What causes a healthy dog to not eat much all of the sudden?

Question

Here is the question details,

i have 3 dogs;

Nine'-- 8 Year old Standard Australian Shepherd Female 48-50lbs ~ Retired & Spayed

Wooly Bear-- 2 Year old Standard Australian Shepherd Male 50lbs ~ Working & Intact

Lilion-- 2 Year old Alaskan Malamute Female 75.6 lbs ~ Working & Intact


with in these last 4 days after the food change,
They use to have a food bowl down full of food 24-7 because they ate as they needed, The 8 year old started to eat more then her fill so she got fat. We switched their food to Beniful fiesta mix for about a week and a half once, 2 cups a day, 1 in the morning at 7:30-45 and at night 730-800

My boy Aussie i have had him since he was 4 weeks old, just in these last 4 days has been eating less, like a few bites here an there, 2-3-4 bites then leaves, then i noticed that as long as he is right there by me he will eat a bit more but if im on the couch in the great room and hes in the kitchen or in the living room or the office or even about 70ft away in the great room with me he wont really eat. he will if hes right there next to me though.

Does any one have any ideas or opinions on WHY he is acting like this, any one else have this problem before? Plus it makes me wonder if it has to do with the weather changing to fall or something....

PS
They have eaten Atta Boy dog food as usual diet but changed it to the beniful for Nine's sake and it worked, then went back to Atta Boy.

Answer 1

Maybe he's not hungry

Answer 2

It can be quite a few different things, but try the easiest solutions first Try spreading her feedings to 3 times a day with 1/3 cup each as spread out as you can. If this does not work, try looking at a food higher in fiber, there are diet foods for dogs, that allow you to feed larger quantities with less calories so the dog feels more full. When switching dog foods, first make sure she likes the new food, and second switch very gradually if you can over the span of 1-2 weeks by mixing the foods in increasing proportions of the new food. If this does not work, try finding a more nutrient rich food, the lowered quantity of a lower quality food like that may reduce a critical nutrient, but because it is the recommended amount this is not as likely She could possibly have a parasite problem, but that is easy to check for if you bring a sample of fresh feces to your vet office, they can run a fecal and check. If she is also changing other habits such as suddenly drinking a lot more and or urinating a lot more, or has sudden energy changes this could indicate more serious concerns such as diabetes or other problems, but again I will point out the other symptoms in this case. Most likely she just is used to more food, and did not like the food cut not filling her belly as well as it did before. Good luck!

Answer 3

It sounds to me that maybe your two girls have been dominating the food bowl. What leads me to this is you saying he eats more when you are nearby. What concerns me is how do you know who is eating what/how much being free-fed. I did that with my last dog, but now I have two and they get fed at certain times a day. I measure out their food, set it down, they eat it up and they're done. This way I know they're both eating, or when one may not be feeling good.



I've never heard of Atta Boy dog food so I looked it up. It's junk food just like Beneful. This is a partial ingredient list from their site: Cooked Yellow Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Wheat Mill Run, Cooked Wheat, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed-Tocopherols – source of Vitamin E), Brewers Rice, Poultry By-Product Meal. Corn is a cheap filler and adds no nutritional value to food. Meat and bone meal-unnamed meat source is bad. That could be anything from roadkill to euthanized pets. A lot of dogs are allergic to wheat. Animal fat, again is from an unnamed animal. This is made from throwing a bunch of animals into a rendering vat. Poultry by-product meal-all the parts from chickens, turkey, etc that we don't eat, i.e. beaks, feet, feathers, etc. Beneful reads almost the same.



A better quality dog food will do wonders for all your dogs, and doesn't have to break the bank either. I feed my dogs Nutro Max that I get at Menards for about $29 a 30lb bag. It also lasts much longer than the junk foods because they eat less of it, since it's not full of fillers and junk. It's more nutrient dense. Trust me, I used to feed garbage food to my dogs so I know all about how it effects them. After doing some research online and switching to a better quality food I haven't looked back!

Answer 4

changing food for some dogs mess their stomachs up. Have they been drinking water ok and peeing and pooping ok....Older they get the worse it can be on the stomach. If they all 3 don't start coming out of it in the next day or 2 I would call the vet. Maybe they got into something ?

Answer 5

Could be a number of reasons but if my dog started eating less i would get him vet checked first to just rule out any thing medical .