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I know quite a lot of small(toy) dogs very well, at least 40-50 of them, one thing I've found is that many of them have very very poor appetites which concerns me.
For example, a lot of Papillons are poor eaters. Nia is one. She'll often not eat for 2 days at a time even though she's doing better recently. When you put food down she just pushes it around and we've tried 10 min 2 meals a day, remove if not eaten and she'd just starve and starve and starve until she lost dangerous amounts of weight. She also refuses to eat 2 meals a day no matter how small the meals are and I've come to accept it. She's not fed 1 meal a day, left there until she decides to eat it/finish it. I don't leave piles of food lying around though, just enough for her one day's worth.
Same with a few of my friends' Malteses. They just don't eat. You can entice them with other foods and stuff and they will eat a little but it's so difficult. They lose weight a lot and it's very inconvenient imo.
I think if I were breeding, I would be looking for good examples of the breed but also with good eating habits. For example, if I need to put Nia on a 20 hr flight. Lets say the flight leaves in the afternoon, and she ate the night before. I'm supposed to feed a meal, poop the dog before boarding her for the trip but if she refuses to eat and they don't let you keep food in the carrier, she will be starving for almost 2 days without food.
Same thing with if they need surgery or something. They tell you to feed at a certain time, if your dog doesn't eat, they'll just have to wait until post-op and after the period the vet says.
I just find it a huge hassle, plus it's more dangerous to the dogs' health because of low blood sugar if they're going on a plane ride or surgery that complicates the task at hand.
What do you guys think?
For example, a lot of Papillons are poor eaters. Nia is one. She'll often not eat for 2 days at a time even though she's doing better recently. When you put food down she just pushes it around and we've tried 10 min 2 meals a day, remove if not eaten and she'd just starve and starve and starve until she lost dangerous amounts of weight. She also refuses to eat 2 meals a day no matter how small the meals are and I've come to accept it. She's not fed 1 meal a day, left there until she decides to eat it/finish it. I don't leave piles of food lying around though, just enough for her one day's worth.
Same with a few of my friends' Malteses. They just don't eat. You can entice them with other foods and stuff and they will eat a little but it's so difficult. They lose weight a lot and it's very inconvenient imo.
I think if I were breeding, I would be looking for good examples of the breed but also with good eating habits. For example, if I need to put Nia on a 20 hr flight. Lets say the flight leaves in the afternoon, and she ate the night before. I'm supposed to feed a meal, poop the dog before boarding her for the trip but if she refuses to eat and they don't let you keep food in the carrier, she will be starving for almost 2 days without food.
Same thing with if they need surgery or something. They tell you to feed at a certain time, if your dog doesn't eat, they'll just have to wait until post-op and after the period the vet says.
I just find it a huge hassle, plus it's more dangerous to the dogs' health because of low blood sugar if they're going on a plane ride or surgery that complicates the task at hand.
What do you guys think?