty quick that if he didnt eat then she would do it for him. After a week he would eat anything put in front of him. I dont reccomend this at all if there is any issue with aggression, its just something that worked for me with a dog that ate about 1/4 of what he was supposed to eat for the first 18 months of his life, going a week without food and still eating barely anything.

Sometimes you just gotta make eating fun for the dogs that dont like to eat. For Cujo it always helped me to make him work for his food, he placed more value on it if it didnt just get put in front of him. Bark for your food, shake paw, sit, lie down, sit etc. Then when I saw him start to stand on his hind legs and wagging his tail harder, thats when I know "OK, he will eat now". He also gets really motivated when I take off running accross the living room with his food bowl, the chase pumps him up and he gets more excited to eat. I still do that stuff with him, but because its become habbit for him to associate his food with really wanting his food, now I can just put his bowl down and he will eat it, because seeing the bowl alone makes him excited.

As for food aggression issues. Feed the dogs in their crates. Problem solved.

Nothing is more irritating to me than people who feel sorry for their dog when it comes to food. Dogs can live on very little food, and dogs who love to eat will eat till they explode. Friends of mine have fat dogs on special diets and keep telling me "they're neutered so now they're fat". Then when I ask em how much they feed, they overload a big food bowl with kibble and let 4 dogs free-feed from the same bowl. I showed them how much I fed Lyka, and they were stunned at how little I fed her and how hungry she seemed to be after eating her food.

I have the same problem. To make sure that drak eats because he needs to gain about 5 bls more, I put his dish not full to the top but to about the rim and mix a bit of peanut butter because I know he likes. I close the door so that holly is out and drak is alone to eat than I do the same for Holly but I leave the door open and show holly the food is there if she want to eat for about 15 min as well than I remove the food until dinner and do the same think. I do not put any peanut butter in holly because she needs to lose about 5-10 pnds. I am wondering if it is ok to feed holly only once a day until I see she has lost the weight since she needs to lose the weight. Is that ok/healthy
for dogs?

thnks
Maggie

Maggie

When I have a dog that needs to lose weight I do not cut out an entire meal. I instead feed 2/3 of the morning meal and 2/3 of the evening meal, until the dog has reached the correct weight. Then, I increase the ration slightly to a maintenance ration. Hope this helps.

If you are feeding raw diet, what percentages are you feeding?

 Quote: mishele barker

...this IS something I want to get sorted out before the wedding... He is just a big softy and doesn't like them to be unhappy.

Yes, as mentioned by Andrew, you definitely want to work this out now because if he takes a similar approach when you do have children, it'll make you wish for the good ol' days of just dog problems.

Mike

 Quote: mike j schoonbrood

... I don't even play the 15 minute game. "If you dont start eating when I put it down, I take it away immediately". Simple. In many cases, if the dog doesn't eat when the food is put down, then the dog isn't gonna eat in 15 minutes either.....

Yeah, that's probably true.

I'm so used to dogs who are vibrating with excitement the whole time the food is being readied ....

Every Animal should eat its food when given to it including Dogs.
If they do not then they must etheir be ill or not Hungry, and if the case is they are not hungry, then they are being overfed, thats my opinion

Angela

I will put that amount for Holly but for drak I would still fill the bowl with some peanut butter. If I put the food 2/3rds out for her in the morn. before I leave for work and she does not eat, should I remove it after about a it of time? I would feed drak after words. At this time, I am filling up the large bowls up to the rim (large and small bowl)with dry dog food and it has all the nutrients they need(our trainer fed their german shephards to same food). Now I leave the food out whole day and remove it before they go to bed at night and I do not refill the bowls if I find it empty. I will have to go back feeding them seperatly until I see that holly lost some weight. I will have to look if there is any kind of vitamins (for gain weight) liquid form to put in draks food unless peanut butter is good enough and the only that might work fast. I was told that too much peanut butter is not good for them. Do you suggest anything else I can use for weight gain suppliement if peanut butter might be not too good for them?

Maggie

connie, i agree. minute i switched to raw suddenly the 15 minute game was extinct.

maggie - i feed my dogs once a day, so you can do that, but even then, i would follow angela's advice about cutting down to a percentage of what she would normally eat. if you're feeding kibble, you could also take a look at the recommended amount (though i think it might be inflated) and feed her for her ideal weight, not her current weight.

 Quote: Jennifer Mullen

connie, i agree. minute i switched to raw suddenly the 15 minute game was extinct.

Oh man! Totally! Macy eats her muscle/organ meat (evening meal) in under 1 minute, then spends five minutes licking her bowl (she pushes it around in her crate while licking it), flipping it over to see if anything is under it, and finally trying to chew on it.