[Sarah A]

Hello! We have a rescue dog that we adopted 2 years ago. For the first year she ate her dog food no problem. We feed dry avoderm and mix some salmon or chicken in with it. For the last year she won’t eat consistently. She sits with our other dog while we prepare it but then will just stand there, or try to ‘bury’ it with her nose, or walk away completely or sometimes she just eats. This caused us to try other foods, no luck. We took her to the vet 3 times, they find nothing. She sometimes doesn’t even want a piece of what I’m eating (tried that to see if she was just wanting people food). Also we put our foot down and said we won’t give her anything else, she needs to eat what we make her. That lasted 2 days and we gave in before she did. We feed twice a day, always at the same times. She acts hungry but then won’t eat. We are worried and don’t know what to do.

It’s to the point now she won’t eat dry food at all. We can usually get her to eat chicken and some pumpkin and that’s it. We give her freeze dried vitamin mixed with probiotic and some yogurt. But we really want her to eat normally again like our other dog. Any ideas? Thank you!

[anonymously]

When you took her to the vet did they do any testing or lab work? At the risk of over-diagnosis I might get another opinion. Poor appetite is often an indication that something is wrong.
On the other hand, my friend’s dog is a picky eater and often skips meals, but the dog has been like this all along.
In your dog’s case it sounds like a sudden change in her appetite after that first year. Are her teeth okay?

Not to scare you, but when this happened to a dog of mine a while back, I took her to the vet and her physical exam revealed a slight temp, lab work was a little off, elevated white count.
Ultrasound showed tumors…

[anonymously]

Another thought. Have you tried adding a little plain homemade chicken broth or warm water to the kibble? Make sure she is drinking adequate amounts of water, especially if she is a senior or you don’t see her go to the water bowl often.

[Sallynova]

try a food for picky dogs like Dogs For The Earth Organic dog food. sometimes dogs who won’t eat are more sensitive to the smell of processing or modified ingredients – we’ve been using this food for years and so are many of our friends and family and it’s great. They make treats too. It comes in a brown paper bag and our dogs love it so much all we have to do is crinkle a bag and they come running. Google them and see what you think.

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