Are dogs supposed to 'enjoy' their food? Or just fuel?

dartboardio · 21-05-2020 10:19pm #1

Hey, we have a 4 month old Jack Russell.

When we first got him, we fed him wet food for the first few days until we got him his proper food from the petshop.

He gobbled that down and really enjoyed the wet food. Now he's eating this proper puppy food 'nutrivet' or something similar dry nuts, but he will often leave them there for hours at a time, go up, have a sniff and walk away

He will only eat them when he's probably really hungry, more so for fuel than enjoying his food.

Is this OK? Should we look for an alternative?

Cherry Blossom · 21-05-2020 11:18pm

At four months old your puppy should have four set mealtimes. Leave the food down for 20 minutes and take it up again and don't offer anymore until next meal time. At that age its safe to give as much as he will eat. They will always prefer something that smells more so microwaving his food for a few seconds can make it more appetitising. Don't worry though, if he's hungry he'll eat.

tk123 · 22-05-2020 10:01am

dartboardio wrote: »

Hey, we have a 4 month old Jack Russell.

When we first got him, we fed him wet food for the first few days until we got him his proper food from the petshop.

"proper" does not HAVE to be dry food though? Proper is what suits your dog and your budget. A mix of raw and wet food suits Bailey and that's what my pup will have too. There's plenty of good quality wet foods - Rocco from zooplus being a favourite with posters here - we should get a referral discount at this stage lol

Even in the pet shop you should be able to pick up the likes of Nature Diet or Forthglade from PetMania/PetStop and Tesco and Dunnes sell Nutro. (Nutro did NOT agree with my dogs - but other posters have dogs who do great on it).. With a puppy, in my experience with retrievers - yes they enjoy their food lol! I had to use anti-gulp bowls to slow both down as puppies.

https://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/canned_dog_food/rocco/rocco_junior/154073

Murt10 · 22-05-2020 10:52am

I have a Springer. I feed him nuts and I put down fresh ones every time his bowl is empty. He eats what he wants, when he wants and leaves the rest. If his bowl is empty and he's hungry, he'll make it known. He's not carrying any weight.

I groan when I hear (usually fat) people with obscenely overweight dogs talking about their dogs diet. They usually feed them nuts and dry food, and to make it extra tasty for their dog, they add a tin or pouch of wet food and mix it all up together. This means the dog is eating two dinners at every sitting. And they don't understand why their dog is fat.

When I ask them if they would eat everything put in front of them if it was covered in chocolate or something very sweet and tasty. They say yes. I ask them do they think their dog is any different. No, they reply, but he won't eat nuts on their own. He'll eat them if he's hungry I say. Anyway, whether they change the diet after thinking about it, I doubt it, but at least they know why their dog is overweight.

I'm on my 2nd Springer. The first one was similar, ate when he was hungry. They both also ate bits from the table. But I'd never pour the leftovers onto their nuts and mix it up. Both are/were extremely fond of curry for some reason. Occasionally, for a treat, I'll give them some wet food and they'll lorry it down. Needless to say, given on a separate saucer, not on top of their nuts.

Prior to that I had a golden lab. Totally different scenario. He was ruled by his belly. He thought about nothing but food from the time he woke until he went to sleep at night. Everything was gorged down at absolute maximum speed as soon as it was put down, and then he'd head over and try and mooch some of what you were eating. Brilliant dog, but a really greedy bastard. A totally lovable rogue.

Gael23 · 26-05-2020 10:26pm

We put out Alfie’s food in the morning and it’s there whenever he wants. He doesn’t get more if he eats it all quickly but I don’t believe in taking it away after a few minutes. He actually eats mostly at night

dartboardio · 26-05-2020 11:12pm

tk123 wrote: »

"proper" does not HAVE to be dry food though? Proper is what suits your dog and your budget. A mix of raw and wet food suits Bailey and that's what my pup will have too. There's plenty of good quality wet foods - Rocco from zooplus being a favourite with posters here - we should get a referral discount at this stage lol Even in the pet shop you should be able to pick up the likes of Nature Diet or Forthglade from PetMania/PetStop and Tesco and Dunnes sell Nutro. (Nutro did NOT agree with my dogs - but other posters have dogs who do great on it).. With a puppy, in my experience with retrievers - yes they enjoy their food lol! I had to use anti-gulp bowls to slow both down as puppies.

https://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/canned_dog_food/rocco/rocco_junior/154073

Haha yeah sorry, I just meant his food that seems 'boring'

Wet food I meant it was crappy quality stuff from spar, when we first got him, we gave him that until we got to the petstore two days later.

Yeah I think we will look for a good quality wet food or a more recommended dry food as he doesn't seem to enjoy eating it, maybe even avoiding it!

dartboardio · 26-05-2020 11:13pm

Gael23 wrote: »

We put out Alfie’s food in the morning and it’s there whenever he wants. He doesn’t get more if he eats it all quickly but I don’t believe in taking it away after a few minutes. He actually eats mostly at night

I have an Alfie too! And yep that's what we do at the moment we just leave the bowl there and fill it up a couple of times a day, he goes to it when he's hungry

dartboardio · 26-05-2020 11:15pm

Murt10 wrote: »

I have a Springer. I feed him nuts and I put down fresh ones every time his bowl is empty. He eats what he wants, when he wants and leaves the rest. If his bowl is empty and he's hungry, he'll make it known. He's not carrying any weight.

I groan when I hear (usually fat) people with obscenely overweight dogs talking about their dogs diet. They usually feed them nuts and dry food, and to make it extra tasty for their dog, they add a tin or pouch of wet food and mix it all up together. This means the dog is eating two dinners at every sitting. And they don't understand why their dog is fat.

When I ask them if they would eat everything put in front of them if it was covered in chocolate or something very sweet and tasty. They say yes. I ask them do they think their dog is any different. No, they reply, but he won't eat nuts on their own. He'll eat them if he's hungry I say. Anyway, whether they change the diet after thinking about it, I doubt it, but at least they know why their dog is overweight.

I'm on my 2nd Springer. The first one was similar, ate when he was hungry. They both also ate bits from the table. But I'd never pour the leftovers onto their nuts and mix it up. Both are/were extremely fond of curry for some reason. Occasionally, for a treat, I'll give them some wet food and they'll lorry it down. Needless to say, given on a separate saucer, not on top of their nuts.

Prior to that I had a golden lab. Totally different scenario. He was ruled by his belly. He thought about nothing but food from the time he woke until he went to sleep at night. Everything was gorged down at absolute maximum speed as soon as it was put down, and then he'd head over and try and mooch some of what you were eating. Brilliant dog, but a really greedy bastard. A totally lovable rogue.

Yeah we just fill his bowl 4 times a day and he goes to it when he wants, or like you said, if you end up giving him something else during the day, he will go without the last meal

So if we gave him a bit of chicken or tuna instead then we wouldn't give him his last meal.

Thanks as we really don't want him to be overweight! Or underweight for that matter. Hoping he's not avoiding his food but I suppose yeah as you said, he will eat when he's hungry

Are dogs supposed to 'enjoy' their food? Or just fuel?

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