Help!! Tj Won't Eat!

[Lou]

ok, so tj has stopped eating. One day he just stopped eating and the only way he'll eat is if i hand feed him and then he'll only eat half of his food. I tried leaving him and seeing if he'll eat if he's hungry but he won't eat it. I switched him to Innova but the first 2-3 weeks he ate it just fine. He'll continue to eat treats, and grass, and plants .. but no dog food? And today he ate his own poo! What's going on with him? I've made an appt to the vet. Hopefully they can tell me why he's not eating. And he's is housetrained but the past week he's had 3 accidents! It's like my dog has been swapped with another one. :confused:

[milo]

hi there i just read your theard and i just wanted to say if your dog is'nt eating why dont you try warming the dinner up coz the smell of food makes the dog attracted to the smell any way i hope that helped :D

[chazhound]

Hmmmm... maybe he doesn't like the food.

Chazhound

[Renee750il]

Glad you're taking him to the vet. If there's no organic reason, I'd start looking for emotional reasons. Have there been any big (in a dog's view of the world) changes lately? Or is he manipulating your for more attention?

Let us know what the vet says. If he doesn't find anything off, we'll all put our heads together.

[Lou]

ok the vet checked out TJ and he is 100% healthy, i'm soooo glad to hear. Everything about him is in perfect condition?? so why no eating??? The vet thinks he may be sick of the food. i just switched tj to innova 2 months ago. Hmm .. so i guess he doesn't like it anymore. But they said it's about time he gets switched to adult food anyway. He's 8 months old and the vet recommended science diet maintenance. Is that good? I heard that's bad for dogs.

[Renee750il]

Science Diet is horrible stuff. The vets recommend it because they make a ton of money on it.

If you let TJ dictate how long he will eat a certain food you'll never see the end of it. I'd suggest keeping up with the Innova, possibly alternating with one of their other foods in a different flavor. It's not that much of a systemic shock to change foods that way, and YOU'RE managing the change. You can alternate by the bag, or just keep two bags of food on hand and alternate days.

TJ's not going to let himself starve, so stick to your guns on this one. Dogs can be like we are sometimes and will go nuts over the dog food equivalent of junk food, so don't give in to him. And don't let your vet manipulate you. Sound nutritionists have nicknamed it "Science Die." You wouldn't be that much better off with it than you would be with some psuedo food like Ol' Roy.

[Lou]

yah that's wut i heard about science diet b4, i got tj from my best friend when he was 6 months old and he was on sciencediet. i heard so much about it thats why i changed to innova. and a friend told me about the vets making money from it and the vets office had science diet there as an item u could buy. so i knew something was suspicious. I'm thinking that i'll wait until he's done this bag and switch him to innova adult food .. i wish i could read his mind!

[Renee750il]

Ha! If you could read TJ's mind he'd just change it again! They can be perverse creatures when it suits their purposes - like to keep our attention.

[Qu-Ming Dances With W]

when one of my dogs decide to do this, i use tuna. start with a full can, then the next day i mix a can with their food, after that, i mix 3/4 with their food, go down to a half etc. i've never seen a dog reject fish.