Yorkshire terrier...not eating his food?

Four of a kind

I've a 10 month old yorkie. I've been feeding him Hill's science plan puppy nuts the past 7 months as advised by the vet. However, the past two months or so, he has'nt been eating them with the same regularity. Some days he does'nt eat a handful of them.

Has anyone any advice on what I could do? I don't feed him anything else, as I was told that he will be fine on just the same food day in day out. I feel this is abit harsh, but I've kept with the routine.

Maybe its time to change the food or something?

any help will be great.
thanks.

Beth

Do you free feed him?
Letting food down all day for him has him see that he's the boss and will eat when he likes. Food is a resource so he could be using it to show you he is boss.

Or,

Do you have a feeding routine? as in 8am and 6pm?
How long is the food left down for?

I had terrible problems getting my Papillon to eat and keep up weight a while back. In the end I decided i was taking no crap and if he didnt eat at the time I specified, he wouldnt eat at all. It scared me to do it because he's only small and I was afraid he would lose too much. But we're the eejits, and dogs can play us. I started putting the food down for 5 minutes at a set time. If he didnt eat, it was removed and he got nothing until the evening feed. If he didnt eat then, he got nothing until the morning feed. This went on for about two days - he wasnt long eating - they wont starve themselves.

If he walked away at all during his feeding time, his bowl was lifted and he got nothing else til the next time. He soon learned to stop walking away and began to eat his full amount.

As for the same type of food day in day out - dogs dont have the same sort of outlook as humans on food. They also dont have the same tastebuds. They're fine on the same food - food is food.
If you begin to add stuff to the food, they begin to expect it, and can sometimes end up refusing to eat unless goodies are added to the food - thus training you instead of the other way around.

I will add a spoon of natural yoghurt every now and then to their breakfast food - but not all the time or mine will expect it. Every so often they get grated carrots on their evening meal, or a bit of chicken mixed in, or a bit of gravy (small tiny bit as theres a lot of salt in it). That way they don't expect it, and will eat their normal food whether there's something added or not.

The Rottweiler will eat whatever is put in front of her when ever it is, but the Papillon started expecting goodies, and I went back to plain boring food with nothing added, lifting the bowl if he wasnt eating. He got out of expecting goodies quick smart

The only thing that is always added is their salmon oil, for health/joint etc reasons.

Try it for a couple of days and see. It does work

lostinnappies

Try putting some warm water in the food. It will make a warm gravy which can make it tastier. Also you can get all the sience plan food in a tin format. Try getting some tinned science plan and mix it with it. Is there any reason he is on sience plan only. I know the vets recommend it because its tried and tested. But they also recommend iams complete "eukanuba" its called too. Perhaps he just doesnt like it. Also measure out the food, make sure hes having his recommended amount and youre not just giving him too much.

ps if you are going to change the food, do it gradually over a week. He will have a major case of the mars bars, if you dont

jtsbs1996

Four of a kind wrote: »

I've a 10 month old yorkie. I've been feeding him Hill's science plan puppy nuts the past 7 months as advised by the vet. However, the past two months or so, he has'nt been eating them with the same regularity. Some days he does'nt eat a handful of them.

Has anyone any advice on what I could do? I don't feed him anything else, as I was told that he will be fine on just the same food day in day out. I feel this is abit harsh, but I've kept with the routine.

Maybe its time to change the food or something?

any help will be great.
thanks.

The other advice you were given covers most of it and if that doesnt work try changing food.if you are using dry food try the ones in cans and visa versa or just try a different make.