Golden retriever stopped eating his food but eats treats.

biggebruv

He is on red mills dry food and it’s problaly 3days this is going on now
He normally eats it fine and he is fine himself he still plays gets excited and is drinking water and will eat any treats given to him.

I stopped giving him treats yesterday to see would he eat the food but he only ate a little bit.

Now he didn’t touch it this morning anyone else had similar problems

Vizzy

Could be just "tired" of dry food.


Try soaking it in warm water and maybe put a in a tin of sardines(not in brine) and maybe an egg.

Hopefully this will sort him.

dashoonage

My huskie did the same a while back. Just stopped. Right after I paid for a 80 yoyo bag. Changed to another brand of nuts and off she went like a Hoover eating again.

Shaunoc

biggebruv wrote: »

He is on red mills dry food and it’s problaly 3days this is going on now
He normally eats it fine and he is fine himself he still plays gets excited and is drinking water and will eat any treats given to him.

I stopped giving him treats yesterday to see would he eat the food but he only ate a little bit.

Now he didn’t touch it this morning anyone else had similar problems

not like a retriever to not eat whatever they see. My 2, its a race to the bottom of the bowl (Markus Muhle dried food). Try add water and some tinned fish as mentioned on another reply.
I use a bit of salmon oil / egg / carrots to keep their dry food a bit more interesting. Mine has only gone off food when a bit under the weather in the past, last time it was an abscess

Dogs are a funny lot. Imagine getting the same food every day for life and be happy. I love how you can throw worm tablet into 300g of dry food, he eats so fast it can't be tasted, yet the tablet is the only piece left

biggebruv

I thought about mixing in treats but is that not a bad habit were I will have to do that every single day.
I did mix some turkey ham stuff in over Christmas

Last time I mixed in the sausage I put in in the end of the bowl then he runned his nose all through it and had the food everywhere to get the sausage lol

biggebruv

Ok so I have added some small bit of tuna to this mornings food and he snapped up Guess I’ll have to stock up on some tuna lol

I hate not seeing him eat

Shaunoc

Hunger will kick in, great sauce and all that...

aonb

As someone already said, imagine eating the same old boring dry food day-in, day-out! Vary his food, maybe buy a different bag and rotate two or three brands that suit/agree with him.
Theres nothing wrong with putting a bit of sardine/wet food/tinned fish or meat through his dry food now and then. If you have a chicken/joint for dinner, boil up the bones and make a stock, put some of that on his kibble. Kibble thats been soaked in warm water or stock will be more tempting too

biggebruv

aonb wrote: »

As someone already said, imagine eating the same old boring dry food day-in, day-out! Vary his food, maybe buy a different bag and rotate two or three brands that suit/agree with him.
Theres nothing wrong with putting a bit of sardine/wet food/tinned fish or meat through his dry food now and then. If you have a chicken/joint for dinner, boil up the bones and make a stock, put some of that on his kibble. Kibble thats been soaked in warm water or stock will be more tempting too

Yes I will try switching brands soon see how he gets on

Latatian

Might be no harm to bring him into the vet to get a quick once-over, if he's not like this usually, sometimes they go off the usual food because they are unwell.

JulesInKy

I have two big lads, Max (golden x lab) and Kuzco (golden mix). Both are on special diets: Max is on Burns Sensitive and Kuzco is on Calibra SO for kidney stones. They were separately refusing their food for no apparent reason. Weren't ill, lethargic or showing any other symptoms. Everything else with them was normal, fun fun fun. I put it down to boredom with their food.

So I began try out different wet foods in gravy on top of the kibble to keep it interesting. Kuzco doesn't get the wet food, just the gravy dribbled over. Also they get either sardines or salmon (tinned) once per week mixed in. I don't think I've thrown out more than a handful of food since I started doing this.

Also, I let them lick the wet food first, before I add it, to make sure they're interested.

Steak is nice, but you couldn't eat it for dinner seven days a week!

NIMAN

Op

I read your thread title and thought, 'their dog is just like my son'.

my own doggy likes a bit of variety - switch to something else for a while then switch back