Possible Causes of Your Dog’s Picky Eating and How to Entice Them

There’s a good chance that anyone who’s owned a dog has encountered episodes of picky eating at least once or twice. While it’s usually a transient behavior, a dog refusing to eat or eating very little can still be a source of anxiety, frustration, and wasted pet food. Thankfully, both short- and long-term picky eating are generally both harmless and issues that can be fixed.
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Sudden Picky Eating

While picky eating is, as mentioned, usually not a medical or health concern, sudden and prolonged loss of appetite can be. If your dog has always been a reliable and enthusiastic eater and abruptly refuses to eat or eats very little for more than a day, that can be a cause for concern.

Though keep in mind that excitement and anxiety can both result in loss of appetite. If your dog is traveling, a new pet has arrived, or some other significant change is taking place, some appetite loss from nerves or excitement is normal.

They’re Full From the Last Meal or Just Not interested

Most mammals share the same basic gastrointestinal layout, soour eating habits are often not all that different. So, like us, sometimes your dog is still full from an earlier meal or simply isn’t hungry for no identifiable reason.

If someone’s been a bad boy or girl and found a stash of treats, gotten intoa bag of food, the cat’s food, etc.he or she may be perfectly content to skip dinner. And sometimes, being dogs, they eat things other than fresh dog food—things we’d prefer not to know about—that upset their stomachs for a while. If their appetite is back within a day, they’re almost certainly just fine.

Food Issues

Unsurprisingly, the food your dog is eating (or not eating) can be a major source of picky eating. Some pups are notorious “the grass is always greener” eaters, particularly if another pet in the same family is being fed a different kind of food. They’re seemingly convinced that you’ve chosen to give them the boring food while blessing other pets with the ambrosia food of the gods. Or, having been given a treat, they decide that only treats will serve to slake their hunger.

Switching your dog’s food can trigger picky eating as well. Even days or weeks after the switch is made, dogs can suddenly decide that they liked their old food better. It’s possible that they have made that decision because the new food is hurting their stomach. Consider trying a sensitive stomach dog food. Finding a healthy food that your pooch likes and tolerates well can sometimes require some trial and error.

Solutions for Picky Eating

There are some basic, universal steps that can help. If you’re feeding your dog any table scraps or people food, stop doing so cold turkey. It’s just never really a good idea. It can be unhealthy, fill them up, and encourage bad habits. Also cut down on the treats. Optimally, treats should only be given as a reward or as a rare and special, well, treat. They shouldn’t be expected. If you’re free-feeding, switch over to two or three meals a day with measured quantities based on the dog’s size, weight, exercise level, and breed. And keep their bowl away from distractions.

Delicious food helps quite a bit as well. Find an online fresh dog food delivery service, one that cooks its food sous-vide to maintain its moisture while killing pathogens and retaining the food’s nutritional content. It’s a rare dog that won’t enthusiastically eat safely cooked human-grade meals.

About Grocery Pup

If your furry best friend could start a dog food company, it’d be Grocery Pup. They’re a by dog-lovers, for dog-lovers operation that specializes in the convenient home delivery of delicious, nutritious, safe, and well-balanced human grade dog food. Every bit of their canine cuisineis overseen and approved by a veterinarian nutritionist, and it’s all cooked to safety and succulence with sous-vide technology in a human-grade kitchen.

Fetch the healthy, delicious dog food your pup will thank you for, at Grocerypup.com

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