GSD not hungry during the morning - Page 2

Do you control everything this dog does the way you control her diet?

Margaret N-J

My dogs will eat 4 times a day (full portion) if I let them... (RAW/home cooked) - only because of the amount of exercise they get. Some dogs self-regulate the amount of food they eat. Try to run her in the morning and see if she gets her appetite back.
 

When the diamond pet food recall happened I decided to cook my own meals for my girls. I will go to the meat section of the grocery store and find the bargains. Chicken liver, beef liver etc.... and put it in my crock pot and make a doggie stew.  I will add a sweet potato, blueberries, carrots and chicken broth and water.  It cooks all day and then I put it in smaller dollar store containers and freeze the portions. Mix it with your soaked kibble.  I'll bet you your dog won't turn down breakfast anymore. 

"I want her to learn that I am in control, hence she is offered food according to my time. And she eats whatever I present to her, which is a good quality 5 star kibble. I want her to learn to eat it on it's own, without any trimmings or attempts of bribery. Feeding her should not be a game for attention such as her attempting to eat only the treats and trimmings, leaving the necessary kibble alone. " So, how is this approach working for you? If it was working you wouldn't have come here for suggestions. Your dog is not a robot, but it sounds like you expect her to act like one. Treat her like the living being that she is.

I do treat her well. We have daily exercise. She always has chew toys each day. She gets 1000mg capsules of fish oil and one Pet Tab a day. My vet comes for her monthly maintenance against parasites (ivermectin and general deworming.) We bathe her once per month and a half. I never fed her any food that is under 5 stars from dogfoodanalysis. I treat her better than a lot of people in terms of treating their pets.

I am strongly attentive in terms of her nutrition. So she eats twice a day, one 7am meal and one at 4:30pm. I have learned that dogs are for routine so she is routinely fed at roughly  the same time. And those are the times she is fed, with a bowl put down for 20 minutes.

My golden retriever observes this timing and eats immediately upon setting the food down. He has learned that food isn't there forever so you have to get it when it's offered.

I find it odd how many people offer the "20 minute window" policy for picky dogs and encourage it in many pages in the forums but now, go against it here. 

Nobody's saying you do not take care of your Shepherd Ladystark, but she is not a Golden Retriever.  The way you write about control implies you are on this dogs case rather a lot and I would guess you are mentally stressing her and that is reducing her appetite, most appetite problems in dogs stem from nerves and even a strong nerved dog can only take so much nagging.  To me, there is something wrong with a dog that takes 20 minutes to eat its meal anyway, mine take 20 seconds!

Only a very small proportion of dogs get bloat and there are probably nearly as many of those that are fed multiple meals as those fed once a day so feeding her twice a day and then getting upset with her because she only wants to eat once is not reducing the risk of her bloating and just putting mental pressure on the dog.

Why not just cut back on the powerfreaking, show her a little respect and either feed her something she wants to eat badly enough to eat it twice a day or stick to what she has now and feed her once a day and see how it works?  You asked for advice and now you have it

Margaret N-J

Hi

Ok today I tried one a day feeding. She didn't eat her morning meal so that doesn't count. 
It's almost 5pm here in Manila so I fed her 3 cups of her food. Which overflowed in her bowl.

She didn't eat anything again. I mean just a bite maybe in 30 minutes. I stretched my 20 minute window to 30, as instructed in many "how to feed a picky dog" guides online. 

Does this mean no food until tomorrow afternoon same time, wherein I'll feed 3 cups again?

i have a extreemly picky female who if she does not like the food she will starve. i have tryed every method and some times she just plain refuses to eat will sit and watch her bowl but wont eat it on those occasions i will add some boiled hamburger and some rice occasionaly and she will eat it all down mine will sometimes get the pickys going on but if you dont strain the hamburger from frying it or boileing it and put some of the liquid on the kibble she has no choice but to eat it because it smells good. dogs are like people would u eat cardboard ? probably not. does your family have the same likes in all food as u? prob not which is why the golden will eat and she will not. my male shepherd dumpster for anything i put down but will never take a treat only eats food out of his bowl. my female perfers to get treats and not eat her food. but she will i usualy have to change foods with her every 6 months or she will stop eating again shes not sick or has any issues never even a soft stool she just gets bored of bla.

Hi Siantha,
From what I know is that dogs, especially picky ones like GSDs, play with our sympathy. When we worry about them not eating and we flounder about their bowls, they get the cause and effect of "hey when I don't eat, my master stays  with me and gives me yummy stuff. So I better not eat right away."

That's why  when my dog sometimes gets those picky episodes, I do a 20 minute window wherein if she doens't eat, I throw it away. After a day, she's back eating morning and night. This is how she is most year, in a routine and she expects it. But when things like her heat arrives, it shakes her off this routine and since her appetite is naturally decreased from her heat or maybe the warm weather, she gets picky again, which is again resolved by staying with the program and taking her food away within 20 minutes.

But right now, it seems to be not working. She eats in the noontime only, skipping her morning meal. Today she skipped both.

I'd leave her unfed until tomorrow evening and feed one cup.  Give her 5 minutes, don't stand over her and anything not eaten immediately goes until tomorrow.  If she eats it all in that time, give her 2 cups next meal and so on, if she doesn't clear the bowl, reduce it next meal, clearing the bowl is as much psychological as it is appetite with some dogs, same as some people will eat everything on their plate even if not really hungry and some are nauseated by the sight of too much food and now you must train her to clear her bowl.  Dogs do not masticate, they must get the food into the stomach as quick as possible for their digestion process to start so a mentally and physically healthy dog should gulp it's food down as soon as the bowl touches the floor, don't make her sit and wait for permission to eat, don't talk to her, just put it down in silence, walk away and leave her to it.  I'd also recomment giving her vitamin B or Brewers Yeast, takes a week to kick in, but it does help.

Don't forget to give us an update.

Margaret N-J