I would appreciate some insight from the more experienced GSD owners and/or breeders on the topic of why a dog will ignore food and not eat for one or two feedings.

My female GSD is 18 months old (19 months, 1st part of January) and has settled into selective eating. I can put her food down in the morning, or even at night and she will walk away from it. She may skip the morning feeding and then eat a smaller portion at night, or vice versa. There have been times when both meals were ignored, then the next day she would eat both morning and night. There is no set pattern. I usually put 2-3 cups in her bowl, of which she may eat only 2 cups. If it's not touched after an hour or so, it gets picked up.

When she was younger there were a few medical problems, then spaying. I would sometimes coax her to eat with doctoring her food with eggs, or yogurt. I've since learned that this may create a situation where she will always expect something in her food and will get spoiled. Now it's just straight food... eat it or forget it. She gets as much excercise and walks as we have time for.

She is by no means starving or malnourished and probably weighs in at around 65lbs because she is not a very big framed dog. When we go outside she will sometimes tear through the yard and woods running like she has so much pent up energy that it take a few minutes for her to get it all out.

Anyway, lest I go on and on about her good traits, I would like to find out if there are others out there who have had similar experiences, or do most dogs faithfully eat morning and night? I know now that she will not intentionally starve herself (I thought otherwise when she was younger), so I'm not too worried if she skips a meal, but at the same time she cannot put much weight on if her intake is where it is. Is she just not hungry when she chooses not to eat what is put down?

When I moved my GSD into his kennel run about a month ago, he got picky with his food. Before, all three of my dogs ate in the kitchen about 4-5 ft between them. The competition kept them from comming up for air till each was done. Whe the GSD had his meal all to his own, he started to pick at it. I couldn't have that because of rats and mice. I took up any food after 15 mins, and it only took a few days of getting hungry to kick start his appetite again.

Max does the same thing, I think he is holding out for all the "yummie" food and when he sees he is not going to get any more he eats his nutro.

My 2 year old GSD went through that same phase for about 2 weeks. There was no change in his health, diet, exercise or anything. I would pour food in his bowl, he would glance at it then run around the yard and not eat. I then came to the conclusion that he must be eating what his body requires and maybe I was giving him too much food. So I cut back his food. Since then, there has been no weight change, and he is eating his meal with more enthusiasm now. I feed twice a day, I always have with the exception of days we train, then he is fed only once. I just have to be careful about his morning portion because if there is any subtle hint that he is going somewhere with me in the car, then forget it. All he can think about is getting in the car. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the replies. Seems like a common problem. Case in point - 2 cups put in the bowl this morning and was never touched. Bowl and food put out again around 5:30PM and wasn't eaten till around 7PM. There are two meals per day, but there is never any guarentee that these two meals will be consumed. As a comparison, my son's Yellow Lab will inhale 2 cups of kibble in about 15 seconds, and if there were more he would eat that too.

the biggest time to worry is when not eating is combined with lethargy. I skip every third or fourth day with no consequences and have done so for years.

I was about to start a new topic then I saw this one. My 3 month old GSP is doing the same thing. He will eat a little and then walk away. After 15 minutes I take up the food. He started doing it over the last few days. Is it normal for a puppy to have these picky eating habits? Has he just become comfortable with eating away from his litter mates and realizes he doesn't have to scarf it down?

If your dog is a healthy weight, the you probably shouldn't even worry about it's eating habits.

With that said, if the behavior just bothers you, then I can think of a few things for you to do. (I had the same problem with my 10 month old GSD a couple of months ago.) First, at 18 months, your dog doesn't need to eat twice per day. Also, once a dog is over a year old, it's a good idea to do one day per week of fasting. It's actually very good for the dogs digestive process. You may just be making the food too available to the dog.

With Roxy, I had this problem in the transition between 2 and 3 meals per day. When I noticed that she wasn't eating everything from all 3 meals, that's when I cut down to 2 meals and she would eat both of them. Now, at 10 months, she's starting to not eat ALL of both meals. That tells me that she'll be ready to cut down to one meal per day soon.

On the other hand, I had another GSD, Chelsey, who acted that way throughout her whole life. She only got fed once per day and some days she just didn't eat or didn't eat the whole amount. I tried everything to no avail. In the end, she was healthy and lean so I had to get over my "problem" with her eating habits. That's why my post started out with me telling you not to worry. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Hello, My 10 week old rott pup who is between 15-20 lbs. does the same thing. I was feeding him 2cups of naturesvariety kibble and 4oz. of raw when he started and I thought maybe I uped him ration to much. Then I cut back to 1cup and 4oz. and he still picks over his bowl. So finely I'm in the process of rotating the kibble and the raw each meal. Don't know the result of this latest action because I just started this today.

melvin

In case anyone is still reading this thread, I had the same eating problem with my 3-year-old GSD (put his food down and he often wouldn't eat any of it). I changed his diet from kibble to raw and the problem has been eliminated. He is very excited about feeding now (he wakes me up at 5:30am -- not necessarily a good thing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) and eats all of his food immediately. He also looks healthier, shinier coat etc...