German Shepherd starves self to not eat dry food?

Question

I have a 1 year old German Shepherd for the latest 4-5 months as decided he does not want dry food anymore. I have gone with the method of putting food out for only 15 min and taking away until next feeding.
I did this for weeks and the only thing it proved was how much he really doesn't want dry food. He went 3 full days without touching the food before he broke down and ate. After this i assumed he would just eat like normal again with the same system in place but he would consistently go 2-3 days without touching the food before he ate anything.
Right now i'm at this point of just mixing his food with canned food because he is underweight but he still eats around the dry food and most times spits the dry food out on the floor to get to the canned food.

Any recommendation for other GSD owners cause i have read that they are known fickle eaters?

Answer 1

Dogs' appetites and calorie needs change a bit as they mature. Sometimes they simply get bored with what they're eating.This is a normal stage that most go though at some point. Sometimes mixing in something like liquid beef stock or chicken broth or just heating the food in some water will be enough to trigger a strong enough scent to motivate them to eat it. Consider lowering the amount if you've been feeding her towards the higher end of the range. Alot of times puppies scarf down the minimum and then some because they need more, but this may slow down after the initial growth spurt. But if this does not get to consume the appropriate food in the time allotted then yes, I would remove the food after 15-20 minutes and put it back down until the next day. I don't think I have ever had to do this more than one or two times with a dog before they got my point. Dogs will not starve themselves. IF they go one day without eating they will not waste any time the next time there is food in the bowl. If this happens two, maybe three times they will get into the habit of finishing it all and moving on. This is a control issue as much as anything else. For things to continue to mesh well in his training he needs that routine. My wife did not used to think it was a big deal that our dog was 'grazing'... picking at her food at her own liesure. A few un-scheduled 2-3 AM bathroom runs where I did not volunteer to get out of bed made this clearer for her.

Answer 2

Hi there, I had a similar issue with my boston terrier. All I had to do was wet the dry food with some WARM water. cold water didn't seem to help. Or mix in some low sodium broth, plain greek yogurt or unsweetened applesauce. Another reason he isn't eating may be due to the type/flavour of kibble you are feeding him? aim for really high quality foods (more expensive but you will save a fortune on vet bills in the future). The dogs can tell when they are eating processed S*** as opposed to good quality high protein foods. Another option is pick a brand that you are comfortable with and buy 2 or 3 different flavours of it. mix them all together so each meal he gets a different variety/amount of flavours in his bowl :) Good luck and hopefully you can get your fussy guy to eat!

Answer 3

I used to have a German Shepherd also. She would push her dry food out of the food bowl haha. I didn't want to spoil her with canned food so I took her to the vet. The vet told me that German Shepherds are picky eaters and that this was kind of normal. I tried different brands and eventually I found one that she likes. Good luck

Answer 4

The temprature of a german shepherd body is already very high so they do nor prefer to eat dry food which will increase their body tempature 20%more

Answer 5

Is it posable that your dog is experiencing oral discomfort with the dry dog food? My mom has an older dog that won't eat dry food because it hurts his mouth. Or your doggy could just be picky.

Answer 6

have you tried wetting the dry food with some water or broth?

Answer 7

● "German Shepherd starves self to not eat dry food"



I half-believe you, but although you put that where your main question is supposed to to be it doesn't ASK us anything. It wasn't until your very LAST line that you thought to actually ASK us anything:



● "Any recommendation for other GSD owners cause i have read that they are known fickle eaters"



Sure. Start feeding him as a DOG.

The canid species developed to digest raw animal proteins - birds, eggs, fish (but NOT those needles), insects, mammals, reptiles - whether fresh-killed or as carrion.

Diseases such as bloat started to escalate once people began supplying kibble-mucks instead of meat plus cooked table-scraps (do NOT supply baked or roasted bones, nor mouth-hot spiced foods).

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/The_GSD_Source/links/all/Feeding__Nutrition__GDV_Bloat_001198556443 will show you many ways to feed a a dog, but a prey-model is what I recommend (as do my dogs...). If you MUST supply a kibble-muck, it has a link to help you compare what's available in your area.



Note that 2 meals a day is safer than 1, for dogs fed kibbles - kibbles produce a lot of gas during digestion, especially as the dog swallows the whole lot in almost one gulp, instead of the bits arriving well-spread-out-in-time the way it reaches the stomach after gnawing. During digestion, the kibbles also produce a sticky fluid that makes the gas-bubbles almost impossible to pop.



My current 22-months *****, Bea ( http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dog.html?id=1325022 ) still gets 3 meals a day, similar to what's in the Diet_Sheet in the Feeding section.

· Breakfast: the cheapest dog-biscuits, sometimes served in the powders-beaten-into-cow's-milk it lists, mostly just in water. No need to pre-soak, let alone in hot water - GSDs should have HEALTHY mouths.

· Sausage Snack: 200gms (about 7 ozs) of a cheap commercial dog sausage. I'm happy for her to miss it, but almost every night she arrives within minutes of 8pm, resting her chin on my lap or giving/hitting me with one of her toys to indicate that she wants me to throw it so she can fetch it to "earn" the snack.

· Supper: More dog-biscuits, 4 chicken wings (or a lamb's brisket, whatever), a lamb or pork bone. At about 11pm she repeats her 8pm behaviour to show that her tummy considers that a meal is DUE, please!



Canned food is GREAT when I am travelling with a dog - none of my pooches has worked out how to open a can while I am driving. But otherwise I regard it as an expensive way to buy flavoured water, except when I have a GSD recovering from a severe operation.



As your pet is happy to wait 3 days, there are some factors you need to consider.

·1· The ratio between his exercise and his food intake. In the wild, wolves do eat only every 3rd day, but they work HARD for that kill, and afterwards they eat until they cannot move! Next day they polish off whatever scraps, hide, bones remain. On the third day they "socialise", and next day start a hunt.

·2· His body condition. Most pet-owners produce an obese pooch, aiming for something as bulky as a Rottweiler. But herding dogs should be in the same hard, lean, wiry condition as a champion Marathon runner. If yours is an SH (short coat about 55mm/2" long over the shoulders) you can SEE whether he is "right" - when he is running around you should see each rib outlined by the muscles working over it; when he is rested you should see NO ribs (or no more than one edge of the very last rib). If he is an LSH (about 110mm/4" long over the shoulders) or a banned LH (silky coat about 150mm/6" long), you will need to train your fingers on a fit GSD, to learn when there is enough-but-not-TOO-much fat between the ribs.



Over the years I have had a LOT of pooches ("Fockers", GSDs, a Cairn Terrier) and NONE of them were "picky". We cancelled our order for a pup from our nation's first Irish Wolfhound litter when we found that the future-parents were, as the breed's main book stated, having to be hand-fed during their growth period. In the 1970s I did have acquaintances with a picky GSD - they were hand-feeding her, instead of putting the dish in the fridge as soon as she left the dish.



Read about Pavlovian Conditioning, and make use of it.

#1: Have a SET meal-time (within about 5 minutes)

#2: Initiate it with a somewhat noisy physical routine (such as call your pet, bang some cupboard doors, then bang the dish on the bench, then open the fridge door, Sit the dog, then stamp your foot, whatever).



Take the LIMITS in http://www.fci.be/uploaded_files/166g01-en-sv.doc seriously. GSDs under or over them can NOT gain Breed Survey Classification as a GSD (and so should not be awarded an Excellent grading), because they are too puny or too massive to economically perform some of a GSD's "design tasks". For a male, the LIMITS are:

59-66cm (= 23¼-26") and 30-40 kg (= 66-88 lbs)

Sadly, far too many Yanks are infected with "the Texas Syndrome" and so consider that, to be any good, everything must be BIGGER.

The table in http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/The_GSD_Source/links/all/Size___Weight_001198649681 tells you average weights for genuine GSDs at each month of their first year. An average is not a requirement, but the closer your pet is to "average" at each stage, the better his chances of maturing as a TYPICAL GSD.



Add

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/The_GSD/Source/

to your browser, so that you can easily look up all sorts of information about dogs, especially GSDs.



To discuss GSDs, join some groups such as

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GSD_Friendly/info

The people in them KNOW about GSDs. Plus you can include actual photos in your posts.



King Les The Lofty - first pup in 1950; GSD breeder & trainer as of 1968