What to do if your dog is picky about food? Have you made any of these mistakes?

Oct 20,2024
6Min

The reasons why dogs are picky eaters

On the one hand, the taste of pet food is single. Eating food of one taste for a long time will cause a certain degree of anorexia, which is what we often call it. "Tired of eating".

On the other hand, owners always want to provide their dogs with their favorite and most delicious food because of their doting, completely ignoring the comprehensiveness and balance of nutrition. When the owner comes back from work and finds that the dog's food hasn't moved much, and when he is eating, the dog comes to you to ask for food, but you give it dog food and it loses interest, so the owner gives in and starts various solutions. Methods: Change food, add canned food, add gravy to dog food, add milk powder, add meat, feed human rice, feed pure meat, feed snacks... The dog found that as long as I don't eat, the owner will give me other foods with richer flavors. s things. Over time, it is a painful struggle to get your pet dog back to eating dry food. This is the logic behind picky eating behavior, but in fact, most of it is caused by the owner.

Four feeding mistakes that owners tend to make

1. Don’t always buy the same type of dog food. In order to prevent the dog from becoming tired of eating and becoming anorexic, it is best for the owner to periodically adjust the dog food to ensure the diversity of food smells and tastes, and not to have a single taste for a long time, which will affect the dog's love for food.

2. Do not provide excessive and sufficient food to the dog, and let the dog eat freely. In this way, dogs will eat until they don’t want to eat every day, and they will not learn to cherish food. Just like people, when they eat every meal until they don’t want to eat it, they will also lose the feeling when they see good food.

3. When the dog does not eat, do not repeatedly use actions, sounds, advice, or threats to induce the dog to eat. The result of this is: the dog feels that as long as I don’t eat, I can get the owner’s attention and performance, which means that not eating is right. Because a dog is an animal that needs interaction with people, it is very willing to give up food in exchange for the attention of its owner.

4. When the dog has a poor appetite, you cannot change the dog’s food or add canned food or meat immediately. In this way, the dog feels that refusing to eat can be exchanged for better food, and starving is worth it.

How to correct the bad habit of picky eating in dogs

1. Regularly ration and take away if not eaten: This is a way to artificially simulate the feeling of food scarcity. method. The frequency of meals is recommended to be four times a day for three months, three times a day for three to eight months, and twice a day for eight months and above. If you don’t want your dog to be interested only in delicious food, you should let your dog eat dry dog ​​food as its only staple food from an early age. During meals, let the dog develop the habit of concentrating on meals. If the meal is not finished within thirty minutes, the dog will put away the feed and wait until the next meal time to provide it. Let the dog know that food is precious and if you don’t eat it, it will be gone. NoIt can help dogs develop the bad habit of eating whenever they want and having to eat later if they don’t want to.

2. Increase the amount of exercise and consume energy: This is a method to objectively increase hunger.

3. Reconstruct the logic of "work to get food": The owner can feed the dog after exercise, making eating a feedback or reward for exercise and work.

4. Fasting method: If you don’t eat for the first time, fast for one day; if you don’t eat again, fast for three days; if you don’t eat again, fast for five days. However, if a dog is hungry for a long time, you can consult a pet doctor for advice and feed nutritional paste for appropriate supplementation.

5. Feeding probiotics: Nutritional supplements for appetizing and spleen strengthening to improve gastrointestinal function.

6. Correction period: The whole family must work together and cannot feed other foods or snacks.

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